New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-05-22


IHB MAGNETIC NORTH BY Elizabeth Robins
Stokes Company
Margaret Horton Potter's novel. "rrhe Flame
Caterers" is a story Of Illicit love and expia-
ton This bald statement makes il apparent
that 1t is not written for the traditional young
person; and the mode of expiration which Miss
Potters vivid imagination has devised is so alb
normal that il hardly fail to astonish large
proportion OF even the most sophisticated read
ers- This. In spite Of the fact that the authors
art Is Inc enough to enable her TO minimize the
essential responsiveness Of the creation OF her
weird fancy. It is strong enough to arouse an
interest In her tale and sympathy With its
le2ding character or characters that the shock NJ
realization only serves 10 intensity The first uart
or book Of the novel, Flesh Fire" tells Of the
love Of Ffda Ibn-Mahmud Ibn-Hassan eI-Asra.
prince II his own country, but a captive slave
In the palace Of hai-Khizar-PaI Rajah of
Mandu, for Ahalya, the rajah's youngest and
favorite wife Ffda's
Race is the race Of Asra-
Who must die if love they cherish,
But he possesses q talisrnan a magnificent ruby
which mitigates the curse When he learns that
Ahalya returns his love, the ruby is the price
he has to pay for the connivance Of him who
guards the rajah's Zen&na. So he perishes-and
Ahalya with hin-and together they are swept
away by the cold waters of the Narmada-
All this is pure romance an effectively told
Arabian Nights'-Iike story Of Oriental intrigue
II is complete in itself but Is also the prologue
OF the second book "Soul-Fire." Whether Miss
Potter actually believes in the doctrine Of the
TRANSPORTATION of souls or not is a question
apart from the consideration Of her work At
all events, il is the device which she adopts for
the expiatory sacrifice OF the souls of the guilty
lovers. By somewhat severe straining of the
theory, the souls Of FidA and Ahalya united in
death, in their reincarnation pass together into
the body OF a new born babe, whose life and
sufferings form the subject of the concluding
half Of the novel. The story Of the struggle Of
Oman with his strangely dual nature is told
with a strength. delicacy and restraint which
viii Justify for most readers the authors
extraordinary flight of imagination. 1t is i'm
possible to withhold ones sympathy or atten-
ton while following not much the adventures
Of Oman as the purging of the souls of Fida and
Ahalya- Told with q little less power and in
tensity. THE Flame-Gatherers'' would have
been grotesque; with little more, il would have
been brilliant book
The author Of The MAGNETIC North" has
written in that book a very different story from
the one which would naturally be expected of
her Indeed, it is so little like The Open Cues
tom that without the name of the author on
the Eue-page we would never imagine that
she had written # II is a novel in the usual
sense OF the term. It is the narrative of group
of men embarked upon search for gold in the
Far North, and il is descriptive rather than
dramatic At the same time Elizabeth Robins !
has had much experience in the writing of
fiction to draw portrait Of without pay
ing good deal of attention to the subtler
elements In his character. The Magnetic
North" Is interesting because It shows US how
life is lived in region Of ptiless ice and snow,
but It Is even more interesting because the men
who are exhibited within its pages living
this life, al have Individuality and awaken In
the reader the rveest concern as to the develop
nent Of their personal history. We them
first thrown together IN the closest intimacy and
then separated by the pressure Of circumstance
The old Kentucky Colonel and his young partner.
who are. perhaps, the most attractive members
OF the group portrayed tn the volume, pass