New-York tribune., 1918-06-02

treacherous day, a sunny day,
sunniest day that ever I knew,
thing crawled near, cut me in two,
| that once was long like you
Had one of the mountain trolls recited
these ophic-realistic stanzas the
enmeshed Peer Gynt might, in his char
acteristic fashion, have said that they
"struck him as misty" On the other
hand one can conceive of a more SYM
pathetic appreciation at the hands of
Mary Webb, whose latest novel, "Gone
to Earth" has been taxing good many
of the reviewers to the utmost of their
critical enthusiasm. For in this work
one comes upon the following sentiment:
The echoes in US of great voices
long gone hence; the unknown cries of
huge beasts on the mountains; the sullen
aim creatures in the slime; the loye-cal of
the bittern. We know too. echoes Of
things outside our ken-the thought that
shapes itself in the bees brain and becomes
a waxen box of sweets; the tyranny of
youth stirring in the womb; the crazy ter.
ror of small slaughtered beasts; the upward
?
in all its veins the cold rain; the ceremonial
that passes yearly in the emerald temples
of bud and calyx-we sacrifice on those al
tars. And the future acts on the current
OF our blood like a secret agony. We hear
the ideals Of our descendants like songs in
the night, long before our irst-born is be-
gotten. We, in whom the pollen and the
dust, s2routlng grain and falling berry, the
dark past and the dark future, cry and call
we ask, Who is this singer who sends his
voice through the dark forest and inhabits
us with ageless and immortal music and
sets the long echoes rolling for evermore ?"
So much for worms and echoes AS
for the book itself, there are those who
having read it through, do not hesitate
to pronounce 1t a masterpiece. Opposed
to them are others who find the achieve
ment not so felicitous. To which may
be appended the synthetic self-evident
reminder that no book, however great,
has succeeded in giving unmixed delight.
The most ardent believer in "Gone to
Earth is perhaps the reviewer of books
for The New York Sum-" who does not
hesitate to pronounce it ''the most i'm
pressve novel since Thomas Hardy gave
US Tess of the d'Urbervilles. The
book left this writer ''in whirl''-
"a bewildering mental turmoil a confusion
of inner voices like the mighty murmur of
talk and exclamation that bursts out in an
audience after the performance of piece
of matchless music"
everywhere acclaim: among all the inner
hot
sharpest accents of delight: the verdict, the
complex verdict of personal thought and
personal feeling, is completely in support
OF MISS Vests pronouncement."
Oh, yes, and the pronouncement of
Rebecca West must not be left out
This English writer, whose novel, THE
Return of q Soldier will be discussed
here IN the near future, calls Mary Webb
the years discovery And more than
that:
She is genius, and I shouldn't mind
wagering that she is going to be the most
distinguished writer of our generation"
But there are less glowing tributes. A
number of reviewers = notably those
writing in The New York Times" "The
Savannah Morning News" Detroit Sat
urday Night" 1.-The Seattle Post Intelli-
gencer" and "The San Francisco Chron.
lcle,' have noted, in strikingly similar
phraseology, that the people of the book.
or especially Hazel Woodus, its heroine,
are essentially 'story-book folk"
She was of race that will come in
the far future. when we shall have out
grown our egoism," Mary Webb tells Us
OF the heroine. To which writer 10
The Philadelphia Evening Telegram
replies:
we nope not race OF such persons
as hazel Woodus would set the world verse
than topsy-turvy. 1t would set it mad"
The ethical side is Interestingly treat
ed by number of reviewers. The New
Orleans Times-Picayune" regrets the
gradual spirit of hopelessness and de-
SPAR which finally covers the book.
Is too morbid-funeral wreaths at ths
beginning, unbehef at the end" "The
Catholic World" says:
In this day when the worlds need
Tor courageous effort, any contribution
the gospel of surrender and despair how
ever great its artistic merit, is not only VT
called for, it is most unwecome."
The Advance" writes:
This is depressing story of rural ~
IN England. with animal passion deminss.
and triumphant The title ought not 70
Gone to Earth for the characters who wsH
earthward went further"
Nearly all the critics are agreed -
what "The Catholic World" calls ~
books "artistic merit"