THE OUTLOOK FOR ENGLISH FICTION.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 288, 29 August 1908, Page 12

THE OUTLOOK FOR ENGLISH FICTION.

, - 1 Whii©'jaur B{itish',,,drama is stirring its diffused- members witliin tho - tight commercialltoilsltlfat have "contracted its develop- | ment fqr/inaßy*genorations, it may be of inI terest-" the outlook before its younger, "more fortunate sister, j Fiction," ' writes the "Nation." "More fortunate, because Fiction, though not popularly recognised "as'a "serious art, has unlike Drama always-'been, practisedwith seriousness by the s best' English-novelists. "From Foilding 'toJlferedith, tho achievement of the leaders'hj»4? been to mirror the life and spirit of their generation, and in furtherance of this aim-r tho novel has been developed as the moat flexible artistic instrument" we possess,' an instrument unmatched by its commanding reach, breadth, and subtlety for the representation and criticism of modern life. ;''Tlig trouble is, ''and has always been, that the majority pf educated Englishmen have so cnide an artistic sense that they fail to * appreciate tho rare ' sincere creation, or to, .recognise tho highly original perform-, •anbo. At the sunset-of his career an illustrious figure, such as Meredith, receives, indeed, the conventional hpnours of public tribute, but his work has stood isolated, little 'esteemed, and little -affecting the mental life of society. • •

"This Philistine temperament of the prac-tical-minded Englishman does not, it is true, •succeed in' suppressing tho strongest and most original creative talents such as Samuel Butler's. But it isolates many, and dopresses others, and in tho general confusion of good and bad standards of art many fine and rare talents are' but dimly recognised. Had Leonard Merrick, for example, been born in France, his brilliancy, wit, pathos, and keen insight into life would have made his name a household word no less than Alphonse Daudet's. But for every six Englishmen tliat.haye .heard ofi 'Tartarin,'. we doubt whether heard of 'Conrad in-Quest o£-BisvYouth£ , "And ha'd I Joseph.' Gonrad chosen to sail in the French.'instead of tho English marine his" stories^of exotic-lands, no less than Pierre Loti's, stamped by the approval of tho French Academy,' would have reached •every cultivated Frenchman, whereas in Eng-larid-rr-v:T.lt;is;only;in 'England that the flashing irony and human sympathy of the author, of 'Thirteen Stories,'• that the wild charmand".deep, passionate tenderness of tliey author':of 'Green; Mansions' and • .'EI Ombu'-could fail to.vstir the imagination o f the intelligent public. It is only England that .could produco. .the poetic realism of .'Amaryllis at .the Fair,' and let it lie neglected; while* the author; of 'All Sorts and Conditions, of Men' ■ seeks' to find, excuse for the book's creation'*-'™ W® can show, insurprising.'array of original talents, hut talents isolated,'.with ideas and ideals strikingly-divorced from tho people's life, talents that are soon overlaid and buried by' the over-shifting, inexhaustible sands of mediocrity. "T?ere a sociological map of . tho British population to bojcoloiired to show what particular sections of, the life of tho community hnve.been ndeauatelv treated by modern novelists;; we phould find that the work of 95 per cent, of the latter (themselves of middloclassl'.extraotionK sets forth in amazing variety the niiddlp-class themes, atmosphWs, tones, arid problems of about two million people, Tho life of the thirty-eight millions is scarcely examined, except in certain examples of' local colour fiction.'

" We have only to think of the Pxception.il case of Gcorizn'Gissing, and his drab-coloured paintines of the' lower Londoner, and of his few followers, Edwin 'Push. Arthur Morrison, and Pett Ridge, to realise how effeetunlßCthe '.'Kreat barrier of class shuts out the life of the demooracv from our novelists' vision.'vt-TH" succesß'of Mr. Galsworthy in 'The Man of Pronorty' and ' The Countrv House,' illustrates hnw rarely do our novellists show tho breadth of view or philosophic grssn of the French realists in their social outlook. They 'fail, unlike TliacVerav, to see their class-as.,a ; whole, or the lamer significance of .the stratified layers of class (.interests and class -prejudices! Hilnire >Belloc's;_';Mr. Burden ' was. for instance,'the oifiVyrnovelr-that-'siitiriFed the social chances ■in to.ur midst" that' helped 'to engineer the Trnusvaal r :war, and. we may suggest to Mr.- . Chesterton' that >his talent mjVht find m». j'tftrih] _ lyiwr -nearer' to.-linnd than thnt. utilised in .'The N?noleon'..of Nutting Hill.' 'f Mt'. H. ,G.;,Well3;:"tlie most - audacious critic of our social-institutions', ;is prohablv ithe only novelist wo have who can penetrate mass of the general public bv his : brilliant lighting up of the social problems now faoinc our democracv. What makes the nveraee Enplish novel, however, inferior to Continental fiction is that our writers assess character and conductress by broad humnn ; standards than bv parochial or suburban tests."" TheJEn'ftlishmaii?B- : love of 'appearances' at all costs is,, perhaps, the national disease. 'In the' such a typical English novelist at Mrs. Humphry Ward we find aristpcratin bias and moral stfenuousness insight and intellectual breadth': in the work of Rudvard Kiplinsr "we see "extrn'or'dinarv powers of observation bound to tho wheels of an extravagant Imperialism. Tho serious humanity and spirituality of Thomas Hnrdv did not save him from the Tnisunderßfonding of the finest of his tragic works, '.Judo the Ohscure.' Arid we cannot, deny that tho want of truthfulness with which problems of sex are regarded in middle-class England reacts unfavourably' on-'the''work of our novelists, who may bo salacious or suggestive, but not sincore. "What weighs on our novelists with even .greater pressure is the optimistic idealism isfhich, ha'S.' the greatest ayersion for any picture of'life that is sombro, tragic, or even uncompromising. This mental temper of our 'average*'reader makes directly for lack of depth in our novelists, and we have only to glance through the newspapers to see how little the'dark, ironic "side of life, the sin, the suffering, the;-tragedy of the modernrightful'place in the work of the English rioyehst. While we equal tho CqntinMtaL schools ■ in studies of character, and . perhaps Hhom in the variety and originality of our novels of domestic life, we are far inferior in the novel of psychological analysis.'

."Dar.e w,o hope for i more unflinching gaze at - the' -realities 1 -of* 'lifo from the younger school of writers? The question is one of popular 'p'Scudoj'ealisin; versus true realism, and false romanticism versus" true''romanticism. Current; literature reflects very faithfully the feeling of the day, and the dominant class of reader now asks, only to be amused and distraotcd, and to have his prejudices and - , illusions;; respected. Should our ■national prosperity'-havo to meet the rude shook of a European war, or grave peril to any part' of;the Empiro, wp should immediately seo - arrivo - a tar- more serious school of miters to interpret for us the handwriting on our walls. It would bo superfluous to name in this connection our most popular novelists, suoh ais Mr. Anthony Hope, Mr. Stanley Weyman, Sir Conan Doyle, Mr. MarionCrawford, Sir Gilbert Parker, Mr. A. E. W. Mason, etc., but wo may express tho hope that with the newcomers of great promise, such as Mr. Masefield, Mr. E. M. Forster, Mr. Perceval - Gibbon, Mr. John Ayscough, Mr. Ashton Hilliers, Mr. W. B. Maxwell, Mr.- H. N. Dickinson, Mr. Thurston, Mr. J. C. Snaith, Mr. Booth, Miss C. A. Dawson Scott, to mention only a few, that truth; to nature and intellectual courage may be found less displeasing to the.English palato than a decade ago. Oho of tho most encouraging signs of our .timo is to be found in tho.increasing activity of feminine talent in the field of fiction."