BRITISH NOVELISTS IN AMERICA.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1455, 1 June 1912, Page 9

BRITISH NOVELISTS IN AMERICA.

'An interesting development of the last two or threo years in the fiction market has been the introduction to the American public of Jinglish novelists who in their own country can point to a long career behind them. The pioneer in this latest British invasion was probably Mr. Vf. J. Lccke, with his pleasant blond of KcntimcU'Uility, whimsy, and not too <Tiiditc erudition. The man who at the preaoiit moment represents the crest and cliinaxof tlie movement is, of course, Arnold Bennett. .Buiming parallel with him i.r close in his wake linvo como n numlipr of men of smaller pretensioiß bill: of .sufficient merit to justify the venturesome trip across Iho Atfajitic. There iV.f.oon•xrn Slerriclr, wl;o?e beautiful . artistry offers a form of delight that Arnold Bcn,i«(t win novor hope, as he probably never ■ouih.es. to rival, Thero is K Temple

Thurston, who mingles contemplation with sentiment, just as Merrick mingles realism with sentiment. Them i.s V. [~ Whiteciuirch, a clergyman who has writton in a lone of subdued pe>simism ennwniing (lie daily history of quiet i-nitls. There is Ci. A. Birmingham, al.-o a clergyman, who revives, in the age of Syngc mid ■ Yeats ami (lie new Ireland, Hie older Ireland of Charles Lever and' Saiuuel Lover. There is Mr. liichnrd Pryce, whose fh>t novel in this country i.s closely followed by the intimation of more io come. There is Air. Basil King, and in a!l probability there will very soon l;o others. Tho notable feature about nearly everyone of the men we have menticned is that their reputation and their works come to us in bulk. They are men who have toiled for years to win a public and are now coming into their own. In England it seems possible for an author to do what is almost" impossible in this country—to go oh writing novels that are not popular successes, without starving. When success docs conic it means that an author stands equipped with a full storehouse of ammunition to ca=t af the head of fleeting fortune. Hence the phenomenon of Arnold Bennett with a dozen botfks—or is it two dozen b.-ioksF—advertiwd as all new to the American public. The same is true of Locke and Thurston. The same is tine of Leonard Mm'ick. The reader who has sharpened his appetite on the delicious caviare of "Conrad in Quest of his Youth," need not slave off his'lninger for a year or two (ill Mr. Merrick has written, another novel. Tie can havn his pick out of a dozen Merrick books all written ami waiting to be bought. Or is it two dozen? > Tho book world has its ebbs and floods. Ifcgularly recurroat waves of foreign influence beat jipon our shores. Whenever fue foreign tide recedes, patriotism makes it a cause for rejoicing. The desire to ba pelt-sufficient is a healthy sign in a young nation. More than in the book world, the desire for emancipation has been felt m the theatre. Tt is half a dozen years, perhaps, since we have begun to'take "pride 111 the tact that thn American . playwright has at la.st come into his own. The'formidable competi/ion from England and Paris seemed at one time destined to disappear. Jhe walchword became "American plays on American problems," and cf these we have had a great plenty. Yet here, t™, reaction seems bound lo ensue. The foreigner during the last season has made an excellent, showing and if the American dramatist thought he had the game won, he now knows'better. And so with the novel writers. Our best sellers continue to bo mainly nf domestic manufacture. But of tho books that carry significance to smaller and more fastidious publics, wo do not produce an overplus. Very probably tho present eruption of British writers is a good fad. Tho mimetic inslinct is not wanting in the publisher's trade. One rousing success for a British importation is bound to open a market for the large output of Knglish novels which, without being great books, are books well written and qualified to amuse.But it may be that certain causes are also working from within. It'is possible that wo are growing a bit tired of the novel with a purpose. The American novelist, like the American playwright, has listened to the counsel which uiged him to look for his material in problems of the nation and the day. Sometimes the problem has been a specific one—our cilie.--, our politics, our children, rm , women, our doctors, our social maladjustments. Just as often the problem has been of a general nature—the chanting of the gospel of optimism and of strenuous effort which we have been told by foreign observers is the keynote of American life. Even the novel of adventure, as. let us say, Air. Jack London cultivates ilv instead of being accepted for what it is —a good story intended to amuse—has been regarded as an interpretation of the spirit of America. But of problems and pleadings the public is sure to grow weary at regular intervals. There is a reassertion of the normal appetite, not for Life or interpretations of Life," but for living people. Now it is in depicting people who arc alive that most of these younger men among the British novelists are mute expert. Some of iliem sentimentalise ton much, prettify too much, ami indulge too much in gentle melancholies. Ihe James M Barrie method requires (areful handling. sistency' of v-tt^rncter^devHopaien^fWaS i'iakes for. Hie.'iinprwsion of reality. Ihe samo person does .not- very. often ; with them runHiit.entire scale .fcom burlesque through farce, comedy, drama, tragedy, and back from melodrama' to farce again. They count not by individual paragraph' fiits, but by total effects. We may put it another way. These Britishers , have ■the sense of form. And form, in spite ot what the revolutionaries will say, always be™ of the essence ot art.—New York "Kation." .•