American author, in a preface to one of his works, remarks, in effect, that in his view a writer of fiction is entitled to all that is possible; and though hi the main we agree with him, yet at the same lime we think that the Novelist should always endeavor to confine himself to the probable; for when he goes be yond probability, he destroys that charm of naturalness which every author should study to produce, and puts himself in danger oi being set down by his readers as a kind of modern Munchausen. The chief beauty of fiction, in our humble opinion, consists in its representation of scenes and incidents sc like to nature and facts, that the reader can feel, as it were, that they are realities; and whether or no he believes the narrative to be a true record, taken from real lie, matters little, so long as there is nothing set forth by which he can prove the contrary. We all know that events do really happen, of so strange, mysterious, and miraculous a nature, that, without the most positive and reliable evidence, we would hardly believe them possible, setting probability altogether aside: and therefore, to suppose that an author can, by any ingenuity, place his characters in any entanglement, from which he can plausibly deliver them, and in doing so go beyond reality itself, is to suppobe him capable of inventing what the whole huraar race, together with all circumstances com bined, have never been able to produce.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)
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1822-1905
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