The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-05-21
..The Awkward Age. :,

''The Awkward Age" by Henry James.
Harper & Bros, publishers. Price, 81 80.
For sale by the st. Paul Book and Sta
tiOnery company.
In novel of four hundred and fifty
pages. under the above title. Mr. James
has portrayed English social life of to-
day. with all the wealth of observation,
keen insight, and artistic power which
only Mr.. James can bring to bear on
such subject. The Awkward Age" is a
dramatic satire of all the phases that
London society presents to those who
can understand 1t. Mr.. James has taken
q young girl who, as is the English GUS
tom, has been religiously excluded from
her mothers drawing-room until the time
comes for her to "sit down stairs"-that
Is. when her mother decides that 1t is
time for her to marry
The mother is young, pretty, and ambi-
tious, and the conditions of her drawing
room change with Nanda's advent. For
the protection of Nanda's innocence
everything is eXpurgated, filtered, gem
orally moderated, and sifted and sorted.
Nanda, however, overhears guesses
pieces together, and takes in everything
That moves and circles around her, and
all serenely. secretly, assinilates a whole
order of intimatiOns and revelations of
illusions and betrayals that are the very
stun of the world she lives in and that
are III no way included in her mothers
programme.
Mr.. James. therefore, shows the Eng
Iish character confronted in the whole
matter with new conditions-that is with
the necessity of reconciling that practical
freedom of the American girl which the
English girl has now virtually acquired.
with social mixture distinctly opposed
to that Of the American theory, and much
more approaching to the frank recognf-
tons of the French.
The hero of the story is superior be-
Ing.
the better sort, interesting and interested.
enlightened and not brutish-in fine, a
clerk in the foreign Office. He likes the
girl has found something in her from the
first, and has seen her to a certain extent
grow up. while he haunted her mother's
firesiGe. He feels how she is exposed how
she is becoming Saturated and how.
inevitably and incurably, on the existing
social lines of the set she lives in this
must be the case while the wears eIansa
and she is not transplanted and regular
Ted by marriage. But he DELAYS and
watches and wonders and hangs fire; and
all with the worry of feeling that mean
while the very situation In which he
wants to interfere is getting beyond him.
becoming too grave one to please him
He hesitates because he thinks that
Nanda already knows too much: and all
the while he hesitates she learns and alb
serbs more and more The other girl of
the story IS one whose mind has been
successfully kept a sheet of white paper,
and In whom irs embodied the type so di-
rectly opposed to Nanda. The young man
Is confronted with this different tvpe and
passes through a phase of realization Of
It's possibilities.
The situation is much determined nv
the hero's connection with Mr.. I,ongdon
who Is a very charming little old figure
the very mirror in which everything is
focused ard reflected. Mr. Longdon has
had old sentimental and friendly attach
ments with the grandmothers Of both
Nanda and Vanderbank, and he makes
their acquaintance with a quickening of
sympathy, and strikes up a cordial friend
ship with both. He takes it into his head
that. Of course, his two young friends
must marry.
Such is In brief suggestion of what
''The Awkward Age is about. It Is fuII
of delicate comedy, delicate tragedy and
shows an Infinite keenness of perception
of the small lights and shadows of orr
daily life, beautiful effects which onIv
u literary artist could produce.
''In the Arctic"
"A Thousand Days in the Arctic" bv
Frederick G. Jackson. Harper & Bros
publishers. Price, Sc. For sale nv fbas
st. Paul Book and Stationery COM
paIiy.
This is the narrative OF the Jackson
Harmsworth expedition which was sent
out in 1894 by Mr.. Alfred Harmswortb TO
ascertain the Importance of Franz-Josef
Land as way to the Pole. 1t had been
the opinion of many Artlc explorers that
Franz-Josef Land was the southern pro-
lection Of a great Arctic continent and
hot IN oil NINolh