New-York tribune., 1902-05-18


ing Road" inspires the readers gratitude for |
one thing, if for nothing else. She writes of
sypsying without affectaton, and introduces
musical motive without sentimentality. Discre- |
ton like this is rare. We owe it, in all prcba-
bility not simply to the authors artistic con-
science, but to her sincere sympathy for the |
two curious characters about whom her story is |
written. The woman is a consistent type of
English rusticity. colored by qualities perfectly
possible among people of her class, but not very |
frequently encountered. She has the imagina |
ton the intelligence and the emotional resource |
fitting her for true companionship with the man |
of the novel an itinerant fiddler of gentle BIRTH
with money at his command. but with an un- |
quenchable passion for vagabondage. Accident |
brings Jasper and Phenice together, the spell |
of music fosters the development of instructive |
love between them, and after more than one
mischance of the sort inevitable in novel they |
take the road together and wife. They |
wander far and find much happiness, though |
Miss Godfrey is faithful throughout to a strain
of sadness out of which an appropriate climax
is in due course evolved. This book is, indeed. |
touched with a perVasive melancholy. yet its
fabric is lit up with the sunshine of outdoor |
life. There is freshness in it, as of great open !
spaces. the sweetness of nature interpreted with !
feeling
Bread and Wine is. in its way. as exhilarat- !
her brief narrative in the Swiss Alps. Her |
peasant characters are identified largely with |
Davos, a neighborhood familiar everywhere as
one frequented by consumptive patients. and |
therefore almost inseparable from the thought |
of a certain sort of invalidism. But in this |
story the sick ignored, or at any rate the |
alien seeker after health, and witness sim !
ply the humble joys and sorrows of the native. |
1t is a gentle and beguiling idylI, with elements
in it Of love. misunderstanding, jealousy. wrath |
and reconciliation. The simple characters are
portrayed with a clever hand, the situations in |
which they are involved well invented, but |
without trace OF at,fciality in them, and the
whole story is envelOped in a tangible atmo- |
sphere The author. moreover. knows how to
be brief Bread and Wine" is charming
little book
All Of the stories in NJ. Bourgeois book are
Interesting but the first ana longest in the col /
lection Monica" is not only readable, but
possessed Of quality that fingers in The mem
ory Though in style it is almost dinusc. we
are inclined to forgive the author. since his
excess of words cannot quite destroy the effect, .
as Of "A piece of painting. at which ne has aimed
in this study Of a French cabiuctmAker's work .
shop ana home VI. Hippolyte Frauquctot. the .
old man who is. if anything, more conspicuous .
in the story than the girl who gives it title. .
is in his modest sphere true artist sklful
restorer Of old furniture, ne is imbucd with an
intense enthusiasm for the great masters of his
craft, and NJ Bourget gives us again and again
illustrations of the cloquenco of which the man !
is capable when dscoursinE on the objects OF
his devotion. The author goes have in +
dcated a little too far in his effort tu nh
Franquetot's environment with an air" lie
is so anxious to saturatc his story In the spirit
of a particular "milieu" that hc all but over
shoots the mark. Yet. paradoXically. while we
regret his surpusage. because it impcdcs the !
movement of the little drama enacted within |
NJ. Franquetots obscure walls. we hud our
selves kindlng to the same emotion that stirs
the guileess old man. In justice to NJ. Bourgct /
too, it must be said that when h. really comes
to close quarters with the dramatic aspects Of
his plot he handles them with skill and is if
not exactly exciting, certainly very effective |
Monica, the heroine is a attractive figure and
becomes more and more interesting as the tale |
proceeds. The second story in the book. "Atti- !
tudes," and the pages that follow are charac-
teristically clever, but Monica" is richer in |
human interest and in artistic charm: for sin
certify and literary distinction it is one of the
best things NJ Bourget has ever done infinitely |
superior to a great deal Of his other later work
The translation is good that the stories read /
as though originally written in English.
We welcome the edition Of "Cashel BY |
ron's Profession" revised ana accompanied with |
the prefaces the essay and the other new items /