IF THEY WROTE NOW.

Otago Witness, Issue 3265, 11 October 1916, Page 55

IF THEY WROTE NOW.

By Coxstaxce Clyde. Sometimes when re-reading the old-time standard novels one wonders how far the writers would be influenced by the spirit of the times if, returning to earth, they were commanded to write them over again. Plot and character would be the same, but all would be seen at a different angle, and in many cases there would be a change in the personality of the villain.

For instance, " East Lynne," now so ridiculed, would acquire a moral more suited to modern ideas Francis Levison would no longer be villain, but rather Lady Isabel's father, who left her, a woman of rank, totally unprovided for. He would share this bad eminence with her uncle, whose monetary allowance, if granted earlier, would have given her a more dignified position. Actuated by the new ethics, the writer would trace all the evil and misery to the carelessness of that deceased parent. In these days the father or mother is often the villain of the story.

Similar -would be the case in some of Dickens's stories. Would we not see Kate Nickleby (if up to date) harassed more by the inanities of her mother than by the attentions of Sir Mulberry Hawk. The absence of understanding affection within would trouble her more than the presence of misunderstanding affection outside. Influenced again by the new ethics, Dickens might have pictured her even as trying to throw aside these old conventions of morality as a protest against the economic conditions "of Madame Mantalini's establishment. Another Dickens heroine that we would see in a different light would be David Copperfield. We should have it drummed into us that Dora's laziness and inefficiency was simply the sheath which Nature so often gives the inherently consumptive to protect them from natural life. Dora — the new Dora—would recognise it too, and over her guitar-playing and dog-worship-ping would wonder that Dodo could not see why she should not wrinkle her brow over account books or trouble if the mutton went prematurely into the scrap receptable. We should see the secret musings of that hidden little mind, and perhaps the determination to use her brains even though it means death. The silliness of Dora has always seemed a little perplexing ; one does not quite see her so mentally deficient as she is made out to be. One seems to see rather this mysterious instinct born of tuberculosis forbidding her to use the mind that she undoubtedly possessed. Under the " 'lf They Wrote Now " regime Sir Walter Scott would have written " The Heart of Midlothian " from a new angle. Effie, not Jean, would have been the real heroine. It might have been a Catholic conversion novel of the type so common nowadays. Effie*s conversion takes only two lines or so towards the end of the book. I expect many writers will never have noticed it; but if the gifted author had lived to-day probably he would have shown Effie's dancing bare footed on the green as leading to this end. Her father's severity against amusement would certainly be indicated as causing her to question his theological views—the parent once more would be the real villain of the book! Almost all of Thackeray's novels would probably be seen at a different angle; he would have learnt the feminist view and would ' have more sympathy for his Blanche Amorys and Becky Sharps. Mrs Macgregor, 'who so tyrannised over the colonel, would perhaps be portrayed a little more gently ; possibly, according to our modem way of ascribing moral failings to physical causes, her temper would have been ascribed to drink. In fact, one reader has said that of her. " The truth is, the poor woman drank," observed this reader, to whom fiction-land was a, world in itself, " but Thackeray did not know it!" Certainly her tempers, when one analyses them, bear this .interpretation; but equally certain is it, as the lady said, that Thackeray did not know it. So do characters escape from their creators' hands.

Reversing the process, wc might consider how our modern heroes and heroines would fare if put into the hands of these old-time novelists. No more could the heroine revolt or the hero become a burglar. On the other hand, ho might fight a duel as Nicholas Nickleby tries to do, while she could sip brandy and water as a quite ordinary refreshment, as the staid Kate does at Miss Knag's house. The old heroes and heroines had their liberties, and the most prudish Mid-Vic-torian heroine would shock us hi some ways if she returned to life to-day.