New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-12-22

sire for q literary naturalization In
| France, one need not try TO decide.
/ The result, not the motive, is what con-
Germs us.
In much of her previous work Mrs.
Wharton. with all her high aims AM
her love OF art in literature has shown
liking for the grotesque. the sdu-
| grcnu. the grewsome, and the repul-
sive. There is twist in her mind.
Her admirers, Of whom am one, have
/ regretted it while resi- Getting her mani
| fest devotion to ideals. But she has
now embarked upon an adventure in
which questions Of taste are no longer
supreme; in which she forces us TO
| consider whether we are TO renounce
| convictions that in the American mind
! lie at the foundation Of the social fab
ric.
In the conception and construction Of
appears as a borrower. and not a Dor
rover of the best When Hawthorne
published "The Scarlet Letter" he also
was thought to have departed from the
prescriptions Of the Puritanism which
| inspired him and Of which he never
| theless wrote the epic. But Hawthorne
dealt frankly with his subject and with
the public, and in the largest way. You
were under no misrepresentation. His
title gave you fair warning. You could
take his book or leave II, and IL you
took it--but the world has long since
taken it and given It a place apart; as
one OF the half dozen great novels Of
all time. Mrs. Wharton offers you
title which may mean anything or
nothing. She has put together a story
of which the basis is nothing more or
less than a collage. From beginning to
end it turns upon the chance meeting
between George barrow and Sophy
Viner and their life together in adjoin-
ing rooms in a Paris hotel. She has
told the early part Of il with skill. and
with a sort Of surface delicacy which is
in itself a concession to the dislike OF
the American public for the qrOSSi6r-
ct6S Of lola, whose disciple she has
nevertheless become: with Nine. Mar
celle Tinayre interposing between them.
She is equally debtor TO both.
What has gone before in the life OF
Darrow and of Anna Leath, the
inC6nUC widow to whom he Is engaged,
and all that comes after has 10 be read
in connection with the Niner episode
Without that the book has no reason
for being a book. No other incident i'm
II has any constructive value. The
psychological significance OF the whole
lies in a minute study Of Mrs. Leaths
jealousy OF Miss Viner. The relations
between the two women. and Annals
discovery Of the real nature Of the rela-
tions between Darrow and Viner. are
depicted with infinite ingenuity. Mrs
Wharton has a gift of analysis and
gift Of narrative. The analysis tends
to become anatomical and the narra-
tive is too often oyerladen with trivial
details, but the gift is there. So here
we have a study of woman's master
motive by woman. Unuckily, only
one Of the two women IS alive. The
one character in the book in whose
veins real blood flows is Sophy Viner.
but not even in her IS passion. in the
true sense OF the word a genuine
thing. / can remember nothing in this
NJ In
toms which convinces you that she
knows what passion means and is.
Her appreciation Of il is intellectual-a
very different matter
The story turns. therefore. on the
minor passion Of Jealousy and she has
invented Mrs. Leath as convenient
means of pursuing her inquiries into
that. barrow, Of whom Mrs. Leath is
Jealous. is the merest lay figure; one
more variation upon many lay figures
In earlier novels, sometimes supposed
to be drawn from a single idealized
original in actual life You will seek
in vain for a real man; moving, think
ing. acting as a real man would move
or think or act. Mrs. Wharton regards
a man as an accumulation of qualities |
What is vital escapes her. She is con-
tent with the incidental. You wonder
that Sophy Viner should have given |
herself TO an abstraction and loved it. |
Mrs. Wharton provides you with an |
explanation. Nobody. SAYS Sophy, had |
ever been so good TO her. In other |
words, between a passionate love and |
an emotion Of gratitude there Is no dis |
tinction. Mrs. Leath RECEIVERS possess |
sion Of Darrow with no great difficulty. |
Later he betrays to his betrothed the |
secret OF the woman who has given |
him all she had TO give; a secret which |
a man Of honor holds sacred in all |
Then comes an endless
series OF inconsistent states OF feeling. |
both on his side and on hers. / cannot |
try to count how many times she re- !
sumes and releases him; until, as his |
mistress, 1.-The mortal sweetness Of low
ing him became again the one real fact |
in the world" There is a perpetual |
ebb and flow; she will and she will not:
until finally you cease to care, IL you
ever cared, whether she does or not. or
her semi-virginal curiosities.
on which Mrs. Wharton is forever
dwelling. are satisfied.
Nfrg Wharton ax.rnipa. H.