FIVE NOVELS A DAY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2556, 11 March 1903, Page 65

FIVE NOVELS A DAY.

The Clyde's output of ships last year, biff though it was. seems to have been no mor< remarkable than the output of novels by British novelists in the same period. Over 1700 novels .vere poured out upon the public of this lountry in 1802— that is to sa!y f five new novels were published every day in the year. - This is not a record, for it is , appreciably lower than in 1898 and 1899, but it is enough to give us pause. Five new " novels every day! Who wrote them? Who . read them? Where are they to be seen? , Let us not forget, further, that this takes ' m account of new editions of old novels, ' of the vast output of sixpenny reprint's, for ■ instance. The answers to, the questions- hero - propounded may be pur very briefly. Ninetenths of the writers of these fictions are absolutely unknown outside th' immediate , of their personal friends. They are • amateurs, dilettanti pure and simple,' who havt written a sort of novel just as our daughters, though no artists in the professional or any other sense of the term, are moved to utilise a pretty talent they learned from their drawing-masters, and paint inoffensive oil plaques md water-colours for the decoration of their own boudoirs or the " drawing rooms of their unfortunate friends. Quite respectable men-and women of Leisure try their hand at a novel because it looks so easy to do, and paper and ink are cheap. There are plenty of publishers who — for * 0 consideration— will print it for them, and even try to sell it; but there the matter ends. The novelists who make "a living by ". the production of fiction, whose namer aro more or less familiar from one end of the country to the other, and whose books are '. issued with the imprints of reputable pub-, lishing houses, did not put out, possibly, more than 50 novels last year. Who read the five novels per day? The answer to our first question partly disposes of the second. The bulk of them were not read by anybody at all in the proper s.nnse 01 the term, except hy the author and his ' uncles and his aunts. We hear much aboub' the 100,000 of Hall Came, but never .a word-" ' about the 200 copies that were all that were ' "subscribed .by the trade" if Mfdehiine! Mugdock M'Sweeney' "Glorious Girlhood: ,- A Romance of. To-day." Madelain?. voor dear, has her own copy bound in » '••iflv*'* tooled calf, and a receipt from her pub-. Usher for £120, and r reputation amon? a; very Smiled cirel- f people in Dowanhill " of having "written a novel or a pamphlet • or something of that sort.". These are her total assets. One olessing is that if she is : wis she will never do it again; But- if she is not wise — if she has more, money than sense (and thaf is the casv. with a good 1 many ambitious Madelaines) — slit will go on her glorious way adding tc the gaiety aiiu. banking accounts of unscrupulous publishers, and lining for trunk- will remain at a low price as heretofore.

Where are ths five novels? You may go into any bookseller's in Glasgow and tail to ge* ore of them ; he may have heard of them, (for publishers' canvassers hay wonderful cheek, and will try co push even "Glorious Girlhood"), but he knows better than tt "stock" them, "ix copies went fc<Madelaine ; 30 copie or so went for review to the newspapers — all of which said "The book is :haracterised by good constructive ability and careful style, and we look forward to Miss M'Sweeney's future work with some, interest" ; the statutory numbez of copies went to the national libraries (whose custodians have our sympathy) ; Madeline's undo forced 5C copies on his business friends, whr will never forgive him so long as they live ; th remainder of th& edition repose? in the publisher's cellars — catacombs more pathetic than any you may find inf Rome. All this does not mean that there is decadence in novel-writing, as Mr "Benja* mm Swift" has just been asserting. Ilief art of the novel wa never more, conscientiously practised or with more constructive skill, or perhaps — though that is a bold say* inpr — with greater success than it is to-day ;] v\i\\ wha 1 ; -jonscicntiousness, with what; skill. roi£h whiit bea.ui/7 anil x-.iw.fcp.i. only, ,

future generations trill bs in a position to judge.-^Glasgow Evening News.