There is no room for doubt that the surpassing interest which
fiction, whether in poetry or prose, possesses for most minds,
arises mainly from the biographic element which it contains.
Homer's 'Iliad' owes its marvellous popularity to the genius which
its author displayed in the portrayal of heroic character. Yet he
does not so much describe his personages in detail as make them
develope themselves by their actions. "There are in Homer," said
Dr. Johnson, "such characters of heroes and combination of
qualities of heroes, that the united powers of mankind ever since
have not produced any but what are to be found there."
The genius of Shakspeare also was displayed in the powerful
delineation of character, and the dramatic evolution of human
passions. His personages seem to be real--living and breathing
before us. So too with Cervantes, whose Sancho Panza, though
homely and vulgar, is intensely human. The characters in Le
Sage's 'Gil Blas,' in Goldsmith's 'Vicar of Wakefield,' and in
Scott's marvellous muster-roll, seem to us almost as real as
persons whom we have actually known; and De Foe's greatest works
are but so many biographies, painted in minute detail, with
reality so apparently stamped upon every page, that it is
difficult to believe his Robinson Crusoe and Colonel Jack to have
been fictitious instead of real persons.
Though the richest romance lies enclosed in actual human life, and
though biography, because it describes beings who have actually
felt the joys and sorrows, and experienced the difficulties and
triumphs, of real life, is capable of being made more attractive,
than the most perfect fictions ever woven, it is remarkable that
so few men of genius have been attracted to the composition of
works of this kind.
Pages:
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370