NOVEL-READING

New Zealand Tablet, 11 May 1911, Page 885

NOVEL-READING

Novels which have too absorbing an effect on anyone are certainly bad for that person, whether they are really bad in themselves or not. If you find yourself neglecting your work or more serious reading it’s time to take yourself in hand. Stop right there. Put the story in the' fire or return it to the owner. That’s the only way to cure that particular obsession. It is often questioned whether the prevalent taste for the silly society novel is not responsible in a large degree for the parasite ideal; the ideal of idleness and physical beauty which so many women have set up for themselves. To be useful, to give an equivalent in service" and love for all that one gets ought to be the aim of every one of us. Instead, nine out of every ten women seem to think the great thing is to sit idly bn the front porch and keep their hands soft and white. Novels in which the aristocratic idea of ladyhood ,is , upheld', as desirable, and the worker depicted as rough and vulgar, belong to a type to be avoided. You’ll get no help of any kind from reading them. Another variety which ought to be tabooed is the one in which important relations of life are treated flippantly or cynically. Then there is the novel in which there is a lot of maudlin sentiment, which often misleads the young and inexperienced.