The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-06-29
VIRGINIA"
BY Ellen Glasgow Doubleday, Page

VIRGINIA"
BY Ellen Glasgow. Doubleday, Page &
Co.. New York.
In recent interview on her charming
book, "Virgiania,' Miss Ellen Glasgow
made some interesting comments upon
American literature.
There are three things a novelist has
to do to prove himself she said, first,
show an ability to create personalities;
second, exhibit a sincerity of style. and,
third, evince the capacity for an intelli-
gent criticism of life. Without these he
is not worth very much in serious big
way To contribute to this knowledge
and understanding of life-that should be
his motive in writing-not primarily to
create pleasant impression. We must
free ourselves from the fear of fear.
II really believe that one OF the great
est handicaps OF the American novel is
its agreeableness, it's tendency to support
the pretty sham instead of the ugly
truth. AS long as we persecute the writer
for not being pretty. SO long will we pro-
duce the surface fiction. We all need
deeper seriousness. deeper reason, and
wider personal freedom
AS is we'll known, Miss Glasgow is a
southern woman and her books deal with
of them are laid in the south in the period
following the civil war. Virginia is
laid at a later time, where the problems
of the south had taken on more of the
aspect Of the problems of the world.
Development, from one point of view
might be called the central theme of Miss
Glasgow's novel. "Virginia.'' for 1t deals
primarily with the transitional period In
the history of woman when 1t was first
being borne in upon people that life de-
manded something else of her than love
faithfulness and DISQUALIFICATION II
was being brought home to people thai
woman had wider place in society than
the confines of her home. Virginia" Is
the story of the development of a mans
mind and a woman's soul. and like all OF
Miss Glasgow's works, it is full Of cpl.
grammatic flashes of insight into iife's
true meaning. Nowhere in the whole
book does the situation sum itself up sc
powerfully as when Virginia comes te
realize what her married life amounts to
which is here quoted I'm part:
"She herself loved to talk, for she haG
inherited her mothers ability to keep VI
honeyed flow of sound about little
things; but she had learned long ago thai
there were times when her voice. rip
pling on about nothing only irritated him
and with her feminine genius for adapt
ability, she had made habit of silence
Companionship of a mental sor
had always been lacking between them
vet so reverently did she still accept tn,
traditional fictions of marriage that sh,
would have been astonished at the sug
gestion that love which could surviy,
the shocks of tragedy might at last fad,
away from a gradual decline of interest
- Going to his desk she took up {
photograph of Margaret Oldcastle ant
studied it for moment-not harshly, no
critically, but with a pensive question
ing. 1t was hardly beautiful face, bu
in it's glowing intellectually, it was tn,
face of woman of power. Blu
her intuition, rather than her thought
made her understand dimly that tn,
things she feared in Margaret Oldca stl,
were the qualities in which she hersel
was lacking. Whatever power the. wom
an possessed drew it's strength and it
completeness from a source which Vir
ginia had never recognized as being nee
essary or even beneficent to love-,
Poor Matilda! She is restless and dis
satisfied ,and she doesn't understand tha
it is because she has outlived her useful
ness At that time poor Matilda, ha,
seemed to her an old woman-but, per
haps. she wasn't in reality much over "a
How soon women grew old q generation
ago. Why, she felt as young today as sh,
did the morning on which she was mar
ried. She felt as young. and vet he
hair was craving, her face was wrinkled
and, like poor Matilda, she had outiivet
her usefulness. Though she stIl
felt young, it was not with the youth o
today. She had no part In the present
her ideals were the ideals of another ne
riod; even her children had outgrown her
She saw now with piercing flash of in
sight, so penetrating, SO impersonal, that
1t seemed the result Of some outside via
lon rather than of her own uncritica
Judgment that life had treated her as I,
treats those who give, but never demand
She had made the way too easy for others
she had never exacted OF them: she had
never held them to the austerity of theil
ideals"