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PREFACE

As in the case of Some American Story Tellers, the title of the present volume has been deliberately chosen, in order to place the various types of modern writers of fiction more or less on a level, as primarily public entertainers, whose first duty is to hold public attention with the spell of the spoken word. There is no intention to minimize, by the use of this title, the high function that fiction is tending more and more to play as a criticism of contemporary manners and ethics; but it does permit of a more indulgent attitude towards such writers as take their responsibilities more lightly, and to recognize that, within its class and in view of its author's purpose, Anthony Hope's Dolly Dialogues is as finished a piece of story-telling as Arnold Bennett's Old Wives' Tale.

Furthermore, this volume does not pretend to have made a definitive choice of the fifteen novelists of the day who are best deserving of critical recognition. It is necessarily to some extent a matter of personal preference; and, since the limits of space prevent the inclusion of all the present-day writers about whom the author has views that he would gladly express, the consequence is that

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PREFACE

As in the case of Some American Story Tellers, the title of the present volume has been deliberately chosen, in order to place the various types of modern writers of fiction more or less on a level, as primarily public entertainers, whose first duty is to hold public attention with the spell of the spoken word. There is no intention to minimize, by the use of this title, the high function that fiction is tending more and more to play as a criticism of contemporary manners and ethics ; but it does permit of a more indulgent attitude towards such writers as take their responsibilities more lightly, and to recognize that, within its class and in view of its author's purpose, Anthony Hope's Dolly Dialogues is as finished a piece of story-telling as Arnold Bennett's Old Wives' Tale.

Furthermore, this volume does not pretend to have made a definitive choice of the fifteen novelists of the day who are best deserving of critical recognition. It is necessarily to some extent a matter of personal preference; and, since the limits of space prevent the inclusion of all the present-day writers about whom the author has views that he would gladly express, the consequence is that

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