New-York tribune., 1901-10-12
LONG AND SHORT STORIES.
THE WEEKS SALIENT WORKS OF FIC-
TION

Company any 'O'-7' '-''
SOME WOMEN I HAVE KNOWN. BY Maarten
Martens. Emo pp. 822 d. Appleton & Co,
TALES. BY A. T. Quiller-Couch 90. I2mo
PIP Ss. Charles scribners Sons.
The author Of The History of Sir Richard
Calmady' has displayed in more than one of
her previous books marked taste for things
bizarre and even creepy" In THE Carissima"
and The Gateless Barrier this taste carried
Lucas Malet to the point of lingering inquistive-
ly the veil that separates the real from the un-
real, the human from the supernatural Her
latest book contains no mystery it treats Of no
fantastic obsessions or ghostly visitations, yet
its atmosphere is almost more forbidding than
that OF either of its two Immediate predecessors
1t opens with a picture Of the ancestral home
or the Calmadys, a splendid domain. in which
the heros father seems destined to enjoy, with
his beautiful young wife complete and lasting
happiness. Then there is an ugly accident in
the hunting field; Sir Richard is brought home
horribly mangled. and he dies despite the ef-
forts of the surgeons to save him by amputating
bis injured legs a few months afterward the
hero Of the book is born. with the great crisis
In the lives of his parents rrevocably stamped
upon his body. He has suffered spontaneous
amputation of both legs and his feet are set
In his knees Otherwise he is nothing less than
beautiful. AS he grows to manhood he de-
velops the features Of an Apollo he is gifted
with brains and he has the best of health.
Great wealth is also his and he can rejoice not
only In devoted mother. but in several stanch
friends. What, however can all this mean to a
man who, from his earliest moments of intelli-
gence, is conscious of the appalling difference
between himself and all those about him?
Dust and ashes is the first answer that
bent on proving that even against bitter
afiiction as that of young Sir Richard Calmady
the spirit OF rise triumphant.
She argues her case in a very interesting
ner. This is an absorbing narrative, well
written that its great length is easily forgiven
Sir Richard occupies, of course the centre of the
stage, but the subsidiary figures are never
sighted. The heroic mother is balanced by a
radiant young Jezebel; the gallant soldier uncle
has his foil in intellectual priest who nour-
lshes a grand passion secretly in his BOSOM
there are ten or a dozen other clearly defined
characters, great and small, and they people the
background of the sufferers drama in just the
right way, lending the movement of familiar
life TO situation which would otherwise become
wholly abnormal. AS it is. the balance is not
always perfect. For no obvious reason an an
clent curse is brought into the story. and it
hings the lnelight OF melodrama upon the
tragedy. detracting from its dignity. But, on
the whole, the tale is strikingly well told.
Whether it worth telling is another
question.
Lucas Malet has the sanction Of the classics
IN her attempt purge the emotions by the
sKcitation Of pity and terror. But We feel re-
gretfully that we have here. after all. only
attempt. The author conveys the impression
Of a surgeon bending over a desperate wound
and every now and then slowly thrusting the
scalpel into il, that the patient writhes,
screams. and makes the spectator cover his eyes
with his hands It is doubtless soothing to hear
The surgeon say, He is learning endurance;
presently he will smile at the fercest thrusts."
But the heart refuses to accept what the ears
receive. There is something wrong, one says.
about this process. The scene in which the
crippled child is laughed at by a hard hearted
little girl: the one in which he tells his mother
that he is going to seek consolation for his woes
n a course of vicious living; the in which he
insulted and kicked by the vulgar lover Of his
:hildhood's tormentor-now grown into woman
llirnita bly, base-these scenes. and others hardly
humiliating, may have a certain legitimacy
exhibiting soul under discipline. But they
cave too bad taste in the mouth. When the
whole bitter business is carefully pOndered it is
impossible TO escape the conviction that the
great merits Of the book cannot obscure its es-
Sential fault which is the fruitless contempla-
ion of elaborately invented agony. The ex-
perience Of Sir Richard Calmady is TO certain
extent credible, but Lucas Malet's treatment of
is. in the long run. at variance with the
simple, sane truths of life and
In THE First Men in the Moon" Mr. Wells
describes conditions having nothing to do with
life as know it, but his art is so sure that
is plausible as any novelist dealing with
Affairs IN the next parish. II is a far cry from
;he genial fantasticalities OF Jules Verne the
serious speculations of this follower in his foot
steps Mr.. Wells has the equipment of a born |
-omancer He likes to let his Imagination |
wander. He likes tell a story. But |
even in his most adventurous moods he |
the grave observer of human nature and |
social phenomena; there runs through this |
aovel Of amazing happenings the same strain |
81 wistful solicitude for the good of the race !
which find in his most scientific discussions |
Of practical topics. Cavor the inventive ge- |
aius 10 whom are introduced in this book |
makes his journey TO the moon in a queer globe |
Of his own devising, accompanied by only one |
nan, the suppostitious narrator of the story |
The two stumble upon extraordinary people and |
hings in the moon. such things at which Jules |
Verne would only have asked his readers to |
Itare-supposing that ne could have created |
hem. But CaYor has Mr.. Wes's own iaquiring |
mind and before know it we are taking his |
discoveries seriously as he takes them; we |
ire not merely entertained. We are interested IN |
he lunar civilization described in these pages
as in something well within the sphere of proba- |
aility. The wonderful Selenites. as the in |
aabitants Of the moon called; their extraor- |
inary social system; their weird forests and |
heir weirder mooncalves, are all realized with |