New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-07-27
FICITON.
\ BEGUILING STORY OF LOVE AND
CRIME

MpRCHESTER. \ story of American So. l,ty.
Politics and Affairs. BY Charles Datchet i-Iuo.
PIP 49, G. +. Putnam's Sons
THE LATE RETIRNING. ~ Margery Williams.
l'Eno. PIP. a5. The Macmillan Company
The author Of Michael Terrier begins her
story In an unconventional and not very prom
Using manner lapses then into convention. and
presently resumes in her opening key. with the
difference that she is much better than her
promise. Miss Poynter has. indeed produced
an unusually beguiling novel. The traits Of her
hero that threaten 10 make him uninterestiug
she succeeds in placing where they belong, in
a subordinate position and the reader thinks
only OF Michaers experience as a lover. That
experience ought, one would say, 70 he fairly
II not altogether happy. The man is a poet
and the heroine is suited 10 him. Both il may
BE- remarked make very agreeable company
But there are other factors 10 be reckoned with
in the plot II Helen Cmfravine has tower
Of strength in Miss Eeavan, her sole protector
in London, Michael has a more than doubtful
friend in Lady Mills, a we'll drawn type of
mingled kindness and selfshness. gentIeness
and cruelty Michaels temperament has much
10 do with the curious tragedy toward which
the narrative Is directed but Lady Mills bears
her share in the matter. and so the book is
strengthened where, the outset We expected
II 10 be weakest, in dramatic balance This
novel is an interesting specimen Of the average
clever fiction OF the day. 1t is nowhere really
remarkable either in characterization or situa-
ton, though the last journey Of the hero and
heroine together discloses a certain inventive
faculty in Miss Poynter. But it is an arresting
story. adequately told; the men and women
in ii are clearly enough differentiated and are
individually alive. There is understanding OF
human nature in Michael Terrier" and there
is what We are happy to say is, after all fire.
quently encountered in the average clever fic-
ton to which we have just alluded, a distinctive
literary and imaginative quality
"Morchester" is a spirited. well meant and
plausible study Of life in minor American
city. 1t is rather too long for its plot, and it
has more explanatory talk than good art justi-
fies, but it holds the readers interest 10 the
end. 1t is more a story Of business than of
sentiment, a romance of selfish greed a sermon
on the squeeze in politics and affairs The
hero is, of course fine fellow, a young Bay
ard Of manufacturer, struggling in a net spun
by the powers who want what is his He is
saved by beautiful girl a creature saga
cious as she is charming. Remaining femnnely
in the background. she defeats unhOly schemes
furnishes the sinews Of war, and maintains the
effective watchfulness of a guardian angel.
Does the hero properly recognize her wise and
lofty devotion? We leave the reader to find
out. The women of the book less closely
and successfully studied than its men, and
there is curious air Of unreality about its
sentimental passages. But this imagine,
may be in accordance with the plan of the
author, who appears to have had in mind
chiefly the eXplication of modern forces in prac-
teal life one of his characters puts a ques-
ton which the current OF the story illustrates,
if it does not answer: viii the strong man
play the game according to the natural law
the inherited instincts to which he owes his
being, or according to an inspired precept?'
Nivacious, picturesque and "scrappy'' in ef
feet The Late Returning is an odd mixture
Of realism ana me-lt melodrama. 1t is super,
fetal, it is formless; a thing of touch and go
it is almost wholly unpleasant from 10
cover. 1t deals with that incidental platitude,
a revolutionary uprising in little of
tropical America. When we note that il has
no local color to speak of, and as little plot,
and add that it's chief characters stupid
where they are vague il would seem that
the story was sufficiently described. Yet, if
supertluous ii is not without merit in that it
has here and there the accent of life. The
principal testimony to the truth of the
ton Of feminine authorship is the prodigious
number of swear words" pepperng its pages
Il favorlte device Of the CENTER sex in the pro-
ducton Of would-be masculine fiction.
Mr. Thomas f Watson's history of France