The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-11-08

and DrOdl2lOuS lnuuSLlY VIII put LII III
a book of merit every year besides /
considerable amount of magazine con-
tribution but brilliant as their work IS,
in many cases, it lacks the polish ana
the finish of the slower and more careIui
writer's J. NJ. Barrie has published dur
ing the ten or twelve years since his
ascending star was discovered on the
literary horizon less than ten volumes,
several of which were collections of the
essays which he had contributed to
newspapers and magazines during the
days of his obscurity. He proceeds with
his literary work steadily, but with a
leisurely Indifference to the eager I'M
patience of his publishers and t2-es
about two years to a volume He hept
the delighted readers of his Sentimental
Tommy" painting for its promised sequel
during four long years, and there mad
been much longer gap between the /
former and The Little Minister. his
first important novel and the one upon /
which his fame still rests That 1t IS
fastidious care and not Incidence OF
lethargy which accounts for his COM
paratively limited literary output, his |
books themselves are sufficient PROOF.
Among living authors there is no more
studious. critical and conscientious
worker than J. M. Barrie. There IS p
delicacy, a subtety, an elegance in his |
style suggestive of the exCuisiteness OF |
the French school of esSayIstS. There Is |
nothing of the peculiar character of MI.
Barrie's writings in contemporary Eng |
lish. and little of its superior quality.
Mr. Barrie is widely read and has |
been rewarded with a pecuniary sue |
cess too seldom accorded to a writer of |
his class. but he could not possibly be |
popular in the sense that a writer of the |
sWashbuckler school of historical rO- |
nance is popular. nor in the same de |
gree. He has his own clientele. and IN /
his novels at least it is very large, al /
most everyone having read The Little |
Minister" Sentimental Tommy and |
Tommy and GrizeL" But his essays |
share he ba fof of ot nr
essays in this nOvel-reading age. and /
are unknown except by name to the |
great mass Of unthinking and indiscrim-
mating readers. Nothing that he has |
dow in Thrums" and Aud LIGHT |
1dyls," but they have never enjoyed the |
popularity of his novels. and his newest |
book, The Little White Bird" which |
has been running serially in Scribner's |
Magazine and has just been published |
by the same company is sufficiently like |
them to cause some concern for its sales. |
were it not for the authors established |
popularity But 1.-THE Little White
Bird" is the dantiest and most charm
ing piece of fiction that has appeared |
In many day. 1t is a delightful idyl. !
characteristic of this writer's originality, |
his best
The Little White Bird is the story of
child. 1t displays in even greater de- |
gree the wonderful perception of the
child mind which made Sentimental
Tommy remarkable All the literary
results of the comparatively recent re-
search in the field Of child study have
- less OF insight. penetration and under
standing of childhood than those two
books of Barrie's. THE Little White
Bird is not a love story, nor a story Of
adventure it has 70 particular plot and
no particular purpose and it is for these
reasons that no great popularity is pre-
dicted for it. but it will find many a
delighted reader among those who can
appreciate its exquisite fancy poetry
and pathos.
a delightful. whimsical old bachelor
tells the story of David" the dear lit
tie lad, who has the adventures in
HeEslngton Gardens. and incidentally
the story of Timothy" the little lad
who might have been" It is the sort
OF thing that no one but Barrie can do
and as long as he does 1t so perfectly
Ihere is no reason why any one else
should try. Because Mary" the mother
of David is married almost as soon as
we are introduced to her there will he
fewer to read of her than read of pa b.
PIE ana Grlzel and those who see
IN her all the dear allurements of those
sweet girls. will doubtless read of her
with less excitement, it being the rule
IN literature as well as in life that mar
REQ woman Is sunk into oblivion I'M
less she mlsbehaves. Mary has all the
fascinating and adorable Qualities of the
bewitching "Babbie" and the lovabIe
"Grizef' than whom all literature has
liV AlcIS lovely women. But Nary
IS secondary in interest to the II" If
the story the dear old bachelor who is
not so very old, after all, although he
has earned the sobriouet of the con
nrned splnster' at the club, and so are
even David" for whom and on ac-
count Of whom the story is written and
POrthos." the big st. Bernard with +be
RED haws IN the corner of his eyes
and Irene" the nurse maid and +bs
other minor characters of the bool,
There is no use to expect fairness nor
openness from Mr. Barrie in his treatment
OF a nero Sentimental Tommy was
proof enough of that. He made Won love
him whether or no, and then stood hack
with eyebrows raised in supercilious con
tempt OF your weakness. You call not get
a frank opinion from him about his
heroes whom he makes perfectly irresist
fbie at the same time that he is showing
their weaknesses and faults. On the score
OF his seX's greatest foible vanity he
spares them nothing, but you love them
IN spite of their cOnceit 1t is a wonder
that the women do not refuse to read a
Barrie book the heroes are so lffe-like and
natural in their treatment of women As
1t is only in fiction that woman occ1nies
the position in a mans regard to which
she feels herself entitled she might be
expected to resent and oppose any move.
ment to deprive her of that soIace for the
disappointments of real life. but Mr.. Bar.
RE Is very insidious- She scarcely realizes
that he is taking her sceptOr from her m
til it is gone and then to make amends
for it he brings his ''Tommies'' toignomin.
fious ends But would you believe if al
though II ever a man deserved ii
Tommy" deserved his fate for treatins
'Grizel' just a man treats a woman II
real life, the women were UP in arm,
about 1t and sorry that they had read tn,
book and the creator of Tommy wa,
openly and brazenly proud of their I'M
reasonable and inconsistent indignation al
his sorry finish? After all that hehad don.
to let you know the real Tommy as h,
was in his vanity. his seIhshness and hi
fickleness so that you We're inclined I,
think all along that he hated him as noucl
as you felt that you ought to he aclxnoxxl
edges at the last that he had been hopin.
all the time that you would say he wa