Basil — Wilkie Collins

Believing that the Novel and the Play are twin sisters in the family of Fiction that the one is a drama narrated as the other is a drama acted and that all the strong and deep emotions which the Play writer is privileged to excite the Novel writer is privileged to excite also I have not thought it either politic or necessary while adhering to realities to adhere to every day realities only In other words I have not stooped so low as to assure myself of the reader s belief in the probability of my story by never once calling on him for the exercise of his faith Those extraordinary accidents and events which happen to few men seemed to me to be as legitimate materials for fiction to work with when there was a good object in using them as the ordinary accidents and events which may and do happen to us all By appealing to genuine sources of interest within the reader s own experience I could certainly gain his attention to begin with but it would be only by appealing to other sources as genuine in their way beyond his own experience that I could hope to fix his interest and excite his suspense to occupy his deeper feelings or to stir his nobler thoughts Tanıtım Bülteninden