New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-12-20
a DANISH TRlLOGY.

,,,rF THE CONQUEROR Boyhood;
~ Wartcn Andersen NeN6. Translated
to,, Tho Danish by Jessie Muir. Emo
mn. Vi so. Henry Holt co.
when. generation ago, Guy de
,.orrassant published his novels, mar
vols or condensation, in which there
nc moi p superiluous word and In
.,bicb each word was the only right
ono the theory was propounded--in
,,,o,ce q course-that the level of
o neoplo's civilization could he gagged
Ia. the length Of its fiction. The more
primitive a nations life, the theory
hold the less varied and complicated
its interests. the greater its leisure for
rsading: there was Russia to prove IT,
with the voluminous stories of DOS
.oYeysbv and Tolstoy. 1t was an n
eenious thesis, it held certain modi-
cum Of truth, but It has since been
5isproyed. The average level OF civil
iz,tiou has been raised considerably
tho world over during the last thirty
,.oars but the novel is showing
steadily increasing tendency To grow
longer again. Maupassant Daudet ana
q few other contemporary masters
,,c,e proved TO be eXccptions-even IN
,boir own day. lola chung to the rule
and it is France that has given US
tho longest of all modern works OF
a,tion. Roman Hollands "Jean-Chrls-
,ophe." There are several "trilogies
i, course Of publication in England to-
DAY.
Il &c appropriate that the American
nublishers of NJ. ROLAND should nave
undertaken the launching in this couh-
~, of a translation Of NeXos "Pele
The Conqueror." This translation is an
admirable piece of work, for WhlcH
Miss Muir should be thanked ana
Draised. As for the story itself that
is largely autobiographical and. in its
completed form. presents panorama
Of the progress of labor in country ana
town in Denmark during the last forty
wars. The first volume, now before
ne has been compared by an Engllsh
reviewer with Sudermanns rau
Soree.' but. As a matter Of fact II Il
but ore of many pictures Of peasant
life in northern Europe chiefly Ger
man. for the country Of Dame care
stretches from East Frisia along the
North Sea and the Baltic TO the lever
stretches where Prussia and RUSSIA
meet Eden Phillpotts's peasants are
cousins 10 these cherries, poverty
stricken strugglers FOR bare sustenance
with a niggardlA northern Mo'her
Earth: Zola's peasants are aHedu!
farther removed from them though
still linked to them by Fundamental
conditions. and-there is the point OF
view. What Zola-and Maupassant-
,evelled IN the Germans, with all their
modern naturalism. have kept in us
true relation TO this life as whole
and vexo treats its coarseness with a
restraint that robs it Of all offence.
To those who know the northern
raasantries OF Europe the chief value
Of the story Of Pelle's Boyhood Will no
doubt lie in it's pictures of the daily
life Of the farm and its hands. we
over here. entirely unfamiliar with us
conditions. viii find our greater inter-
est In its mastery study Of the child
Of the swedish farm laborer, one OF
many who annually emigrate TO Den
mark TO find work at better wages
This is no infant prodigy, but q nat
ural boy not so much self-centred as
only half-conscious Of what goes on
around him, accepting it unquestion-
ingIy as the things that are, while re-
cciving unconsciously his first training
for the struggle for life in the pasture
with the cattle he learns to manage
end master and, in winter, among the
bows at the primitive district school
In that training the father, too, has an
unconscious part. One Of the sub
merged. broken by toll and years he
instinctively seeks 10 remain hero IN
his BOYS eyes by Boosting, until the
child learns, again not altogether re-
alizing. that he is timid, inefficient, un-
reliable. and takes him under his own
charge instead. The author leaves his
young hero in this volume on the eve
Of his departure for a provincial town
to seek his fortune. Immediately AFTER
Lis confirmation. For among these prim-
tive I.utherans confirmation means
entrance upon independent existence.
The book is studded with pictures or
the barren country. the farm, the Ia
borers and maids, their toll and dreary
relaxations that remind one of the little
Dutch masters Of painting In their
fidelity 20 truth And ever the threat
ening northern sea OF the fishermen Is
within sight and sound.
A POIGNANT STORY.
PIrTI4DT1 nv e TcmDle