Fantasy: A Novel

by Matilde Serao

There is nothing in which the Anglo-Saxon world differs more from the world of the Continent of Europe than in its fiction. English readers are accustomed to satisfy their curiosity with English novels, and it is rarely indeed that we turn aside to learn something of the interior life of those other countries the exterior scenery of which is often so familiar to us. We climb the Alps, but are content to know nothing of the pastoral romances of Switzerland. We steam in and out of the picturesque fjords of Norway, but never guess what deep speculation into life and morals is made by the novelists of that sparsely peopled but richly endowed nation. We stroll across the courts of the Alhambra, we are listlessly rowed upon Venetian canals and Lombard lakes, we hasten by night through the roaring factories of Belgium; but we never pause to inquire whether there is now flourishing a Spanish, an Italian, a Flemish school of fiction. Of Russian novels we have lately been taught to become partly aware, but we do not ask ourselves whether Poland may not possess a Dostoieffsky and Portugal a Tolstoï.

Yet, as a matter of fact, there is no European country that has not, within the last half-century, felt the dew of revival on the threshing-floor of its worn-out schools of romance. Everywhere there has been shown by young men, endowed with a talent for narrative, a vigorous determination to devote themselves to a vivid and sympathetic interpretation of nature and of man. In almost every language, too, this movement has tended to display itself more and more in the direction of what is reported and less of what is created. Fancy has seemed to these young novelists a poorer thing than observation; the world of dreams fainter than the world of men. They have not been occupied mainly with what might be or what should be, but with what is, and, in spite of all their shortcomings, they have combined to produce a series of pictures of existing society in each of their several countries such as cannot fail to form an archive of documents invaluable to futurity.

But to us they should be still more valuable. To travel in a foreign country is but to touch its surface. Under the guidance of a novelist of genius we penetrate to the secrets of a nation, and talk the very language of its citizens. We may go to Normandy summer after summer and know less of the manner of life that proceeds under those gnarled orchards of apple-blossom than we learn from one tale of Guy de Maupassant’s. The present series is intended to be a guide to the inner geography of Europe. It offers to our readers a series of spiritual Baedekers and Murrays. It will endeavour to keep pace with every truly characteristic and vigorous expression of the novelist’s art in each of the principal European countries, presenting what is quite new if it is also good, side by side with what is old, if it has not hitherto been presented to our public. That will be selected which gives with most freshness and variety the different aspects of continental feeling, the only limits of selection being that a book shall be, on the one hand, amusing, and, on the other, wholesome.

One difficulty which must be frankly faced is that of subject. Life is now treated in fiction by every race but our own with singular candour. The novelists of the Lutheran North are not more fully emancipated from prejudice in this respect than the novelists of the Catholic South. Everywhere in Europe a novel is looked upon now as an impersonal work, from which the writer, as a mere observer, stands aloof, neither blaming nor applauding. Continental fiction has learned to exclude, in the main, from among the subjects of its attention, all but those facts which are of common experience, and thus the novelists have determined to disdain nothing and to repudiate nothing which is common to humanity; much is freely discussed, even in the novels of Holland and of Denmark, which our race is apt to treat with a much more gingerly discretion. It is not difficult, however, we believe—it is certainly not impossible—to discard all which may justly give offence, and yet to offer to an English public as many of the masterpieces of European fiction as we can ever hope to see included in this library. It will be the endeavour of the editor to search on all hands and in all languages for such books as combine the greatest literary value with the most curious and amusing qualities of manner and matter.

EDMUND GOSSE.

HEINEMANN’S Scientific Handbooks.

A knowledge of the practical Sciences has now become a necessity to every educated man. The demands of life are so manifold, however, that of many things one can acquire but a general and superficial knowledge. Ahn and Ollendorff have been an easy road to languages for many a struggling student; Hume and Green have taught us history; but little has been done, thus far, to explain to the uninitiated the most important discoveries and practical inventions of the present day. Is it not important that we should know how the precious metals can be tested as to their value; how the burning powers of fuel can be ascertained; what wonderful physical properties the various gases possess; and to what curious and powerful purposes heat can be adapted? Ought we not to know more of the practical application and the working of that almost unfathomable mystery—electricity? Should we not know how the relations of the Poles to the magnet-needle are tested; how we can ascertain by special analysis what produce will grow in particular soils, and what will not, and what artificial means can be used to improve the produce?

In this Series of “Scientific Handbooks” these and kindred subjects will be dealt with, and so dealt with as to be intelligible to all who seek knowledge—to all who take an interest in the scientific problems and discoveries of the day, and are desirous of following their course. It is intended to give in a compact form, and in an attractive style, the progress made in the various departments of Science, to explain novel processes and methods, and to show how so many wonderful results have been obtained. The treatment of each subject by thoroughly competent writers will ensure perfect scientific accuracy; at the same time, it is not intended for technical students alone. Being written in a popular style, it is hoped that the volumes will also appeal to that large class of readers who, not being professional men, are yet in sympathy with the progress of science generally, and take an interest in it.

The Series will therefore aim to be of general interest, thoroughly accurate, and quite abreast of current scientific literature, and, wherever necessary, well illustrated. Anyone who masters the details of each subject treated will possess no mean knowledge of that subject; and the student who has gone through one of these volumes will be able to pursue his studies with greater facility and clearer comprehension in larger manuals and special treatises.

The first volume will be a Manual on the Art of Assaying Precious Metals, and will be found valuable not only to the amateur, but to the assayer, metallurgist, chemist, and miner. The work will be a desirable addition to the libraries of Mining Companies, engineers, bankers, and bullion brokers, as well as to experts in the Art of Assaying.