New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-10-25
THE OLD ORDER cHANGETH.

THE OLD OROEh C7HNOG H.
THE CORYSTON FAMILY. A Novel, by
Mrs Humphrey Ward. lllustI ated by
Elizabeth Shipper Green. Emo, PIP. SO.
Harper IL Bros.
Mrs. Wards ambition has oerleaped
itself ever since she began to write
that series Of her later novels when
she manifestly intended to be for her
contemporaries and no doubt for pos
terity as well. n fictional chronicle Of
English political and social life during.
the Victorian. Edwardian and now the
Georgian periods. Throughout her
outlook has been too narrow, her field
too restricted. her sympathies have
been too intensely aristocratic. Ever
since she became a celebrity she has
been dazzled by the grace and dignity
and beauty Of the lives of the privl-
legged few who took her up" as the
social saying goes. This glamour has,
for one thing. blinded her per-
manently to the fact that the 8s-
thetic perfection of the life Of the
elect Of England has been bought at
q ruinous cost to the nation at large.
she has given us glimpses Of this cost
in many of her novels, but always for
emotional rather than politico-econom-
ic reasons. That portentous cnanBe
is coming she perceives, but with ap-
prehension and regret. One cannot
help comparing her attitude OF admira-
ton with the utterly detached objec-
tivity OF John Galsworthy in such
book as The Country House." which.
too deals with the changing old order
and the approach Of the new.
But she can tell a good story. and
The Coryston Family" is one OF her
best of recent years. 1t never for a
moment tells itself plot and characters
nearly all Of them unsympathetic-
are never allowed to slip out Of the
authors always visible hands; even
the imperious, managing Lady Cory
ston is palpably puppet but the book
reads well and holds one TO the end.
There are here, as in all Mrs. Wards
books, instances Of her habit Of in
genously lodging difficulties, as when
she resorts 10 straight narrative where
revealing dialogue is required by all
but the most unsophisticated OF read
ers. but these are matters TO which We
have been accustomed these many
years.
Lady Coryston, a very great Eng
lish lady indeed has had but
one passion in life-politics and
power. She has rule her nus
band to such an extent that, on his
death, he has left her all the family
property, the entail having ended with
his life And now Lady Coryston IS
attempting 10 rule her children as she
rules her tenantry, who must vote as
she Wills, who must go TO church and
not TO chapel, who must pretend TO be
happy under the tyranny Of good, old
Tory landlordism.
But her children rebel. This is
story to-day. Asquith and Lloyd
George are In power. Her eldest son,
the new Lord Coryston. kept out OF his
inheritance, turns radical and attacks
her in her own domain. He breaches
radicalism TO her own tenants, he
builds a Baptist chapel at her very
gates. The second son, whom she has
sent to Parliament from the constitu-
ency she controls. falls In love with the
daughter OF the most rabid member OF
the Cabinet, and her daughter refuses
TO make a suitable match with fam
atical High Church peer on account OF
a tragedy caused by his and his fathers
rabld stand on the question OF remar-
riage after divorce.
Thus motives become not only min