Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-03-31
l.s.l
/ LITERATURE AND LIFE. /
: "A. j. N.



Just given to the most popular book OF
the day-Gilbert Parker's latest work,
"The Right of Way" We were told by
the critics it was great book, but we
have laid it down with a sigh wholly
unwilling to give an unqualified APP
prevail There is something radically
wrong with the critics or with the Wri-
ter-we are now trying to decide which.
1t is a problem book-full of prob
lems,-but the problems are all left I'M
solved. 1t is realistic to the core, but
if one may be allowed the paradoX-it
Is realism of an improbable kind. 1t Is
full of happenings from the first page
to the last; events crowd so rapidly one
upon another, and things get so tangled
up, that like the hero our memory ans
mind are crushed In the effort to keep
track and untangle the many knots OF
the story. 1t is a compromise betweei
the church and agnosticism,-sh
the hero into another world, in an
equivocal mental attitude to be inter-
preted according to the religious bias
of the reader 1t is a depressing book
not ray of sunshine, nor even humor,
from the opening to the closing page.
The hero behaves like fool toward the
woman he loves, and finally solves his
problem, or rather has it solved for him,
by the bullet of burglar.
The story leads us to suspect that the
author belongs to q class of novelists
who unintentionally get their hero into
such tight quarters that the only posi-
BILE way of extricating him is by shoot
ing him out. Well, that's all right It's
often not bad idea to dispose of the
hero in this way, if only 1t is done ear
lier, say before the book it written, but
we seriously objec. to having great
moral issues settled in sucn villainous
manner. Unfortunately, when we no.
bodies outside of book go wrong and
get ourselves into moral muddle. no
burglar comes to the rescue and solves
our problem for us by shooting us into
eternity.
In Justice to Mr. Parker we will say
this much for the book: No more pow
erful and dramatic work has been writ
ten since the Scarlet Letter." In spite
of it's realistic and artistic lapses, the
story is strong. vigorous, human and
instinct with vitality.
The chief merit of the book lies in it's
freshness and originality. 1t isn't given
to every hero to die twice in one book,
and both times at the hands of ruffians.
The hero, Charley Steele, cursed with
q hereditary appetite for drink, is
brilliant lawyer of a cold, predominant
ing intellect and wholly incapable of
any human affection or emotion save
when under the Influence of liquor. BY
an accident which renders him uncon-.
scious and apparently dead he is sud-
denly swept from the artificial environ
ment of highly civilized life in a large
city to the simple life of nature in the
Canadian wilds. On his return to con-
seriousness he suffers total lapse of
memory, with entire forgetfulness of
his whole former life. Here for a period
cf seven months. under the quiet, rest
full influence of his natural surround
ings. simple habits wholesome diet,
manual labor and outdoor life, he recu-
perates all the demoralized forces of his
physical nature. Then surgical on his
brain restores his memory, and with it
comes the knowledge that his wife
Kathleen, who supposes him dead. has
married again, and that his name and
memory rest under the stigma of a
crime committed by worthless broth
er-in-law. He decides to cost in his lot
with those simple folk of the valley,
and here he begins new life, wrestling
with his old self-his appetite for drink,
his cynicism and unbelief
c ha re 90 h r. 4,
some influence of his surroundings, his
manhood asserts itself, his whole atti-
tude toward life undergoes a change
his human and affectional nature
awakes. and he learns to love Rosalie
the village postmistress. Henceforward
the central problem of the book, which
gives it its title, and develops later the
great tragedy in the story, is the moral
conflict between love and duty. Who
shall have the right-of- way-Kathleen
or Resale? Which is supreme-th old
legal bond or the new bond of love
For it has become bond from which
Resale wakes up to shame and re-
morse. When she begs to know what
stands in the way of their mutual hap
piness, he maintains silence. And here
Mr.. Parker puts his hero in the awk-
ward position of either fool or a
knave. True, he could not divorce
Kathleen as that would resurrect him
to the old life, bring her brother Billie
to the bar of Justice and wreck her
But there was nothing to
prevent him from explaining to Rosalie
the mystery that enshrouded his life, or
the old bond that separated them. If. |
as she begged. she could only UNDER
stand she could endure her sorrow. But
no, for some inexplicable reason, which
Mr.. Parker will have to explain to his
women readers at least, the hero keeps
his secret to the end. while the woman
he loves sorrows thru life, bearing to
her grave his mystery and and her re-
morse.
The love conflict Is intensified by a
religious conflict between head and |
heart. Intellectually an agnostic. his
heart is constantly urging him toward |
the simple. unquestioning faith of his
new friends. The average author who
has never known the mental struggle |
between faith and doubt would have |
either tumbled his hero unreservedly |
into the arms of the church or made |
him die in his unbelief. But Mr.. |
Parker having been educated for the
church before he turned to journalism
and literature evidently knows some
thing of the religious conflict that be-
set his hero, and here the authors early |