The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-02-21
Does Not Consider Mark Twain a Great Man but Declares
David Graham Phillips to Be Greatest Novelist
Who Has Yet Written i'm English

level of Schopenhaucr and Emerson;
more occupied. it is true, with practical
than with spiritual problems, taking
n greater interest in men and women
and their struggle for existence than
Emerson took, but with the same high
moral conscience and unilinching con-
demnatfon of greed and vice however
successful or however honored IN
Vanity Fair. The Master Rogue"
and the Light Fingered Gentry
show that he had read his society rs
deeply and truly as Balzac had read
his. when he declared that the banker
was the modern incarnation OF the
bandit. 'The Master Rogue Is an
early book and rather weak, monoto-
nous. too; it looks To- me as If in II
Phillips had tried TO picture an actual
man; 1t has many of the faults Of a
photograph: but in Light Fingered
Gentry" Phillips shows himself mas
ter of his material and paints a great
and memorable picture. His hero.
Armstrong, is almost n type; his ar
list is ever finer in his way though
not so sympathetically handled. and
the two women, Neva Carlin tArm-
sirong's wife) and Miss Siersdorf, are
very little short Of masterpieces.
In THE Second Generation" Phillips
shows the value If work and the dan
ger Of that opulent leisure which is the
main object Of Anglo-Saxon civiliza-
ton and indeed of nearly all present
day effort.
In THE Hungry Heart" and odd
Wives for New" and THE Husbands
Story" Phillips has given us studies
If men and women in their sex-re,a-
tons of the most astonishing truth and
beauty. In The Hungry Heart the
wife. thrust outside her husbands
daily work as a chemist and denied
any Intellectual companionship with
him. falls back at first on her W
ideals and makes her house n gar
dens beautiful and then. sti.l hungry
for communion of spirit. falls In love
with her husbands partner and gives
herself TO him, only to discover in time
his irrcmedial insutiicicncy. In the
end she returns to her husband again.
who is big enough to cordone her fault
and to condemn himself and his own
conduct as at least a Contrihut ny
Cause-a realistic study Of high ideals,
II "a most memorable book.
In old Wives for New the OBJ
verse bl lut lI'iitlu - I'dltu lUe
husband finds reason to leave his wife;
he has remained young and vital in
mind and body. she has let herself get
overladen both body and mlnd with
ad.pose tissue Of self-indulgence. The
husband. Murdoch. falls n love with
a remarkable woman, a Mss Raeburn.
a successful New York dressmaker.
After a railway accident. in which he
- snrfnft-'N IN itr.l WI t-irG,l hp,k
to life again 10y Miss Racburn. Muir
dock at length gets a divorce ana tilds
lis love.
The book : If extraordinary power
both husband and wife are realized
and painted to the life; the portrait
Of the wife in particular is simply
magnificent. The secondary charay-
tiers. the W children of the Muir
docks. Norma. who takes after h"r
father spiritually, and Charley. who in
her.ts his mothers weak !mpuls.vereSs
and lack Of fibre. are skctched with
equal mastery. and the subsidiary per-
sonaces preshury. the arrogant, force
ful New York doctor: BlaGden. the
American parasite. and even Muir
docks valet. are just as finely realized,
If not painted n such detail.
II We compare these two books 20
the best English work Of the time We
shall see at once their enormous SUI
periority. George Moore's Esther
Waters is a pale and feeble pastel in
comparison with this vivid, crowded,
glowing canvas; Conrad's best work
is off the line of human interest,
though there are magnificent pages IN
il Of description, seascapcS of haunt
ing beauty; Weiss passionate
Friends or "Tono Bungay" are
frankly inferior either as works u
art or as works Of the intelligence.
Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra" is per
haps cleverer, but not so deep, not
50 true, nothing like So permanently
Interesting; his Caesar is himself even
10 the humor. his Cleopatra a studio
sketch and not "A portrait; the sec
ondary characters too are not real
lied. they fad out; Arnold BENEFITS
odd Wives Tale" even though the
sisters are as well painted, contains
no mans portrait of equal worth, and
the interest of the story itself is far
slighter. | think of Hcwlett's work
Continued on Thrtccnth sPGgc.