New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-09-20
A BRILLIANT NOVEL.
JOHN OLIVER HOBBIES IN HAPPY VEIN

dav u,bo know how to be serious WITHOUT oeitis
dull Love and the Soul Hunters Is one u INC
most amusing books published IN d loiie
= &c full of the clever dialogue which this author
knows SO well how 10 invent. but IL Is sun U0O
with grave tenderness, and, from oeglnnlhs ~
end anI-eIons the reader in a thoughtIul do-
rnosphere II is not that Mrs. Cralgle oell"ei
ately gives us solemn things TO think apou'
sociological problems or romantic prol
she is indeed, the last person in the Worid " w
ANYTHING of the sort II is rather that she gives
us the benefit of the play Of her mind a nfiliai'
enc around the figures and events with WHICH
she deals Her individuality is always present
We are aware Of her not a commentator pu'
as a temperament, through which we are appre
hending her material. and it happens 10 De
Temperament to which an intellectual interest," -
.ndisnensable She celebrates the romance OF d
German prince and an English girl. she lnFolVeS
them as any story teller might lnNolVe 'Iieiii -
picturesque situations; but she makes Us I01
ali the time that il is not the SITUATION llia'
really counts. it is character 1t Is the SOUL Inc
things on the surface scarcely arrest heF at'e1i
ton: it is always the spiritual truth LOT WHO"
she is seeking
Prince Paul of UrseVille- Beylesteln' her HeI''
is represented in the first chapter as having
taken to his bed and turned his face TO the
wall in despair over the death Of a girl IN her
teens Three months before she had peeh
dancing in cotillon; he could see her SUM-
dressed as La Belle Simonetta, partner 10 hlIh-
self. made up, ilappropriately enough 09 '-'e
young Rafael. 1t had been such a happy idea
and all her own-this fete in honor OF the Olu
Masters And now she was dead OF typhoIu
fever aged eighteen years and TWO days nj
tomb should be covered in lilies each day OF
the month forever. He would build ilaIoie
PAVILION to her memory-a pavilion where music
MIA - We suspect De
fore we have turned the second page 'hat
tl,e memory of the Countess Sophia is gong TO
fade from the princes mind with very hlue oe-
Law and on the fourth we are convinced OF IL
He looked around his room. hung with orange
colored silk and resolved to have it all changed
on the morrow. 1t should be purple But on
the suggestion of DR.. Feishanlmer. his secre-
tary, he left Paris that same evening for Salso-
rnaggiore For two days he read novels in bed.
and srnoked-speaking to one After that
he looked out upon the landscape. and all that
WAS drearv in thought fed away; death itself.
remembered in the sunlight, seemed but a
calmer development of the joy Of life One
might almost take him for a hopeless frlhble-
He is a prince in exile with practically no
chance of ever regaining the throne Of his
fathers With nature like his, how could he
create the chance. or take advantage Of II II II
were offered to him? DR.. Felshammer. a hard
capacity for feeling despite his hardness. seems
destined TO wear his heart out in vain efforts
TO make his prince follow the course of a states
man But even in the first page discern.
vaguely. the promise of something more than
the light adventures Of male firt and pres
emily we find ourselves liking the prince and
believing in his future
That future is determined not by events in
Urseville-B eylestein but by the entrance upon
the scene Of Clementine Gloucester, the child
of a gentleman and Of a woman whose career
has been so extremely variegated that Mr.
Gloucester has brought up his daughter in the
belief that her mother is dead She reappears
but under another name, and never gives Glenn
entine hint Of the relation between them
Here by the way, Mrs. Craigie strikes the one
false note in her book The mothers conceal
ment of her identity is made TO appear natural
enough. but that she could approach her daugh-
ter with the detachment ascribed to her by the
author is scarcely credible. However, it is not
with Mrs. Gloucester, or with Madame de Mont
genays as she is called when she returns from
the past, that we are chiefly concerned. Though
the story has many personages in it, the lovers
hold the centre OF the stage throughout for
when not listening TO their talk We are
listening, a rule, what the others say
ing about them, or are watching what they are
doing with direct reference to the two. The
prince may seem incurably frivolous, but he has
a heart and mind, and both serve him Well.
Clementine, loving him deeply from the very
outset, is for a time doubtful of his sincerity,
but in the long run her first instinct is justified
Of itself
While they studying one another, and
themselves, and developing in character the
story revolves in various interesting circles.
The reader is introduced to the society domi-
mated by great fnanciers in London and TO
that which the prince and his family make for
themselves in the same city. He gets glimpses
of more than one typical English interior and
there passages Of a strongly Bohemian cast
relating TO Madame de Montgenays and the
American millionaire in whose honorable friend
ship she has found consolation for years of
dubious excitement. Whatever the environ
rnent may be, Mrs. Craigie's picture of it is
vivid and distinguished, as her portraits Of her
and women are sympathetic and brilliant
The prince is charming Clementine is adorable
though in applying that epithet TO her we must
add that it leaves much uneXpressed- In Fes-
hammer the author has drawn an unusually
convincing type of the powerful" man. a char
acter energetic TO the point Of ferocity but with
out a trace of the abnormal in his nature
The rest Of the people in the book also make
most interesting company, even the weak ones
for Mrs. Craigie looks them from a point of
view all her own, presents them always at a
striking though perfectly natural angle and
causes them TO appeal to US in a very human
and beguiling way. The style of the novel is
more or less epigrammatic. Here and there it
IS IL not exactly forced, at all events more
paradoxical and amusing than persuasive. But
In the main the authors art is exercised with
peculiar delicacy and effect She looked as
seldom as possible at the flowers the author
the