The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-02-20
GOSSIP Of AUTHORS AND TFIEIR WORF
WALPOLE'S NOVELS
IN COLLECTED FORM
introduced With Flourish Of
Trumpets by British
Heralds.
SIX PRETTY GOOD BOOKS

with q flourish Of trumpets by Mr.. Ar
nold Pennett, Mrs. Belloc-Lowndes and
other less known British heralds Hugh
walpole IL introduced. on the occasion
Of the publication OF his collected nov
els, as a master novelist" His 1T
erary baggage consists Of six books.
in the order Of their production: THE
Wooden Horse" "Maradick at Forty"
The Gods and Mr.. Perrin" The
prelude to Adventure" "Fortitude'
and ''Thc Duchess of Wrexe" George
II. Doran Company. In these he DEM
oustrates that he can write very good
! English and that he has trained his
powers Of analysis and observation; he
shows too that, in some instances AT
least. he can make people human and
lifeiike. We should say too that H.
has noticed the literary fashions. The
point on which all his tales turn Is the
supreme desirability of "adventurc'
and tho need to strike at conventions.
1n his first story, The Wooden
Horse" his hero, who has lived in New
Zealand. finds himself ostraclzcd on
returning 10 his Cornish home be-
cause he behaves naturally and dis
regards the conventional ideas OF those
around him. lie seeks the old Cornish
fishermen he used to know and has
nothing 20 do Will the summer resort
own He Ia opposed by his sister, who
has ruled the house and brought up
his son in "A strictly conventional way.
He helps the hoy out of n scrape, which
Is described with much subtle analysis
OF character. but he is the n live
person in the book. II Is an interest
ing and promising piece of work, with
plenty of humor, Of satire and OF bright
epiCrams.
This was followed nv 'Naradick al
Forty a really fine story. II tells how
the atmosphere Of a Cornish seaside
town demoralizes tho summer visitors.
Tho hero. a staid. successful business
man. is stirred ont Of his rut 10 enci-
neer the love affair ~ an amiable
youth till he elopes with tho girl. He
does a number of prepoSterous things.
wakes up the dormant love Of his wife
and starts on a new lease OF life. II,
makes friends with an itinerant Punch
and Judy man VIII is "a philosopher. 90
tribute to the open road school. There
is human sympathy and life in III,
book n the people are not puppcts.
Moreover. there Is plenty Of Cornwall
II of the sea in il.
With The Gods and Mr.. Perrin" Mr..
Walpole takes a decided step back as
a novelist. though perhaps not in ar
d ftGfts sngh,tnt,. l. -, l..
realism Of a sordid kind. the picture nr
the ~1ealousies and Of teach
ers in an English boarding school 4
small boys loathing for the whole
business seems to color tho analysis OF
motives and feelings. There Is a n,t
fight between two teachers over a
stupid triftc, one mans "~adventure' g.,
strlkinC his wife. anothnrs "advpn-
ture,' the elimination OF the story. Is
declaring In public what he thinks Of
the school. There IL no human quality
IN any OF The people. they are Sper.-
mems undcr the miscIosCopc. Tie
same fault appears in The Prelude g.
Adventure. a carefully developed the
s!S with UNDERGRADUATE life at the un
versity for "A background. The story
Is a modern version Of Eugene Aram :
the hero Kills another man and feels
no compunction for Il. the author TAX
Ing the ground that murder ia jus,i-
nan!e IN tho case OF persons who are
sufficiently bad. The Young man "a,
ilrst breads being found out. then he
has "A horror of something supcrrlt-
ural which leads hum 10 a conscious
ness OF God. Thercupon no makes q
, clean breast Of II TO the persons con-
cerned and sets out on a tramp in
: order to ~strtlghten ont his IDEAS.
In "FoTitude' and THE Duchess Of
WrcNe,' already reviewed in TUr SrN
Mr.. Walpolc rcverts To novel writing
he still has his theses To expouud and
mis- analyses To carry out, but he
understands that II he is to tell a story
he must put life into some of his
people at least. In "Fort!tudc" he is
helped by the genuine fondross for the
cornish coast that he has formed and
by a ral sympathy for the fisher
people.
After pcrus.nE carefully Mr.. Wal
| pole : output So far we can say for
nm that he writes extremely good I'm.
clean English, like a score Of Other
young British authors, and that a.
ne mas written is well worth reading,
mat he has the equally common kuack
> ~ dissecting character and motives In
a rather unkindly way. that he Is
, wholly free from the pornogrsrhic
, streak tina crops ont IN many
young writers, hat In four Of his
novels ne allows himself 10 give way
To sentiment and natural feelings
enough TO ElVa life IN Soma 80 Ia.
=, people, that he has vivid impressions
! If somewhat limited experiences of
life which are manifested in tho de-
scriptions OF Cornwall n the sea. in
the common people whom he likes and
In the unpleasant memories of school
and university life, that he has read
widely in literature and, like one of
. his youths. is inclined to look nc
further back than Meredith for his
models, that his judgments arr clever
!, and his ppIgr1mg lriltlf md tim, g., &c