The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-01-02

The Paris to which all good Ameri- 4
cans go when they die has made a deep |
impression on Claude &. Washburn. !
Who writes Gerald Northrop" Duf- |
field and Company, the biography of
a youth afflicted with a mania for self
analysis. Though the author thinks he
has endowed his hero with a French |
strain he seems to oe very common
product of our American colleges, IN
his preciosity, his love for a philosophic
vocabulary, his sclf-assurance and his
disinclination to work This is height !
ened by his being freed from money
cares and his belief in his aristoCratic
birth. which makes him superior to
the people about him and permits him
20 forget his manners with women and
other men. Save at the very end the
author does not allow him to do any
thing but talk and think over his emo
tions he does Use automobiles, but ex-
cept for that there is no hint as to how
he puts in his time habitually. His self
examination is ingenious and Is anus
ing for a time but he does not get very
far in IL and constant harping on the
same point becomes tiresome after a
while. In Paris he is carried away by
a love affair, which comes to grief
not as the author fancies on account of
the Puritan strain in the youth or his
inability TO accept the young woman's
past, but because the two lose sight
Of their love and themselves in their
desire to analyZe the situation precisely.
There Is much soothing at the vulgarity
Of American cities and the humbug in
American aesthetic and literary culture
and overmuch admiration OF what mod
,rn Paris offers in music and art The
it certainly represents a mood that uni
versity graduates have to work out of,
hut tine psychology is pretty juvenile.
the characters have no chance to de-
velop naturally but are obliged to work
out the authors theories. and the range
OF Ideas subjected TO dissection is very
limited The knowledge OF Paris
streets displayed is profound
Though academic awards are Of slight
consequence in the eyes of the public
as the French Academy demonstrates
usually in the distribution of It's literary
prizes. the selection of Andre Lafon's
innocuous and perfectly respectable
Jean GILES, SChoobOy" &c. p. Put
MANS Sons) as the finest work in ele-
waited imaginative prose that it could
discover in the year 1912 may Indicate
the level To which the art Of fiction has
sunk in France. Tho young writer's
seek to distinguish themselves either by
excessive artihCiality OF language and
sentiment or by extreme simplicity. The
latter is the merit of NJ Lafons book,
which is tho record Of the feelings and
impressions OF a SHY, lonely nine-year-
old boy in his school and in his uu-
happy home, 4 tragedy seen through a
child's eyes explains his fathers cruelty
N IN III nd es
realistic that he transmits the vague
ness OF the childs ideas about the people
around him and his schoolmates: the
impressions Of terror. Of religious func-
tions and of nature are very vivid. The
translation by Lady Theodore Davidson
is so literal that, while the word for
word rendering may obscure the mean
ing in English, it conveys a marked
sense OF the simplicity and elegance of
the authors French. II is "A pretty and
gentle story, showing individuality that
would attract attention at any time, but
which would have been overshadowed
by dozen or twenty better or equally
good books in any year when the
generation of which Anatole France is
the survivor was young.
The short sketches OF Irish country
life and people contained In the Rev.
CThe Ave Maria, Notre Dame, Ind) are
charming. Many contain interesting
stories: in all the people are llfelike
and natural and the descriptions are
vivid. The little book will make exilcs
from Erin homesick, for the author tells
only Of the things they like to re-
member.
In THE Jewel Of Their Souls" CDuf-
field and Company Susan Taber de-
scribes with great elaburateness a num-
Der OF disagreeable people, dwelling
chiefly on their faults. What story
there Is is the very commonplace one
OF married woman falling in love with
a man who IL not her husband. They
seem to make no struggle against temp
tation, but are saved from any impro-
priety by the husbands misbehaVior
which enables the wife To obtain a di-
vorce. The woman in the case shows
great baseness to the hysterical re.
former who drags the affair into the
newspaper. 1t is difficult to become in
terested in the people or their doings.
A thoroughly disconnected woman
tells with much energy and certain
amount Of eloquence how she has beer
misunderstood and made use of bS
others in altogether Jane" CMitchcl
Kennerley), and We fancy that pretty
nearly every other woman must fee
as she does when she works hcrsel
up to the same mood, The author il
reticent about the incidents that caus'
her heroine discomfort; all literary as
pirsnts must chafc at house work Tit
reader will lose sympathy with the her
oine when she becomes entangled II
sordd intrigue with an unworth!
Spanish American, and will not care 10
the details of that AFFAIR or the rhap
sodies over the lost lover. That episod
cuts the ground from under the pre-
vious long justification of the heroine
attitude toward life and her family.