Such is the matter of imaginative or artistic literature- this transcript not of mere fact, but of fact in its infinite variety, as modified by human preference in all its infinitely varied forms. It will be good literary art not because it is brilliant or sober, or rich, or impulsive, or severe, but just in proportion as its representation of that sense, that soul fact, is true, verse being only one department of such literature, and imaginative prose, it may be thought, being the special art of the modern world. That imaginative prose should be the special and opportune art of the modern world results from two important facts about the later: first, the chaotic variety and complexity of its interests, making the intellectual issue, the really master currents of the present time incalculable- a condition of mind little susceptible of the restraint proper to verse form, so that the most characteristic verse of the nineteenth century has been lawless verse; and secondly, an all pervading naturalism, a curiosity about everything whatever as it really is, involving a certain humility of attitude, cognate to what must, after all be the less ambitious form of literature. And prose thus asserting itself as the special and privileged artistic faculty of the present day, will be, however critics may try to narrow its scope, as varied in its excellence as humanity itself reflecting on the facts of its latest experience- an instrument of many stops, meditative, observant, descriptive, eloquent, analytic, plaintive, fervid.
Artistic literature is the representation of:
Correct Answer: (b) facts transformed by human predilection in an array of forms
Solution:While discussing about style in literature, Walter Pater writes in "Appreciations with an Essay on Style" that artistic literature is the representation of facts transformed by human predilection (liking) in an array of forms. Hence, the correct answer is option (b).