We may sometimes get an excellent idea of history from a historical novel such as The Virginians or The Scarlet Letter, for such works give us a picture of social conditions of the times with great historical characters appearing usually, if at all, in the background or setting of the story.
CHAPTER X.
FICTION.
Fiction which includes two closely related forms, the novel or romance and the drama, has two functions; the more important being the interpreting and reflecting of life, the holding of the mirror up to nature, as Hamlet called it, and the giving of pleasure as a result of the presentation.
The romance which may be in the form of a novel or of a drama differs from the ordinary novel as chiefly in dealing with the unusual and improbable, including the supernatural. The novel performs to-day a great part of what the drama performed practically alone in the days of Elizabeth and James.
The close relation of the drama and the novel is seen in the fact that the same story may be told in both forms and it is common to-day to see a successful novel presented as a drama on the stage while on the other hand, novels have sometimes been written from plays.
The novel and the drama are classed as fiction because they present pictures that are usually not representations of actual fact, but no novel or drama is worthy of consideration which is untrue to what might happen in human life or to the great essential truths of human relationships. This is not a distinction between moral and immoral novels and dramas, for an immoral book may be true to facts in human experience, but they are the facts of pathological conditions and not of health.
An immoral book is one in which vice is made attractive and evil is condoned and unpunished. The Elizabethan drama never made vice triumphant and the sinner always was made to pay the just penalty for his sin. The drama of the Restoration, narrower in human interest than that of the Elizabethans, differed from the latter notably in the attitude towards vice; sacred relationships were matters of jest by the dissolute courtiers and their followers and vice was objectionable only when found out. When our ideas of right and wrong are confused and our conceptions of morality undermined by a book, it is to be avoided, for it can only do us harm. No good book ever makes sin respectable though it may of necessity present scenes in which disreputable characters appear; one of the greatest examples of this is Vanity Fair.
Keener observers than we are, who saw deeper into the inner workings of human nature have described in novels the operations and consequences of love, hate, avarice, revenge and other emotions which are always likely to move the heart. It is therefore of the utmost importance that when we read fiction we should read none except that written by masters who really did understand the soul of man, for when we read books by inferior observers we get warped and false ideas. In giving impressions of life the novel possesses a great advantage over biography, because, out of respect for the memory of the dead and the feelings of the living, the tendency of biography is to omit or to subdue harsh experiences, so that books like the Confessions of Rousseau which describe the deepest workings and weaknesses of the heart of a real man are exceedingly rare.
Treating of imaginary characters, the novelist may describe what he actually sees without fear of hurting the feelings of anyone. The tendency of many novels to conventionalize life and to express in set phrases the tenderest emotions is another reason why we should read no fiction but that which is true to life. We may occasionally be obliged to read for information a book written by an inferior author but there is no excuse for reading any novels but those of the highest class. We should question fiction sharply as to its effect upon our natures; if it does not have a wholesome and uplifting influence, no amount of interest that it possesses should entitle it to consideration.
When you read fiction read that written by the masters, like Scott, Dickens, Thackeray and George Eliot. Read the great novels that the judgment of the world has pronounced of permanent value but do not form one of the large class whose chief inspiration is derived from the last new novel. The new book that every one is talking about will probably be forgotten in six months but Ivanhoe, Henry Esmond, David Copperfield, and Romola will last as long as the English language. There are some classic stories like Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver’s Travels and The Arabian Nights to which constant reference is made and with which every educated person is expected to be familiar.