Human nature, which changes its essence so
slowly through the centuries, nevertheless shows rapid alterations
of phase. The question I propose, therefore, is, What makes a
novel popular in our time?
I do not ask it for sordid reasons. What makes a novel sell
100,000 copies, or a short story bring $1000? may seem the same
query; but it does not get the same answer, or, apparently, any
answer valuable for criticism. A cloud descends upon the eyes of
those who try to teach how to make money out of literature and
blinds them. Their books go wrong from the start, and most of them
are nearly worthless. They propose to teach the sources of
popularity, yet instead of dealing with those fundamental
qualities of emotion and idea which (as I hope to show) make
popularity, their tale is all of emphasis, suspense, beginnings
and endings, the relativity of characters, dialogue, setting--
useful points for the artisan but not the secret of popularity,
nor, it may be added, of greatness in literature. Technique is
well enough, in fact some technique is indispensable for a book
that is to be popular, but it is the workaday factor in
literature, of itself it accomplishes nothing.
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