Serious minded people write of _The Saturday
Evening Post_ as if it represented some new fanaticism destined to
wreck civilization. The excessive popularity of so many modern novels
is felt to be a mystery.
Of course there are new elements in literary popularity. The wave
of interest used to move more slowly. Now thousands, and sometimes
millions, read the popular story almost simultaneously, and see
it, just a little later on the films. Millions, also, of the class
which never used to read at all are accessible to print and have
the moving pictures to help them.
But popularity has not changed its fundamental characteristics.
The sweep of one man's idea or fancy through other minds, kindling
them to interest, has been typical since communication began. The
Greek romances of Heliodorus may be analyzed for their popular
elements quite as readily as "If Winter Comes." "Pilgrim's
Progress" and "The Thousand and One Nights" could serve as models
for success, and the question, What makes popularity in fiction?
be answered from them with close, if not complete, reference to
the present. However, the results of an inquiry into popularity
will be surer if we stick to modern literature, not forgetting its
historical background.
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