one hears a great deal nowadays concerning "vital" books. their authors have been widely praised on very various grounds. oddly enough, however, the writers of these books have rarely been commended for the really praiseworthy charity evinced therein toward that large long-suffering class loosely describable as the average-novel-reader.
yet, in connection with this fact, it is worthy of more than passing note that no great while ago the new york times' carefully selected committee, in picking out the hundred best books published during a particular year, declared as to novels—"a 'best' book, in our opinion, is one that raises an important question, or recurs to a vital theme and pronounces upon it what in some sense is a last word." now this definition is not likely ever to receive more praise than it deserves. cavilers may, of course, complain that actually to write the last word on any subject is a feat reserved for the recording angel's unique performance on judgment day. even setting that objection aside, it is undeniable that no work of fiction published of late in america corresponds quite so accurately to the terms of this definition as do the multiplication tables. yet the multiplication tables are not without their claims to applause as examples of straightforward narrative. it is, also, at least permissible to consider that therein the numeral five, say, where it figures as protagonist, unfolds under the stress of its varying adventures as opulent a development of real human nature as does, through similar ups-and-downs, the reverend john hodder in the inside of the cup. it is equally allowable to find the less simple evolution of the digit seven more sympathetic, upon the whole, than those of undine spragg in the custom of the country. but, even so, this definition of what may now, authoritatively, be ranked as a "best novel" is an honest and noteworthy severance from misleading literary associations such as have too long befogged our notions about reading-matter. it points with emphasis toward the altruistic obligations of tale-tellers to be "vital."
for we average-novel-readers—we average people, in a word—are now, as always, rather pathetically hungry for "vital" themes, such themes as appeal directly to our everyday observation and prejudices. did the decision rest with us all novelists would be put under bond to confine themselves forevermore to themes like these.
as touches the appeal to everyday observation, it is an old story, at least coeval with mr. crummles' not uncelebrated pumps and tubs, if not with the grapes of zeuxis, how unfailingly in art we delight to recognize the familiar. a novel whose scene of action is explicit will always interest the people of that locality, whatever the book's other pretensions to consideration. given simultaneously a photograph of murillo's rendering of the virgin crowned queen of heaven and a photograph of a governor's installation in our state capital, there is no one of us but will quite naturally look at the latter first, in order to see if in it some familiar countenance be recognizable. and thus, upon a larger scale, the twentieth century is, pre-eminently, interested in the twentieth century.
it is all very well to describe our average-novel-readers' dislike of romanticism as "the rage of caliban not seeing his own face in a glass." it is even within the scope of human dunderheadedness again to point out here that the supreme artists in literature have precisely this in common, and this alone, that in their masterworks they have avoided the "vital" themes of their day with such circumspection as lesser folk reserve for the smallpox. the answer, of course, in either case, is that the "vital" novel, the novel which peculiarly appeals to us average-novel-readers, has nothing to do with literature. there is between these two no more intelligent connection than links the paint mr. sargent puts on canvas and the paint mr. dockstader puts on his face.
literature is made up of the re-readable books, the books which it is possible—for the people so constituted as to care for that sort of thing—to read again and yet again with pleasure. therefore, in literature a book's subject is of astonishingly minor importance, and its style nearly everything: whereas in books intended to be read for pastime, and forthwith to be consigned at random to the wastebasket or to the inmates of some charitable institute, the theme is of paramount importance, and ought to be a serious one. the modern novelist owes it to his public to select a "vital" theme which in itself will fix the reader's attention by reason of its familiarity in the reader's everyday life.
thus, a lady with whose more candid opinions the writer of this is more frequently favored nowadays than of old, formerly confessed to having only one set rule when it came to investment in new reading-matter—always to buy the williamsons' last book. her reason was the perfectly sensible one that the williamsons' plots used invariably to pivot upon motor-trips, and she is an ardent automobilist. since, as of late, the williamsons have seen fit to exercise their typewriter upon other topics, they have as a matter of course lost her patronage.
this principle of selection, when you come to appraise it sanely, is the sole intelligent method of dealing with reading-matter. it seems here expedient again to state the peculiar problem that we average-novel-readers have of necessity set the modern novelist—namely, that his books must in the main appeal to people who read for pastime, to people who read books only under protest and only when they have no other employment for that particular half-hour.
now, reading for pastime is immensely simplified when the book's theme is some familiar matter of the reader's workaday life, because at outset the reader is spared considerable mental effort. the motorist above referred to, and indeed any average-novel-reader, can without exertion conceive of the williamsons' people in their automobiles. contrariwise, were these fictitious characters embarked in palankeens or droshkies or jinrikishas, more or less intellectual exercise would be necessitated on the reader's part to form a notion of the conveyance. and we average-novel-readers do not open a book with the intention of making a mental effort. the author has no right to expect of us an act so unhabitual, we very poignantly feel. our prejudices he is freely chartered to stir up—if, lucky rogue, he can!—but he ought with deliberation to recognize that it is precisely in order to avoid mental effort that we purchase, or borrow, his book, and afterward discuss it.
hence arises our heartfelt gratitude toward such novels as deal with "vital" themes, with the questions we average-novel-readers confront or make talk about in those happier hours of our existence wherein we are not reduced to reading. thus, a tale, for example, dealing either with "feminism" or "white slavery" as the handiest makeshift of spinsterdom—or with the divorce habit and plutocratic iniquity in general, or with the probable benefits of converting clergymen to christianity, or with how much more than she knows a desirable mother will tell her children—finds the book's tentative explorer, just now, amply equipped with prejudices, whether acquired by second thought or second hand, concerning the book's topic. as endurability goes, reading the book rises forthwith almost to the level of an afternoon-call where there is gossip about the neighbors and germany's future. we average-novel-readers may not, in either case, agree with the opinions advanced; but at least our prejudices are aroused, and we are interested.
and these "vital" themes awake our prejudices at the cost of a minimum—if not always, as when miss corelli guides us, with a positively negligible— tasking of our mental faculties. for such exemption we average-novel-readers cannot but be properly grateful. nay, more than this: provided the novelist contrive to rouse our prejudices, it matters with us not at all whether afterward they be soothed or harrowed. to implicate our prejudices somehow, to raise in us a partizanship in the tale's progress, is our sole request. whether this consummation be brought about through an arraignment of some social condition which we personally either advocate or reprehend—the attitude weighs little—or whether this interest be purchased with placidly driveling preachments of generally "uplifting" tendencies—vaguely titillating that vague intention which exists in us all of becoming immaculate as soon as it is perfectly convenient—the personal prejudices of us average-novel-readers are not lightly lulled again to sleep.
in fact, the jealousy of any human prejudice against hinted encroachment may safely be depended upon to spur us through an astonishing number of pages—for all that it has of late been complained among us, with some show of extenuation, that our original intent in beginning certain of the recent "vital" novels was to kill time, rather than eternity. and so, we average-novel-readers plod on jealously to the end, whether we advance (to cite examples already somewhat of yesterday) under the leadership of mr. upton sinclair aspersing the integrity of modern sausages and millionaires, or of mr. hall caine saying about roman catholics what ordinary people would hesitate to impute to their relatives by marriage—or whether we be more suavely allured onward by mrs. florence barclay, or mr. sydnor harrison, with ingenuous indorsements of the new testament and the inherent womanliness of women.
the "vital" theme, then, let it be repeated, has two inestimable advantages which should commend it to all novelists: first, it spares us average-novel-readers any preliminary orientation, and thereby mitigates the mental exertion of reading; and secondly, it appeals to our prejudices, which we naturally prefer to exercise, and are accustomed to exercise, rather than our mental or idealistic faculties. the novelist who conscientiously bears these two facts in mind is reasonably sure of his reward, not merely in pecuniary form, but in those higher fields wherein he harvests his chosen public's honest gratitude and affection.
for we average-novel-readers are quite frequently reduced by circumstances to self-entrustment to the resources of the novelist, as to those of the dentist. our latter-day conditions, as we cannot but recognize, necessitate the employment of both artists upon occasion. and with both, we average-novel-readers, we average people, are most grateful when they make the process of resorting to them as easy and unirritating as may be possible.
