WHAT THE PUBLIC READS

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 84, 3 January 1935, Page 6

WHAT THE PUBLIC READS

Leading Publisher’s View

TASTE MOVING “STEADILY UPWARD” z

‘•There is a steady upward movement in the public taste where reading is concerned. Always people like a little of what I call' nonsense. But in recent years there has been an extremely large increase in the numbers of readers; a multitude still reads its tripe and tosh, but on the other hand more of them than ever are taking an interest in good books and writers.” This was said in an interview with “The Dominion” yesterday by Mr. Jonathan Cape, head -of the book pubIshing firm in London, who arrived in Wellington by the Marama after a visit to Australia. • , “The advice I gave when interviewed in Australia was that authors should write about life as it is, and not make an elaboration of artificial situations which have no real relation to life,” Mr. Cape said. “Because that -sort of thing is fairly prevalent in a good deal of reading matter it has brought about a corresponding attitude toward books on the part of some of the reading public. They have come to want books .that have nothing to do with life as they know it. Tremendous Movement. “You hear, consequently, a common expression: ‘He talks like a book’; or many people saying they want something to take them out of themselves. So many novels are purely an artificial thing, and not definitely something that is part of the warp and woof of life, a quality that should be their biggest value. To show the reality behind appearances should be the object of writers, and not merely to create a sense of illusion.”

To those who thought the prevalence of “escape literature” had -been brought about mainly by the war andffhe conditions that followed it, Mr. Cape said he would reply that in his opinion it had been present even before the war. Now, however, there was a tremendous movement in the other direction. The books that had been most successful recently were those that told of valid problems and experience. The novels most successful nowadays had a much closer relation to life than those of 25 years ago.

The autobiography now was coming into its own, Mr. Cape continued. This form of literature was of good value so long as it was not a “piece of exhibitionism.” -Also increasing in popularity were books on personal experiences and on social questions. Foreign Works and Translations. When asked about the type and number of books by British authors that were read in the United .States, Mr. Cape said that in that connection reading there moved in waves. At one time the American novel would seem to be in the ascendant in the States, and then might come a wave when the books by English writers —oiteu published simultaneously in Britain and ■"America —would have a turn of the greatest popularity. “Broadly speaking, any, good book- whoever its author gets a large reading public on botli sides of the water,” he said.

“In these days the country of origin of a book, so long as it is well written, makes little difference to readers,” he continued. “Translations are becoming more common than ever, and, most important, the' translators' themselves are taking their work very seriously. It is work for a good writer, and actually many authors are taking it up. They are finding that for their product to be artistically satisfying the book must be not only a translation but ’done into English’; it should be able to stand on its feet as a work in English and not merely as a foreign article.. • “The ideal method, in my opinion, is for two persons to work together on the translation, one to make the literal English rendering and the other to do the ‘rendering into English.’ That is done now to some extent, but it is possible in the future that it will be a method used frequently. A translator must be free to use a definite sense of style: he must himself be a writer.” Mr. Cape intends, staying in New Zealand for about two weeks. He Is on a world tour, and intends returning to London by-way of-China, Japan and the United States.