New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-10-17
FEET OF CLAY.

TIE HOUSE OF DECEIT. limo. pr. S'2.
Henry Holt & co.
After several recent attempts to use
anonymity as a whip to curiosity, hers
is at last a novel the secret of whose
authorship really piques our interest
THE House Of Deceit" we are in
formed, Is the work of a man init
mately acquainted with his subject
whose books are we'll known in Great
Britain and America. He assures Us,
in a brief predatory note, that the
story he tells is neither founded upon
nor aimed to represent, however in
directly, any English politician in real
life-and yet one gropes constantly
among his memories Of British public
life from the days of Gladstone's Pre-
miership in the 70's to those of Ran
dolph Churchill's Tory Democracy, and
| thence down even to our own time
and Mr.. Lloyd George. That the author
knows his subject is abundantly clear;
what is more, he handles it with con-
summate skill. Not in several years
have we had so competent and inter
esting a novel of British public life.
Whether England in the present crisis
will find time and interest to solve the
problem of the authors identity re-
mains to be seen. One can only hope
/ that he will in good time consent to
the revelation of his name.
This, then, is the story of a leader
| of the common people, who, making
| his enthusiasm wait upon selfish am
/ bition, loses what soul he has in the
/ beginning. and the world as well. He
| starts at thrty-fve. a narrow minded,
/ ill-bred struggler for life, with the
ambition Of forming a Nonconformist
party. and of making himself its leader.
| The misery Of the British working
/ classes turns him into radical; the
| temptation of Office converts him 70
the milder tenets OF Liberalism. But
/ in the end he. who dreamt of the Pre-
miership, of supreme power, goes down
/ in defeat, the victim of expediency.
! Throughout he is hampered and baked
/ by his poverty, by the realization o.
/ the handicap which the lack of money
| imposes upon the Brton who would
make his career in his country's public
/ life.
This is the bare skeleton Of the
story, whose value lies even more in
it's study OF this mans character than
in its picture of the times, for II THE
House OF Deceit" be good politlco-his-
torical fiction IL is an even better
human document This demagogue is
neither all good nor all bad; he rises
TO great heights, but lacks the final
touch of character Therefore does he
fail 10 make himself the master of cir
cumstance. the author taking pains. how
ever, TO make US see how strong is the
circumstance that leads him through
lack of sincerity and its compromises
into the house OF deceit. That house
is divided against itself; the flaw in
the foundation is his hypocrisy, the
pretence and the pretension wherewith
he cloaks his self-seeking ambition.
That flaw his enemy discovers, and he
one of his own house, his rich father
in-law, a representative OF the intol-
Grant upper class Nonconformity of
the period, even as the demsgogue's
/ own parents are representatives of the
Connection in humber spheres. Social
influences, too. hamper the progress Of
this giant with he feet of clay; for,
rising, he develops mis- share, though
not more, of the snobbery that is a
Briton's cherished birthright. His
wife, poor, well-meaning. simple soul,
is socially impossible among the con-
sorts of even a Liberal Cabinet; he
grows ashamed OF her. seeks sympathy
from snother-but here, too, after the
first moment of fine enthusiasm, he