The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-09-08
THE SUCCESSOR. BY Richard Pryce.
Dufneld & Co., of New York, pub
lishara. Pr. AL. $1.h0.

JJuIUelu az W. VI bScW IuEhJ pun.
fishers. PIP. 331. $1,5o.
The novel with plot is said to
have gone out OF style Possibly 30,
but when one chances upon q survival
OF subtle skill in the treatment of u
parlson, one is apt to think that, after
all, Il trifle more skill In construction
and revelation is decided relief from
the moralizing realism that has come
into fashion, the same sort of sketchy,
impressoniptic effect that, loosely laid
on, Is now considered q high outcome
OF art on canvas.
Eovelsts are pen painters. and a
carefully workcd-up group of figures,
against judicloua blending OF lights
and shadows as background, unfail-
ingly attracts interest and comment.
The foreword TO THE Successor" ex-
plains that Its theme is somewhat
risky, but striking" Certainly the
writer of the foreword understood his
or her vocation, for there is no surer
passport to public favor than the state
ment that books tendencies are
wicked or pronounced. Mother Eyes
daughters are still ready and anxious
to eat forbidden fruit, and to put a
ban upon a piece of literary compost
tion Is sufficient to render 1t extremely
desirable to their reading paiates.
Having said 80 much. 1t may now be
in order to state that The Successor"
IN its characterization, in It's develop
ment, in its grouping of incidents, and
in the way it's climax Is worked up. ex-
hibits convincing proof OF the acumen
OF its author.
Until the latter part OF the nine
tecntl, century such a book would
II fuh ftt,H IN, 40 ctfe
gestions and possibilities, for reader
of sane and healthful tasteg to con-
slider or approve.
But modern life Is reflected in what
is written about 1t. Men and women.
departing from established usages and
conyentionalities and religious beliefs
are sure TO be repeated through the
medium OF iiotional literature, in
which the social history of mankind
has been mirrored for centuries.
The Successor" iB not a pleasant
story. 1T might be better II such
stories were not written. 1t would
certainly be far better IL purity OF
life and excellence of morals rendered
their conception and expression an i'm
possibility.
As the present outlook does not ia
vor such ideal conditions 1T is perhaps
the world remains what 1T is In the
twentieth century. ouch books as The
Successor" will not only be written,
but they will be read. and, in q certain
technical sense. approved.
BRuNHILDE'S PAYING GUEST. BY
Caroline Fuller. The Century Co.,
OF New York, publishers. Pp 3iS.
$3.50.
There are no romanees like the ro-
nances of the South" say Miss Fuller's
publishers; mo sentiment like the
Southern sentiment for home and
family and friend and faithful SER
want"
'Brunhilde's Paying Guest is not
a book of single love-story: far from
st, for every pretty Southern girl in
the book--ard there are several of
them--has her lovers: the resulting af-
fairs range from pure comedy to
tragedy. till the book might be appro-
priateiy entitled Counting Days in
Carolina 1t is delightful compound
OF laughter, tenderness and tears, a
story exlaling the very spirit of the
South. yet. despite It's dangerous
charm. with distinct go and snap"
The heroine OF the story, Barbara
Colleton, Is the daughter OF young
Carolinian and his wife,, an English
girl. who died when Barbara was born,
Sidney Colleton finds himself, at the
close OF the War between the States,
like many another young Southern
man, the owner of plantation called
"Wistarla- in the-Pines," without money
to improve 1t or labor to work It.,
Added to these hindranees is his en-
during and life-long grief over the loss
OF his wife, which saps his ambition
and DESTROYS his health. His daugh-
ter, Barbara, is a child when the story
begins but, even as a child. endowed
with brilliant and unusual beauty and
charm, and possessed of the strongest
affection for her father.
AS child, she registers a vow
never to leave him, and keeps 1t; at
the cost of much self-sacrifice. After
his death, the declining fortunes OF
her family impel her to turn her home,
in the balmy pine regions Of her State,
to good account. and she adds to her
income by taking paying guests"
tourists, from more Northern cline.
seeking rest and recuperation, coming
within the hospitable atmosphere that
s.nsan