New-York tribune., 1910-11-02
The American Woman PORTRAYED
by D. G. Phillips.

THE HUSBANDS STORY. BY David
Graham Phillips. l2no, PIP. dos. 10 Ap-
pleton & Co.
MIR. David Graham Philips is one or
ne American novellsts who are taken
seriously as delineators OF our contenl-
porary social life and as critics of its
faults and evils. The thoughtful take
his opinions and judgments with grain
o. salt, but those who buy ,his books In
huge quantities implicitly believe him.
To convince the unthinking one merely
has to interest them, and that is best
done 10y entertaining them. Mr. Phillips
has the knack of il. THE Husbands
Story is capital reading matter from
FIRST 10 last. a vivid picture built mp of
tho material made familiar beneath
flaming headlines in the sensational
press.
The weakness nf his books, or their
strength. according as one takes them rs
sociological documents or simply as fic-
tcn. lies in their iconoclasm. There is
no hesitancy here, no discrimination, no
shading OF colors: all is direct positive.
essertive Mr.. Phillips knows what is
wrong with us. He is not altogether
original in the present instance. for
doubt OF the American woman's halo Of
perfection and her immeasurable supe-
riority TO the American man has been
uttered before II is, ia fact, 'in the
sir" and has been there for some time.
Nfr Robert Herrick we'll expressed it.
tv the way, in Together" the book
1,14 11-v Af1tF cf q
American man, If its author could but
see It. Mr.. Phillips is even more con
vinced that the responsibility for ali the
faults Of our social life-especially the
matrimonial side Of it--that get into the
,eIoW press lies with our women. but
a. the same tins he presents the short
conaings Of our men as he gees them
through the same sensational medium
The Husbands Story offers US an
sutohiographic account. by the man, Of
the rise 10 the financial and social top
of things achieved by the daughter of e
Passaic undertaken and the son Of a
corner grocer in the same interesting
Kew Jersey spot. He Is z money maker
end she is 2 slatternly. incompetent
housekeeper, unframed for her share in
she business OF life until tbs two begin
70 rise Then she blossoms into the
sristocrat that every woman is said to
be at heart, a climber and success.
Serious interests she has none;' true
culture is unknown to her. Worldly 10
@he core. selfish in all the relations of
life. her conquest of New York and then
Of Europe is accomplished at the cost
OF a complete estrangement between
herself and her husband, ending in di-
vorce. Thereafter she does better than
ever for herself in the foreign environ
ment she has learned to prefer to that
of her birth and earlier progress.
1t all makes most entertaining reading,
but 1t bears the same relation to our
social conditions that is borne by the
sources from which Mr. Phillips con-
fessedly draws his material. ANY
reader says the official pronouncement,
"can find the plots of his stories in the
contents Of any number Of hundreds of
metropolitan newspapers" Just so.
That is the exact measure of their trust
Nyorthiness as pictures OF American
''high-life." They take no notice of the
thousands that do not furnish material
TO swell the contents OF the columns OF
these papers. One has. however, the
pleasant sensation Of realizing that he
j. reading a roman Il cicf.
1t is not that Mr. Phillips fails TO say
many true things; it is only his over
statement Of them, in addition TO his en-
tire suppression Of the other side, that
Il causes up to question his skill and indus
try in observation. He has the habit Of
the novelists who exaggerate their au-
therity as social and moral students and
censers. This kind Of novel is tradition
Of the art Of fiction almost as old as that
art itself. 1t always distorts proper
rions- Balzac did it with abundant
genius, 0uida with an occasional touch
Of the divine gift. Alr. Phillips does IT
with a great deal of superficial clever
ness aud clever superiiciahty-