But although the conditions that I have been describing are about the same
in all Western countries, the tone of the literature which deals with love
is not at all the same. There are very great differences. In prose they
are much more serious than in poetry; because in all countries a man is
allowed, by public opinion, more freedom in verse than in prose. Now these
differences in the way of treating the subject in different countries
really indicate national differences of character. Northern love stories
and Northern poetry about love are very serious; and these authors are
kept within fixed limits. Certain subjects are generally forbidden. For
example, the English public wants novels about love, but the love must be
the love of a girl who is to become somebody's wife. The rule in the
English novel is to describe the pains, fears, and struggles of the period
before marriage--the contest in the world for the right of marriage. A man
must not write a novel about any other point of love. Of course there are
plenty of authors who have broken this rule but the rule still exists. A
man may represent a contest between two women, one good and one bad, but
if the bad woman is allowed to conquer in the story, the public will
growl. This English fashion has existed since the eighteenth century.
since the time of Richardson, and is likely to last for generations to
come.

Now this is not the rule at all which governs making of novels in France.
French novels generally treat of the relations of women to the world and
to lovers, after marriage; consequently there is a great deal in French
novels about adultery, about improper relations between the sexes, about
many things which the English public would not allow. This does not mean
that the English are morally a better people than the French or other
Southern races. But it does mean that there are great differences in the
social conditions. One such difference can be very briefly expressed. An
English girl, an American girl, a Norwegian, a Dane, a Swede, is allowed