FICTION 



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FICTION 



prise so large a part of present-day reading 

 matter, deal principally with everyday inci- 

 dents in the lives of characters who are drawn 

 as true to life as possible. 



Prevalence of Fiction. Different ages ex- 

 press themselves in different literary forms. 

 The Elizabethan Age (1558-1603) spoke pri- 

 marily through the drama, the Augustan Age 

 (1700-1740) through the essay or satire, the 

 Romantic Age (1837-1901) through its ex- 

 quisite lyric poems, the Victorian Age through 

 its wonderful variety of both prose and poetry ; 

 and the dominant literary form of the present 

 age is undeniably fiction. Hundreds of works 

 of fiction come from the press every year; 

 some of these are worth reading, some are not; 

 but almost all find readers, for there are vast 

 numbers of people who never read anything 

 else, and who lack discrimination in selection. 

 The demand for fiction at public libraries is 

 far in excess of that for all other kinds of 

 books combined. 



Famous Works of Fiction. No two persons, 

 whether they be critics or the most casual 

 readers, would ever agree thoroughly on a list 

 of the greatest works of fiction, but there are 

 certain books which could scarcely be left 

 out of any such compilations. The following 

 list does not claim to be authoritative it 

 merely names a dozen works of fiction which 

 anyone who aspires to be well-read cannot 

 afford to neglect: 



Don Quixote Cervantes 



Robinson Crusoe Defoe 



The Vicar of Wakefield Goldsmith 



Ivanhoe Scott 



Kenilworth Scott 



David Copperfield Dickens 



Tale of Two Cities Dickens 



Vanity Fair Thackeray 



Henry Esmond Thackeray 



Les Miserables ' Hugo 



Mill on the Floss Eliot 



Scarlet Letter Hawthorne 



The Well-Paid Fiction Writer. Some of the 

 writers of these world's greatest stories would 

 have heard with amazement of the prices paid 

 to present-day novelists for their tales. A 

 beginner, it is true, cannot hope for large re- 

 turns he is fortunate if he disposes of his 

 stories at one cent a word. But when an 

 author has become famous and is so popular 

 that there is competition among publishers for 

 the privilege of issuing his works, he may 

 demand almost what he will, with a fair hope 

 of receiving' it. It is nothing unusual, for 

 instance, for a writer whose stories are in great 

 demand to be paid from fifty cents to a dollar 



a word, and it is said that Conan Doyle re- 

 ceived for his later Sherlock Holmes tales as 

 much as five dollars a word. That is, for a 

 single page of ordinary magazine size he was 

 paid the astounding sum of $4,000. 



How to Read Fiction. An unmixed diet of 

 fiction, novel after novel read hurriedly for 

 the story, cannot fail to result in mental indi- 

 gestion, but this does not indicate that fiction- 

 reading is harmful. With a little care anyone 

 may acquire a method of reading which will 

 not only make fiction immensely more inter- 

 esting, but more helpful, as well. This does 

 not require actual study, with a dictionary 

 close at hand, but merely close attention to 

 certain phases and to the way the author has 

 accomplished certain results. The following 

 suggestions should enable one more truly to 

 appreciate good fiction: 



The Plot. To most people the "story" is the 

 most absorbing 1 phase of a work of fiction ; the 

 more exciting and complicating it is, the deeper 

 is the interest aroused. Some novels or romances 

 place all their emphasis on the plot, as it is called, 

 making little or no attempt at character-devel- 

 opment or at scenic word painting; others seem 

 to use the plot merely to show the development 

 of character. Either style may be excellently 

 done, but the very best fiction presents a combina- 

 tion of the two. Sometimes a plot consists of 

 but one story, and every incident bears directly 

 upon it ; again, a whole series of minor plots may 

 be introduced, which only indirectly affect each 

 other. 



In reading fiction, such questions as the fol- 

 lowing, borne in mind and answered, will make 

 the story clearer and give a. feeling of mastery 

 which a more hasty reading cannot produce : 

 Has the story a distinct, outstanding climax, 

 to which all the events lead up? Did the author 

 try to conceal the final outcome, that it might be 

 a surprise to the readers? Was he successful in 

 this, or was the outcome evident? Are there 

 subordinate incidents of considerable importance? 

 How do they contribute to the working-out of the 

 plot? Does the central plot stand out clearly, or 

 is it obscured by a too great wealth of incident? 

 Does the story begin with a series of incidents 

 which are not apparently related to each other, 

 but which at the close are blended together? 



The Characters. In almost any story there 

 are one or two persons who stand out most 

 clearly, and about whom the plot is woven. 

 Commonly these are called the hero and the 

 heroine, though in reality they may be anything 

 but heroic. Other persons, sometimes in consid- 

 erable numbers, appear and play their parts, but 

 generally these are kept subordinate to the cen- 

 tral characters. Nothing shows more clearly 

 the genius of a writer than the ability to draw 

 character well to create people who live and 

 move, and seem to readers to be real persons, to 

 be admired or disliked. Anyone laying aside a 

 play of Shakespeare's, a story of Dickens's or, 

 among present-day books, an Old Chester tale of 



