In the chap­ter “A Hum­ble Remon­strance,” the author con­tem­plates the intrigu­ing per­spec­tives of Mr. Wal­ter Besant and Mr. Hen­ry James on the art of fic­tion, despite their dis­tinct dif­fer­ences as writers—James being metic­u­lous and Besant more genial­ly whim­si­cal. Their agree­ment on dis­cussing the “art of fic­tion” as a dis­tinct enti­ty from the “art of poet­ry” prompts a reflec­tion on the true nature of fic­tion and its broad­er appli­ca­tion across var­i­ous art forms, sug­gest­ing that fic­tion per­me­ates all arts, includ­ing prose, poet­ry, and even sculp­ture and paint­ing, serv­ing as a uni­ver­sal sto­ry-telling ele­ment rather than a stand­alone cat­e­go­ry.

The dis­cus­sion then shifts to ques­tion the lim­i­ta­tions imposed by defin­ing fic­tion sole­ly as a mod­ern Eng­lish phe­nom­e­non, bound by its mate­r­i­al form (notably, the three-vol­ume nov­el for­mat). By ques­tion­ing the neces­si­ty of qual­i­fy­ing fic­tion as “in prose” and “fic­ti­tious,” the author illu­mi­nates how these bound­aries over­look the essence of nar­ra­tive art. He argues that fic­tion tran­scends medi­um and fac­tu­al accu­ra­cy, exem­pli­fied by works rang­ing from “The Odyssey” to “Pil­grim’s Progress,” which, despite their var­ied forms, all engage in the art of nar­ra­tive.

The heart of the chap­ter delves into the essence and method­ol­o­gy of nar­ra­tive art, propos­ing that it does­n’t strive to repli­cate life’s chaos but instead offers a refined, emblem­at­ic abstrac­tion. The com­par­i­son to geometry’s abstract notions ver­sus tan­gi­ble nature empha­sizes that art, includ­ing nar­ra­tive fic­tion, sim­pli­fies and styl­izes real­i­ty to con­vey deep­er truths, eschew­ing life’s com­plex­i­ty for a more pro­found, albeit less direct, engage­ment with human expe­ri­ence.

The explo­ration fur­ther cat­e­go­rizes nov­els into three prin­ci­pal types: adven­ture, char­ac­ter, and dra­mat­ic. Each cat­e­go­ry is dis­tin­guished by its pri­ma­ry focus—be it the thrill of explo­ration, the depth of indi­vid­ual traits, or the inten­si­ty of emo­tions dri­ving human con­flicts. The author under­scores the var­ied tech­niques and objec­tives inher­ent to each type, argu­ing that the true craft of fic­tion lies not in its fideli­ty to life’s minu­ti­ae but in its capac­i­ty to dis­till and ele­vate uni­ver­sal themes through the lens of these dif­fer­ing focus­es.

More­over, the chap­ter cri­tiques the con­ven­tion­al expec­ta­tions from each nov­el type, advo­cat­ing for a flex­i­bil­i­ty that allows sto­ries to res­onate on their inher­ent terms rather than con­form­ing to rigid con­structs. By chal­leng­ing these norms, the nar­ra­tive advo­cates for a broad­er, more inclu­sive under­stand­ing of fic­tion that cel­e­brates its diver­si­ty and its uni­fy­ing core—the trans­for­ma­tion­al pow­er of sto­ry­telling.

Ulti­mate­ly, “A Hum­ble Remon­strance” cham­pi­ons the rich­ness of fic­tion as an art form that tran­scends sim­plis­tic clas­si­fi­ca­tions, urg­ing read­ers and writ­ers alike to appre­ci­ate the mul­ti­fac­eted ways nar­ra­tives reflect and reshape the human con­di­tion.