The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1898-11-13
SOME RECENT
PUBLICATIONS.
Praise for Miss Ellen Glasgow's New
Novel.
PHASES OF AN INFERIOR PlANEs
"Paul the Man, the Missionary and
the Teacher" by Orcllo Cone, ID.
D.-A Most Excellent Work
from Many Points OF View.
PHASES OF AN INFERIOR PLANES

For about one month Miss Ellen Glas-
COWS latest novel PHASES OF an In
perior Planet'-has been upon the
! market" The high praise bestowed up
on it by the English press as well as
that Of this country, would seem TO con-
firm the Judgment Of those critics OF
her earlier novel THE Descendant who
pronounced it Indicative of reserve power
that might. II it chose. make the pubic
later listen with an intent ear.
The following is from the Transcript,
of Boston, which Is n discriminating
journal not certainly open 20 the charge
| of being afflicted with the fatal disease
| Of admiration
Somewhat more than n year ago AZ
anonymous novel appeared. entitled The
| Descendant" and bearing the imprint OF
Messrs. Harper & Brothers on the title
page. The book received much more thar
| the usual attention accorded first move
! from an unknown hand When the third
edition appeared. signed Ellen Glasgow
the literary reviews were much concern
/ 90 with details of the life and charac-
! tcristics of this new author whose work
{ whatever else It might be, was not com
| monplace.
The authentic data seemed hnally TO be
| that Miss Glasgow was then twenty-five
| years old. of woll-known Nirginian
! family, OF good old tch-Presbyterlan
| stock. Of n reserved and retiring dispo-
| sition and OF studlous and scientific
habits OF thought. Last November a
poem by Miss Glasgow, entitled THE
Freeman" with the motto Hope is a
slave: despair is a Freeman" appeared
| In the Atlantic Monthly, and called forth
wide comment. 1t was a poem TO set
| beside Emily Bronte's "Old Stole and
| Mr.. Henleys Incompatible
'Out Of tho night that covers me-"
This month Mossrs Harper & Brothers
| issue a new novel by Miss Glasgow, with
| the somewhat pulling title PHASES OF
an Inferior Planet" The planet turns
| out TO be this earth as we know 1t, and
| the phases sufficiently interesting.
Prague is evidently tho capital OF Miss
Glasgow's Imagination, and the glamour
Of Bohemia Is over It all. The story
deals with that large element of brain
workers in New York, who ogle fame IN
the far distance and divert themselves
40 best they may on short rations Tor
the present.
II IS said that Mr.. Max Pcerbohm is
lamenting "a one Of the most grievous
signs OF the times the fact that there
is no campaign OF ridicule and satire
against the young genius OF to-day. And
, when one considers the general output
I'm fiction one is inclined 10 share the
grievance. We have dallied Tuch of late
along the primrose path Of cheap rom
ance and adventurous activity in fiction.
We have seen a great deal of rehabiitat-
ing of Colonial days where the figures
and thoughts of to-day masquerade I'm
ancestral costumes and forced archaisms.
We have made much OF such books as
effort and thrown aside without painfully
deep impressions. About a year ago the
whole United states went quite wild with
enthusiasm-or so our literary journals
led us 10 believe-Over the mild and
nabby mOralizings of q kentuck.nn Sir
Galahad who heroically married his land
lady's daughter. because he had-he
hardly knew how-inadyertently asked
her while he left the woman he .oyed
and who loved him to exc out lame,
one-sided existence as best she might.
In the thick OF such fiction Il was in
terestlng 10 hear one Of our best mas
ters OF prose greeting Miss Glasgow as
zone woman writing Ike a man In a
nation Of men writing Ike a woman"
Miss GlasgOw's work IS Individual. II
falls I'm with no prevailing fashion. and
if one wished TO place her it would be
most easily done by saying here is one
Of spiritual kin to Thomas Hardy For
there is in both writer's somewhat the
same note OF fatality; the same sense
OF the inevitable pathOs Of life at cross
purposes; the same questioning Of the
power Of the will and the Elasticity Of
circumstances.
"I should like TO feel" says the hero
inc to the husband whose life she has
manned II should like TO feel that you
see IL was not my fault-that / was not
TO bame-that you forgive me for what
you have suffered"
But he looked ahead into the bluegray
distance and was silent.
"Ten me that l was not to blame" "
she said again.
He turned to her
1T was as much your fault he said
slowly. las II is the fault OF that feather
that the wind IS blowing IT into that
lake What are you that you should
conquer the wind?'
What IS man that he should master
heredity and temperament? VIII n few
years OF living IN "A universe with which
we make such slow acquaintance serve 20
unforge the fetters OF centuries OF deeds
behind us.
Hardy points these same questions
when he leaves the obscure Jude to die
alone. lacking all final aid rs he starts
on that great passage from time into
eternity. Hopeless questions, perhaps.
but at any rate a relief from too blind
and fimsy an optimism.
Miss Glasgow's moral questions then