THE SATYR IN ENGLISH FICTION.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 45, 16 November 1907, Page 13

THE SATYR IN ENGLISH FICTION.

"Twolvo books are lying on my table— some by famous authors and of litorary oxcellencb, others by tho current novelist, man or woman, whoso leaves to-day, are and to-mor- I row shall be cast into the ovon. But all have a family rosoniblanco; thoy belong to tho tribe, now 'increasing at a rate witho.ivt example, of shameless and shamoful fiction,' writes "A Man of Letters" in a manifesto j directed against "Tho Fleshly School of Fiction," whioh is given prominonco m tho October "Bookman." A Literary .Morgue. . ' ; " "Thoy aro attempts at naturalising among English readers the horrible Fronoh thing known by a name as ill-sayoured, not to be printed here, but with which Parisian shop windows blaze, and scorch the eyes of them that pass by, in photograph, sketch, and yellow binding. One ' subject, to tho destruction of pure literature and noblo aft, gives the key, dominates the. music, dims tho vision, stains tho fancy,, corrupts the soul; for this is the vast modorh morgue where dead creatures lio exposed, tho mire of thoir suicide dinging to them . . . _ Realists of both soxes, publishers and libraries, conspire to one end. Tho mart of pleasure exchanges its vico, acted or portrayed, for, hard cash. Infamous storios havo been made a speculation in coinmorco., Tho suicide "of the novel pays. . . . And the naked satyr is chef to your cuisiho. Without figure of speech, here in my twelve specimens I notice tho sforzandocroscendo whioh invados what was litaraturo and' rudely sweeps out landspape, ideas, humour, wit ,playfiilnoss, to mako, room for cynicism moro and more oponly shown. .' . . .In tho whole range not a single hero. The tremondous 'devilry of a Don Juan is too strong for these flaoitl ,decadent, or moroly animal types. Thoy aro not diabolic, not supermon.but inframon; it is tho woman that triumphs horo —and what a,woman I , . Shall Literature Sink to Pathology? "Man is a living soul, not a bundle of impulses. He has a wider outlook than the animal seeking his mate. Ho rises to philosophies; ho alone, of all boings known to us, can lapse into crime. These authors whom I cite to the bar of public opinion know, as surely as tho Puritan whom thoy despise, that to fall deliberately bolow the highest and to plead for brute instinct against law, is criminal. ; The cater to 'la BoteMumaino, in tho hopo of sharing his spoils., But onco for all it must bo said that tho groat stories that shine in literature have kept thoir place by the faith, hopo, justico, purity, strength of conviction shadowed forth .in them. No supreme book teaches moral anarchy. "The alternative to bo decided by readers— chiefly women —who mako . tho fortune of English fiction, is whether we shal lcontinuo tho splendidly-wise and tender-hearted tradition of Scott, Dickens. Thackeray,,or fall upon the garbage spread out : in tho sun by imitators of tho orotic, absmtho-dronched, nerve-racked decadents who swarm about Paris cafes. Do we choose tho latter? Then our novel is doomed. It will ho a'thing illicit and unmontionablo, to bo shunned by tho self-rospecting; a bad habit which lowers vitality, clouds tho brain, and clamours for increase of poison till nothing remains but an appetite, 'losoifdn la< mort.' Litoraturo will have sunk to pathology; and the physician may be compelled to treat the modern story as if it wore a shameful disease"