ABSTRACT
There is an American nature, but then there is human nature underlying it, and to that the novel must be true before anything else. That is what is of importance; it is that alone which makes the novel great, which causes it to be read in all times and in all countries. Self-consciousness does not make a strong character, and so it is with this quality of the novelist. To do this it is by no means necessary to discuss at length all the American novels of recent years. They are, of different degrees of merit, from these weird visions of the Southern novelist to the innocently prattling stories for which Harper's Magazine is famous. It might not be amiss to pause for a moment to consider the origin of this expression, "The great American novel". His stories have certain undeniable merits, and if the great American novel needed only to be American, he would easily bear off the palm.
