LANDSCAPE IN LITERATURE 



snows of the Adirondacks in the same terms 

 he would use were the interesting episode 

 to occur in the fertile valley of the Mohawk 

 under a pleasant summer sun? And will 

 Mary act just the same when the long 

 expected happens? Obviously not. 



Suppose the whole scheme is one of 

 "human interest," only with no attempt at 

 a stage setting. Will the characters still 

 behave the same in Texas as in Pennsyl- 

 vania? in Oklahoma as in Maine? And 

 will the difference of behavior, whatever it 

 is, be separable from the physical surround- 

 ings of the actors; that is, from the land- 

 scape? Hardly. 



Of course, there are writers of fiction, 

 and of other forms of literature, who pay 

 slight heed to the stage settings; we may 

 say, perhaps, none at all. But such 

 writers can hardly be called the best 

 artists in their proper fields. 



And, by the way, what do the literary 

 critics mean by "local color?" Certainly 

 local color is something which suggests the 

 locality wherein the action takes place. 

 And the presentation of a certain physical 

 locality is the presentation of a certain 

 landscape. There have been those who 



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