New-York tribune., 1918-03-17
May Sinclair's War Novel.
"The Tree of Heaven"
Book Which Meets With Almost Universal Com
mendaton, Is Pronounced Better Than "Mr. Briting.
Another Strong British Reaction to the Great War

war that was threatening over in Ireland,
nor the feminist warfare Of the militant
suffragettes. Germany satisfied with
every preparation; England satisfied with
nothing but herself"
Miss Sinclair, observes one reader of
books, knows how to get the personal"
note into her war books-a note (which
some other novelists miss" And "she
gets it here, as she did in The Belfry,' by
making you vitality interested in the char
acters before she throws them into war"
$50 we have" adds another, "what Mr.
Wells could not give us, because he does
not think in terms of the individual"-
though the application, as it stood in the
review under quotation, was not definitely
quite so sweeping as the present juxtapo-
sition makes it appear.
ID Y THE way, as was perhaps inevita-
H1 BILE, the reviewers, right and left,
have been caught up into comparisons
linking "The Tree of Heaven" and "Mr.
Britling Sees 1t Through" In almost
every case the verdict swings to the favor
of the newer work, or at least accords it
an equal footing. The reviewer writing
in "The Brooklyn Eagle" offers this COM
ment:
"She treats of the same field that Mr..
Wells did in Mr.. Britling,' but from op-
poste point of view. Here is no philosophy
of what England and the world ought to be
because of the war; but concrete, definite
fact fpalinr To
England was before the and what she
has become in it. The story is not so broad
as Mr.. Wells's, but it is a great deal more
moving. 1t is more moving because of Miss
Sinclair's clearness of characterization and
her gift for making you like sometimes in
deed, love, her people"
Again, in "The Chicago Evening Post"
one finds this:
"Miss Sinclair has written a really good
novel upon the one of all themes that tempts
the novelist to drop into journalsm-the
reaction of England to the Mr.. Wells
dropped into journalism when he wrote 'Mr.
Rritling Sees 1t Through'-as he would be
the first to admit. But Miss Sinclair, deal
ing with the same circumstances, has written
q story of more enduring interest than Mr..
Wclls's tale and also of more present in
terest, because her novelists conscience has
not been luled by any philosophic vr re-
ligous zeal-although there is religion in
the book"
On the other hand, one review of the
many turned over by the present assem-
bier is unfavorable in this special connec-
ton. The review appears in the March
"Bookman," and the pertinent sentences
run as follows:
at deals with situation that is full of
promise; we all know that the world is
wrong, that society is upside down. that the
masses thrust upward apace-but we mean
to do something about it, mean to set
ourselves right side up, we through the
gloom of the promise of better things.
Miss Sinclair sees promise, she feels the
oppression of destiny, she depresses her
readers. Wells writes of the same changing
order, but the emphasis of his interest is
upon the desire of men for betterment and
upon the hope of the future; Miss Sinclair
sees no hope and feels desire. If she
only had little humor, little brlliance,
little optimism to ilumine her realism-but,
as Rupert Hughes would say, can't have
everything"
n EW books, perhaps, inviting discus
l. sion and demanding elaborate anay-
sis meet with the preponderance of praise
which "The Tree Of Heaven" has achieved.
1t is called passionately and vividy truth
full, consummate piece of art, book of
enthraling interest. The New York
Tribune called it "a work of extraordinary
power and worth" Yet paragraph from
"The New Republic" paragraph from
one Of the most enthusiastic of the re-
views, by the way-ought not to be omitted
from this survey. In it Miss Sinclair is
accused of seeing people romantically.
And therefore
"thrilling as The Tree of Heaven is it is
30 ecstatic to outlive the present mood.
The war is all Miss Sinclair makes it, but in
the end she prefers young gods to human
beings. She has not remembered the place
OF courage In the human role"