NOVELISTS CONVENTIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18891, 13 December 1924, Page 6 (Supplement)

NOVELISTS CONVENTIONS.

There are conventions ii: fiction as vrell I fs in life, and some of them occur so I frequently that they appear to be almost Inevitable, points out a woman novelist In an exchange. There i:% for instance, the convention oi the daily V>ath. No pood novel is complete without c,ne. although it must V admitted that in these ; r)a>s of servant shortage and dear coal the Lame thing is by uo means tiu-e of every household. But in novel? it is an accepted Ihing, and if the hero does not sing in | Ids bath then the heroine runs out into I lie dewy garden fresh from hers—the l-utbor always manages to work it in semetow ! Does he want to show that they l-olong to a social class which can afford liiis luxury : Is he anxious to let his leaders vicariously enjoy "the benison of not water?" Or is it merely habit? Then there it the convention of the ligarette. Why does the h«ro tow it | way so lightly It seems a pity if it Ii so expensive, so one hopes that he j Invokes the cheaper brands. Theie are I lonvenlional types in plenty, from the j jUlainons Continental CSrand-Duke to the | J.-less English butler of American fiction. t3ut it is in personal description that t.-riters eeem to be »t least able to escape Jrom habit. .fJirls in books never have |ust blue or brown eyes; not even simple irey or green. In old-fashioned novels Ihty had eyes like bluebells under water, Nowadays they have wicked yellow eyes JUeakeu with bJLWik.