The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-08-29
NEWS OF THE BOOK WORLD

Are Average British Novels Better than
American In Point Of Workmanship?-
The Uneasy Chair Thinks They Are.
Loves Proxy" an ExampIe--An At
tempt to BureIarIze Exclusive Society
In he Barrier IN
Several British novels have come under
our notice recently and have carried the
conviction that novels by British authors
In point Of workmanship are better than
American. The question is: Are we right?
We do not feel like trusting our judgment
too far in the matter. But we are inclined
to the belief that the average novel by a
Briton is freer from grammatical errors,
better in composition and constructed
with nicer fitting of the parts and a
American novel; To put it in sentence,
we should say that the British novels
seem to be done deliberately and pains
takingly, whereas American fiction shows
haste and an inpatience with the formal
rules of literature
Inasmuch as elaboration and haste are
British and American characteristics re-
spectively, it should not be surprising that
these show themselves in the literatures
of the two peoples.
A story which has emphasized the
above mentioned differences is Loves
Proxy, by Richard Bagot. The author
grammar leaves nothing for the hasty
reader to criticize, his style is easy and
flowing, being marked by no contortions
of composition, and his construction
leaves little to be desired for the purposes
Of his story. 1t is true that the story is
one built on conventional lines and pre-
sented no. serious difficulties. 1t is q
picture Of phase of English society built
around complications and possible COM
Splications growing out of the relations
between a married man and another
mans wife. But loves proxy, pity, in
tervenes and threatened scandal is
averted, and some Of the characters live
more happily thereafter.
It is difficult to say which is the more
interesting view given of English So
ciety or the story of Sir Henry Lorirner,
wealthy tradesman and member Of the
house Of commons, and his youthful and
beautiful wife, who married him because
her mother was In financial need and
urged her to do So For our own pa TT
and for present purposes the light the
book sheds on life among British lords
and ladies and others whom they consent
| to allow to associate with them Is inter-
esting enough
Sir Henry had heard the stories that
were floating about with regard to his
wife and Ronald Latiner, who was high
| in the governments favor. They paine6
him intensely but he kept from his
wife even the fact that he had received
letters about the matter. His wife learned
Of the letters later and weighed her hus.
| bands motives for having kept silence
concluding that he had no doubt wished
to give the lie to the stories that had evi
IDENTIFY been circulated concerning Ronald
Latimer and herself by letting it be seer
| hd hn hnt~ hIIc hcr ho1 Nhi on.
! to receiving into her house her supposed
lover 60
1 This attitude, as Katherine was yer,
well aware-for by this time she knew hel
world-would be absolutely misinterpre
| ted. Its chivalry would almost assured!
| be unrealized and unrealizable by society
/ accustomed as society was to seeing hus
bands on the best Of terms with thei
wives lovers, from motives which no
even the most charitable could pretend tt
regard as chivalrors.''
What are we to think Of the hint o
conditions given in that last sentence
| limited at again elsewhere in a referenc,
! to accommodating husbands?' Are w,
! to: understand that the book intimate
that British society tolerates sucl
| blights?
Another glimpse Of British high lif,
Is caught from these words, uttered b.
the Duchess Of Cheshire:1BI $50
i DuI = dSISc3 WILL YOU LIE dUSlEdCI
| The amount of money girls lose and iWil
at bridge nowadays is appalling, but 70
goodness sake don't allude to the subjec
| to Augustus! He is always threatening
to put his foot down, as he calls i'll cal
it putting his foot in, but that doesn'
j signify-and forbid bridge to be played il
any house of his: OF course, if he did
nobody except frumps-male and female
would ever come here"
And the duchess is a very estimabl
i woman, too. Nj
i Bridge is getting rather strong hol
1 in the United States, too, but we believ
j that the real aristocracy won't get t.
gambling by means of it in their homes
AS to the picture Of British society, W
4 think the two brief extracts quoted shoy
that the author is capable of making
4 good one. $50
INTERCHANGE.
It hath been ordered so for me,
Outlines a yelled figure waits
4 My entrance at joys very gates
And l the face Of Grief must see!
i And 1t was ordered so for me,
That, ofttimes in Grief's citadel
The stars shine thru my low-buit cell
4 The door. swings wide-and go free!
4 Edith M Thomas, in the Septembe
4 Earper's.
The society of Stirling, which we ar
told is some place in New England, mus
have been protected by an armor plat
4 of excustveness of unusual thickness, &C
! cording to Allen Frenchs The Barrier
4 Stephen Ellis, man of much money
determination and persistence, could no
break thru it. The best he could do wa
to dent it and make very small crack
to which he could glue his eye now an
then the peek in. The story Of how ELI
made the dent is told in way the
is not altogether convincing. In the frs
place, the reader Is disposed to questio