New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1906-03-11

Career q Dixie BiltOn. oporet me
Henry Holt q Co A--l0' pp' IA
l-AA DOGS DIARY. A Novel. By s. Mac
H--s-l--- LIMO. PIP al DOdd Mead & Co
Ms sedgwick's novel rs a cradle 70 IN.
F-ave' story, beginning in the childhood DAVIS NJ
To heroine, and II what passes for q bero and
carrying their history well on beyond their first
youth 10 a relentless but unconvincfng traredv
The interest centres IN the contrast between the
iA' leading characters, splendid, active. lively.
JOYOUS scotch girl and a neurotic. introspectiye.
urN aolesome, bloodless. philosophizing prir =
sort Of twentieth century top-hatted Anglo-Ind-
Ian huoaha- 10 whom life is so unreal that IL
mas scarcely the consistency OF a shadow His
phliosophic point Of view has struck in" So
haFd that II amounts TO a disease and Tcnnie
''i..'Tl affection for him can only be accounted
.'1 - Ge capacity Of certain strong feminine
FEATURES TO cherish and TO protect the abnormal
ana Tie aeiormed. Even so il is difficult TO un-
-5--l her infatuation for Gavan Palairet
--7 story Is undoubtedly intended as a protest
a=-iIst the polite paganisrn Of modern society
&c. 70 point her moral Miss Sedgwick has con-
sr-t'ed an extreme type in Palairet He cuts
shameful hgure in the narrative and is made
-eed. the object OF quite as singing censure
t-.- unoonplimentaTy criticism by his rival as
~ Tie reviewer Yet to justify Eppie's fatal
love ior him, The author has been compelled to
e.-ow him with such manly qualities and per-
s-al attractions that in her efforts to erect him
into hero, she seems, consciously or uncon-
s-iously. 10 have devel)pe a fondness for her
Intellectual Frankenstein that threatens at
times 10 leave the reader in doubt as 10 whether
Re is meant TO be admired, pitied or reprobated-
The first part Of the story when the lovers
Tor Gavan does love EPpie after his own fashion
- l. - ~
and moody boy. whose moods and sadness are
naturally accounted for. is a sympathetic figure
without this glimpse of his pathetic boyhood
Gayan would be inconceivable as hero, even
81 fiction. He is intolerable, as il is CleYerly
as Miss Sedgwick writes, and ingeniously she
constructs, II Is impossible to conceive Of Gavan
not breaking down the walls Of lis self-erected
philosophic prison house at EppIe's intensely
human call, or OF Eppie dying for love Of him
# he didn't
Margaret Potter. following the prevailing
fashion in fiction. has embarked upon a trilogy.
TIE four hundred and odd pages Of The
Genius" then may be taken as the preface, the
Introductory note, TO what is TO follow. So far
a. il goes the story Of The Genius is a biog-
rarhy fictitious of course, rather than a novel
Ivan Gregoriev is the son Of a malefcent Rus
san bureauclat, the dreaded chief of the Third
section" who figures so largely in tales or
Nfhiisrn and Muscovite adventure. Though
lis power is great he is but parvenu prince
af unrecognized social standing. Ivan, sensi-
i've boy partalzes more Of the nature OF his
fh born mother and his life IS largely a series
Of unhappy episodes He suffers fortunes at the
rrilirary. school TO which he is sent is disap-
r.-5rted in love. and TO revenge himself elopes
with an opera singer, 10 whom he behaVes
f.i,.lro,,sl, On an oyerstayed leave that secures
his dismissal from the army and disinhertancf
CIV his father lie then devOtes himself TO music,
in which despite the preliminary hardships and
the iealougies of other musicians, he arrives at
(arnA and fortune, though still TO find the thorn
within the rose. The relation Of his muslcaI
career is apparently regarded by the author as
q convenient means for vilifying the memory OF
Anon E1Ibinstein. Such, al least, Is the use she
makes Of II: whether justly or unjustv, II is IN
.s,errable taste. Plot there is none, though the
-fc-u-e Of the struggles Of a thin skinned
r~usician is drawn with considerable ingenuity.
,-ot 7,rtf we reach the epilogUe do we get
lf-t Of the supernorrnal. which is seldom ao-
ear- from this authors books, and which IN TINS
instance. Is 70 be developed only In the Ialer
volumes Of the ''trilogy-
The book wrapper reviewer IS q con- dN' -
-eca-r DEVELOPMENT Of the art Of literary pub
1fef,, ON the outside Of the protective paper
foIs.r that preserves the actual book cover from
The results Of frequent handling and Inspection
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