The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-08-05
A New England Novelist.

THE Meloon Farm" by Maria Louise
Pool is, Ike many OF the authors other
works, story of New England life, ard, like
most of them. it is more or less infected
with the blues. Miss Pool apparently had
marked antipathy to allowing any of her
characters to be happy. If not positively
miserable, they were at least negatively
SO, having nothing to live for or to love.
/ Only the quaint humpr which runs through
this novel, and the fact that it is really
very well done, saves the reader from be-
coming deadly tired of such an atmosphere
OF melancholia. AS it is. most people who
follow the fortunes OF Wilhe,mina, the
heroine, through the voluminous pages
which recount her adventures, trials, and
mistakes. will feel strong and frank de-
sire to shake her.
In order TO get the requisite amount OF
wretchedness into this book. the author was
obliged TO strain her plot a little. The
hero. Meloon, as he is called throughout,
without the prefix OF Mr." or the infor-
mality OF his Christian name-if he had
any; the author scarcely mentions it's
really a very fine fellow, albeit rather
quixotic when considered as an
lover. The reader knows, the lrst
time Meloon meets the herosre,
that the two are predestined 10
fall In love with each other, but for some
perfectly unaceountable reason each stub
bornly conceals all evidence OF passion I'M
til the heroine is safely married to another
man, who has been violently in love with
her for some time. and whom she rather
likes. Then the misery begins. and we can
not help seeing at every step that there ia
q great deal of II.
1t is aboct as complete a situation of woe
as ever was devised. The unfortunate man
who has married the heroine discovers be-
fore long that she does not love him. and
he is miserable. Meloon finds out, just too
late. that she really loves him, and has
married the other man out of pique; and he
is miserable. Wiihemina is informed by
Meloon, when she has been married about
an hour, that he really loved her all along
and she is superlatively miserable. This
condition OF things continues until the very
last page, for though the unlucky husband
departs this life some time before the close
of the book. Wilhelmina is thrown by
chance into Meloon's house, and obliged to
stay there during long and severe ILL
ness. without knowing that she is a widow
and therefore free to allow her real feel
ings TO be known. People who wish to
weep are recommended to this book
The heroine is possessed OF a wonderful
voice. which she loses and regans in
somewhat spectacular manner. One is re-
minded of the cynical query of critic:
WAS there ever lady novelist who could
resist the temptation of giving her heroine
a wonderful voice?" So threadbare an ex-
pedient Is hardly worth the pains of SO
clever an author as Miss Pool
There is, however, plenty of originality
in the novel, and that saves it; 1t always
does save the work Of this author from
oblivion. Wilhelmina. in spite of her
woes and not at all because Of them, is a
very interesting girl, and Meloon, the &C.
centric New England farmer who has been
to college and to Europe, is still more in
teresting as type and as a man. His
like is not uncommon among the hills of
New Hampshire, or Vermont, or Massachu-
sets, but one needs to know the people
well to discover him. The only trait in
his character which does seem rather I'M
natural is his extreme reluctance to tell
Wilhelmina OF his love for her. Some in
experienced young women may gather
from this that 1t is a common thing for
lovers to behave In this way, whereas the
fact is that If man really Is in love with
a woman, he generally is so anxious for
her to know It that, despite shyness, re-
serve, or anything else, he will find some
way OF giving her the information, espe-
cially IL he knows there is another man |
IN the field. (New York: Harper C Bros |
$f.50)