New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-05-21
WIVES AND HUSBANDS
Two NoyeIists on the Modern
Marriage Problem.

ToNY's WIFE. BY George Gibbs. Illus
trated by the author. l2mo, pp. 81. d.
Appleton G. Co.
STUDIES IN WIVES. BY Belloc
I.owndes. limo, pp. Sls. MltcheH heh-
nerley.
In these advanced days Of the mar
rage problem novel MIR. Gibbs's "Tony's
wife" may well be called conservative
None OF the characters takes himself or
herself too seriously-which is the first
svrnptom of the Higher Law"-and
their sound principles are not attributed
to them by the author for the sake of
being bowled over as narrow prejudices.
They are average people all, sane ana
likable, who stumble unwittingly into
muddle which no amount Of foresight or
worldly wisdom could probably have
averted in the beginning. Environment,
which, after all, is beginning to be one
of disintegrating conditions and theories,
shapes their lives, as it does that or all
of US, and youth can but follow the I'M
petus given. Tony's wife was not the
wife for him; neither was he the right
husband for her AS a matter Of fact,
both were too young, unprepared for
marriage. But the boy gave UP his nee
essary years of study in Europe to take
UP illustrating, and the girl, fond OF
pleasure, got tired of the monotony OF
their existence. Hence her fmprudent
but innocent philandering with another
man. She lacked as yet the sense OF
her husbands dignity in her keeping, or
o1 wi
tionable wisdom of talking to him about
her dofngs. Thus, the evil was brought
about by meddling. and the authors only
way out is an improving deathbed scene.
The characters are we'll drawn, there is
life and movement in the setting, In both
country and city; one reads with pleas
ure and interest to the end.
The inevitable thing to say about Mrs.
Lowndes's Studies in Wives the thing
which has very likely already been said,
and is certain to be said again, is that
they might as well be called Studies in
Husbands" In most of them, in fact
the wife is suggested by and reflected in
the husband. a clever technical proceed
ing whose difficulties the author masters
with signal success. More curious still
is the fact that the best story Of the six.
Mr. Jarvice's Wife," introduces neither
her nor her husband In propria persona,
yet ever keeps them. and her most Of
all, in the centre, from the point Of view
OF the third angle Of a familiar and de-
plorable geometrico- matrin1onia figure
complicated by a crime. According to
Meredith"-an allusion to ten-year mar
riage contracts-is. rather, According
to Ibsen" in its cutting OF the knot by
violent death, and in its feminine psy-
chology, for whose purpose, no doubt, 1t
is q Scandinavian woman who is the
heroine, the only foreigner in the book.
unless we choose to consider the Irish
actress Of Shameful Behavior a for
eigner, too, as, no doubt, she is in the
matter of temperament among all these
English people. Unlike a general GUS
tom. the book does not open with the
best of what it contains. The husband of
"Altheas Opportunity is a sorry cad,
who marries young, uniformed woman
for her money, and then humiliates her
before his best friend. Mrs. Lowndes
glimpses the limits which children I'M
pose upon the rights OF the individual"
and in this her fiction is a wholesome
reaction. She is, however. realist who
has no moral to teach, merely tendencies
Of life TO point out.