The San Francisco call., 1908-08-16

NRF HETHER or no this novel of
X Robert Herricl1's can become
wv popular, there is no question
that IL will attract much at
tention and will be dissected and dis
cussed wherever it is read
Together" is an elaborate essay
rather than 4 novel. Il is nearly 500
pages in length and its subject is mar
riage-its various phases as lived IN
America The half dozen families Mr..
Herrick selects as examples to illus
trate the results Of different conditions
are all typical Every reader is well
acquainted with the Lanes, the Poles,
the FaIkners and the Johnstons. The
Woodyards are not so well known. but
they are not impossible.
Herrick is desperately in earnest in
this book. The trifer IN fiction and the
reader who reads only TO be amused
would best give it a wide berth The
one defect in the book is its singular
lack OF humor and its consequent de-
pressing effect.
The novel opens al the altar, the place
where the old time romance ended.
The heroine is the daughter Of a
wealthy hardware manufacturer She Is
clever and cultured; she has had all the
ADVANTAGES which the best education
obtainable can give, and has besides
& secure social position. The hero
is a strong, handsome young man who
is successfully making his way up the
ladder in railroading. He comes OF re-
spectacle and cultured but poor people
f- =
step for him.
These two are the central characters
in the book, but their lives cross and
recrosS those Of four or hve other
couples, as in real life people feel the
influence of their friends and acquaint-
ances. Some Of these people are exam
pies OF all that is possible and perfect
in married happiness. but the others
some OF them can not be mentioned
without disgust
John Lane and his wife, Isabelle, the
coupIe who started in with the beauti-
fuI wedding and everything they could
wish in the way OF material bless
ings spend hard year or two in a lit
tie railroad town in Indiana Isabelle
is far from pleased with the toWn, the
people her house. or anything. She has
nothing 20 interest her; she wants lit
tie dinner parties, pretty furniture
books theaters, charity committees
and that SORT Of thing which she
considers living" SO, after spending
some time in St Louis, her husband is
at last able to give her the home she
wants in New York city. Still. she has
not enough TO interest her. She has
child. but imagines that she has moi
health enough 10 take care Of Il. ShS
Is spoiled by her husband, who, like
many other successful American hts
bands thinks that unlimited money /,
al fa rryc re- he ic fno fp
much OF his valuable time TO her She
Is a passionless creature and becomes a
hvpochondriac and a neurasthenic; ha.
all sorts Of doctors, specialists work.
ing over her and trying to discover
something the matter. when ali sh,
needs Is really TO interest herself iT
her husband and child. Then wha
may be called the inevitable happens
She meets a man in whom is the strain
OF feminine understanding. of vibrating
sentiment-the lyric chord of tempera
rnent," and promptly imagines hersel
understood" and In love with him
But that very commonplace situation
is not at all what the author ha
IN mind. At the expense of her broth
er's life she is saved from wreckini
her own. and learns lesson. TIL
psychological conditions are the one
involved. and while very few straigh
suggestions are made which will i'm
prove the CDIOlllOAS III ire Ol Win
those in the book are typical. the plair
straightforward statements, withou
bias and without exaggeration, OF sue
common cases of needless unhappines
and incompatibility are in themselve
lessons and warnings
The other characters in the book ar
fully as interesting as the Lanes. Fac
couple is written Of with just niue
detail as John and Isabelle. but eac
one IS created TO show some differen
condition After reading the merciles
statements OF the author about me
and women il would seem almost i'm
possible that so many blunders coul
be made in the treatment Of husband
and wives by each other.
II is difficult in the limited space 0
a review to convey TO the reader an
ADEQUATE idea OF the scope of the work
No writing man, unless il be Balzac. ha
ever understood women. psychologi
callv. as Mr. Herrick. IT is truly re
rnarkable The only character in tn
book which seems shadowy and unrea
is a doctor-an idealist- 1t Is plainl
an EFFORT on the part of the autho
TO create q high type, but IL does no
satisfy. His pictures of men are no
as strong as his pictures OF womer
but hfs understanding of human ma
ture is nothing less than narvelou'
The book IS positively photograph Q
life as II is every day. It is filled wit
ouotable lines and is distinctly boo
of which its author may be proud