The New Fiction and Other Essays On Literary Subjects

Excerpt from The New Fiction and Other Essays: On Literary SubjectsNot to be 'now' is, in these days, to be nothing, and in seeking as impartial and as uncommitting a title as possible for the work of the latest recruits to the army of successful novelists, I have not thought myself justified in withholding the indispensable certificate of novelty. They object, or at least the ablest and most popular of them has objected, it appears, to being described as a 'realist;' so I am no longer permitted to label his art as the 'New Realism.' But I am not at all sure that I shall be any more fortunate in my emendation. For it would not surprise me if the writer to whom I have referred were to protest against my describing his books even as 'fiction;' so insistent is he, I understand, on their literal and historical accuracy, so earnest is he in assuring us that every character whom he pourtrays has bad a real existence, and every incident he relates, an actual occurrence, so artless, in short, is his confidence in a justification which has no sort of relevancy to the defence of a work of art.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.