DOUBTFUL FICTION.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 888, 6 August 1910, Page 9

DOUBTFUL FICTION.

A reviewer m the "Dial,'' dealing .'with' a recent .'novel'by-Mr. Thurston, ' makes some,timely remarks upon a tooi'.- common type of fiction. "It belongs," » says tho'reviewer,;:"to a .largo class of t- books constructed ;upon ! a too-familiar formula. A : 'yoinig ; woman . sins, and discovers the, consequences' to bo; more •j:' serious thaii she ;lia:l reckoned upon ii.Sho ■ is .'just weak : enough .to rnakp the sin 'inevitable, tho. impelling- circumstances being ■ given; ; and'from the time-;ofj her lapse to the tragic ending the writer's every effort ' is bent to. the .tai:k of making her a ; sympathetic figure, and of-weakening , v tbo .props; of. our nioral,judgment. y--"This is the : subtlest form of im- !; morality, and : its corrosive influence af-1 fects a large share,of our modern fictiorijthe present '-example! is more not- ;; able than . most others beeauc of tho umiual power which it displays in the . analysis of motive and the. portrayal of character. •' -As far as mosl'ot the at-' •tributes of artistic : fiction'are concern-| cd, it comes near to being a great '■•-■novel; but;the'cahkeriis at its heart, i: Unless we are to!'take refuge, iii the comfortable doctrine , that, there is ino such thing as sin in any absolute sense, : and'that thodemawl for expiation is a ;; morbid self-delusion, we are. bound to condemn the treatment given the theme in all such works, and to resent the effort to make, iis substitute sentimental '('"for ethical standards in our theories of .: conduct." . ■■;- ■ .Mrs. '.Thurston. recently'secured a : ilivorcfv from/ her husband, the writer > Of tho novel thus.condemned. ;