New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-04-25
RECENT FICTION.
CONVENTION. AND THE ART OF UNCoN-
VENTIONALITY.

SAINT EVA A Novel BY Amelia Pain. With a
tavo PIP. 3Ol. Harper Brothers
FLAMES BY Robert Hichens. octave, PIP. 52a.
Herbert S. Stone Co
THE DAY OF HIS YOUTH. BY Alice Brown.
Duodecimo PIP. ls3. Houshton Mif'iin & Co
DA sTRAFroRD. California story BY BY
pape. Octave. PIP. 2lS. Dodd. Mead * Co.
LADS LOVE BY s. r. Crockett Illustrated. oc-
tayo. PIP. tx, $50 d. Appleton Co
suggestive contrast is presented by two Of these
novelists Mrs. Pain has followed convention and
has written a good book. Mr.. Hichens has sought
TO deny convention and has produced some five
hundred pages OF arrant rubbish. Comparisons
are undesirable OF course but in this case they
are forced upon the reader and profitable,
showing once more how OF It's effect true in
sp!raton u.s. whether It takes the right form or not
how inferte mere cleverness H. though 1t may de-
velop itself along positively original lines Mrs
Pain has had veritable inspiration. She terminates
her romance upon mournfu climax. IT is true
a climax 80 dreary and pathetic that IT leaves a
sense Of bitterness behind but any rate she has
put human feeling into her book. and It's sweet
ness, It's tenderness. will be longest remembered II
raises all her conventions to their highest power
and by this is meant that she has written n novel
OF the familiar English society sort without laps
ing into the bald routine OF those innumerabe writ
who have gone before her. She reminds one OF
Mr.. Norris In his most typical mood Of being on
easy terms with the conditions OF English life.
whether In the country or In town. and she sug
gests him. too in the traglcal drift of her nara
tive: but where she takes her place apart and gives
something not only new but more charming than
anything encountered In most novels of the day, Is
in realizing all the graces of an uncommonly grace
full and even poetic character. Sir Edward Burne-
Jones has drawn portrait of st. Eva for the
frontispiece. and 1t does no more than Justice to
Mrs. PAINS heroine. The minor novelist's prose
would hardly be expected to equal the major art
lists pencil. but it happens to have surpassed 1t.
St. Eva is fresh. unexpected. original and genuine
She is differentiated from the other figures In tho
story by traits which under less tactful treatment
might have become theatrical and sentimental, but
which Mrs. Pain has kept throughout on a perfect
ly sympathetic basis. The tale moves nImbly and
persuasively: to begin II is TO read II straight
through. There is art in 1t without artifce
Now. Mr.. Hichens has no art at ALL he is nine
tenths artfce and the other tenth is sheer faulty
1t seems almost incomprehensibe that so skilful
and 50 spirited n writer he has shown himself
to be In the past could now turn out such n dull
novel az Flames" He seems to have been AZ
frighted at the fancy OF telling his story, as Mrs
Pain has told hers In the straightforward manner
which has been sanctioned by scores OF estlmable
II not brilliant authors. No, Mr. Hichens must be
brilliant. gorgeously So and hears him sa wing
to himself: go to. / shall write novel after n
fashion of mine own. and astonish the world"
Truly he has astonshed 1t. or at least that portion
OF 1t which is compelled to read his book-and I'm a
way that he probably did not count upon For I'm
spite OF his manifest ambition to be original he
has written In Planes nothing more nor less
than a weak imitation OF "The Picture of Dorian
Gray" All the old earmarks are here-the decadent
young men and their extraordinary cigarettes. the
frou-frou Of modern simpletons wickedness; the
decorative backgrounds and the sti!l more deco
rative rhetoric OF an art" that evokes visions Of
jigsaws and naughty late hours. THE silence was
like a sweet blow" This. and much more OF the
same sort. hath Mr.. Robert Hichens wrought ont
Of his medtations upon the sinful ways OF the
young Londoner az some Psychology sees him
The result Is Overwhelming I'm Its 1atness Yet Mr.
Hchcns set out to write a great novel He has
tried TO be new, he has tried to be quaint and ar
tlstic and eplgrammatc. He might as well have
tried to be epical. The work IL hollow when It Is
not sodden there is not a CLEAN OF nature I'm II;
and the fantastic episode upon which 1t turns has
obviously sprung from morbid ingenuity and DELHI
GRAFTON. not from rich Imagination Travelling
freely and spontaneously. Mr.. Hichens ought to
abandon this line OF activity for good and all He Is
not lifted for II. Let him take a OF writing
from the most obvious formulate employed In Eng
fish fiction. then he may put his talents to some
reasonable Use.
Much the same advice may be proffered to Miss
Alice Brown. though IN a spirit OF greater patience
for The Day OF His Youth" Is an ideallstic book
ard provokes warm sympathy. The difficulty Is
that the scheme IL too deliberately dea.istic IL IL
refined that II puts Mr.. Hichens and his
Flames 10 shame, but We are not sure that It Is
any less artificial than that manufactured book.
Ii Is ns though Miss Brown had set out 10 make
kind OF imaginative denomination. to prove that
certain theories OF hers touching love and life and
the fascination OF woodland nature were worth the
serious attention OF all rght-mnded sentmentaists.
Let The Day OF His Youth" argue never vigor-
ously against the naccidi,y Of mercy sentimental