There was a time when parents used to look with disapproval if they found their children reading novels. In those days, it used to be so difficult for a young reader to get hold of a novel of Bankamchandra or Rabindranath! It had to be a clandestine reading; when the minor boy or girl got hold of one such novel, he or she had to read it by stealth. People thought that the reading of novels had a corrupting influence on the minds of young people.
Of course, those days are gone. Eighty percent of books now read all over the world (except Russia) arc novels and most of these crazy readers are bare adults. But there are certain evils which might be prompted by reading novels. Novels create thrilling emotional situations. Constant reading of such thrilling and fanciful situations keeps the mind in a state of unhealthy excitement. Romantic stories often tend to develop a romantic and unreal attitude of life. Everyone likes to be the hero or heroine of a romance. But the vast majority of the people are only common people, leading a hum-drum existence.
Hence, when they face realities, they are found wanting. Another evil is that too much attention to novels often makes one neglect other studies and makes one light-minded. There are young men and women, who, if they get hold of a good novel, forget everything else and read absorbingly
However, it is admitted that the study of novels has also it beneficial aspects. It widens our mental horizon. It opens our eyes to various types of men and women and teaches character study. It forces us to pay attention to many unpleasant but hard realities of life. It brings us face to face with life and its problems.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
A good novel is a recreation of life, as its running commentary. Besides overwhelmingly romantic novels, there are the social and political novels, like the novels of Saratchandra. They help our social consciousness.
The historical novel of Scott and Dumas, of Bankimchandra and Ramesh Chandra Dutta, give us insight into life as it was in the past and make the bygone life before our eyes with all its colour and pomp. Others like science fictions may help us take a peep into the future about things to come, with reformation, as Aldous Huxley had tried to do in his ‘Brave New World’.
Novels are sometimes known to have exercised far-reaching influence, on human history. Charles Dickens revealed to his readers the evils underlying the educational and industrial institutions of his age. They study of his novels led to various social reforms. Mrs. Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin showed in lurid colours the horrors of slavery and strengthened the movement for its abolition. Bankim Chandra’s ‘Anandamah’ had a notable influence on the growth of fighting nationalism in our country and inspired the revolutionaries of Bengal. Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables sparked off revolution and sounded the alarm bell against the old order. Novels have become a valuable medium of instruction and propaganda.
Novels are works of art. They create life on the plane of imagination. They help us to see life as it is and as it should be. But like a true work of art, a good novel gives a vision of the scope of life. The characters as well as the forces, the situations and their emotional effects are presented true to life. It is in the novel, more than other forms (genres) of literature, that ‘the age finds itself most’. That is also the reason why most creative minds in literature in this century have been drawn to this genre.