It is only through trial that any scheme can be shown
to be workable. There is, however, a new method that deserves better
the name of "experimental romance" than Zola's own works. It consists
in portraying people living in accordance with new sentiments and
ideals, or even under new institutions imaginatively constructed. Yet
this method also has its weakness, for it is difficult to make people
believe in the reality of a life that has not been actually lived.
Still, this difficulty is not fatal; for experiments in living are
constantly being made all around us, which the discerning novelist
needs only to observe and report. He can show the success of these or
how, if they fail, their failure is due, not to anything inherently
vicious, but simply to adverse law and opinion. Life is full of such
stories waiting for some novelist who is not too timid to tell them.
We are thus brought round again to the thesis that the enduringly
valuable elements of every story are its concrete creations of life.
In the end, the story teller's fame will rest upon his power to create
and reveal character and upon his sense for fate. There is just one
thing that should be added to this--a rich emotional attitude toward
life. It is the greater wealth of this that makes a novelist like
Thackeray or Anatole France superior to one like Balzac. The personality
that tells the story is as much a part of the total work as the
characters and events portrayed, and must be taken into account in any
final judgment of the whole.
Pages:
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270