Reade, Charles - Sheila M. Smith (essay date 1960)
Sheila M. Smith (essay date 1960)
SOURCE: "Propaganda and Hard Facts in Charles Reade's Didactic Novels: A Study of It Is Never Too Late to Mend and Hard Cash, " in Renaissance and Modern Studies, Vol. 4, 1960, pp. 135-49.
[In the following excerpt, Smith contends that although Reade drew on factual sources for his didactic novels, he exaggerated and introduced melodramatic elements in the tradition of the sensation novel.]
'Eccentric fact makes improbable fiction, and improbable fiction is not impressive.'
The Times, 2 Jan. 1864, reviewing Hard Cash.
'All fiction, worth a button, is founded on facts,' wrote Charles Reade in the preface to his novel A Simpleton (1873). To help him write his novels he evolved a'system', which can be summed up as the use of a great deal of fact and of a little imagination. The novel was not his favourite medium, so it was convenient...
[The entire page is 6675 words long]
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