SOME MODERN NOVELS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9072, 12 February 1908, Page 2

SOME MODERN NOVELS.

In his newly -published book entitled “Through :he. M;vgio Doot”--a series of essuys 'V. praise of good hooks, Sir Oonau Boyle bus some outspoken criticisms of the unwholesome tendency of many modern novels. He says:—“The inference appears to he that there is some subtle connection between im- , morality and art, as if the handling ■ of the lewd, or the depicting of it, wfire in some sort a hall mark of the true artist. It is not difficult to handle or depict. On the contrary, it is so easy, and so essentially dramatic in many of its forms, that the temptation to employ it is ever present. It is the easiest and cheapest of all methods of creating a spurious effect. The difficulty lies in avoiding it. Bat one tries to avoid it because on the face of it there is no reason why a writer should write for a woman’s eyes that Which he would he knocked down for having said in a woman’s ears. JBnt ‘you must draw the world as it is.’ Why must you? Surely it is just in selection and restraint that the artist is shown. It is true that in a coarser age great writers heeded , no restrictions, but life itself had fewer restrictions then. We are of our own age, and must live up to • it.”