New-York tribune., 1909-10-09
Il Ncsc Sheaf of Stories by RWdyard
Kipling.

ling. illustrated. l2mo, pp SzS- Doun4eoAy'
Page & Co
ana i2mo. pr. I'r viii, See 3 W Dodge & Co.
A ygoNIGA Modern Love s;2Ty s2G TSLpar BY
THE WARES OF EDGEFIEI,D. BY Eliza, orne
White. Emo pp iSs The Houghton Miffin
Company
EANSE E THE a.45,es MAasFEs II Ry Mcra RhRi aad
= Z. Brock. l2mo pp. $50. Boston: Little
Brown & Co
, beTton Illustrated by Max covper. i2mo pp
3e2- Tic C ". Dillingham; Company
II is q pleasant sensation TO receive oLce more
a new book by Mr.. Kipling. Old ties are strong
and not all the dsappointments Of his later
work in prose and verse can destroy the SYM
pat won by his genius in some of the most
enhancing pages in modern fiction. He Is still
sure Of his reader. The latter opens new book
Of his with a kind Of affectionate wistfulness-
He opens il with the best will in the world 10
ind il good In the present instance he is rea-
sonabIy rewarded Actions and Reactions" is
not book to he mentioned with Soldiers
Three" or plain Tales from the Hills, or
Many Inventions" or thos, immortal tales or
the jungle-but then no one expects Mr. hlplng
10 recapture [ glamour Of his golden age. II
IS enough if he tells us a story with something
Of that picturesqueness in substance and in die
AlQ4ls VIII StflttHiHE " 'liei' 'N4'''N-N
which long ago took us captive
Il is a curious miscellany that he here pre-
sents The scenes are laid in India, in England
or in The air. In one story he is broadly humor-
Gus and in another his motive is ghostly. 1t is
q hook Of many moods. Perhaps the most sig
nihcant OF them all is the one illustrated in An
Fabitation Enforced which opens the collec-
ton There is another side 10 that Imperial
ism" which has done so much damage 10 Mr.
IL not al
beating the big drum and pouring scorn upon
the Little Englander He has himself the Little
Enclander's love for the island soil Settling
down upon il after his life in India, il stirs him
10 almost passionate appreciation. He loves the
landscape saturated in historical memories. he
loves the very fields and meadows themselves
The comfortable old homes. the immemorial
habits of the countryfolk. the ancient hedges
are TO him a perpetual refreshment. Repeatedly
he has savored these things in his writings and,
returning to them in An Habitation Enforced
he treats them with unwearied gusto. He shows
US an old English country house through the
eyes OF an American and his wife who learn to
love IT, bat all the time We feel his own fervor
working in their veins. II is charming story,
IN sentiment one of the most beguiling that he
has ever written He revives a familiar atmos-
phere, too. in "Garm-a Hostage" dog story
which also involves one of his famous soldier
friends, and IN "A Deal IN NOtIOn, anOIneF
page from his Indian notebook. and both pro-
ductions are clever. readable things. But he is
a little more at his ease, little more his old
self, in his vivid flying machine" tale of the
f.ure. with the Night Mall and the bit of
droilery called The Puzzler" AS we read The
Puzzler' and laugh, We remember early ''larks'
like this especially 'Brugglesmith." The ghost
story called THE House Surgeon" does not
cutie satisfy, and the two allegorical pieces
THE Mother Hive and Little Foxes are
frankly tiresome Affixed to all these stories are
some of those verses which Mr.. Kipling has
been wont TO scatter through his volumes of
prose If they are not memorable, they are at
all events neatly turned. We relinquish the
book unexcited but not ungrateful.
Il was hardly kind to rescue from oblivion the
youthful sketches by Mr.. Kipling which
brought together in the volume called "Abaft
the Funnel" They undeniably amusing
Never was there sprightlier prentice hand
than that which Mr.. Kipng used so gallantly
in his Journalistic period. There are touches
here clearly foreshadowing the gift Of which he
was 10 make so much. STILL they add nothing
OF any importance 10 our knowledge Of his art
and We could have wen spared their resurrec-
ton.
II is an odd love story that Mr.. Wells has re-
lated in Ann Veronica doubly odd coming
from his pen. -'Tono- Bungay," which he pub
lished only a few months ago. was novel Of
good deal OF substance. II had defects, but on
the whole il left the impression Of a work very
carefully thought out. Ann Veronica" some
how wants proportion and depth. The heroine
is a young woman who tires Of her suburban
home and presently lets herself go in fiat re-
bellion against the very conventional rule Of her
widowed father. The struggle between the two
is rather long drawn out, and, while in the
course Of il We are appTised Of the heroine's
eager sympathy for new ideas" hardly
prepared for the developments that follow. Ann
Veronica, running away TO London, gets into
very grave difficulties indeed. first making a
most indiscreet friendship with quite unedify-
sne man and i>cn turning herself into suffra-
gefte with the result that she is landed in
prison. BY the time she has returned 10 her
fathers house we are we'll past the middle of
the book and have begun 10 wonder about the
authors purpose. Such thin and shabby little
plot is the last thing in the world expect
from Mr. Wells. Surely, say, he must have
something in reserve. II turns out 10 be Ann
Veronica's love story. and this includes the rev.
elation Of her in the character Of A young ami
NAL, whose dreams Of emancipation from the
ihraldon imposed upon were much
fooIishness All she wanted to have her
little romantic fling Perhaps Mr.. Wells in
tended 10 give that fling" some sociological
significance Otherwise there was no excuse for
introducing all the details Of Ann Veronica
campaign Of freedom. But this heroine's ex-
ploits only leave a bad taste in the mouth
There is nothing modern about her love story.
She is not q type. She is simply one more Of the
freal l1isl young creatures who prance through
cutren. nction-and whose portrayal Mr.. Wells
might ieaeo 20 other hands.
The history of two generations Of people Of