New-York tribune., 1911-02-25
A BRILLIANT NOVEL
MIR. H. G.. Wells on the Way to
His Magnum Opus.

THE NEW MACHIAvELII. BY H G.
Wells. 12mo, PIP. 400. Du'held d 60
Some years ago an English writer. i'm
patient at what he considered the ep-
sodical and even invertebrate character
Of most Of the fiction in vogue at the
moment. rose up to plead for the type
OF novel tracing a mans development
from the cradle to the grave. The COM
position Of such a novel, he maintained,
would make for a wholesome discipline.
and might give us something better than
the sketchy stuff so constantly offered
in current fiction as substitute FOR
character. We have forgotten whether
it was Mr.. Wells or Mr.. Arnold Bennett
who advocated this exhaustive analysis,
but we are quite certain it was one or
the other of these novelists. and we
think it was Mr.. Wells. They have both
shown a tendency TO follow the princi-
pie suggested. The present volume,
though 1t leaves its hero alive at the
end and still in his prime, is really a
full length portrait and life history.
It's interest lies largely in the fulness
with which it traverses a career from its
very earliest origins. If We do not call
it the authors best book it is partly
because, with his amazing versatility.
he has written other things just as good.
in their totally different ways, and
partlv because THE New Machiaveli"
is not quite a perfect work of art. But
it discloses the ability Of man who
ought some day to write great book.
This has the qualities of a study for
masterpiece; 1t is so good that you are
whole-heartedly enjoy the particular
powers that Mr.. Wells brings to his
task.
They are first and last the powers of
a thinking man. and when you recall the
prodigious quantities Of mental frOu-frou
published in the name Of fiction your
gratitude for "The New Machiavelli' is
doubled. The supposititous narrator is
a middle class Englishman, born and
bred in a suburb, but vouchsafed the
enlarging experience TO be had at the
university-a true type of our modern
democracy. Young Remington is clever
and ambitious, and fermenting in his
intensely egoistical nature is a passion
for public affairs This is not ungener-
Gus. precisely, in It's essence, yet he is
hardly to be taken as a creature of
nobly philanthropic impulses. The in
stinct that at bottom moves him Is in a
measure emotional. but even more is it
intellectual, the instinct which drives
impersonally at orderliness. Remington
would set straight the troubles of man
kind, not out of a disintercsted love for
his fellows, but out Of a disinterested
appreciation of things sane and ship
shape There is profound selfishness in
him. and he has. too-though we are not
sure that Mr.. Wells is aware Of it-what
in our latter day jargon we call "a yell
low streak" Obviously he is not by
the same token an altogether likable
man, but that, Of course, is beside the
point. What is important is that Rem
ington is true to type. thoroughly hu-
man figure That very fact induces
some regret that Mr.. Wells should have
called this book "'rhe New Machavelli."
The title sharply enforces the fact, 10
which we have not infrequently had oc-
casion to refer. that while he has the
virtue of always thinking he does not
always think clearly. The truth is that
ne forces us TO ask why in the world he
should have dragged in Machiavelli.
The parallel which he would set up
Is specious in the extreme. "Niccolo
Machiavelli," says Remington. "chanced
10 fall out Of politics at very much the
age have reached, and wrote "A book to
engage the restlessness Of his mind, very
much as ! have wanted 10 do. He wrote
about the relation Of the great construc-
tive spirit in politics to individual char
acter and weaknesses, and so far his
achievement lies like a deep rut in the
rond Of my intention" But the parallel
is more apparent than real and tends.
indeed 10 breed confusion of thought.
We expect "A new Machiavelli Ia have
his prototypes faculty for the pursuit
of his subject IN dry light. and merely
10 claim for Remington personal ex-
perience similar at certain points 10