New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-09-22
ANTHONY HOPE.
HIS NEW NOVEL OF POLITICAL LIFE.

QUISANTE. A Novel. BY Anthony Hope. limo
pp. $40. Frederick A. Stokes Company
When Anthony Hope took the town by storm
with The Prisoner OF Zenda" some five or six
years ago, everybody believed that he would
devote himself ever after the writing Of just
such romances. For some time he seemed bent
upon justifying the hypothesis Then. with
THE Kings Mirror" which appeared only last
year. he struck out upon a new line. He was
plainly wearied Of mere sword play, of the dra-
matte excitement which counts for so much in
stories of the Zenda sort. So he aimed at some
thing more serious. more thoughtful, and made
an advance. In "Quisante" further develop
merit is marked. and the author exhibits re-
sources hitherto cautiously appraised, but now
fruitful Of mature and impressive results 1t is
the story of an i'll assorted marriage, but It is
also the portrait Of a peculiar type. So peculiar
is Alexander Quisante that one has to wait until
the novel is we'll advanced before one begins to
believe in him at all. But here the author DEM
onstrates the rectitude Of his art. Quisante has
gradually to unfold his character in order to
make the action seem natural; he bafhes MS
hest friends he battles even his wife. and there
is poetic Justice in keeping the reader similarly
puzzled Moreover though the man may at the
outset seem q bit impossible, he is never unin-
teresting nor is the story. In the writing or
dialogue Anthony Hope is always improving
and the opening pages Of this novel are as ar
resting as full Of entertainment, as any which
come after.
"ouisante" is a bitter book Lady May Gas
ton, who marries an idol with feet Of clay, Is
beautiful woman Of great gentleness and charm
To imagine her of hand Quisante's wife is TO
think of an exquisite creature being bruised and
degraded. AS a matter of fact, however there
is nothing in her experience such as usually
flows from such marriages when they are MADE
in fiction. The politician loves his wife, almost
more than he loves himself and that is saying
much He never abuses her. All that he can
win Of fame or fortune he is eager TO lay at her
feet But beneath his genius a man of af-
fairs, beneath his eloquence beneath those eX-
traordinary moments which have done more
than anything else to win his wifes love-mo-
r1ents in which he seems inspired with noble
thought and the power 10 express it in magic
speech-there are streaks of dishonesty and
rneanness which torture the pure minded woman
at his side leaving wounds harder to bear than
those which physical blows might inflict. Her
married life is a period of grim disbursement.
Happily, It does not last very long. Happily,
too the author analyses it for the sake of
something more than its domestic significance
Against the wife's white soul he projects the
sinister character of her husband; he paints
woman IN misery but uses the opportunity TO
character. He makes Quisante repulsive. But
true to his of artistic balance, true to his
resolve that May Gaston's infatuation shall ap-
pear reasonable, and that the worlds accept
ance of Ouisante a great man shall also seem
natural he balances the picture, excites liking
for his hero as we'll disgust.
This is one way Of saying that he has made
Ouisante a human being and put him in the
pages Of a book very much alive. 1t has been said
that the author had some ideas about Disraeh
floating in his mind when he wrote this novel.
Nothing Of the sort is very obvious, since Qui-
sante's Orientalism. his situation as an out
slider" and one or two other tri1ing touches,
indicate no real RaJallefI between him and Lord
Beaconsield. The TACT IS that this book is too
we'll written TO suggest anything like the copy
ing of an historic personage's traits. The whole
work has the freshness and concreteness Of
something bodied forth from creative magma
ton something into which the novelist has put
too much original force for TO suspect him Of
turning biography into fiction Never, indeed,
has Anthony Hope produced a book so brilliant
as this. The disclosure Of Mrs. Quisante's agony
Of soul is intensely painful, the INSCRIPTIONS
man of genius she marries leaves an extremely
bad taste in the mouth; but both characters,
and all the minor figures surrounding them,
make an appeal which 1t is impossible to resist