New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-10-09
FICTION.
THE EXCEEDING CLEvERNESS OF MIR.
HENRY JAMES,

tEN HOUSE Or HIDDEN INfsRSt In. ny
Maxwell Gray. Duodecimo. PIP. io' d. Apple
ton & Co.
MEG OF THE SCARLET FOOT. \ Novel. BY w.
Edwards Tirebuck. Duodecin'o PIP. Az Harper
A LOVER or TRUTH BY Eliza Orne White.
Duodccimo. PIP. 3i9. Houghron Mit'n & Co.
TIE MAKING OF A PRIC. by Evelyn Sharp
Duodecimo. pp. 40. John Lane.
THE WHOEVER Novel Fly w &C. Norris.
DuodecimO. pp 81. ID. Appleton co.
In his latest book Mr.. Henry James is at
delightful and pathetic He is delightful
because he is supremacy clever TO call an
the Cage" successful tour de force" Is to
state only half its merits 1t Is. on the whole.
pretty nearly the most brilliant piece of writing
that this author has ever produced. The very
last shades of those emotions in which he Is
Interested he paints with a delicate precision
that is merely amazing. But. oh, the pity Of it.
the pity Of IT, All this skill is expended upon
as trivial and base a motive as 1t would be- pos
sibIc to find. The poor little heroine. "teleg
raphist' to whom Mr. James does not even
give name lives out her days In the official
cage" located by the Postal Department in
1.-THE 1uskiest corner of a shop pervaded not a
little. in winter. by the poison Of perpetual gas.
ard at all times by the presence of hams,
cheese. dried fish. soap varnish paratin and
other solids and fuids.' To her enters. In this
ignoble environment. a Captain Everard, who
possesses all the personal graces but-perhaps
as a Consequences involved in shabby in
trirue with a certain Lady Bradeen. another
radiant butterfly of fashion. "Our young lady
Mr. James calls her. is a person Of vivid
imagination. She sends her soul through the
Invisible" and there she experiences the most ex-
citing things But her invisible" unforlu-
natciy. is only Mayfair. and her imaginary
Hi.bta dot m wi bp of hose tOrdI
men and women who drop into the little grocer
shop to send dispatches. Captain Everards
dispatches interest her from the start. she
connects him with Lady Bradeen. who
also approaches her cage day. and what |
Mir James has set himself TO do Is to describe
the gradual identification OF his young lady"
with the actors In contemplate drama. He
Describes very well: IN fact. he has never de-
scribed anything better. But that smell Of
hams. chfeses dried fish and on. TO which he /
aiiudes has got into his pages. and says-and
such smells are not good for literature They
are TO begin with. rintrinscally offensive to
fastidiOus n0striis. and then. 1t is humliatng
to find writer of ability wasting his time not
oDiy upon matters as offensive these are.
but upon motives 80 infinitely little. Let the
novelist he catholic. If he will. and find passion
In grocer shops well as in palaces. but let
|
Is dealing. and not make-believe. There Is
nothing convincing about the love affair Of
Everard and Lady Bradeen. and our young
lady's' participation ia 1t never lifts her to an
interesting plane. We read the book as a re-
markable technical exercise. az an astonishing
demonstr alton of how subtle and how lucid an
author can he in the exposition OF dull things;
but Az the stuff Of the story is abysmally duli,
as The whole episode was not worth more than
two or three pages Of fction-if it vas worth
that-we can only deplore the mistaken amb-
ton which has evidently actudted Mr.. James
"The House of Hidden Treasure" contains the
material for flrst-rate story. On one side is
Sir Godfrey HarbOrd with his sorrows his
millions and his adopted her-the last being a
scamp On the other is Mrs. Caroline Dorrien
he miiiionaire's daughter. who ran away from
his home to be married to scapegrace. and
for the crime is disinherited Between the two
arises Grace Dorrien. with some or her mothers
traits and with others derived from her father
which a source Of anguish to her friends
but make her attractive to the reader. She at
tcmpts to bring about a reconciliation between
her mother and her grandfather At this point
Crimson HytheHarbOrd shows his evil hand
Letters intercepted. conversations are mis-
reported. murder is attempted sentimental
complications ensue. and by the time the reader
Is well into the book he is prepared for inter-
esting developments. They DO not come. Max
well Gray seems to have started with a dra-
matte idea and with some notions Of character
In her head The latter she does not altogether
abandon. But her plot soon gets beyond her
coniroN and the narrative becomes irredeem-