He talked much
of 'the new era,' foresaw revolutions in publishing and
book-selling, planned every week a score of untried ventures
which should appeal to the democratic generation just maturing;
in the meantime, was ready to publish anything which seemed
likely to get talked about.
The May number of The Current, in its article headed 'Books of
the Month,' devoted about half a page to 'English Prose in the
Nineteenth Century.' This notice was a consummate example of the
flippant style of attack. Flippancy, the most hopeless form of
intellectual vice, was a characterising note of Mr Fadge's
periodical; his monthly comments on publications were already
looked for with eagerness by that growing class of readers who
care for nothing but what can be made matter of ridicule. The
hostility of other reviewers was awkward and ineffectual compared
with this venomous banter, which entertained by showing that in
the book under notice there was neither entertainment nor any
other kind of interest. To assail an author without increasing
the number of his readers is the perfection of journalistic
skill, and The Current, had it stood alone, would fully have
achieved this end.
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