New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-09-20
NEW AND OLD FICIION'
HUMoRIsT on HIS VACArloN'

,,,,, cr,rrMENT OF STELLA MABERLf t hy
lh r. Anstey. Octave PIP. go. d. App'e'o"
THE HOLY CROSS AND OTHER .hra nhlEo Serb
Eugene Field. Octave PIP -"
ner's Sons. ,,,s
oht Octevo % 3l4 Charles Scribners SonS'
rt1,r1Ass o. LowRIE's. BY Frances H0dgsGn
burnett. octave PIP 5p Oh'''e'
Sons. 49,.
1,,orv onc IS familiar with the legend OF 'na'
hsels ~" hurorist who kept a man employed in
n,,rr ont when and where there Woui" NC
funerals 10 attend. He. the humorS'' a,'''
then, ALL 1t was recreation Tor MIN nc W.
,,gubro,,s in his hours of ease as "o'Iie" nv" "
merry Mr. Anstey recalls that tahtis''c mas
indicating instincts He Is In his very essence
- ,.r,,er. cynical II IS true. and sometimes
-, h,,ter in his satire, but humorist neNer'he
loss TO whom Punch" has been indebted LOT SOM
Of its funniest things. When ne dcta'"es N
from the aerial regions In when tha' Jou'''',
supposed to disport itself. when ne leaves '"o 'i
atmosphere OF ''arks" for the heavier atmosphere
.. f no tho air becomes not merely heavier.
:, e. olnos, stihing in it's elements OF woe Inc
Statement OF Stella Maberly' Is DOCK written Ill
tho inks OF the madhouse, with no creams Vi ""-
der human sunshine playing through IT, WIN ho
relaxation OF the tense pain OF the narrative even
IN the climax If It is all this. why has 1t peeh
written? Surely not because Mr.. Anstey enjoys
misery after his caprices in punch. NO, the
real reason the reason why 1t Is strong DOCK III
spite of it's morbdity. is that the author mas peeh
interested In the study Of heredity enjoys the eX
ercise OF his faculty for ingenious SITUATION ana
thought no would how far he could so along
highly improbable lines without giving his reader
pause He has gone far. The book Is specimen
of clever psychological construction. not novel
not even n story. The woman whose statement
II conveys begins as sane person with an UNI
comfortable temper. ends as a lunatic ana an IT.
responsible murderess.
II Mr. Anstey had explained the transition as an
observer of its smallest details he would only have
aroused a anguid interest. Through putting the
narrative in the mouth OF his central figure he
fascinates by making her development speak for
itself. To be told about II would be to be bored.
To watch II Is exciting and this Is what Mr..
Anstey makes possible. No one would suspect that
the first pages were written by maniac that
the last were the work OF writer In her right
mind. Yet there Is no break in the continuity OF
the book there Is nothing grotesque unnatural.
on the contrary the heroine. II so she may be
called. almost dcceives the reader into thinking
that she is sane from beginning to end. The true
solution of the situation only by degrees makes
Itself manifest. and even when the whole horror of
her madness dawns upon the Imagination there
comes a curious sense OF the skill with which Mr..
Anstey has confirmed the hypothesis of the ply
sicans showing that the maddest patients are
often the most logical and rational In their reason
Ing 1t is a strong book. II brings the reader to "A
dead wall 1t gives him no pleasure. But IT at
tracts him through the intellectual grip which has
kept the tragedy. for all its wild gloom lucid and
interesting throug hort
Some of these days when Academy has been
established in America. with more writer's waiting
and worthy fill its forty chairs than thrice forty
chairs could ever accommodate It will be well to set
our lmmortals at work upon the preparation of a
set OF anthologies. These anthologies will be de-
voted the preservation Of say, two verses out
OF every thousand written by the minor poet who
has been smothered In careless laures or II he is a
writer OF prose. just ten pages out OF Then
we would not have collections like those of Eugene
Fields stories. which continue 10 get themselves
made In note 10 1.-THE Holy Cross and Other
Tales II Is stated that certain stories In the book
including THE Patonlc Bassoon." are character
istic OF the various moods ont Of which
grew the best work OF the authors later years"
Now to read THE Platonic Bassoon Is to conclude
that for the best quoted above there should be
substituted worst" Field was too copious a
writer and. at the same time man OF too limited
a talent be- best served by reprintlns OF every
line he ever wrote. In neither OF the two volumes
which have just been made out OF old stories and
stories hitherto unpublished In book form II there
anything OF permanent value: and when the Sec
ond Book of Tales" IL found TO contain selections
from cultures Garland" work which never
proved IT, reason for existing. II is hard to restrain
an impatient Judgment upon both volumes
Yet IL would be unjust to remember with mpa-
tence the little tales and sketches here gathered
.ether In their coheinc-al WY thu were once