THE LONG NOVEL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 267, 10 November 1934, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE LONG NOVEL.

CRITIC'S PROTEST. ■ The inordinately long novel is not faring very well just now at the hands of British critics (says the London correspondent of the "New York Times")- Nowadays, says Douglas West, many novels seem to be planted in the seedtime very much as pumpkins and . allowed to grow, in mellow and agrcc- * able surroundings, until ihey reach a portentous size. Hence it is scarcely ' surprising that their flavour often lacks > astringent piquancy. John Brophy, too, remarks that the bulky novel may get away with it for a time, because to a ' superficial view it may seem to provide ■ more for the money, but soon, he- thinks, people will revolt. For to-day novels arc read mostly by people who have a daily job and have many rival demands upon their scanty leisure. And a "Daily Herald" reviewer ■ tells us that, when confronted with several long novels, ho always wonders rather hopelessly whether, in creating such solid monuments,' authors are ' "giving the public what it wants." ; Surely nobody needs 000 pages to tell one story. Is it fad or mental laziness, ho aske, that causes a writer to make ' his story drag on for three generations, ' and then forget to put any action into !■ his plot? It is not enough, in this critic's opinion, to explain tha* we are given suflicicnt character studies for [ three novels. We would prefer the three . novels.