New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-04-02
Mr.. II. q. TTeHs an Humorous
and Pathetic Mood.

THE DUPLICATE DEATH. BY a. c.
FoN-pavies. illustrated by Hermann
HeHeT- 12rno, %. Sls. The Macaul2y
Company
FIANcA-s DAUGHTER. BY Justus Miles
Forulan. Frcntispieee. Emo. pp. S5'.
Harper & Bros.
LOST FACE. BY Jack London. Illus
irated limo. Up. Vii, es0. The Mac
milan Company
The History OF Mr.. Polly" begins by
threatening 10 Ice a bore and ends log
docking very Ike Il work Of art. It is. at
ell events, not the work Of an unimagi
native realist. as the earlier chapters
suggest. but the work OF man who has
searched out some OF The secret places
of human nature and touched them with
the hand Of kindly understanding. In
the long run we come to feel something
like tenderness for AIr. Polly. and, what
is more. we recognize I'm him the traits
Of a really representative creature.
There are. we dare say. thousands of
Mr. Poilys in the world. If NOT millions
Of them. For what Mr.. Wells has sought
10 interpret is nothing more nor less
than the average soul starved in all its
aspirations by everyday life: not the re-
.ellious individual Of conventionally TO
mantle fiction, VINO kicks over the
traces and thereby gives the storyteller
bis action" bat the docile type whose
life generally flows on in an untroubled
stream Of Guinness. Mr.. Polly has his
crest adventure in due course. but when
& comes i is not lugged in by the heels
20 make a novel readers holiday. 1t is
very like him. the natural expression OF
e temperament which has a certain odd
.ty Vel never for a moment strikes US as
shnermal.
He is e little English shopkeeper whose
upbringing and experience in youth and
early manhood are thoroughly well cal
culaled TO leave him small in mind and
nature. a petty cog in sordid wheel.
The marriage into which he is practi-
calIy entrapped only serves TO sink him
deeper I'm the slough of an UnioVely re-
epecta bility. There is a Pickering i'm
pulse in the man toward beauty, the wild
grace of nature. the large horizons OF
generous, eager life But this he must
always rePress. IneXorable fact orushes
with a kind Of coarse bTutality-robblng
ms bitterness Of all tragic dignity
everv grepins movement that he makes
toward the light. The whole tone of the
NarId in which he is condemned TO work
cut his pitifuI little destiny is symboized
I'm this description Of the domestic lnte-
Yior in which he finds his matrimonial
fate:
The background he apprehended dimiy: II
was verV much the sort of background ms
life had always had. There was a lhre aao.,
Ill. 10th, an "a "A
basin and teapot die not go with the cups
and saueers. the plates were dlfferent again
the knives worn down. the butter ilked IN
2 srSenish glass dish OF its own Beniild
vas a dresser hung with spare ana inlScci-
isneous crockery, win NofhCoN aiq al
fntldN E'0rkba sket, there was an alllhs
musk plant in the window, and the tattered
and blotched wallpaper was covered by
bright coiored Erocers' almanacs- Feminine
~rappings hung from pegs uDon the door.
and the floor was covered with varied
collection Of fragments Of oilcloth. The
windsor chair he sat IN was unstable
which presently afforded material for
1lumour. stead. old nag. he said;
whoa. my friskiacious paifrey.
For years the invention OF such
phrases as 'friskiacio palfrey" is poor
Mr. Pollys only way of finding an out
let for his vague. yeasty emotion of de-
light in things gallant and gay. At last,
as we have said. he makes his one grand
tic Of him To .foozle' this. and his ulti-
mate achievement Of happiness-of a
SORTS all Of piece with his normal
conduct. Though il is with some Vio-
ienee that he detaches himself from the
grimy influences that Cypress him. he
sinks quite naturally into an environ
inent having nothing whatever bizarre
about il. The MIR. Pollys Of our mod
ern life may be never so greatly daring
when the time comes to approve them
eeives men-they are always true TO
themselves, or. perhaps, We should say.
10 the fate marked upon them ct their
birth.
In his rigid adherence 20 this fact lies
enc Of the greatest merits OF Mr.. Wells's
book The portrait Of his hero is very
truthfuily drawn. All the humdrum. ug
" and even distasteful details are there.
es well as all Of the romantic gusts, all
Of the passionate but stified ambitions.
and when We put the book down, dwell
ing upon the length and breadth Of II,
we realize how justly balanced L is,
with what insight and sympathy the
soul OF q veritable human being has
been laid bare within fits pages. II is
partly disgust that keeps us, for time,
from getting on with Mr.. Polly. His
circumstances are so hopelessly COM
,nonplace, and in some touches Mr.. Wells
seems positively TO rub IN the squalor
OF his theme But there IS q genuine
ness about the narrative, which is TO
say that there is reality about its cen
trail figure. triumphing over the authors
deficiencies in the art OF omission. We
gre very glad when Mr.. Polly reaches
his haven. We know then how sorry
we have been for him all along, how
feenly he has compelled US TO interest
ourselves in his affairs.
Mr.. Ashley Tempest, the ingenious
Young barrister who is always cropping
out in the novels OF Mr.. F'ox-Davies, is
fortunate in the leases" upon which he
IS asked TO sharpen his wits. They are
cases so inerably mysterious that they
would seem 90 require not one Sherlock
Holmes but at least dozen for their So
tuition There is a corpse in the first
chapter Of THE Duplicate Death" In
the third there is another, and we have
20 reckon with one more before the story
has got much further advanced. In two
.e re &c