New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-11-27
DAVID PENSTEPHEN.
DAVID PENsTEPHEN By Richard Pryce. I'm
Do 9e4 The Houshton Mifln Company

DAVID PENsTEPHEN. BY Richard Proc. l2mo.
Do ss4 The HousntOn Mifnn Company.
We have made Mr.. Pryce's acquaint-
ance backward, so to speak. He hrst
came to us from England some eight
years ago with an amazingly clever
book, "The Successor" which now as
I much as ever deserves the attention
of lovers of fiction that is art in its
delineation Of character and its paint
! ing of environment and atmosphere,
| story. moreover, leavened with wit
The book, one remembers. received but
a lukewarm reception from the reading
public. however enthusiastic the praise
of the reviewers. Then followed an
interlude of silence on the authors
part, so far as this country was con-
cerned, at least, whereupon his present
publishers, wisely speculative, one Pc
iieves, brought out his earlier BOOKS.
These served at least to give evidence
of steady progress and promise iikeiy
10 be still fulfilled.
And now comes David Penstephen,
Mr.. Pryce's latest novel and his best
tbus far. Clever it is, but 1T IS far
more than that. 1t is exquisitely sen
sitive in its Interpretation OF chlld 5
wander face TO face with the contus-
ing. yelled, accidental glimpses OF
the mystery in its own life and that
of its parents. Mr.. Pryce, in fact, taxes
US back to the origins OF what are sun
to-day ultra-modern views OF the rights
of the individual in opposition 10 the
pressure of social convention and the
law. Mr.. Penstephen, Davld's 1ather'
fought the battle of liberty against the
tyranny of society, Of science against
the obscurantism of religion IN the
DAVIS of Darwin and Huxley, those FAR
off Victorian days when intolerance II,
mower begot intolerance as blind ana
yindictive in opposition. Mr.. Penste-
phen, the well-born writer Of radical
Pamphlets. the enemy Of traditional
shackles, decided that he would prove
his principles by dispensing with the
marriage ceremony. His betrothed, the
daughter Of a no less radical scientist
consented to the arrangement, though
disappearing of it at heart. In nothing
was She more typically Victorian than
in her meek submission to the anu
Victorian programme of her lover. She
had her silent misgivings -consclen-
tious, religious and SCOTLAND events
proved her to be right.
Driven from England by the con-
domination of their class, driven from
place to place on the continent by out
ragged British respectability on its
travels, the family feels the brand, the
man defiant ever, the woman ever more
deeply. but always silently submissive
And little David wonders at the snubs,
the whisperings, the sudden fittings.
IL is he who will suffer all his life for
his fathers convictions; and his mother
has realized it since the day Of his
birth. We have had child studies with
out end in our English fiction of late,
but Mr. Pryce's David stands apart. He
is worth our while in the perhaps some
what over-detailed chronicle of his
Childish days. He grows ever better
worth our while as he advances through
boyhood to youth, until the truth, anx-
jously withheld, suddenly flashes upon
him at the first house party which he
attends. For Mr.. Penstephen conforms
when his eyes are suddenly opened to
Inc unhappiness his wife endures for
the sake of his principles, which she
has never shared and which in secret
she abhors. He marries her, and then
Unexpectedly succeeds to title.