Life, 1887-12-15 · page 6 of 16
Life — December 15, 1887 — page 6: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "What Makes a Successful Book?" - Life Magazine Analysis This page discusses literary success, referencing Robert Louis Stevenson's essay collection "Memories and Portraits." The article argues that successful books require more than technical skill—they need authentic human emotion and character development that resonates with readers. The illustration titled "Tribute to Diana" appears to be a classical or mythological scene, likely depicting the Roman goddess Diana with attendants and hunting imagery. Without additional context, the connection between this image and the book-success discussion is unclear—it may be decorative, or possibly illustrate a point about literary inspiration or classical themes in successful literature. The page critiques overly analytical literary criticism that "split hairs" rather than appreciating genuine storytelling merit.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
WHAT MAKES A SUCCESSFUL BOOK? [* his recent collection of delightful essays—* Memories and Portraits” (Scribner's)—Robert Louis Stevenson has frankly given away the secret of his success. There the beginner or the veteran may read of the royal road to fame. Under the title of “ A Gossip on Romance,” he says: It is not character but incident that woos us out of our reserve appens as we desire to have it happen to ourselves; some situation that we have long dallied with in fancy is realized in the Then we forget the h the hero aside; then we plunge into the own person and bathe in fresh experience ; and then, and then only, do we say we have been reading a romance. Fic- tion is to the grown man what play is to the child; it is there that he changes the atmosphere and tenor of his life; and when the game so chimes with bis fancy that he can join in it with all his heart, when pleases him with every turn, when he loves to recall it and dwells upon its recollection with entire delight, fiction is called romance, and appropriate details, N every other trade, eral ac business, or profession there is a gen- eptance of the principle that to be successful you must give pleasure. The carpenter makes the most beautiful door which he can devise for the money and material; the architect, the most convenient house; the merchant makes his store attractive, and spends hours in the decoration of his front window; even the lawyer, who thrives on the evils of life, learns that suavity of manner is an clement of success. But in the profession of letters there always has been and still are those who assert that you must “take " literature as you take a bitter medicine, for the good it willdo you. And so they continue to compound noxious mixtures and label them Studies from Life, Revelations of the Heart, Anatomy of Crimes. Men and women do not read books under compulsion (if we except professional books). Literature, like society, is the solace of the lonely and weary heart. When we are tired and worried we do not seek the companionship of a disagreeable man or woman, The man of good-cheer, sin- cerity and sympathy is surrounded with friends. The misan- thrope sits alone in a corner with his gloomy thoughts. Each is an equally vea/ type, but each is not equally va/wadle to his fellow-man. HOUGH Mr. Stevenson has so frankly given away the recipe for “the tincture of success,” there is little danger of his being crowded from the field by imitators. They cannot acquire by rule or purchase the chief ingredients —a heart filled with human kindness, a mind stored with fair visions, a spirit at home among the clouds! A book is successful—and immediately the critics begin to split hairs over its niceties of style, over the ingenuity of con- struction, over the depth of its philosophy. The wise men see in it evidences of the abstruse mental juggling which they TRIBUTE TO DIANA. comicbooks.com