Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Third of a Century.] MONDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1910 THE DESCENT OF THE NOVEL.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LXII, Issue 9596, 7 February 1910, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Third of a Century.] MONDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1910 THE DESCENT OF THE NOVEL.

While die moralists and tho moral purists and tho didactic; persons generally arc discussing, the merits and demerits of the stage, tho conviction is forcing itself upon observant people thatCthe stage is really corning to the front as a mirror, and altogether displacing and eclipsing the novel. Tho number of good plays (and they are but few) far exceeds the number of good novels that our age is producing. Even from the point of view of workmanship alone, tho modem play outbids the moderu novel, because it is carefully and minutely elaborated, while the novel is, in nearly every case, a jerry-built structure; while the amount of thought, experience and raasouing condensed into a play far exceeds that put into tho novel.

We hear the pessimistic exclamation. "Arcades ambo. " "It is a sad thing for society," moans the representative of pessimism, "if it takes either the novel or the play as its guide." And then follow the usuals lament over moral decadence, and the part the novel and the play are performing in bringing it about, with uncharitable and crude ideas about the morals of novelists and actors and theatre-goers. The fact is, the playwright, and the actor, and the theatre-goer, aud the Bible Christian, have a good deal more iv common than they imagine, and there is mighty little moral difference between them. The difference lies in the outward aspect. In fundamental qualities "a man's a man" everywhere, and in any guise. But really nobody with any reflection would argue that either the novel or

tho play is a direct guide for the human raiutl. What we do say is, that Doth agouoies crystallise aud preserve types of character, and if they do their work faithfully they fix and immortalise them, and furnish us with models or beacone. They do more real good by percolation through the popular mind, and by preserving types, than is generally supposed. In the meai , time, wo are fully persuaded that th 3 stsiga i 3 about to have its day, and that the novel's day is waning. The short story is killing the novel.