Four Years of Novel Reading | Page 7

maintain a sound body of members numbering eightythree, that are in full sympathy with the objects of the institution, and faithful to its pledge and purpose. A uniform subscription of one shilling per member, payable on entrance, is sufficient to meet all the expenses of the Union. Members provide their own books, either by loan or purchase; or sometimes, in the case of a group of students, by mutual purchase each member obtaining the use of the book in turn, while it is finally disposed of to the members in rotation.
At the end of the first month an informal discussion takes place on the points to be noted, and subjects are set for essay and debate. The latter are not always accepted, members selecting their subjects according to their individual tastes, but always with due regard to the particular book under discussion. Occasionally papers are given at this meeting, which might be called supplementary papers, as they often deal with subjects previously discussed, and are brought forward when a debate or essay has not covered the whole subject from the writer's point of view. Distant members contribute papers to the general meeting, and at their own request have the papers of local members sent to them. With a larger society, and special means at our command, every member would be provided with a copy, or at least a precis, of the proceedings at the general meeting.
An annual report is issued by the secretary, in which membership, work done, finance, and future prospects are discussed; and each member is supplied with a copy of this report, from which may be gathered the general progress of the society.
This is a brief outline of the "Novel-Reading Union" as it at present exists; and some idea of its work and usefulness may be seen in the following table:
Books Read 20
Papers Given 54
Meetings Held 34
The list of authors has been extended, taking in Victor Hugo, Charles Reade, George Meredith, Mrs. Gaskell, Eugene Sue, Charlotte Bronte*, etc.; and the great works of these great authors have been a constant source of pleasure to those privileged to read them under the guidance of skilled literary advisers. Nor has the work been one of pleasure alone. The avowed principle upon which the Union is based is to make fiction, which contains some of the best thinking of the age, not only a pleasant, but an educational pursuit; to neutralize the trashy and pernicious literature which abounds in these days of cheap books, and to train earnest students, not only in the best thought, but in the literary ways and methods of the best novelists. It is sometimes urged against our scheme, that it deals only with one department of literature to the exclusion of others equally interesting, and possibly more profitable. The use of this argument implies forge tfulness of the root idea of the Union. It does not concern itself with the literary tastes of members, except in so far as these tastes incline to fiction. We assume that fiction has some place in the reading of every one who reads at all. We fix this occasional reading at the rate of a novel in two months, and ask that the reading be systematically done, and educational in purpose. It is no part of our plan to provide pleasure without profit, and it cannot be too clearly emphasized that the Union is not merely a recreative organization.
One remark may be added. It has constantly been urged upon us from outside, that our local effort would be a service to literary study in general, because it would be pioneering with a view to discover a practical method of systematically studying fiction, which, when once discovered and tested by experience, would probably be adopted elsewhere. This has been done at such places as London and Exeter; and a further result of this local effort may be seen in the larger place given to fiction in the programmes of the numerous debating societies, in both town and country, and in the general consent which has been accorded to the idea that the importance of the novel as a vehicle of thought, and its influence in life., are such as to justify special study and organization.
J. U. BARROW.

FOUR YEARS' WORK DONE BY THE BACKWORTH CLASSICAL NOVELREADING UNION
WORK DONE BY THE C. N. R. U.

FIRST NOVEL
Martin Chuzzlewit, by Charles Dickens. Points to be noted (suggested by Prof. R. G. Moultori).
1. Four different types of selfishness, Old Martin, Young Martin, Antony, and Pecksniff.
2. Four different types of unselfishness, Mary, Mark Tapley, Old Chuffey, and Tom Pinch.
Debate. That the two swindles in the story (Scadder's Land Office and the English Insurance Company) are inconceivable.
Essays.
1. Is Mark Tapley' s character overdrawn?
2. Changes in the characters of the book from Selfishness to Unselfishness.
Difficulty Raised. How could