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Indiana University Studies 



were made for the Morris chair at home, when the wind howls 

 outside and all is snug within, and we have time for the real luxury 

 of reading. They are longer than the average novel today, it is 

 true, but, except When Ghost Meets Ghost, they fall short of many 

 of the Earty Victorian volumes 6 — which some people still find 

 time to read. Their size can be justified, however, without re- 

 course to these precedents. In the first place, De Morgan's 

 humor and charming personality sustain the interest thruout. 

 Instead of sighing with relief at the end, we wish that we had 

 more to read. We are sorry that the author has quit speaking, 

 for he is one to whom we could listen all night, and we hate to see 

 the last of the people we have come to know so intimateh r and to 

 love so dearly. Even When Ghost Meets Ghost, with its eight 

 hundred and sixty-two closely printed pages, we close with regret, 

 for tho Mrs. Pictur and Uncle Mo are dead, we could listen to 

 David and Dolly Wardle thru another volume equally long. 



In the second place, an author's purpose should determine the 

 length of his books. De Morgan's aim is obviously to represent 

 life with the highest degree of verisimilitude. Therefore, since 

 the highest degree of verisimilitude is produced by the inclusion 

 of a large section of life and a considerable number of years, he 

 has needed more than the usual number of pages to accomplish 

 his purpose. In each of his first three novels, which most people 

 consider his best works, he has given a broad, extensive view of 

 life embracing a generation. Joseph Vance extends over three 

 generations. In doing this, he has followed the Early Victorian 

 tradition ■ — and rightly, for in spite of the tiresome effect often 

 due to the exaggeration of this principle by the Victorians, 7 it 

 contributes in no small degree to that vivid impression of life that 

 they produce. The modern tendency in fiction is the impression- 

 istic and intensive, in which the author aims to focus the reader's 

 attention in one direction, to direct his eye to one central object 

 in the picture, to give a concentrated impression of a single thing. 

 This method, which includes a short time, naturally requires 

 fewer pages than the epic style of the Early Victorians. Within 

 a smaller volume the modern novelist gives a sharp, clear-cut, 



6 Thackeray's Newcomes and Virginians. Dickens' David Copperfleld, etc., and 

 George Eliot's Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda, which are approximately the same 

 size, contain about 800 pages. Joseph Vance has 528 pages, Alice-for-Short 563. 

 Somehow Good 565, It Never Can Happen Again 688. An Affair of Dishonor 528, 

 A Likely Story 370, When Ghost Meets Ghost 832, The Old Madhouse 567. 



7 Their abuse of this principle was due to various reasons: for example, the 

 exigencies of serial publication led Dickens and Thackeray on and on, and the sub- 

 ordination of George Eliot's artistic sense to her fondness for preaching and soul- 

 analysis warped a great deal of her work out of its true proportions. Their principle, 

 however, was a true one, and the fact that they carried it to extremes does not in- 

 validate it. 



