The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1914-02-15
.ou tho senboard.s


BY August Strindbers. Stewart g.
Kidd Company.
Axci Borg, no longer young, hyper.
educated and given to self analysis.
tired OF writing labels for algae, grew
weary of changing alcohol In the fish
collection. and turned his back on the
University and Royal Academy OF
Science to seek broader education in
travel For seven years instructors
and professors. Jealous of his genius.
sought to stifie 1t by assigning him to
unpromisfng tasks. When they set him
10 work III garnet TO assert and
classify Heterogeneous collection Of
minerals nc rebellcd.
Possessed of means left him by his
father. Borg dipped deep into the lore
of the Continent, followed at will the
life OF his many nations. and then
wearied of that, too. Ho longed for
his own country and u spot in which
TO rest. Therefore, he embraced gladly
the Crowns tender OF the post of fish
inspector at East Skerries, an isolated
customs part on the Atlantic coast of
Norway.
hostile hsherfolk population and
an island hamlet bitterly dcsolate,
drive Borg TO a mystical communion
with nature until tramp over the
rocks confronts him with Miss Mary,
who. In company with her mother. Is
spending summer vacation in East
Skerries. of all places in Christendom.
With the love story OF Borg and Miss
Mary on the all but dcsolate East
Skerries. Strindberg deals with more
or less effectiveness in tho novel, ION
the Seaboard." translated by Elizabeth
G. Wcstergren. The material is un-
promising, and the setting all TOO
severe for q satisfying tale Of love
even such n love as arises between the
representative Borg and the coarse
iibred Miss Mary. who, by the way, is
thirty-four and a woman with Il past.
Whether ii be the fault of transla-
ton or failing OF Strindberg's own,
one travels the 500 pages of the book
without once experiencing warming
Of the blood. Strindberg has placed
his hero in n tost tube. and he lee
lures philoEophically on the utter use
}essness OF love between the sexes cS
the man in the test tube writhcs under
the assault of Miss Mary's ensuaring
charms. Miss Mary, in the language
of one of tho characters, is the kind
of woman that n man never mar
RES and has Bella Donnas lure with
out her refinement.
The complication follows upon the
arrival of a young assistant whom the
crown has sent down to aid Borg In
his fish Investigations. Blom tnkes to
wocing Miss Mary. instead Of watch
ing the stroinling, and the young wo
see her acknowledged lover jealous,
permits herself TO be woocd. The out
come Is disastrous The quality Of
Borgs love undcrEoe3 metamorphosis,
and there comes n day when he recog-
nizcs II as mere desire. There fol-
lows a strong scene that belongs in
The asterisl5 class, and events rapidly
shape themselves for the end Re
morse, self disgust, and morbid intro
spection transform the punctilious
Borg into an unkempt mailman. and
the story ends with his padding out
in an open boat to n certain death in
the sea.
II Is anything hut cheerful tale,
10 begin with, and the stark North
lfnd adds note of severity that makes
il still more depressing. There are
long dissertations on ichthyology and
evolution, which point to the personal
studies of the author, and the derisive
Strindbergian outlook upon life is all
pervasive Tho love story, sordid as II
is, serves chiefly as 4 frail thread
upon which is strung much that be-
longs properly 10 the natural sciences.
a good deal that were .hctter placed
in a treatise on psychology. and still
moro that might be appropriate in Il
study OF the philosophy of August
Strindberg. L. l. j.