The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-01-20

Recent Fiction.
The Mantle of Elijah is a new book
by /. Zangwill. of type different from
anything which this author has before
produced 1t has been said by another
novelist of the day that every romance
writer has one book among the children
Of his brain which is for some reason
nearer to him than any other; and this
latest novel of Mr. Zangwili reads rather
as if it might be that book. There is
certainly more in it than in anything else
he has written since THE Children Of the
Ghetto"
The comment which all reviewers and
readers are likely to make first on it is
that 1t is not story of Jewish life, at
least, the main part of 1t is not in the
least concerned with Hebrew character.
1t is rather a risky experiment for man
who has made reputation in one line
of work to venture into another; 1t is
too often a sort of masquerade; but THE
Mantle OF Elijah" is an exception to the
rule. Whatever the verdict of the world
may be upon its popularity, 1t is certainly
a book worth writing, and individual in
every line.
1t is impossible not to compare it, from
time to time, with the authors previous
work, but 1t stands the comparison. One
marked difference is the almost total
absence of the dreamy poetic interludes
which marked former romances. The only
touch of poetry in this unless some of
the characters may be considered in that
light, is the recurrence of the legend from
which the title has been taken. The way
in which this is used has throughout
tinge of poetic mysticism, but for the
most part the book is realistic in tone.
The realism of the first chapters, which
describe the home life of a family of Eng
lish girls, commonplace with one oxcep-
tion, strikes the reader somewhat as it
might to have made up ones mouth for
olives and receive moiasses candy. The
character of the mother, however, the
Maynard. impulsive. beautiful, irrational,
Welsh matron with her pet white rat,
her moods, and her Mysteries, adds that
element of the unusual which one IL
stinctively expects to find; and the La
ture of the heroine, with her mothers
impulsiveness and her fathers conscience,
supplies more of that quality. The pic
ture of the Cabinet Minister'S home life,
with his unsympathetic yet affectiouate
wife and his more or less undfferentiated
daughte, s. is a perfect piece of character
drawing, and the Duchess who persists in
clubbing her Allegro Alligator" is still
more delicious study In human nature.
Scarcely less effective is Robert Droser,
demagogue and self-made man, whose
name was certainly heaven born inspi-
ration of his creator Altogether, the first
part of the book is of absorbing interest.
II there Is one thing in which this very
clever novelist has hitherto been def
cient it is in plots. His misunderstanding
is often something inspired but it takes
more than inspiration to construct plot
it takes genius. The reader therefore,
err-r irafa tod ac he ct
on with no break in it's thread, when all
at once there comes a hiatus-a chasm-
place where you have to hold your
breath for some fifteen years until the
curtain once more rises. There Is
temptation to worder, at first. whether
that hiatus exists because the author did
not know how to describe what happened
in the intervening time; but as the story
is picked up-having jumper from England
to Italy-and 1t is discovered that the
heroine is long married. disillusioned,
still beautiful and ready for the Indian
summer of romance, it becomes evident
that there would have been no way tc
put in the events of that fifteen years
without dragging the novel out to wearl-
some length and boring everyone with I'M
interesting details As it stands, there is
no way TO avoid the hiatus. Whether
that chasm is a crack in the plot, or an
artistic feature, one cannot quite deter
mine The book is really two books in
one, and each has it's sepa.ate story.
Even the characters in the second are
mainly different. Perhaps a finer piece OF
character-draw wing than Margaret Engel
borne does not exist in all OF Mr. Gang
willis work. This survival of medieval
sainthood turned into Bohemianism, this
martyr to duty and 'noblesse oblige" is
decidedly provoking in her goodness, and
one despairingly refuses to want to be
anything like her. but her portrait is a
fine piece of work. In this half of the
book, too. we have the hero; and there Is
q stroke of genius in making him half
Hebrew The dreamy mysticism and I'M
canny cynicism and intensity OF his ma
ture could originate only in Jewish or
possibly a Highland origin; for the Celt
has something of the Oriental in his
makeup. However, Raphael Dominick
has a character which is distinctively
semitic-the character of the modern,
highly refined, and cultivated Hebrew,
keeping the idealism of his fathers with
out any of their worldly wisdom the ma
ture possessed of some of the actors. phi
losophers, musicians, and artists who have
owned to Jewish ancestry. There Is an
odd mixture OF attraction and repulsion
about this hero, and the phrase which he
is fond OF using with regard to himself
the dead-alive-somehow reminds one OF
a vampire. For all that, he is the logical
product of circumstances and the logical
hero for this heroine. Opinions may diner
as to whether this book is great OF not,
but that It is virile magnetic, and full OF
intuitive knowledge of character cannot
be denied. New York: Harper & Bros.
$L50)
''The Darlingtons." by Elmore Elliott
Peake. is a noysl which is largely study
of character. with a strong ethical pur-
pose. The heroine is the daughter of
railroad president who has given her an
important place in his office. The love
affair of her brother, young fellow OF
fine traits, with an unfortunate habit OF
drinking himself into insanity once in
month or two. forms the minor romance
In the story while that of the heroine her
self comes through young Methodist
minister who is the son of rich brewer.
and has taken up his uncongruous clerical
work from motives purely ethical This
hero is not at all the conventional hero
or the conventional clergyman. He reads
like a character drawn from life, for in
congrulties quite so startling are seldom
found in fiction, and Il is usually hard 10
picture them so that they will seem any
thing but unnatural in print. The struS-
gle of this man with his love, which he
believes prejudicial to his work, and the
problem confronting the betrothed OF the
Young drunkard, who is trying TO help
him fight against his habit, form the two
eft hical points of the story, and curiously
enough there is "a inconsistency in both
of them. In the latter case, the question
over which the girl is struggling is
whether she has any right to allow ier-
self to become engaged TO her lover while
49, he hafr of 10