DIY History | Transcribe | Scholarship at Iowa | The Ethical Tendency of the English Novel by Helen M. Harney, 1897 | The Ethical Tendency of the English Novel by Helen M. Harney, 1897, Page 9

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The Ethical Tendency of the English Novel by Helen M. Harney, 1897

The Ethical Tendency of the English Novel by Helen M. Harney, 1897, Page 9

therefore in any depreciating tone, but merely as a question interesting and appropriate whether this is all the novelist can do? Can he without detriment to his artistic faculty set himself to solve some difficult social question or to preach down some evil influence? Is there any real use in producing that class of books which our readers can easily and distinctly identify if we call them, for a lack of a better generic title, Novels with a Purpose?
By novels with a purpose, I do not mean that an abstract idea shall be put into the form of a human allegory, nor should it be branded with and aphorism, nor must there be a moral; but there must be a direct and distinct purpose, sometimes this motif may be vaguely expressed: but in all alike, the story is not the end, only the means and it should strive to realize George Eliot's ideal
6.

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therefore in any depreciating tone, but merely as a question interesting and appropriate whether this is all the novelist can do? Can he without detriment to his artistic faculty set himself to solve some difficult social question or to preach down some evil influence? Is there any real use in producing that class of books which our readers can easily and distinctly identify if we call them, for a lack of a better generic title, Novels with a Purpose? By novels with a purpose, I do not mean that an abstract idea shall be put into the form of a human allegory, nor should it be branded with and aphorism, nor must there be a moral; but there must be a direct and distinct purpose, sometimes this motif may be vaguely expressed: but in all alike, the story is not the end, only the means and it should strive to realize George Eliot's ideal 6.