New-York tribune., 1912-04-06
FICTION
Leonard Merrick, His Literary
Repute and His Qualities.
A COMEDY OE ERRORS.


provinces and is clever enough, into the
bargain. to have written a play, pul
whose efforts to make place Tor hiH-
self in London seem, when the tale
opens. pretty nearly hopeless. lie mas
AT the moment n small engagement. Dut
he loses It before the opening OF the
piece. through the outrageous small
rnindedness of the star. n young
/ actress. also i'm distress, for whom he mas
lust been privileged to do trifiing ser
vice. has to talk her best to save him
from too cruel discouragem But she
/ has confidence in his future because lie
has told her Of his high ideals, and these
She feels. cannot but triumph. Alma
King presently sails for the cape re-
ioicing i'm employment and Royce OIL
phant stays behind We suspect that
the separation OF the two friends is
going TO have unfortunate results. ard
the sur,nise is confirmed. Oliphants play
Is produced, he wins success as an actor,
and there is every prospect Of his carry
ing out the noble intentions he has de-
i SCllDcu 10 MISS NluS. buI u' i"pP''''
TO fall in love with a girl who appears
i'm his drama, a mink not inefficient on
the stage, but at bottom fool, and so
grossly sordid an egoist that their mar
riagc ultimately makes them both COM
plctely wretched When he gets the
atrc of his own he wants to manage II
and to act in it as an artist. She wants
notOriety and cash Catastrol he ensues,
and following the good old conVeh-
tions of popular fiction Miss King Is
brought back upon the scene. so that
Oliphant may learn that he has been IN
| love with her all along, and rumlnate,
| with dust and ashes in his mouth, on
what might have been" Obviously, he
has no one but himself to blame. What
/ mutitudcs Of young men. in and out of
/ novels. have married in haste only TO
! rercnt at leisure. Sometimes they rail
| at the gods regarding themselves as
! tracically undone. Occasionally there Is.
indeed. something tragic about their dis
comtiture. But more often their woe
| lacks the dignity which belongs to the
/ human drama in it's higher phases. one
can give only a pitiful smile to the ordi-
nary victim Of silly impulse. Royce Oil
nhant IS such victim. 1t Is no more
| than an average comedy Of errors that
/ Mr.. Merrick gives us in THE Actor
Manager"
! This fact would not in most circum-
stances, provoke any very serious crlti-
cal reflections. The book IS readable
and doubtless true to the life it sets out
! to depict. But TO read The Actor Man
ager" in the light of all that has been
done to enforce upon the public due
sense of Mr.. Leonard MerrIck's abilities
as a novelist IS TO read IL with downright
! bewilderment. Several Of his country
men have arisen to belaud him and to
express their surprise at his not having
drawn TO himself a much wider audi
ence than he has hitherto claimed. ~
kind of esoteric Merrick cult has come
! into being We are asked TO take him
seriously. We are expected to read him
with delight. OF late this campaign has
spread to America, and 1t Is not sur
prising that a publisher here has printed
more than one of his books and promises
others The enterprise is legitimate and
welcome Decidedly, American readers
/ should have a chance to know Mr.. Mer-
rick's writings for themselves. But We
shall be very much surprised il in the
lupshot they take them at the valuation
Of the rhapsodical commentators who
have given them so much repute.
! one Of the first things to strike us
about this author is his poverty Of in
vcntion. In certain of his short stories
such as those we touched upon not long
ago in reviewing The Man Who Under
stood Women" he has disclosed Ste
vensonian cleverness not unpleasing, but
il is hardly, we suppose, through this
casual magazine fare that he has won
the special regard of his partsans. That,
we take il, is attributable to his novels,
and while we have not read all Of the
latter those with which we are acquaint
cd afford no perceptible ground for char
acterizing Mr.. Merrck as a master.
Conrad in Quest of His Youth" was an
p N
able. The Position Of Peggy" conveyed,
we admit, a toerably good impression.
The portrait in it Of self-centred ilirt
was drawn with considerable penetra-
ton. But it was little disConcerting
to have much the same type turn up in
another collection of the authors short
stories. and now, meeting similar per-
scnages and situations again i'm "'The
Actor Manager" we confess to boredom.
IT is not the repetition in itself that
wearies II is the hard fact that Mr. |
Merrick is not novelist enough to make |
the repetition worth while If mis- |
guided young men of no very great in
tercst. with the vulgar young women !
into whose capricious hands they choose |
10 put their fortunes. are TO be made |
tolerabe at all, once, twice or thrice, il |
must be by some process of art akin, At /
least, To the power of genius. Now. Mr. !
Mcrrick, as an artist. is Of very modest !
calibrc. His descriptive passages are in .
dubitabiy vivid, his dialogue is sprightly, |
and he carries his narrative along with |
that sdgacious sense Of things which is |
the birthright of a thousand cOntCmro- |
rary nOyclsts. But with the best will |
in the world to discover in him some |
originality, some distinction, some |
charm, some new and moving emotion, |
we are constrained to say that we have !
found only one more mildly entertaining !
journcyman. There is nothing in him |
Those virtues of his which we have cited |