The Minneapolis journal., 1905-11-20
| TIE I
AY[N BOKA
BY w. p. KirkWood.

AN EASTERN VIEW OF MRS. POT
TER'S 1.-THE Ns."-The re
view Of Mrs Frances Squire Potter,s
novel. THE Balingtons,' by the Boston
Transcript, voices feeling that must be
strong in every reader of the book-the
feeling Of repugnance for Ferdinand Bal
lington. the husband of the leading char
acter of the story. .a-5. ...
1t was so strong in the mind OF one
feminine reader of Minneapolis that when
she finished, as she said afterWard. she
wanted Ito get up and maui some man.
If this were to be the common effect on
feminine readers, the book would be a
menace to the peace and dignity of the
state. The transcripts review follows:
1.-The Ballingtons'' is rather obviously the work
of prentice hand. 1t is somewhat crude IN
style; it's construction is diffuse and undisc1..
plined, and its unexpected and unconvincng end
recalls the old witticsm that if the author had
not killed Hamlet, Hamlet would have killed
the author. Here the author ties about her
| heroine Gordian knot of material and spiritual
circumstances, and when we wait with interest
Its untying, proceeds to cut it by killing the
heroine out of hand. This procedure disposes
summarily of the heroine, her problem and the
| readers interest in her, at one fell swoop. Which
| is a pity, for the problem of woman OF
| bigoted Puritanic upbringing, married to q man
of inhexible will and ideals of life Numerically
| opposed to her own, is interesting one, and
up to O certain point Interestingly presented
Then the interest wanes as the reader realizes
uncomfortably what at this point the author
must uncomfortably have had forced on her
| own realization--that she was not equal to the
solution Of her own problem, and so drew thru
| it, with somewhat irresolute hand the black
erasure Of an unforeseen and unnecessary death.
One feels irr1tably that the author was too un-
certain of the ethical soundness of the inevitable
conclusion to which her heroine must have come
had she lived, namely, to cease the useless
sacrifice of all in her that noblest and
worthiest to the Moloch Of her husbands iron
selfshness, rather than break the prison bars of
her relations to HIM. 1t is compliment to
the authors power Of misunderstanding to say
that Ferdinand Ballington, the husband in ques-
! tion, is so very distinct and very repugnant
a personality the. reader has little sympathy
with his wife's self torment in his behalf, and
soliloquy,. after an evening in his society: I'll
God should do it. it would be all-wise If
should do 1t, it would be murder in the first
degree. God appears to have gone hunting. OF
peradventure he seepeth."
Il With all its faults of technique and made
quacy of conclusion, 'The Ballfngtons is
novel Of strong promise and no inconsiderable
are very human: it's atmosphere-the somewhat
depressing atmosphere of the life of a very
small town-is penetratfngly well done. Here
and there are touches of sensitive observation
and of a humor promptly and obviously re
pressed, where its larger indulgence would have
summed and sweetened the air too wearisomel!
lowering and chill. All folk who laugh ant
our author uneasily to suspect, totterin,
! on the verge of moral obliquity. When she ha
), learned this, and few things more, she viii
| write q very readable and reasonable and salts
factory sort Of novel; To convince one Of thi
| is in itself no inconsiderable success.