Something About the Authors of the Day "Modern British Fiction" was the subject of study at the Library Department, A.W.C,, meeting last Friday afternoon, " A paper on the subject was read by Mrs, R. W. Davis who first gave a brief analy. sis of the works of Inst century and of the early twentieth century by way oftcomparison with modern writing, Tt was stated that the works of lust century, Dickens, Thackeray, and 90 on were characterized by their humanity and by the ability of.the authors strongly to portray, jeharacters and types, Of the authors of the early part of this century, Hall Came, Marie Corelli, Conan Doyle and s0'on, it was said that they were divided into two jclasses:—the works which dealt with moral and religious issues and the works of humour and imagination, Those in the first class were out of ]vogue to-day while those of the latter were, in many cases, more approciated now than at the time they were written. It was stated that Conan Doyle's classic, "Sherlock Holmes" has been translated into note languages than any other book except the Bible.
In. disedssing modern fiction a division was made between novel. The works of certain authors who were selected as the leaders Jamong English novelists wore die. Jeussed in more critical detail, chief Jamong these being Joseph Conrad, Arnold Bennett, Hugh Walpole, and Wells. Walter do la Mare's "Henry Bracken" was appreciatively. reviewed and a few paragraphs were read from the introduction by Barrie to Leonard Merrick's book "Conrad in Quest of his Youth", Mrs. McRae was unanimously elected new chairman of the Depart~ ment as Mrs. Ossombeck is going jon home leave shortly,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.