Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-10-19
"Phases of an Inferior Planet"
Washington Times)

washington Times)
A new book by Ellen Glasgow, author
of The Descendant" has appeared. and
is i'm no way inferior to its predecessor.
II is called Phases Of an Inferior
Planet" title which is about as puzzling
as that Of the authors first famous novel.
The meaning of this title becomes clear
enough, however, after one has read the
book.
The scene is New York, the time, to-
day. the characters, New York Bohe-
mians. This is one Of the rare novels in
which the hero and heroine engage the
readers attention In equal shares Both
are interesting persons, although they
VIII be quite incOmprehensible to that
public which knows not Bohemia The
hero is young scientific man, eking out
meagre living by teaching, while he
works on which he fondly supposes Is a
great book. The heroine is a slender
young slip of southern girl, who has
grown up wild on her fathers planta-
ton, under the more or less cOercive
sway Of a stepmother, and who has
a passionate desire TO become a great
operate singer Il would give ten years
of my life 10 sing with Alvary," she says.
in one Of the early chapters And her
name is Mariana Musin, the French sur
name due TO Huguenot ancestry. The
name of the hero is equally odd and char
acteristic-it is Anthony Algarcife.
These two young people occupy adjoin-
ing rooms in huge New York apartment
house, and become acquainted by chance
and informally. They interest each other.
and grow 10 be very good friends.
There is a touch Of romance in their
friendship. but hardly anything which
could properly be called love. Then Ma
RAMA Is informed by a letter from her
father that the income which enables her
TO stay i'm New York will not be forth
coming hereafter. and that she must re-
turn 10 her home and assist her step
mother to care for the younger brood.
The additionally selt-sacrihcing
elder sister-or step-sister-would have
accepted this dictum with cheerful resig-
nation. gone back TO her home ana be-
come an angel of comfort and hope. She
would eventually have been sought out By
the hero who has never forgotten her,
and has made a proud success with his
book, and they would be married and live
happy ever after That is the way II
would turn out i'm the old-fashioned novel.
In real life. given a sensitive, ambitious,
hgh-strung girl like Mariana, ana an
utterly uncOngenial home. our heroine
would return TO her family under COM
pulsion, beat her wings against the cage
until weary TO the soul. and finally either
drown herself or marry some man OF the
neighborhoOd in order to change her lot
After her marriage she might either be-
come a hopeless invalid or a Horrible
Example Algarcife would meanwhile
have forgotten all about the little neigh
Dor who made passing impression on
him.
The author. in handling the situation,
takes the realistic rather than the ro-
mantle view OF IL. Algarcife discovers
Mariana's trouble, and. actuated by sud
den impulse half Of ChiVary, half or real
"a NlfL
is about the same mixture OF gratitude
and OF romance i'm her feelings toward
him. but she accepts him and they marry
and are for a short time very happy. The
impression is somehow giVep that they
are rather surprised 10 find themselves so
comfortable Both have been too tho
roughly wrapped up In their pet ambitions
TO speculate much on marriage IN the aD-
Stract or in the possible concrete. ana
they are therefore possessed OF no fragile
ideals TO be destroyed. Such is the ma
ture OF the human being. however, that
having no ideals Of marriage they speedily
manufacture some. and when the ineVl-
table baby arrives on the scene. breaking
up the husbands work and destroying the
Wifes last remnant OF ambition. these
ideals gradually disintegrate before the
dismayed eyes Of their owners. The
baby's death and the husbands pinching
poverty result I'm Mariana's leaving her
husband against his wish and accepting
an engagement with an opera company.
Some years later he becomes what his
foster-father intended and trained him 10
be. q priest and after eight years OF sepa-
ration the husband and wife meet once
more are recOncled. and plan 10 80 to-
gether to the South. This plan IS frus-
trated by the death Of Mariana. So ends
this odd little study OF one phase Of the
life of the nineteenth century.
A story such as this would have been
impossible sevcnty-five years ago, IL may
be impossible seventy-hve years hence.
Like Gissng's whirlpool" Sarah Grand's
"Reth Rook !" Mrs. Burnetts Through
One Administration" IL IS record OF
passing phase OF social life. IL resembles
these other novels OF modern times only
in 80 far as 1t is a study OF the inner HE
OF a woman. IL is, perhaps, little like
Evelyn Innes" In the character or It's
heroine. but there Is just the difference
between the two that there Is between
American and European Bohemia. The
former is almost provincial In its earnest
ness; the latter cosmopolitan I'm its light
ness. The Bohemians OF this book remind
one OF children tricked out in the cos
tunes OF mummers. They are not real
mummers; they know nothing OF the
perils. the years of training. the reck-
less wildness of the stroller's life: they
only divine n part of u. and play that
they know the whole. Mariana Is essen
TALLY innocent and pure: Algarcifc essen
TALLY chiyalrous, honorable and kind.
They are simply two natures thrown to-
gether by chance into an intimate rela-
ton, for which neither was exactly fitted.
and the lesson OF the book, II there Is any