21 SEPTEMBER 1901, Page 25

Fame and Fiction. By E. A. Bennett. (Grant Richards. 6 s.)—Mr.

Bennett's "Enquiry into Certain Popnlarities " will certainly repay perusal. He begins with an estimate of the "Average Reader," "an intelligent and reasonable being," "'neither an idiot nor perverse." This is high praise ; but it is qualified. "He prefers the chromograph to the oil painting " ; "for him sentiment cannot be too gross, too cloying in its sweetness, too sickly in its pathos "; "he does not resent dulness " ; "he is toe somnolent to be self-analytic " ; "the most atrocious ugliness does not annoy him." This is pretty well for " an intelligent and reasonable being." As for the various criticisms on the writers who supply these readers with their mental food, we shall leave them alone. It is not our business in these columns to criticise novels, far less to criticise criticisms on them.