New-York tribune., 1901-08-18

ted. Emo PIP 1S9. Harper & Brothers.
THE ROAD To RIDGEBY's. BY Frank Bur
lingame Harris. l2mo, PIP. Y. SS4 Boston; Small
Maynard & Co.
Mrs. Cliford's volume contains three
stories. the first, which gives the book its title,
filling most of the pages. This first story, "A
Woman Alone" Is one of the strongest pieces
OF fiction ever put forth by writer whose
work is never weak Marie Zellinger" is in
teresting and peculiarly welcome through its
introduction of a happy into volume on
the whole painfully tragic in tone Miss Will
iamson' if it pushes coincidence little teo far.
is nevertheless extremely effective. But "A
Woman Alone" is as brilliant as it is power
full it is. in its way, fiawless. Blanche Bar
THU. living in Vienna with uncle whose
political ideal causes him to gather together
in his house the sort of men whose talk would
naturally excite the intellectual ambition Of
a with brains and emotions, believes
II at she has found her fate in the person of
Richard Bowden, an EnSlishman who also has
brains, hut is too deeply self-centred for his
emotions 10 carry him away. 1t is true
that he falls in love with Blanche. but it is
not long after she becomes Mrs Bowden that
she discovers a curious coldness in her hus-
band. He is without ambition. He resents the
fact that she should be ambitious for him.
Then arises the crisis which Mrs Clifford
builds her story.
As Mrs Bowden feels starvation in hcr heart
she turns with greater ayidity Co the pleasures
of the intellect; the two are in England now,
she nils the house on her day" with men and
women TO whose presence Richard is ultimately
bouud-beins what he is-to object. and when
his eNasperation can no longer be concealed
they engage in a discussion which ends iu
SEPARATION. Blanche con."les herse.f with fond
dreams of the joy that comes from absolute
Fterty- She NiII be "a woman alone" and she
will thank her stars that she is alone. But
though ner intellect is satisfied her heart r.
bels The result is "A situation which Mrs CIf-
ford analyses with Impressive skill and the
k,enest sympathy. Her climax ~ leave thc
reader 10 hnd out for himself 1t is sufficient
I" say that while II is intensely dramatic il is
ais" natural Indeed A Woman Alone" IS
NiialIzed irom beginning To end with the uu-
mStakable truths Of human nature II is
traFicai story. one difficult to read without
"a tangible sense Of grief and bitterness and II
Is as .ine work Of art As anything We have
encountered IN recent fiction
Golf players may find a special pleasure in
Mr Van Tdssei Sutphcn's Tales Of ,he Fair
Green just because h- So evidently knows the
game" HI writes with the ease and aplonb II
a specialist But h. writes, too. with the CLEVER
ness If practsed story teller Even The hope
less laymau. who does not know a caddy from
a bunker will be- amused ty these Ingenious
narratives They fun Of uuforced humor
The book makes in short a perfect companion
for an hours IaziGess ia "A country house
In "a PREDATORY note. recording "a few tirerafh-
lcal details the author Of The Road to Ridge
by's" the late Frank b Harris is described AS
writing ", novel of farm life in the Middle
West n the boob which uoN lies before us
II is novel to the extent of embracing "a slight
plot j.. the evolution of which certain more or
less clearly marked characters are concerned.
But the essential ruruos@ OF The Road 20
IideetyS is descriptive. IL seeus more a
series Of ti-u-ttes than "a novel The local bully
and III, local m.-,r the farmer and his ,Iaugh-
tor. and the hero dropIin. out of the skies To
play The teue..i,tur. after hc has PLACED thu
humble farmland long enough. are all carefully
skctched. "" have tho inevitable combat be-
tween two lovers one contemptiblc and the
other his antithesis. We have. in a word. types
and episodes in the life of a ueghborhood. pre-
seUted as IA a notebook with slender thread
Of story to bind them ali together. 1t is fairly
good work. The flavor of yeraeity carries Us
along and il is permissible to believe that had
Mr Harris been spared he might have produced
some excellent fiction. But this first effort re-
mains of strictly minor Significance.
Mr. MEREDITH'S POETRY.