The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-01-27

" New Of Yd4f s The sto story Of taFa as
upon the saving Of Laura Wilde, poet
Of fine ability and delicacy of nature,
from marriage to a man Of the senses
sensuous. The saving is thru literal
mental illumination. It is worked out
thru anguish Of soul and body; it is
progress thru pain.
Arnold Kemper is a man Of wealth
and accustomed to the ways of ultra
rich, tho he himself has not yet ac-
He has been married and divorced when
he comes before the reader, and, be-
sides, he has had an affair with an
opera singer. He loves the "creature
comforts. - A good dinner is essential
to his happiness. Automobiles appeal
to him, much more strongly than auto
biographies, no matter how intensely in
teresting the latter may be. Indeed, it
is doubtful whether he has ever read an
autobiography. This man, whose in
terest can be reached only thru this
senses, meets and becomes interested in
Laura Wilde, who has lived retired
life among books, now and then writing
poetry, but with a thirst for taste Of
tracts her to Kemper. The attraction
Of each for the other seems to ripen into
love; an engagement follows; then
illumination, pain, progress. ~
There is nothing in this to suggest
'sThe. House of Mirth, - but the reader
of both unavoidably falls to making
comparisons, or contrasts. The, resent
blance goes little farther than the fact
that In both appear characters from
be frivolous rich class, and the lesson is
the same in each. In ''The House Of
Mirth," however, such characters and
their frivolity. make the whole story;
in s'The Wheel Of Life' they take only
a minor, tho an important, part. Laura
Wilde is not Lily Bart in any respect.
Even Keelm1per is a man Of more depth
than most of those in The House of
Mirth,, and {t Roger Adams ID N III; the true
itor Of the International Review, is so
far removed from the men. Of Edith
| Wharton's story as to be antipodal. He
! is not an ascetic, but genial, sane,
lovable man Of the kind that keep hui
manity in equilibrium, a man who has
found "that all life is forfeiture in one
| way or another, and that the biggest
out" Gertie Bridewell, nearest like
Lily Bart in character, is possessed of
wealth and sufficient sanity to keep her
Judgment clear. tho she chooses to float
with the current; she is able to recog-
nize the better part, from which, in
choosing wealthy husband, she has
cut herself off. Speaking of Roger
| Adams, she says:
| DO you know there's really something
strangely lovable about the man. some
times Think she concluded with her
fantastic humor, that I might have mar
ried him myself with very little effort
on either side" s~.'7 ~.
And lived happily forever afterward
on The International Review" queried
| Laura.
ooh, don't know but what it would
be quite as easy as to live on clothes.
I don't believe poverty, after all, is a
bit worse than boredom. What one wants
is to be interested, and if one isn't, life
Is pretty much the same in surface cal
or in an automobile. I don't believe
should have minded surface cars the least
bit" she finished pensively. u =.
':Wait till you've tried them-I have
''What really matters Is the one grea
thing pursued Gerty with positive
philosophy, and money has about az
much relation to- happiness as the frame
to the finished picture--all it does is tt
! show off to the world. Now like being
shown off,. I admit-but I'd like it al
the better if there were a little more
of the stuff upon the canvas"
The lesson, after all, is much tn,
same as. that in "The House of Mirth,'
but here it is put more positively. Ii
Miss Wharton IS book one is told chief,
the way that happiness cannot b
reached. Here the novelist both warn
against the futile way and points tn
; true way.
Miss, Glasgow has constructed he
) story well. The parts fit nicely to
gether. At first there is some halting
some apparent effort to make her mean
ing clear, but she soon falls into tn
swing of the thing, and thereafter tn
story flows on smoothly to the END
Her style lacks the brilliancy of Mis-
Wharton s., but she has made tai
, that appeals more strongly to the fine
! like to know characters such as thes
; are, whereas those of tIThe House o
, Mirth' are actually repulsive. Ce1
: tainly "The Wheel Of Life will tax
a leading place in the fiction of tn
year. 5.,z /.
~ 81 so.