The Poor German Novel

WMle the nurnber of secqiid and third rate novéis increases, those that deserve to be labeled Al are as undoubtedly on the wane. The pitiable state of the Germán book market is partly answerable for this result, since it has driven some of the ablest contemporary noyelists, such as Suderinann, Gerhardt, Hauptmann and Voss, to turn aside from their original and obvious vocation in order to write indifferent dramas, because these prove to be more remunerativo than firsfc class novéis. Veteran Standard authors like Freytag, Dahn and Spielhagen, who have beeu before the public for three or more decenniums, seem to labor under the delusion that whatever they now write must necessarily be worth reading, and that a writer who once has achieved fame has nothing further to do in order to keep it up but to go on producing with clockwork regularity a certain number of volumes per annnm, whether or not these books are distingnished by any of those qualitius wbicb made the