REDUCING THE GIANTS.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18722, 19 June 1926, Page 13

REDUCING THE GIANTS.

SHRINKING BEHEMOTHS OF FICTION. (By Herbert W. Horwill, in an . Exchange.) The modem reader, we are told, lacks time and patience to pore over the long-drawn-out novels that loft his moro leisurely forefathers unwearied. So Ernest Bhys and Mrs Dawson Scott aro cutting down for his benefit some of the best fiction of earlier days to the maximum length that the present generation will endure. The experiment ia to bo tried first with Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, Trollopo, and Charlotte Bronte. Nothing is yet said about Scott, though ono might supposo that ho would suffer less than theso writers by judicious compression, for his introductions were of ton tedious and I his narrative moved slowly and deliberately. (Soott, by thoway, has just received a surprising testimonial frora the Prlmo Minister, who prodicts that ho will bo remembored with pride and thankfulness in every country of tho' world when tho last critic has molderod in the dust.) W. T. Stead once attempted something of this kind, but the welcome given to his series of canned novols was not enthusiastc. Occasipnally an author has tho strength of mind to. reduce his own work drastically before it goes to tho printer. G. E. Montague used the abhorred shears relontlessly upon his now novel, "Rough Justice," before it was allowed to reach tho public. He had' intended to writo a trilogy, and had completed the first part, which was 'twice tho length of the book now issued. He had drafted two-thirds of the second part. ! Then he felt that his story needed the greater unityy the quicker pace and the compactness of a single volume. So-he condensed what he had written until there was left what jho has now published. The result is a [ novel which is likely to add to his reputation. It has been described as not so much ah answer as a complement, to his own "Disenchantment," which H. W. Nevinson has called-.'f the.- wisest book written on the war, or, as I think, on any war." It,presents to us the irreducible minimum of hope and faith when destructive criticism has cleared every illusion away. But there are . some .contemporary writers who take no stock in the alleged demand of readers for brevity. Comptou Mackenzie is about to place upon the -book market a single novel in seven volumes, with the general title of "Our Seven Souls," and with, a specific title for each volume. It will cover the period from 1897 to three or four years after the war, and will incidentally relate the author's own war experiences. It wili contain many disguised portraits of real persons, to which a key will be provided, but with the condition that it is not to be published until fifty years after Mr Mackenzie's death—-if any one should be curious enough to ask for it then.