TASTE IN FICTION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 137, 11 June 1932, Page 2 (Supplement)

TASTE IN FICTION.

AN ECLECTIC SURVEY,

Luckily it is often possible to onjoy a book while disagreeing with its conclusions. Mrs. Q. D. Lcavis, the author of "Fiction and the Reading Public" (Chatto and Windus) ha* a fresh mind and a lively controversial style, and she i.s nothing if not thorough. She studied the history of fiction, examined its ramifications in tho present day, and sent out a questionnaire to liO popular novelist* to discover their views on many aspects, of their art. Her marshalling of the evidence of many influences leading to the standardisation of taste is admirable. She points out the regrettable fact that in our day tliu novel is the only branch of literature which is generally supported. Her central thesis is that the general reading public is no longer in touch with the best literature of its own day or of the past. She is at pains to compare the quality of "bestsellers" with that of novels that provide- "aesthetic experiences," which it; (lip. only kind of which she. approves. This comparison she contends with arrogant confidence affords clear proof of her thesis, but few of her readers will agree. The. "best-seller" is not necesearily or often typical of the. best in current fiction; and in fact some people refrain from reading "best-sellers." Mrs. Leavis' selection of literary novels for comparison is arbitrary, and seems made to suit her purpose. And it is remarkable (although, perhaps it fe natural) that there are only half a dozen authors, English or American, of whom she approves. She approves James Joyce, D. H. Lawrence. E. M. Forster, Virginia Woolf and T. F. Powys. It may be pointed out that, apart from other considerations, three at least of these arc to many readers often unintelligible and sometimes unreadable, but Mrs. Leavis retorts that this concedes her argument —that our taste has been vitiated by all tho other authors, who are mostly bad authors, and really ought not to write (it all. If this is so (and the author affirms it with tho utmost gravity) there does not appear to be anything that can be done about it at this late hour.

If there were nothing more in this book than its arrogant and narrow conclusions, it, would be unworthy of notice: but there is a great deal more. Mrs. Leavis rightly emphasises the increasing danger every reader runs of coming to the view that literature must follow a set, pattern, and of his acquiring a set of second-hand opinions which lie believes to be his taste. She is

light, too, (o point out that much, pretentious fiction is. fundamentally secondhand, and that masterpieces " are not published once a week and every week. The reader of this full and well-docu-mented look can but regret that its principal defects arise from the narrow sympathy of ite author.

• Clarence Mulford's "Mesquite Jenkins, Tumbleweed" (Hodder and Stoughtou) is a novelty in "range" stories, where opposing range owners of East and West quarrel and light over grass and water. It is a battle between two small gangs of hired men, who loyally risk health and life for ordinary cattlemen's wages. There is a schoolboy attractiveness about the story, which curries us back to flic days when we were breathless over adventures in "Chums."

Another of a similar kind is "Winter Range," by Alan Lemay (Collins), the publishing house which has made a special feature of cattle and rango tales of past days. This also is a boy's story of adventure. There is a great improvement in these books of late, chiefly ill regard to the reduction of offensive language, which, was not really needed, to make tlie tales realistic.