Part 13 (1/2)

I say it is pitiable that people should need to read these things in print Let me apply this method to some district of south-west London--say the Old Bro the street Grocery Stores and shops of Italian Warehouseer establishilt ballsout under the first-floor s of a 'pawnbroker's' residence House-agents, too, are not unco the line of route

”The appearance of a winkle, when extracted from its shell with the aid of a pin, is extreton Station of the Underground Railway

Underneath the stall the pavement is streith shells, where they have fallen and continue to lie Close to the stall is a cab-stand, paved with a few cobbles, lest the road be worn over of cab-horses, who stand here because it is a cab-stand The thick woollen goods which appear in the haberdashers' s through the winter--generally _inside_ the plate glass--give way to garhter texture as the summer advances, and are put away or exhibited at decreased prices But collars continue to be shown, quite white and circular in forrey as the dust settles on them, until they are sold”

This is no travesty It is a hasty, but I believe a pretty exact application of Jefferies' method And I ask hoould look in a book If the critics really enjoy, as they profess to, all this trivial country lore, why on earth don't they come into the fresh air and find it out for themselves? There is no imperative call for their presence in London Ink will stain paper in the country as well as in town, and the Post will convey their articles to their editors As it is, they do but overheat already overheated clubs Mr Henley has suggested concerning Jefferies' works that

”in years to be, when the whole island is one vast congeries of streets, and the fox has gone down to the bustard and the dodo, and outside er has ceased from the face of the earth, it is not doubtful that the _Ga, as they will, the rural England of certain centuries before--will be serving as material authority for historical descriptions, historical novels, historical epics, historical pictures, and will be honoured as the ”

Let un These books are already supplying the club-novelist with his open-air effects: and, therefore, the club-novelist worshi+ps theathers that ”wild apple-trees, too, are not uncohtway he informs the public of this wonder But it is hard on the poor country public, must cram his books with solemn recitals of his A, B, C, and ie-sparrow's egg is blue

Aug 18, 1894 A Defence of ”Local Fiction”

Under the title ”Three Years of Aht” the _Daily Chronicle_ last Tuesday published an account of an intervieith Mr

Brander Mattheho holds (a many titles to distinction) the Professorshi+p of Literature in Colue, New York Mr

Matthews is alorth listening to, and has the knack of speaking without offensiveness even when chastising us Britons for our national peculiarities His conversation with the _Daily Chronicle's_ interviewer contained a nus; but for the moment I am occupied with his answer to the question ”What form of literature should you say is at present in the ascendant in the United States?”

”Undoubtedly,” said Mr Matthehat I may call local fiction”

”Every district of the country is finding its 'sacred poet' Some of them have only a local reputation, but all possess the coinal, and loving study of local character and manners You knohat Miss Mary E

Wilkins has done for New England, and you probably know, too, that she was preceded in the same path by Miss Sarah Orne Jewett and the late Mrs Rose Terry Cooke Mr Harold Frederic is perfor much the sabert Craddock) for the mountains of Tennessee, Mr

James Lane Allen for Kentucky, Mr Joel Chandler Harris for Georgia, Mr Cable for Louisiana, Miss French (Octave Thanet) for Iowa, Mr Hamlin Garland for the western prairies, and so forth

Of course, one can trace the salish fiction”

And Mr Mattheent on to instance several living novelists, Scotch, Irish, and English to support this last remark

The matter, however, is not in doubt With Mr Barrie in the North, and Mr Hardy in the South; with Mr Hall Caine in the Isle of Man, Mr Crockett in Galloway, Miss Barlow in Lisconnell; with Mr Gilbert Parker in the territory of the HBC, and Mr Hornung in Australia; with Mr Kipling scouring the orld, but returning always to India when the ti artistic success; it hardly needs elaborate proof to arrive at the conclusion that 'locality' is playing a strong part in current fiction

The thingat it from the artistic point of view as dispassionately as Iit But that, for the moment, is not the point of vieish to take

If for the moment we can detach ourselves from the prejudice of fashi+on and look at the matter from the historical point of view--if we put ourselves into the position of the conscientious gentle us and our works--I think we shall find this elaboration of ”locality” in fiction to be but a swing-back of the pendulum, a natural revolt fro” novelist who takes the whole world for his province, and iines he sees life steadily and sees it whole when he has seen a great deal of it superficially

The ”carpet-bagger” still lingers a us We know him, with his ”tourist's return” ticket, and the ready-made ”plot” in his head, and his note-book and pencil for jotting down ”local color” We still find hi Roo rapidly out of fashi+on; and it is as well to put his features on record and pigeon-hole thenize hi him triumphantly back into our ue

I submit this sier theorists who had rather believe that their art is advancing steadily, but at a fair rate of speed, towards perfection My own less cheerful--yet not altogether cheerless view--is that the various fashi+ons in art swing to and fro upon intersecting curves Some of the points of intersection are fortunate points--others are obviously the reverse; and generally the fortunate points lie near the middle of each arc, or the mean; while the less fortunate ones lie towards the ends, that is, towards excess upon one side or another I have already said that, in the amount of attention they pay to locality just now, the novelists see into excess If I must choose between one excess and the other--between the carpet-bagger and the writer of ”dialect-stories,” each at his worst--I unhesitatingly choose the latter But that is probably because I happened to be born in the 'sixties

Let us get back (I hear you implore) to the historical point of view, if possible: anywhere, anywhere, out of the _Poetics!_ And I adraph reads like a bad parody of that reinary historian--I suppose he will be a Gerination dwell upon _that_--will find a dozen reasons in contemporary life to account for the attention now paid by novelists to ”locality” He will find one of them, no doubt, in the development of locomotion by steam He will point out that any cause which iven towns is certain to soften the difference in the characteristics of their inhabitants: that the railway made communication easier and quicker year by year; and its tendency was therefore to obliterate local peculiarities He will describe how at first the carpet-bagger went forth in railway-train and steairdle round the world in a feeeks, and disposed to ignore those differences of race and region which he had no ti into uniformity He will then relate that towards the close of the nineteenth century, when these differences were rapidly perishi+ng, people began to feel the loss of thenize their scientific and romantic value; and that a nuainst tier, to study these differences and place them upon record, before all trace of theh he may find that in 1894 we paid too much attention to the _minutiae_ of dialect, folk-lore and ethnic differences, and were inclined to overlay with these the e that in our hour we did the work that was ent Our hour, no doubt, is not the happiest; but, since this is the work it brings, there can be no har about it zealously

CLUB TALK

Nov 12, 1892 Mr Gilbert Parker