Page:Marie Corelli - the writer and the woman (IA mariecorelliwrit00coat).pdf/347

 The following letter, which deals with a critique on "Temporal Power," is most interesting from the point of view that it was written by one lady-*novelist in defense of another; it possesses all the more weight seeing that Mrs. Rentoul Esler is an entire stranger to Miss Corelli.

THE ETHICS OF CRITICISM

To the Editor of the "Sunday Sun"

Sir,—When a new book appears there are only two points on which the reading public requires enlightenment. These are the subject of the book and the manner in which that subject is handled. All else is apart from the best interests of literature, and the literary life. When a book from Miss Marie Corelli is issued it seems the fashion in press circles to discourse largely and loosely of the writer and to say little or nothing of her work.

The abuse poured on this lady seems to do the sale of her books no harm—it may even increase it—and the supposition is suggestive—but as books and the making of them have an interest apart from the commercial one, it seems time that a protest be made against the unworthy treatment to which one individual is habitually subjected. I have no personal acquaintance with Miss Corelli, and her books give me no more pleasure and no less than do those of Mr. George Meredith, whom your critic seems to place in antithesis to her, this also being the fashion of the moment; it is not in defense of a favorite writer that I wish to express an opinion, but in defense of those qualities that render criticism an honorable calling.

The heading of the critique in your issue of