The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-04-18
WORLD OF LETTERS

AV - - SaA
tion far away into the realms of phiio-
sophie mysticism, where he spoke
among other things of the Christ
myth" and gave utterance to TINS
thought: "The earth was just as round
in the days when people supposed II
to be fiat, as 1t is now. So the truth
remains always the truth. even though
you give u charter to ten hundred thou
sand separate numskulls to examine II
by the light of their private judgment
and report that it is as many different
varieties of something else. The con-
trast Is sharply drawn throughout the
book between Father Forbes sleek ma
terialism adapting itself gracefully to
worldly ends under the essentially pa
triarchal system Of Catholicism and
Theron Wares hectic sensuous enthusi-
asms which carry him to moral wreck
In part at least because of the facility
which Methodism offers for putting
into pulpits men who are as babes in
worldly guile and in Intellectual bal
last.
1.-THE Damnation Of Theron Ware"
has its weak points. 1t will receive Sc
we're criticism. 1t enters hazardous
ground and cannot escape the risks OF
that audacity. But 1t is. we repeat.
one of the most consummate studies of
human nature in some Of it's weaker
aspects that has been printed in many
day. One. after reading 1t, can unhesi-
tatingly place Mr.. Frederic among the
foremost of American novelists, we
should say not second even to Howells,
because he Is more virile and more
brave.
i i i
Ever since we read George Gissing's
Sleeping Fires" New York: d. Apple
ton & Coz we have been wondering
why he wrote 1t. Gissing Is a man of
talent rising almost to genius. His
command Of the language is ready and
firm; he has the knack Of sketching dis
tinct portraits with a few bold strokes,
and there Is an artists nicety of per-
ception in his coloring and his posing;
and yet with all these merits pleading
In his favor, we cannot for the life of
US come to decision why he wrote
Sleeping Fires" What was the mo-
tive of It? What Is the good Of 1t?
Wherein lies the satisfaction of 1t?
The story, apart from its occasional
charming descriptions of Grecian seem
ery--descriptions which rise into form
as cloud. sky or mountain with hardly
the semblance of an Efforts almost
totally devoid Of interest. There Is a
bachelor who in his day had been n
blade; a wealthy widow who had once
rejected him because her very proper
parents painted his moral record a
shade or two blacker than 1t really was,
whereupon she gave herself to rheu-
matte baronet who fortunately soon
had the good taste to die and lastly, q
fossilized old antiquarian with u young
man in tutorial tow who turns out.
shortly before he. also, expires. to be
the bachelors own son. Bachelor and
widow are brought together. the sleep
ing fires glow again and the curtain
falls with every assurance that the past
will be buried In the expected joys OF
the future. That is all. Not very
satisfactory or very important. you say!
Well, that's just what we have been
thinking ever since we laid the book
down, and that's why we cannot make
out why genius like Gissing drools
his time out on such commonplace stuff
as this.
Two novels In. paper covers await US
in the Lippincott Select series. One Is
called Mrs. Romney." by Rosa Nou-
chette Carey. and, to save time. we will
look at 1t through our New York name
sake's spectacles:
Tears sad, pensive looks. headaches cul-
minating in due course in distressing at
tack of nervous fever. followed in turn
by ''reconciling kiss and second
honeymoon among snow mountains and
Swiss valleys" such are the ingredients
and evolution of the story which Rosa
of Mrs. Romney." Catherine, sometimes
called Kitty, Romney is fearful little
wife" with shadow-strewn past. She
has the misfortune of having, until quite q
late stage In the. story. weak father and
o wicked mother. the latter woman Of
hysterical excesses of evil which on one
occasion drive her idiotic husband TO
crime. This is one reason why Catherine
/ has headaches, and poses In loose. cling
ing draperies of soft stuffs. The other rea-
son Is that for motives of her own she
fances she Is obliged to conceal the
dreadful reality from her husband, at the
same time contiding in her husbands
brother, Oliver. The consequences of this
strange situation lead to innumerable mis-
understandings. The author has, how
ever. succeeded In smoothing out all the
wrinkles from the texture of her plot by
means Of the ''reconciling kiss" referred
to above.
The other is by Adeline Sergeant and
has to do with "The Failure of Sibyl
Fletcher" Sibyl was a well meaning
young girl who went In for art. and
that sort Of thing. She imagined she
was i'm love with young man who
was something of a diletantte and a
dude; but after the failure of her ca
reer as an artist she meets a robust.
passionate, unlettered man who storms
his wooing like some Morse viking
and the reaction from art to nature car
ries Sibyl captive. 1t should not be in
ferred from these words that Sibyl did
| anything improper. The sanction of
marriage saved her from that. But in
| the dra wing of her characte Miss Sar-
geant shows rather prettily the inevit-
able limitations of what Matthew Ar
| mold calls the eternal feminine.