New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-06-27

VI, I'm VI .,tF////>yst[ ~ T,#
y y'yc sSSaE> II ~
GEORGE GissING.
thing. the realism of human nature another. and
there are no wasted words in his long story. The
shallow ambiguous but htfully brilliant woman
who is the central figure in the book becomes n
striking proof that out of unattractive material
novelist of power may make AN absorbing type.
-HrS' l'olic - weak false. malicious, and, on the
"hoic' vulgar; but in the analysis of her traits
MI Gissing gets very near to universal pas
slonS and universal truths. He does not make
his heroine hcroic-that he would scorn to do
but he makes her profoundly interesting and his
skill has been hardly less sure or less fruitful
in his portrayal of tn" remaining porsonages.
They are all alive. each is individualized. and
while one may begin by thinking il ra her un-
proiitable to write Il book about what every body
knows-that our modern social life makes sadly
Tor prctcnce and insnccrity-it is impossible to
escape the conviction that Mr.. Gissing sheds
new light on the well-worn subject. He sounds
new and unexpected depths. he understands and
nterprots with new power several figures of IA
hlilar life which had seemed heretofore unuttcr-
ably commonplace In other words Mr. Gissing
is a realst in the best sense who is Il realist
LOT MES sake, not realist for the sake OF
art He has not written 4 better book than
The Whirlpool"
Mr.. Ashby Sterry has done better work than
appears in his Tale of the Thames" but ne is
readable in the long run. if only for tn, sake of
the humorous flip given to his pages at inter
walls. Then the rhymes scattered through the
book are always smooth and sometimes
musical and dainty. The spirit of a happy holt
day on the Thames has somehow got into both
prose and verse, as though in spite of the
authors tendency to adopt the style of a guide
book. Since Mr. Hatherelrs pictures are unus-
ualy pretty. an idle half hour may be not un-
wisely spent over the adventures of Dora
Phyllis, the Colonel and his wife the two Young
men from London, and the ubiquitous servitor
Wcatherbrow
The humor in Mr.. Wards little book is not
sporadic. 1t is encountered on nearly every page
ana II Is invariably fresh and persuasive. Ii =,
pulfeo tact to write a narrative Of such sweet
sentiment without becoming sentimental Mr.
Ward has had the tact. He writes Of a bridal
couple, writes of Corona and Alexander in the
most personal way, but he never rubs the bloom
off their romance; he is droIi. but not familiar:
he is whimsical, but grotesquc-as he
threatens to Toe. it must be admitted, in the cpl
Sode or the h"usc-moving-and though the tale
is OF the most unprctentious sort it has much
sound sense in it. with much keen ana delicate
sympathy.
If Mr.. Wells had been content to write. fifteen
strange stories instead of thirty. ne might have
no serious objection to be brought against his
collection of short tales 1t is merely that one
or Two courses Of graveyard mould are usually
enough Tor an ordinary palate. Ii is nice To
sup on horrors from time to time but when Mr.
Wells asks us to have them for breakfast and
dinner too with tt-bits of ghouiishness to give
the appetite stimulus between meals il is
natural to protest Granting him his prcdilcc-
ton Tor strange diseases. lunacy. murder orchids
that XIII men as devil-lsh might kill them, and
Tor the widest antastcalitics OF the bottom Of
the sea and the roof of the world'-crantinc
nm all this. we say. there remains only praise
Tor his ingenuity and for his narrative gifts
lie can make the most forbidding rnonstrositv
plausible. He passes from grisly theme To
the other. shocking the imagination ever with
newer and more extraordinary things But the
shock passes and belief In Mr.. Wells STAYS |
III he were more of poet and less of a scientist
as he can well afford to be-he would equal Poe |
on his ground.