New-York tribune., 1906-05-19
Mrs. Humphyy Wards Romance of
a Modern Romneg.

1.AI'E BETTY ACROSS THE WATER Edited by
= y and a. d. Williamson: Illustrated By Or
Sc,
PAN DECIDES: A Sequel to Pam BY Bettina
von uuttesi iilgst'Sted BY Martin justice l2mo
-,,rPI 2 ANNALS BY NJ z. Francis Cars. Fran
sl' cis BlGndelD. l2mo. pp. VIII SlA lsongmans
Green 90.
80 Wards latest novel. like its immediate
a.ecssors. The Marriage OF William Ashe"
LADY Roses Daughter IS based more or
=. oa recorded fact. In this case she has gone
=, the history of the English painter, Romney,
=, ,he leading motive Of her tale Romney, it
al be remembered. deserted his wife in the
oo.ntry. went up 10 London. and. in due course,
,n,on,e infatuated with Lady Hamilton. Mrs.
1r.ra.s hero lives in a later period. but he, too.
,..,,es his wife behind him when he goes to Lon
~ ~ advance himself in the art of painting,
o,s though he hes no thought Of desertion, in
tsndiaS 10 re5o.n his family at the end Of the
year a misunderstanding causes much longer
sonaration OF husband and wife Phoebe Fen
wick has her jealousy aroused, she travels up 10
London and enters her husbands studio when
he is not there, and the sight OF the portrait Of
3 beautiful woman he has painted so confirms
her suspicious that she forthwith disappears
from the artists ken The portrait is OF Fen
wick's Lady Hamilton Nine. de Pastourelles,
ing a person Of unimpeachable morals. Fen
wick has been foolish enough 10 conceal the fact
Of his marriage from all Of the fine friends he
has made in London and this serves TO compi-
cate the story but the essential lines in the con-
struction Of the latter owe all their vitality TO
the Romney episode Without that, indeed. Mrs
Ward would have had story
Criticism Of Mrs. Ward for her dependence in
her last three novels upon material available in
historic memoirs seems 20 be curiously resented
IN some quarters. but ii is inevitable and just
We are not speaking OF the question OF
making acknowledgment in the matter Mrs.
Ward herself. as we have recently noted, has ap-
parently around 70 the opinion which we
expressed when Lady Roses Daughter" was
published and a predatory note in the present
volume indicates her indebtedness to the past.
The other point at issue is which involves
Mrs. Ward In no blame whatever but simply
concerns the broad relation of a novelist to the
art Of fiction. If he can build a work of genius
around an historic character. saturating his mar
rative in originality. so much the better. But
if he cannot do this is it not better worth his
while 10 do something that is at least all his
own? With all due Difference to those partisans
who tear their hair at the faintest suggestion
that book like "FenWIck's Career is not an
iridescent masterpiece. we must protest that
Mrs Ward was ever so much more interesting
as a novelist when she wrote books like David
Grieve' books in which she had something TO
say, and said it with fervor and skill kind
Of moral force went TO the making of her earlier
novels; they were full of thought and feeling,
and there was a sincerity about them that
touched even readers who. in general. were dis
posed 10 be impatient OF the novel with a pur-
pose. OF late years her talent seems to have
suffered a change, and we can hardly regard il
IS a change for the better
Suppose that we grant for the sake of argu-
ment that in making a modern story out Of part
Of Romney's history, Mrs. Ward has accom-
plished stroke OF downright inspiration. The
fact remains that "Fenwicks Career" is not by
any means an inspired book Fenwick is not
made an interesting personality. On the con-
trary, he IS dull. His wife is an unpleasant lit
lie mink not very clearly realized, and Nine
de Pastourelles is one more OF those heroines
who have grown so tiresome in contemporary
fiction women whom we are asked to accept as
brilliant and charming. but whose charm and
hrilliance We have 10 take on faith. All the
other characters in the book are in the same
dubious category; they talk glibly enough, but
they are not made so human that we cannot but
be concerned in them and in their affairs over
the whole story is flung that meretricious
glamour which is so characteristic Of the modern
ssIt-conscious study Of society" In tales of
this sort everything that is meant TO spell dis
uction is raised TO the Nth power When
Fenwick IS invited TO dine at Lord Findon's, the
company, Of course, includes the president Of
the Academy, a well known Ambassador a
great hnancier and Cabinet Minister When
we are told, in a retrospective passage of the
oetrothal Of Lord Findons daughter we are not
surprised 70 hear that it had come as "the
browning point OF a summer visit TO a French
chateau, where Eugenie had been the spoiled
child Of party containing some Of the greatest
names in France" It goes without saying that
she had been friend Of Renan and Of Taine
IN her French days" In short far more than is
shown by these incidents taken from their con-
text Mrs. Wards pictures OF society" seem
overdOne pompous more in the vein Of the
cheap novelette, of high life than of the accom-
plished writer who gave US Robert Elsmere"
David Grieve' and the rest There is a pas
sage about Phoebe in this book which is a COM
mentary on the book itself During her months
alone she had been reading many novels of an
Indifferent sort, which the carrier brought her
from the lending library at Windermere. She
talked excitedly Of some Of them. had cried
her eyes out over this or that" She might have
been reading "Fenwicks Career"
The authors Of Lady Betty Across the Water"
have done in that book much the same sort of
thing that they have done in their popular
automobile stories; they have mixed love max
ing with observations OF travel. and have sea-
Eoned the dish with a little mystery. On this
occasion they have sent titled young English
woman over to America under the wing Of
rich and socially ambitious American. This
lady watches her charge with the utmost care.
but even while they are on shipboarG Lady