贝壳电子书 > 英文原著电子书 > memories and portraits >

第37章

memories and portraits-第37章

小说: memories and portraits 字数: 每页4000字

按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!




making stories true as in making them typical; not so much in 

capturing the lineaments of each fact; as in marshalling all of 

them towards a common end。  For the welter of impressions; all 

forcible but all discreet; which life presents; it substitutes a 

certain artificial series of impressions; all indeed most feebly 

represented; but all aiming at the same effect; all eloquent of the 

same idea; all chiming together like consonant notes in music or 

like the graduated tints in a good picture。  From all its chapters; 

from all its pages; from all its sentences; the well…written novel 

echoes and re…echoes its one creative and controlling thought; to 

this must every incident and character contribute; the style must 

have been pitched in unison with this; and if there is anywhere a 

word that looks another way; the book would be stronger; clearer; 

and (I had almost said) fuller without it。  Life is monstrous; 

infinite; illogical; abrupt and poignant; a work of art; in 

comparison; is neat; finite; self…contained; rational; flowing and 

emasculate。  Life imposes by brute energy; like inarticulate 

thunder; art catches the ear; among the far louder noises of 

experience; like an air artificially made by a discreet musician。  

A proposition of geometry does not compete with life; and a 

proposition of geometry is a fair and luminous parallel for a work 

of art。  Both are reasonable; both untrue to the crude fact; both 

inhere in nature; neither represents it。  The novel; which is a 

work of art; exists; not by its resemblances to life; which are 

forced and material; as a shoe must still consist of leather; but 

by its immeasurable difference from life; which is designed and 

significant; and is both the method and the meaning of the work。



The life of man is not the subject of novels; but the inexhaustible 

magazine from which subjects are to be selected; the name of these 

is legion; and with each new subject … for here again I must differ 

by the whole width of heaven from Mr。 James … the true artist will 

vary his method and change the point of attack。  That which was in 

one case an excellence; will become a defect in another; what was 

the making of one book; will in the next be impertinent or dull。  

First each novel; and then each class of novels; exists by and for 

itself。  I will take; for instance; three main classes; which are 

fairly distinct: first; the novel of adventure; which appeals to 

certain almost sensual and quite illogical tendencies in man; 

second; the novel of character; which appeals to our intellectual 

appreciation of man's foibles and mingled and inconstant motives; 

and third; the dramatic novel; which deals with the same stuff as 

the serious theatre; and appeals to our emotional nature and moral 

judgment。



And first for the novel of adventure。  Mr。 James refers; with 

singular generosity of praise; to a little book about a quest for 

hidden treasure; but he lets fall; by the way; some rather 

startling words。  In this book he misses what he calls the 〃immense 

luxury〃 of being able to quarrel with his author。  The luxury; to 

most of us; is to lay by our judgment; to be submerged by the tale 

as by a billow; and only to awake; and begin to distinguish and 

find fault; when the piece is over and the volume laid aside。  

Still more remarkable is Mr。 James's reason。  He cannot criticise 

the author; as he goes; 〃because;〃 says he; comparing it with 

another work; 〃I HAVE BEEN A CHILD; BUT I HAVE NEVER BEEN ON A 

QUEST FOR BURIED TREASURE。〃  Here is; indeed; a wilful paradox; for 

if he has never been on a quest for buried treasure; it can be 

demonstrated that he has never been a child。  There never was a 

child (unless Master James) but has hunted gold; and been a pirate; 

and a military commander; and a bandit of the mountains; but has 

fought; and suffered shipwreck and prison; and imbrued its little 

hands in gore; and gallantly retrieved the lost battle; and 

triumphantly protected innocence and beauty。  Elsewhere in his 

essay Mr。 James has protested with excellent reason against too 

narrow a conception of experience; for the born artist; he 

contends; the 〃faintest hints of life〃 are converted into 

revelations; and it will be found true; I believe; in a majority of 

cases; that the artist writes with more gusto and effect of those 

things which he has only wished to do; than of those which he has 

done。  Desire is a wonderful telescope; and Pisgah the best 

observatory。  Now; while it is true that neither Mr。 James nor the 

author of the work in question has ever; in the fleshly sense; gone 

questing after gold; it is probable that both have ardently desired 

and fondly imagined the details of such a life in youthful day…

dreams; and the author; counting upon that; and well aware (cunning 

and low…minded man!) that this class of interest; having been 

frequently treated; finds a readily accessible and beaten road to 

the sympathies of the reader; addressed himself throughout to the 

building up and circumstantiation of this boyish dream。  Character 

to the boy is a sealed book; for him; a pirate is a beard; a pair 

of wide trousers and a liberal complement of pistols。  The author; 

for the sake of circumstantiation and because he was himself more 

or less grown up; admitted character; within certain limits; into 

his design; but only within certain limits。  Had the same puppets 

figured in a scheme of another sort; they had been drawn to very 

different purpose; for in this elementary novel of adventure; the 

characters need to be presented with but one class of qualities … 

the warlike and formidable。  So as they appear insidious in deceit 

and fatal in the combat; they have served their end。  Danger is the 

matter with which this class of novel deals; fear; the passion with 

which it idly trifles; and the characters are portrayed only so far 

as they realise the sense of danger and provoke the sympathy of 

fear。  To add more traits; to be too clever; to start the hare of 

moral or intellectual interest while we are running the fox of 

material interest; is not to enrich but to stultify your tale。  The 

stupid reader will only be offended; and the clever reader lose the 

scent。



The novel of character has this difference from all others: that it 

requires no coherency of plot; and for this reason; as in the case 

of GIL BLAS; it is sometimes called the novel of adventure。  It 

turns on the humours of the persons represented; these are; to be 

sure; embodied in incidents; but the incidents themselves; being 

tributary; need not march in a progression; and the characters may 

be statically shown。  As they enter; so they may go out; they must 

be consistent; but they need not grow。  Here Mr。 James will 

recognise the note of much of his own work: he treats; for the most 

part; the statics of character; studying it at rest or only gently 

moved; and; with his usual delicate and just artistic instinct; he 

avoids those stronger passions which would deform the attitudes he 

loves to study; and change his sitters from the humorists of 

ordinary life to the brute forces and bare types of more emotional 

moments。  In his recent AUTHOR OF BELTRAFFIO; so just in 

conception; so nimble and neat in workmanship; strong passion is 

indeed employed; but observe that it is not displayed。  Even in the 

heroine the working of the passion is suppressed; and the great 

struggle; the true tragedy; the SCENE…A…FAIRE passes unseen behind 

the panels of a locked door。  The delectable invention of the young 

visitor is introduced; consciously or not; to this end: that Mr。 

James; true to his method; might avoid the scene of passion。  I 

trust no reader will suppose me guilty of undervaluing this little 

masterpiece。  I mean merely that it belongs to one marked class of 

novel; and that it would have been very differently conceived and 

treated had it

返回目录 上一页 下一页 回到顶部 0 0

你可能喜欢的