New-York tribune., 1918-01-13
<'The Green Mirror" b
Hugh Walpole
"A fine novel, graphing with the great ironics
of mother love-" 1t is also described as "a very
charming love story"

bravely with the great ironies of mother
love-"
CURTIS LUBLIN, in "Town and Coun-
- try" expresses annoyance over what
he considers a press agent liberty:
Sometimes perfectly good thing can be
press agented to death. Only once in CEN
tury a product Of human ingenuity live
up to what its friends say about it, OF course
there are exceptions the Milan Cathedral,
the Merry Widow and the hors dpuvres at
the Ritz-but Hugh Wapoes THE Green
Mirror is not in their class. 1t is very
readable book, discussable, enjoyable, even
thought provocative novel of the realistic type;
but it is not a half, not half Of half of half
as portentous, epoch making as the fluent
gentleman who wrote the cover jacket would
have us believe. Of course that sort Of
thing is his business-but the effect is like
beating boiler with hammer prelude
to pastoral symphony. 1t put us thor
oughly out Of key for what followed. He
expanded definite hint, one might even say
ORDER from Mr.. Walpole, however, for the
latter himself thus epitomizes his own book:
"'lt isn't good for people to have a woman
, on the throne for sixty years. SO
we've slept and slept The Old Lady died
Suddenly England was an island no
longer. She's got to pay attention to other
to look out of her window instead of just
snoozing on the sofa, surrounded by her
mid-Victoran furniture. Everythngs crack
ing: new classes are coming up, old classes
are going down. Birth is nothing; autoc-
racies are anachronisms. . volcanoes
coming. Everything will be blown sky-high.
Young Marks just one of the advance guards
He's smashing up the Trenchards with his
hammer-the same way that all the families
kp Emo hniu
smashed up. The good old backbone of
England has got spine disease
Nov this is very effective bit of writing
but it won't bear analysis and comparison
with the rest of the book. According to the
quotation we should have a national epic
unrolled before us, drums and cymbals. the
tread Of a million hob-nailed boots and the
rumble of artillery on the far horizon"
Whereas, what one really gets, accord
ing to this critic, is
"a very carefully and yet nervously writ
ten study of the situation resulting when
Young Man with Imagination tries to marry
the most essential member of a closey-knit |
and very self-satisfying and complacent fam
lily group. 1t is only through real herosm |
that they attain their marriage and their
freedom. The situation is worldwide rather
than local. And this in spite of an
paraphernaiia of the pseudo picturesque Of /
which the creaky machinery of the green
mirror from which the book derives its title /
is horrible example. We fear Mr.. Walpoles
recent visit to Russia has made him deter
mined to be symbolic at all costs. Either
that or interpretative, as the long quotation
above shows"
But Mr.. Lublin is ever so much more
complimentary before he gets through
Toward the end of his review one reads:
"In addition to being serious treatment
of real question in personal relationships |
'The Green Mirror is very charming love
story. indeed, it IS sane and we'll mott
waited account Of two cleanly minded and |
healthy young persons falling vehementy |
into love with each other as we can recall in
recent years. Much as some of the charac-
ters in tie book may worry about the state
of their souls, the two lovers do not worry
about their affection for each other. It, is,
and Mr.. Wapoe makes you feel it, the most,
and, in the last analysis, the Only important
thing in their lives.''