The Hundred Worst Books and They That Wrote ThemAs it has been found possible to tabulate, to the satisfaction of some people at least, the worlds Hundred Best Books, so, twenty years ago, it might have been possible to enumerate and set down the hundred least worthy that had then appeared under the imprint of reputable publishers. The enormous output since that time, however, has made such a task impossible in a literal senses. Even the most patient and plodding student, tabulating for his doctorate degree, would sink appalled before the herculean task of selecting the hundred worst from the thousands sufficiently poor.The causes for this unprecedented eruption of inferior literature have been several, and the invention of the American typewriting machine is surely not the least of them. When one of the first of these machines was shown to George Eliot by an Oxford professor, she exclaimed with prophetic fervor: Ah, I can see that it will be responsible for many a bad book, and we have poor ones enough as it is. There can be no doubt, that the mere facilitating of the mechanical labor of authorship has induced many young people who were otherwise unemployed to try their hands at literature, and only too often they have produced what other idle youngsters like themselves found readable enough. A class of ephemeral fiction has resulted which might well be called that of the stenographers school, consisting of novels made by the almost unassisted efforts of the machines.The great increase of publishing firms, many of which are frankly and solely interested in satisfying the lowest element of the reading public, has had, no doubt, much to do with this plague of books which, rated at nothing, would be overestimated. But it seems probable that the public library, despite many a good turn it has done for culture, is even more guilty in this general debauching of public taste. People will 百本最劣书及其作者至少让某些人满意，一一列举世界“百本最佳图书”已证明是一种可能；同样的，20 年以前，人们还有可能清点并记录下有名望的出版商推出的最没有价值的书籍。然而自那时起这类作品数且庞大，想要数清楚已经不可能了。在成千上万相当糟糕的书中选出最差的一百本实在是个无比艰巨的任务，就是为了拿博士学位而编制表格名单的最耐心的孜孜不倦的学生，也会对之望而生畏。造成这种低档文学的空前喷发的原因有好几种，其中不可等闲视之的是美国发明了打字机。当年。一位牛津教授把最早一批产品中的一台展示给乔治艾略特看，艾略特以富于预见性的激烈态度惊呼道:“我料到它会成为产生诸多劣书的罪魁祸首，而眼前我们的坏书已经不少了。 ”写作的机械劳动得到辅助，这无疑引诱了一些无所事事的年轻人染指文学，而大多数情况下他们只出产和他们一样游手好闲的小青年们读得进的作品。由此一种可被称为速记派的短命小说应运而生，几乎完全倚仗打字机的大力。出版社数目激增，其中许多公然地专心致力于满足最低层次的读者，这无疑也和时下的劣等书泛滥有关。这类书说它们一文不值还是高估了它们。不过，公共图书馆在败坏公众趣味方面的罪责可能更大，尽管它们过去曾经对文化多有贡献。人们从图书馆借阅的小说的数量远远超过自己买的书，而绝大多数人，读的书多了，碰到的劣书总比好书多。过去，不花 1 至 1.50 美元就别想得到read a great many more novels borrowed from a public library than they would ever buy, and the great majority of people, reading many, will happen upon more poor ones than good. In the old days, when there was no getting at a new book except by the outlay of 1 or 1.50, reading people thought awhile before they chose and were not likely to select a novel by a man never heard of before, even if the title was as alluring as the publisher could make it. The young man with the nimble typewriting machine found the road to fortune slower then. The public library has, with one class of readers, largely taken the place of the old Seaside library of fiction; it supplies them with books that they read, but would never care to keep. The sale of works of fiction to the public libraries alone is now almost large enough to justify the publisher in issuing them.The hundred poorest authors would perhaps be easier to classify than the hundred poorest books, though they are, for the most part, a most respectable company, who stand well in the eyes of their readers and publishers. The day has quite passed for making sport of such unpretentious frauds as the Duchess, Bertha M. Clay and LAura Jean Libbey. These innocent purveyors of sentiment to loverless maids and husbandless spinsters have been superseded by a much cleverer generation of charlatans. The alarming peculiarity of the mountebank in fiction today is that he has learned something about his trade; that he is usually wily enough to keep clear of the flatly ridiculous and can trick out his sham with some garnish of wit or bravery. The very complexity of life today makes it possible that almost any shrewd fellow can make a novel that will interest someone, merely for the subjects sake, if for nothing else.We have innumerable industrial novels, dealing with all sorts of trades, with every complexion of politics, and with geographical and sociological conditions. We have novels 一本新书，读书人在选择时总得思量一番，一般不大可能买某个闻所未闻的作者的小说，不管出版商用多么诱人的书名。那年月拥有灵巧的打字机的年轻人想发财还得多费点周折。对于某一类读者来说，公共图书馆很大程度上取代了早先经营小说的海滨图书馆，它们供应读者乐于阅读但无意保存的书籍。如今单是卖给公共图书馆的书籍的数量就大到足以诱使出版商发行某个作品了。列举一百名最差的作家也许比挑选一百本最低劣的书要容易一些，虽说这些人在多数情况下是十分正派的，在他们的读者和出版商眼里都颇得尊重。嘲弄“公爵夫人”伯莎M. 克雷和劳拉吉恩利贝那样微不足道的骗子的时代已经过去了。一代远远更为机灵的骗子取代了那些为受冷落的姑娘和未嫁人的老处女们提供感情食粮的承包商。如今小说行业中的江湖术士的令人担忧的特点在于他确实学到了一点门道，他常常能滑头地避免过于荒诞不经的东西，并给自己的假货添上些机智或勇敢做装饰。由于当今生活的复杂性，几乎任何机灵的人都能弄出一本让某些人感兴趣的小说。如果不为别的，至少是为了题材也行。我们有无数的工业小说，讲述各行各业、各党各派、地理情况及社会状况等等。我们有旨在描述联邦中几乎每一个州、每一个市的状况的小说，关于华盛顿、芝加哥、旧金purporting to pi