The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-11-06

A very common and SOMEWHAT
alarming type OF American girl Is
studied with a goou ocai OF thorough
ness by Dorothy Garfield in 1.-THE Bent
Twig'' HIenry Holt and Company.
Her moral sense is hardly percepiible:
she rebels against the restraints and
the standards OF her home; she Graves
fine clothes and luxury and all that
one can give, including the veneer
OF literature, music and art. and sets
great store on what the people she
looks up to may think of her; the
author chooses to save her with a
rood deal of violence from the logical
eau Of her actions more thar
once, otherwise she would either &c to
the bad or become a copy OF the heart
less worldly woman who Is held up to
Reproduction. II is careful, well done
literary work, IA blending Of realistic
pictures with lectures on q variety or
subjects that interest the author,
skflfully disguised as conversation.
The heroine as a child has an eccen-
tric, back 10 nature bringing up: not
a few college communities have de-
veloped in some form or other families
like hers. AS a college student she
shows an unusual amount OF
ness and Greek letter societies seem
moro important than education; her
behavior with young men too is lack
ing In discretion. Then when She has
attained the mature age Of 20 a rich
aunt gives her IA taste Of the life OF
luxury she Is mad for, with the society
Of millionalres and Of overrefined
esthetes: this gives II opportunity
for much cultured and episrammatic
conversation In which the girl holds
up her end brilliantly. She follows
her ~lnclinations with no great qualms
Of conscience. but Is brought back to
the sentiments she should have by
her mothers death. The many other
people In the story are more natural
n interesting because they are moi
dissected so scientifically; the impress
sion the author gives of the heroine
is that The American college girl is
fearfully and wonderfully made.
That a clerk in a business house
should suddenly tire of his job and
prefer 10 take n sea voyage, as the
hero of win Lexington Comforts Lot
& Company George II. Doran Com
pany) does, seems natural enough. We
regret that the members Of the firm
should he such hypocritlcal scoundrels,
and that the hero should leave them SO
abruptly, but SO long AS it is done
there seems to be no reason why he
should think any more about them,
His interest in The young woman who
sings seems also exaggerated. by the
time the reader has become accus-
toned to his trick of introspection he
a embarked on a voyag round the
Horn with a queer ships company,
There Ia a shipwreck, a siege Of hun
ger and thirst in an open boat, with
the revelation OF the character of his
fellow voyagers Why after he has
been saved he should rush from New
Zealand TO New York to straighten
u matters he does not care for
greatly Is a mystery. lie sensibly re-
turns to the young woman he adj
mired In the boat. 1t is an extremely
we'll written story, and the figures IN
it are we'll drawn; we wish we could
sympathize with the hero's state OF
mind. but he acts and reasons as
though he had been drugged.
The same idea Of "A clerks gorge
rising against his job and his EN-.
ployer has occurred to Edwin Lefcvre
In III. r." tHarpers). but there Is NJ
mysticism in this hero's makeup, II
~ a wild dream of the unchecked
triumph of ~effrontery. 4 large stocl
OF that and physical strength consti.
tute his capital. That he easily sue.
ceeds in attracting the attention of 6
New York crowd nay he accepted
that even with the use OF promoters
methods he manages to obtain every
thing he wants on credit Is rattle
harder to believe. but the story woulC
collapse unless We do, Each chaptel
records a new triumph OF ~impudence
nothing ingenious OF brilliant, simply
undiluted assurance. 1t Is the sor
Of funniness h calls for a quicl
succession of incidents for its success
With a good many readers. We i'm
agine, the story will soon pail. anC
the hero will become a good deal Of
bore.
The greater part OF Ellen Thorney
croft POWERS Ten Degrees Back
ward" George II. Doran Company /
old bachelors love for a young cir
, The author has gained control of he
tendency for epigram aud has devised
characters that can utter her brigh