BEST NOVELS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4825, 20 March 1925, Page 1

BEST NOVELS.

WHEN AUTHOR & PUBLIC DIFFER. SOME INTERESTING INSTANCES. The- classic instance of a difference of opinion between an author .and his readers is Milton’s preference for “Paradise Regained” and posterity’s decided preference for “Paradise Lost,” but there have been many more recent cases of a similar disagreement. Thackeray, for instance, with excellent judgment, pinned his fame to “Esmond,” yet everybody thinks of him as the author of “Vanity Fair.” Dickens thought best of his“ Old Curiosity Shop,” one of the weakest of his novels, on the whole, though it contains some of his choicest humorous characters. But posterity regards Dickens as the author of “Pickwick.” He also loved best of all. his characters, on the iqale side, David Copperfield, but his readers much prefer Sam Weller; on the feminine side Little Nell, whom the public now regard as mawkish and silly, and prefer to pin their affections to Betsy Trotwood.

Scott considered “Kenilworth” his masterpiece, but the reader even m his day said “Ivanhoe,” and he has stuck to his preferment ever since. Scott thought little of “ Quentin Durward,”, but this novel has, since the novelist’s death, constantly increased in reputation. George Eliot regarded “Romolo” as her masterpiece, but the Yeading public always preferred “Adam Bede.” Similarly, Mrs Craix, singularly enough, thought “Olive ’ her best novel. It ig now quite forgotten, but “John Halifax, Gentleman,” the- public’s decided choice, still “goes strong.” Nothing annoyed Bret Harte more than to be referred to, as he constantly was, as . the “author of ‘The Heathen Chinee.’ ” The public insisted on associating the Californian writer’s name with that of Ah Sin, who had several extra aces up his voiumnious sleeve, but the writer himself much preferred to be known as the author of “The Luck o’ Roarin’ Camp.” An exactly similar fate overtook Mark Twain. . In his early days he made all the world laugh with a (Story called “The Jumping Frog.” It was recited everywhere, and was mainly responsible for spreading the name and fame of its author. But Mark hated to be called “The author of ‘The Jumping Frog’ ” nevertheless. He much preferred to be associated with “The Innocents Abroad,” or " Tom Sawyer.” All these authors have joined the “great majority,” but there are at least two living authors who have been inclined to disagree with the public as to the books they would choose to be remembered by. One is Jerome K. Jerome. In his early days he wrote “Three men in a Boat,” which sent his name round the world because it made the world laugh. But Jerome, like many another humorist, is a serious man, and he tried his best to bury his early work under a succession, of more serious books, and a play entitled “The Passing of the Third Floor Back.” Nevertheless, he is always thought of still as the author of “Three Men in a Boat, not to Mention the Dog,” and he even returned to the same many years later. The other case is; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He started life as a- writer of line historical novels, and he still considers that such .works as “The White Company” and “Sir Nigel” represent him at his best. Nevertheless, the public has decreed that- he is to be known. as the author and creator of the great detective Sherlock Holmes. He tried the expedient of killing him, but actually had to resuscitate him, virtually bring him back to life, so strongly, did the public call tor “further adventures.” '

But perhaps the most remarkable case in literary .annals is the preference of Richard Doddridge Blackmore for one of his many novels entitled ‘‘The Maid of Sker,” ; which today is practically defunct, over “Loma Doone,” which has long taken its assured place as an English classic. From the first “Lorna Doone,” although it was some time finding its. public, has been set in a place by itself in the popular .mind, but Blackmore did not share the general opinion to the day of his death.