Read it through once

Several recent books have attempted this kind of presentation. I will take, for instance, Mr. Conrad. He is essentially a realist; he is essentially interested in action and situation; yet he is a man of imagination, and in his best work — in 'Heart of Darkness', for instance — he manages to present the inner life as well as the external. He catches those strange flashes of perception which disclose the mind. But such success is rare. More often the English novelist remains content with the outside. He gives us dialogue and incident; he constructs plot as if the main purpose of life were the arrangement of events. In doing so he neglects the subtler materials of fiction.