New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-09-23
ONE OF THE MILLION.
The Portrait of an Obscure but Rep
resentatiue Type.
KIPPs. The Story of a Simple Soul. By 81. @.
Wells. limo, PIP. 47e. Charles Scribner's Sons.

n p
Wells. limo. PIP. z7e. Charles Scribners Sons.
Mr.. Wells ought to be happy man. When he
has written story about things utterly fan
sastic he can relieve the strain upon his imasi-
nstfon ny writing a story ABOUT things utterly
coulmonplace-and he has the wit to succeed N
both enterprises. "Kipps" is one more of those
studies of obscure humanity in our own time
with which he has often shown his ability to
descend from the stars to the earth without
dsynage TO his art, and we are inclined to think
that It is quite the best of all books he has pub
ls;led in this vein. The careless reader might
wonder. perhaps. II there were after sll any
very important elements of art about the elao-
Grafton of a full length portrait of nonentfty-
The art is there nevertheless. and 1t is the more
effective for the that, to Mr.. Wells, kipps
IS. rightly. not a nonentity. On the contrary
he is a profoundly human young man. repre-
sentative of millions Of souls in modern Eng
land. and It is a testimony TO the liveliness Of
the authors sympathy and to the power of his
art that we do not for a moment find this book
dull. Surely to have made an absorbing book
out OF such poor clay that from which Kipps
is fashioned is to have achieved triumph
worth the effort
Kipps when we first meet him, is child left
by rather mysterious mother in the care of an
aunt and uncle who keep miscellaneous shop
at New Romney. Life seems to have brought
him no special opportunities or privileges, and
there IS nothing In his nature to make him seri
ously crave such doubtful blessings When he
4 is apprenticed In his teens TO F7oIkestone
draper he is under the impression that fate
could hardly give him a happier lot; and though
An due course he learns. through hardship, to
hate his work end its surroundings and to sigh
Ger q more comfortable sphere, he remains at
bottom the same old Kipps with intellect
nal horizon that might fairly be comprised
within the rim OF teecup- Perhaps if moth
ing further Of moment had happened to the lad
e. might have been hard for even Mr.. Wells to
have made readable book about him. His life
would have gone on from one dulness to
other, and his soul would have remained stag
snant from the first chapter to the last-a thing
aideous and wearisome to contemplate. Here,
however, the family resources which have been
tiirnly lowering In the background come to the
sront, and by an astonishing turn Of the wheel
kipps finds himself possessed Of an income of
81, 200 year. He receives a shock, and the plot
1hickens.
It is not thickeneG by any adventitious proc
ssses. Mr.. Wells is too wise for that and in
stead of launching his hero upon the course Of
profigacy, mild strong, which would have
recommended itself to nine novelists out of ten
dealing with the subject, he proceeds to put
ERipps through a series of more or less romantic
and yet entirely natural experiences. This be-
Fs1ldered heir is decidedly what he is called in
1he subtitle Of the book "a simple SOUL and
Ehis efforts to adjust himself to a new order Of
things are as pathetic as they droI in their
Innocence and stupidity. OF course, he falls in
fdve with girl of better breeding. Not so much
e a matter of course, she accepts him. But is
his the end Of the matter? Far from 1t, and
herein lies the strength Of "Kipps." It is
book with a commonplace hero; It is a book :
4aturated in commonplace. but the originality
81 a genuine human being is present everywhere.
and throughout almost breathlessly in
terested in the unconscious evolution of this
zoreIy troubled soul into its inevitable state
Kipps is made TO many, at least, Of his limi-
Nations He tries his best to conquer them. But
somewhere down in the depths of him an in
stinct which he can trust tells him that freedom
lies only in the environment TO which he was
born and in the end he wins his salvation. Mr..
Wells does not lose his head over him. He is
never sentimentally sorry. He allows himself
a certain play OF hunlor when some Of the most
fragrant of Kipps's adventures are in question,
and in fact every chapter is written with
light touch But if "'Ktpps~ is amusing book.
st is not q cynical one. Sincerity is stamped
upon it's every page. and So we repeat, is the
ekill Of an artist.