The morning journal-courier., 1908-02-18

Morgan Henry Holt & O., New York; sl75; for sale at Judd's
 MT de Morgan has achieved anoth- CT triumph in his somehow Good, the title of which, is evidently taken from lines from Tennyson
 MT. de Morgan's book is somehow very good despite his proliXity and garruity, despite his aggravating yet nevertheless undeniably interesting elaborations of his plot. His redundant cy in unfolding his story is extremely pardonable because what he develops in his chatting about his characters and their doings is not only good but excellent and altogether with his "Jo- seph Vance, his "Alice-fo -for-Short" and his present production he has sur prised the literary world and shown himself novelist of the first rank since the day of Dickens and Thack- cray. His 'Somehow Good" and other books are delightful and a fine sur prise coming from a man well along toward his seyentieth year and who was wholly unheard of in the world SA NteNio pSlolC . lilCSt Nilttl UililS btthS came to light. Moreover the fact that these three bulky books were evolved in the short space of year and a half need cause no fear that he is overproducing because the brunt of the work was mapped out and thor oughly thought out in hours of long ago. The author had all the material f,,s. spirit to move him or for favorable opportunity or circumstances to pro- duce them. What he has done in the three books is to add something per manently enjoyable to English litera- ture. Opinions will differ as to wheth- CT Somehow Good' is as good as Joseph Vance" or Affect -for-Short," but we think that his latest work is somehow as good as either of the others. The reader who wants to gal Top through a book will stumble and fall in this one. as In MT. dc Nor gan's other. books, but if one is pa tient and has leisure to wade through the $50 pages he will be satisfactori- ly and delightfully."- rewarded.
 Quotations from various reviews of the book will be found of interest. the fact being noted in passing that there is no failure of concurrence as to the great merits of MT. de Nor gan's production The New York Sun says: By this time Mir William de Morgan has secured his public. The readers who have taken delight in Joseph Vance" and Alice for-Short" will turn gladly to his latest story, Somehow Good" and follow his chat ting and repetitions through the near ly 500 pages he has chosen to write, perhaps wishing that he had kept on longer, as he might have just as well as not. MT. de Morgan is a veritable Ancient Mariner: when he has once seized his auditor by the huttonhole he holds him till he gets ready to stop, no matter how provoked or impatient he may get.
 In this, as in his other stories, he makes us acquainted with number of lovable and entertaining people; they stand out alive in the first few lines of description and after that we are ready to hear anything about them, however trivial it may be- The story of Somehow Good is told practically in the first sixty pages or so. It is told so directly and artis- MT. de Morgan has reformed and is going to show what he can do in a narrative on the conventional lines of fiction. As soon as he has been we'll caught on the hook, however, the au- thor reverts to his familiar tactics and keps repeating his story over and over again, each time from a slightly different point of view till the effect would be maddening if the reader had not grown fond of the people.
 The story turns on the sudden loss of memory of the hero; it is prolong- ed by the recovery of that memory piecemeal, and by the mental and nor al struggles of the woman in the case. 1t is to be regretted that AIr de Nor gan has selected as the keynote a hideous brutal story-to use his own phrase, one of the damnedest things in the universe'-so that out of it a thing somehow good may be evolv- ed because he keeps harping on 1t for 500 pages and will not let his readers forget it. That, probably, was his pur- pose, but crime less vile might have served just as well for his antithesis. and his gloating over his horror spells the pleasure that his attractive, whole some people afford
 From this the heroine suffers most the author does not seem to know clearly what to make of her, but by dint of repeating the story he finally comes to feel sympathy for her, an emotion which affects the reader early fin the tale, but which is in danger of being dissipated by MT. de Morgan s protracted analysis of her mental pro- cesses. The hero escapes better, for the steps in the recovery or his memory though arbitrary, have something tam gibe about them. The charming young girl, who unconsciously is made to provide the moral of the story, is de- scribed completely in the first pages the author devotes to her, and though the reader will be glad to meet her at every subsequent appearance. as he would any bright and pretty young person, she changes and grows very little.
 The dealings of these people with one another and their conversations are very pleasant, so is the crowd of minor characters that Mir, de Morgan brings in. These are attractive almost in inverse proportion to the space he devotes to them. There is an old h. dian officer who recalls Col. New come, there are other retired officers, 2 couple of capital oid women, cab man and link boy that might be from Dickens, a genial German, oth- CTS who have much more to do with the story-all of whom we should be sorry not to have met Mir de Nor iz cf--ar,,~a1-- fars,f.,,4