POPULARITY IN FICTION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 5, 6 January 1934, Page 2 (Supplement)

POPULARITY IN FICTION.

AN UNPREDICTABLE QUANTITY Roger Pippctt, whose critical articles in the "Daily Herald" always deserve attention (says tho London correspondent of the "New York Times"), has been discussing the chances of the individual book amid tho vast output of new novels. He believes we shall never seo again the colossal sales that a popular novel attained before tho World War. "Tho Good Companions" is the last postwar story that has approached the level of circulation reached by "Tho Bondsman," "Tho Sorrows of Satan" and "The Rosary." But standards of competence among novelists liavo' never been higher than to-day. Mr. Pippett can think of a score of women writers—Rose Macaulay, E. M. Delafield, Winifred Holtby and others —besides whose routine work a Mario Corelli romance would look shoddy and unreal. Accordingly, instead of a few writers making enormous sums and tho rest a mere pittance, wo have now a considerable number of men and women making a comfortable income. It is quite hopeless, in Mr. Pippett's opinion, to attempt to forecast the popular demand in literature. Nobody could have predicted tho recent astonishing voguo of scientific and economic works. The sales of Sir James Jeans' books have amazed both the author and his publishers. Another interesting sign of the times is the fact that Karl Marx's "Das Rapital" ranks fourth in popularity among the 900 volumes in Everyman's Library. Tho only thing of which 1 wo can bo certain, according to this ] critic, is that the -widely-selling story of ] the future will exploit, in some form or ] other, the hopes and fears of contem- , porary humanity. For example, Louis , Gelding's "Magnolia Street" owed its success largely to its carrying a pacifist , message at a morfient when the issue of . peacc and war was again disturbing the complacency of the British public. But f not even the acutest critic can tell who ■ will bo the best sellers of the future. . Tho author of the next book that ' achieves a sensational sale will be the j last person, says Mr. Pippett, to anticipate the hectic destiny that lies before him.