Middletown transcript., 1900-11-10
zee FEAR or nEarH

acbS dOuDle Tribute from the reader nov
that it ispubished in book form. Though
originally projected on a small scale, it
unpremeditated expansion % the form o
a full fledged novel has done nothing K
spoil the simplicity and balance Of The
design. 1t is long narrative, but il
should be read, if possible at a sitting
Not alone because one idea is dweIt upor
with almost painful persistency, but be
cause Mr.. Conard's mode Of composition
demands it. He makes the whole story
fall from the lips of one man, who eithel
states facts as he knew them himself OF
quotes them from the conversation o.
others, and despite the amount of ma
terial packed into this book one appre
hends it best by taking it as an uninter
rupted stream of spoken tragedy and ele'
quence. What the author has to say is
absorbing, but even more SO is the way
in which he says it. Miss Gwendoline
Keats, better known as "Zack;" has
shown in the book called "On Trial y
what can be made of, and analysis of q
towards nature when the bitter story is
expressed in terms of ordinary speech,
accented by borrowings from peasant dia-
lect. Mr.. Conrad deals with coward,
and he is mercilessly direct in his exposi-
ton of the mans most fugitive emotions,
but over every page there is flung the in
describable romance of the immemorial
East. -. :.
Marlow, the suppositious narrator of
Jim's half prosatic, history, is student Of
human nature whose years Of traffic on
the sea have moulded him to meditatiye,
wistful ways of thinking The leading
points he has to set forth are simple
enough. In his boyhood Jim leaves the
commonplace English parsonage in
which he has been born and brought up.
He goes to sea because his Imagination
has persuaded him that life may thus be
made more romantic than he has ever
found it at home. After some years fate
sends him aboard the steamer Patua, in
Oriental waters, as chief mate. The ship
leaves port carrying eight hundred ma
tive pilgrims. On night of tropic calm
the rotten craft goes to the bottom like a
shot, with all hands save few members
of the crew. For Jim there is a choice
He might stay, rouse the sleeping pill
grims and help save some of them. Or he
can jump into the single boat that is
lowered and escape with the scoundrels
who are foully deserting the unconscious
people under their charge. Jim jumps,
and pays for his bodily salvation by years
of remorse, in which regret for specific
art of cowardice can never lose the added
pang of his infidelity to the ideal of
which he has long dreamed. Somewhere
in his heart is the germ of strength;
somehow, he feels, he can some day
atone for his sin. How he atones, how
he burys himself in the primeval jungle
among natives to whom he becomes a
providence and depi god, how the life
of steadfast truth to which he attains cul-
inmates in an episode of almost intoler-
able bitterness, it We're easy to tell in a
few words But Mr.. Conrad gives most
of his volume to the telling, and justifes
himself by making every word magi-
cal and precious.
The man NARROW muses. like an oracle.
He seems to stand immobile before us;
there is a gesture now and then; occa-
sionally he shifts his position; often he
pauses, relapses into silence, then picks
up the narrative again as though it were
an effort to detachshimself from the myriad
memories that come swarming back upon
him. He describes Lord Jim-so called
by the natives with whom he finds asy-
lum-he gives you Jim's version of this
or that moment in the Patna's last hours;
he portrays the young native woman who
gives her love to the refugee from his own
conscience; he lets down at short inter
walls, like curtains in threatre, wonder
fully painted pictures of luxuriant scenery
or of the unmarked sea. 1t is all record
of little truths; it is mosaic, formed
with jealous solicitude for Justice, of the
thousand and one facts, emotions, shares
of emotion, which in the long run go to
render Jim comprehensive, explain his
conduct, and make him intensely inter-
esting 1t is as accurate as a legal docu-
ment; Jim's secrets are laid bare as
though with the knife of surgeon, But
always it is an oracle that speaks, always
the truth comes wrapped about with the
awe inspiring atmosphere of mysterious
land and dark problem of human will
and destiny. Sorrow broods over the
story. Lord Jim" is hard book to
read, for it communicates to the reader a
grievous sense Of mans weakness and of
the woe that he can bring down upon his
own head. But it is book of great orr
ginality, and it exerts spell such as is
rarely encountered in modern fiction.
That was happy moment in which
Mr.. Crawford went to the Spain of
Philip IL and Don John of Austria, seek
ing inspiration for novel ''In the Pal |
ace of the King" is capital story, one
of the most entertaining ever devised by |
a writer of brilliant gifts. It has impro-
liabilities, to be sure. Don John, whose
love for the daughter of old Mendoza |
captain of the kings guards, brings him
into conflict with Philip, is laid low in |
his own chamber by hasty stroke of |
the rate monarch's rapier. So far all is
well. But then ensue number of occur
rences through the full tale of which Don
John lies practically neglected of all men,
though the report is soon spread that he
has expired. This sort of thing is scarce
ly in harmony with the condition of af- |
fairs one naturally attributes to a royal
palace. I'm the Palace of the King" has
been put upon the stage. Perhaps in
theatrical form the matter to which we
have alluded, and certain Others equally
in the printed page, may