{"product_id":"2940013067882","title":"Dust","description":"Scanned, proofed and corrected from the original edition for your reading pleasure.It is also searchable and contains hyper-links to chapters. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e*** \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDUST, by Mr. and Mrs. E. Haldeman-Julius remains to this day a rather obscure novel, as do most public domain novels remain to this day.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDUST was initially published about 1920. But interestingly, the \"haute couture\" literary magazine of the day \"The Arts\" reviewed it.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBelow is their review and they chose to compare \"Dust\" to Sinclair Lewis' \"Main Street.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMr. Lewis' work, as you read on, fails and pales by comparison.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIs that fair? \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePlease, read on:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom: \"The Arts\", Volume 1, 1920:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"SOME fool wrote in \"The Atlantic Monthly\": 'There is no reason in artistic economy why any one should ever write another novel of contemporary life in a small country town. Gopher Prairie is every small town in North America, and its 'Main Street' is the continuation of 'Main Streets' everywhere.' Another fool wrote in the New York Times Book Review: 'There never was better dialogue written.' And even William Allen White wrote: 'Ranks with the 'Scarlet Letter.'' Main Street is superficial. It is as if its author had tried to plow with a cultivator. Sinclair Lewis has eyes. His pictures of Gopher Prairie are clean cut. His characters are types, not sufficiently individualized. That is why the critic of the Atlantic Monthly can quote the author and say that \"Main Street is the continuation of 'Main Streets' everywhere.\" Superficially it may be, but had the types been made more living, more individual the story would not have fitted \" 'Main Streets' everywhere.\" Balzac wrote his novels of provincial life of only a small section of France. Even he but suggested the possibilities of what could be done with the subject matter.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDialogue is good dialogue when it interests, when it develops the plot easily, naturally, when it seems true to life. The dialogue of Main Street is used as a means of developing the plot. Frequently one feels what it is leading up to a page or two ahead. Almost always one feels just why each phrase in the dialogue has been used. As a whole the dialogue does not seem true to life, because it is so evident that it is but a tool in the hands of the author to develop the plot.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere must be work to produce art, but the mechanism, as Whistler suggested, should be kept out of sight. So Hawthorne understood art, but unfortunately the mechanism of Sinclair Lewis is much in evidence. I fail to see in what way \"Main Street\" \"ranks with the 'Scarlet Letter.'\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Main Street\" reminds me of the work of many of our young American painters. It is interesting, with passages which suggest genius, but, with it all, superficial.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Dust,\" like \"Main Street,\" is a story of the relationship between husband and wife. The scene is laid in Kansas instead of Minnesota. The study of character throughout the book seems to me far deeper than in \"Main Street.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAbove all else I feel that Mr. and Mrs. Haldeman-Julius are artists. They have made of \"Dust\" a work of art. The story is a sordid one. Yet I delight in reading it, even the most sordid portions, for the authors have given even to those who live in darkness a touch of the divinity of man. So Dostoievsky did and so also did Balzac.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt is strange when we are brought face to face in a work of art with the very soul of man that we should feel a thrill of happiness. Out of the void a voice has spoken, clear, distinct, sympathetic. We feel that we are closer to the heart of all things. Such a voice has spoken in \"Dust.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYet good as \"Dust\" is I shall not play the fool and say: \"There is now no reason why any one should ever write another novel of contemporary life\" on a Kansas farm. Nor shall I say: \"There never was better dialogue written.\" I shall not even say: It \"Ranks with the 'Scarlet Letter,'\" although it is far closer in spirit to the \"Scarlet Letter\" than is \"Main Street.\"","brand":"Leila's Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47069748953328,"sku":"2940013067882","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013067882_p0.jpg?v=1763575964","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013067882","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}