The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-12-22
r1Itt4 sun. SUNDAY. pEcEMnEn y. 1918.

an hour ana time ami nail Tor overtime ipr -
DOING Nobody but DR. WHIrrFoRD, who takes up
the literary burdens of weary humanity and, by
giving a book like MOtircs III English Fiction.
saves mankind from shipping in the unventilated
holds of the three deckers .-.E
WHITEFoRD is patient with these old timers. He
does not set out TO tell the reader what to read He
is guide He shows us the goods of three cen
turtles. Here mad ladies, if you wish to hear
the gibber of Bedlam. Here are our weeping gen
tlemen; let them SWIVEL their best 1t is in speaking
of HENRY MACKENzIE's Nan of Feeling that the
author utters about his only adverse criticism. He
admits that he can't find much sympathy for any
of MACKENZIE novels.
Old Fellows VS.. New Fellows.
DR.. WHITEFoRD has deved most deeply in the
past, but he is not utterly neglectful Of modern
writer's Does any modern approach SCoTT? Well
in certain passages STEVENSON in Kidnapped and
again in The Master Of BGllGntrde, and Sir GILBERT
PARKER in The Seats of the Mighty, and again in
When FdlmOnd Came to Pontiac, have struck Sir
WALTERS fire. but the admission is grudgingly
made. DE MORGAN is received as fairly good sue
ceSSOr TO DICKENS. Is ARNOLD BENNETT the new
THACHERAYf DIR. WHITEFORD appears not to have
discovered it. He passes over Mr.. BENNETT (who is
referred 10 i'll the index as ENoCT \. BENNETT by
remark;ng that that author is indebted "a MARIA
EDGEwORTH for his cross sections of English cOun-
try life and that GEORGE ELIOT made i possible for
BENNETT to pass from the analysis of one individ-
ual TO the 'micrOScOpica section of a whole com
munty.'
G. b. SHAW is considered as one of the worthy
workers along SwIFT's line and II. G. WELLS is
specially treated as one of the secretaries of
Utopia who have been writing of the ideal since
MORE produced Utopia in 1921. DR.. WHTEFoRD
Furnishes HARDY for all his atheisc sins by linking
him with HuI. CAME. CHEsTERToN and GALS
WORTHY are not mentioned at all the critic las
been so busy with the past
Americans Who Get In.
How about American authors2 Well of course,
COOPER and IRVING and HERMAN MELVILLE have to
be considered ERNEST Poole and WINSTON
CHURCHILL are mentioned in passing. TARKINGToN
is not named at all, although DIR. WHITEFORD dwells
types of boys in old fiction, specifically HARRY
CLINTON and those juvenile prigs, SANFORD and
MERTON. Perhaps the critic is saving his good
American characters for a separate book let us
cept the present volume one practically devoted
TO the writers of Great Britain and particularly
those writers who are dead and whose works
long that they approached only with a struggle.
With these limitations HOttUeS IN English Fiction
is, as we have limited, an invaluable work for such
of wish to shine up our memories and our
opinions without spending the whole winter over a
dozen books. Why go about believing that Sir
THOMAS MALLORY is the president of a steamship
line when here you have his MoRTE DARTntR con-
densed into twelve pages of zippy stuff? Why
make the painful effort TO read Tristrdm Shaady
when DR.. WHTEFORD describes it in such way
that you may 90 TO any intellectual gathering and
agree with the fulsome opinion of those liars who
tell you that they read STERNE in toto every year
regularly? Why read the five volumes of Camilla
when DIR. WHITEFoRD tells you in two pages all
that is worth while in it and you can save hours
of time TO be better employed looking in the win
dOwS of hardware StoreS7
Seriously, it is useful book, the eviict result
of tireleSs years of study.
KAISERS OF MORALITY.
TN that SOmbre time which seems to lie ahead Of