New-York tribune., 1905-01-07

A 4qt
Charles scribners Sons.
THE MILLIONAIRE BABY. BY Anna katherine
Green With Illustrations by Arthur / Keller
12rno. pp. 35S. Indianapolis; The Bobbs-Merrin
Company.
CAPTAIN ANfYAs. Being the Career Of Darcy
Arnyas R. n & late f,-! Master OF the X, M o63 3
John Lane
NJ Bourgeois new book reminds US that the
novel which is also a tract is not produced by
English and American authors alone. In Paris
the question of art customarily takes precedence
Of all other questions in piece Of fiction. Even
the most audacious realists there like to talk OF
the artistic purpose in their work. NJ. Bourget
himself has been one of the most fastidious Of
French dabblers IN morbid psychology, writing
always with peculiar respect for his technique.
Now, however he produces in "a Divorce" one
of those books which only a tractarian could
write. on the eighth page there is an alluson
TO what the author calls the abominable meas
ures of 1903 against the religious orders" The
rest Of the volume is devoted to an exposition Of
the misery in which a woman finds herself
through trusting to the law instead Of to the
Church. The spectacle presented by Nine. Oar
ras and her family in the tolls Of woe is no doubt
instructive but, considered merely as a novel.
this book IS merely dull.
The heroine has. before the opening of the
story obtained a divorce from a drunken and
happily and when we first meet her she is max
ing effort to get back into the good graces Of
the Church, which refuses absolutely to admit
the validity of divorce. The old priest to whom
she goes in the hope OF his helping her to share
in the first communion Of her daughter, the child
of her second husband. pities her. but can give
no other comfort. She returns to her home in
despair. only 10 find that her son. the child of
her first husband has been falling in love with
the last in the world she would choose
for his wife In the ensuing episodes the mem
bers Of the house Of Darras are entangled more
and more in a conflict between law and religion.
They all talk at great length about both religion
and the law. and their conversations are about
as cheerful as a convention OF undertakers. The
reader persists. because. a matter OF curl
osity. he would like to know how Nine Darras
solves her problem; but idle curiosity comes
very 10 subsiding before the book is
finished The failure of a Divorce" 10 give
n glimmer of real pleasure is a striking
Illustration of the danger Of writing novel 10
prove a case. Not a figure in the book contains
the breath OF life: not transaction IN It sug-
gests the walk and movement OF the world In
which live.
The author Of The Millionaire Baby has also
a case 10 prove. but it is not anything like the
one which has betrayed NJ. Bourget 1t is
simply one more of those innumerable cases with
which. in fiction, the police are kept supplied.
Mrs. Rohlfs IS an adept IN the contrivance OF a
mystery and in the unravelling of it by means
OF developments ascribed 10 the skill or good
luck Of Jealous detective. In this book the
cause of all the trouble is the sudden disappear
ance Of little girl from the house of a woman
whose wealthy husband is at the moment
abroad. The child rejoices In the enchanting
name Of Gwendolen ocumpaugh The man who