New-York tribune., 1909-12-18
n GERMAN SAPHO.
The Latest NoUeI of Hermann
!Sudermann.

THE SONG OF SONGS. BY Hermann
Suderrnann. Translated by Thomas
seltzer. 12mo. PIP. $40 b. W. Huebsch
sudermann has won the right to stand
with Ibsen and Tolstoy-the Tolstoy of
his novels and plays-the right to re-
suect for his art and his view of life.
No more than they does he see it whole.
never, at least. in any one single play
or book of his. but he sees it steadily.
from the continental European point of
view. which has also become, in great
measure, the English, but is not ours.
Notwithstanding certain symptoms I'm our
current fiction and on our stage of the
hour. An apparent infinitude of compli-
cations OF life, social in their essence.
but mistakenly dubbed Sexual by su
perfcial observers, which deeply interest
an older civilization, are so far from the
simpler. healthier, moral and emotional
processes of this nation that they con-
Germ it but little, If at all, and affect If
as alien, repulsive and unnecessary in
books as in reality, material only for the
news columns of our yellow press. 1t is
with this subject that THE Song of
Songs" deals generally, and with one
concrete instance of it in particular.
In this book Sudermann does for Ber-
lin what Daudet did for Paris in
'Sapho,' with this difference. however
that the French book is but an episode-
the episode Of Jean Gaussin, which Is 10
condition and to mar all his later life
whence the story's dedication to its an
thor's sons-whereas The Sona 30
songs is concerned chiefly with the
WOMAN tracing her career step by step
from olerkship in circulating library
IN small town, where her beautv first
attracts the attention of the officers of
the garrison, and wins for her an OIL
derly husband of noble rank through
her divorce and later adventures. 10 her
ultimate marriage to an infatuated
manufacturer when she has become q
oTllilant ngure of that side Of the life of
European capitals which Is so much in
evidence.
II is repulsive chronicle. h,,t II is
etched with acid on copper by the sure
hand Of literary master. Its natural
Ism is never gratuitous; every unpleas
am oetali Is justified by its significance
as an additional line in the DEVELOPMENT
OF the portrait OF this woman. never
vicious. merely well meaning and weak.
following the line of least resistance her
eyes fixed vaguely upon a remote. nebu-
lous ideal of true love and domesticitv.
never stopping long enough to realize the
accumulatlng danger Of the mud
through which she is wading. until the
ideal found and within her grasp. she
discovers what life has made of her. and
obeying the impulse of the hour once
more unwittingly reveals her degrada-
ton TO her innocent young adorer. her
un1tness for the simple, idyllic life of
which she has dreamt so long. as we'll
as her unworthiness. Hogarth's Prog
ress' is as milk for babes beside this
book, which teaches no lesson and points
no moral, its view OF life being uncom-
promisingly deterministic.
Those whose business il is to deal with
literature professionally cannot withhold
their admiration from its amazing
craftsmanship. whatever their opinion of
Its subJect-matter. 1t has not, it cannot
have. the powerful, epic sweep of Der
Katzensteg," but it is the perfection of
realism. II cannot profit the average
reader in search of mere entertainment:
II will repel him