New-York tribune., 1919-11-15
Sir Harry
Gentle Beauty in Novel
By Archibald Marshall

York ' >''
Mr.. Marshall should not be read in
hurry. Those who have followed him.
without fatigue, through the history Of
the Cllntons and his other novels know
that his pen is leisurely. At times
there Is more than suspicion that it
is doubling on it's carefully chosen
uacs tracks n, and sueh repetition is not al,
Royd Castle and its interesting in
habitants leaves little to conjecture
Making people see, Mr. Marshall warns
on his first page, is literature. But
compelling imagination as we'll as eye
sight is also literature's privilege In
$40 pages of writing so expansive that
1T sometimes elaborates even the in
tinitesimal, Mr.. Marshall makes US see,
and see through and around, over and
under every character.
IT read in mood as leisurely as the
manner of its writing. such analysis,
despite it's frequent resemblance to dis
tons sake, is continually interesting.
The average reader, however, must have
little William Dean Howells in his
nature to accept almost constant analy-
Sis with sincere grace; he may be ex-
cused for protesting when the story is
worried into corner and held there in
analytical chains too long. But he
must not forget that he is readins
tragedy. The inevitable failure of
Lady Brent's plan to shield young Sir
Harry from world in which his father
married beneath him is nothing less
than tragedy. And tragedy requires
plyyci Of
The tide of this tragedy never runs
wildly. Its sequence of common events
flows with determined placidity. Its
people are never violent, it's situations
stormy only in their undercurrent. All
the characters are likable Even Mrs.
Brent, unfortunate mother of Sir
harry, for years shut away from her
own world with Harry to help shield
hlm from it, comes through Lady
brent's final scathing arraignment Of
her selfishness with the weight of SYM
pathy on her side. Watching for the
fairies in the garden at midnight,
Jane, secretly laying his heart at Vio-
las. feet near the hidden woodland
pool, or running away to play mans
part for England in the great war, Sir
Harry, page by page, is JOY. We
must admit he is as beautiful as every
one around him repeatedly insists he
is. Wilbraham. his tutor, and Michael,
the tipping father of Viola, are drawn
with almost as much success. Selfish
ness is the blacklist villainv pictured
in the book.
1t is Lady Brent, however, who lin
gers longest in memory. Hers is per-
haps the greatest tragedy. First i'm
pulse prompts dislike of her, because
the exile she forces upon her grandson
seems to be unjust. But Mr.. Marshall
succeeds later in justifying her course
and at the end she gains full sympathy
for the inevitable failure of her great
experiment. Failure only because Sir
Harry dies in battle; Violas parent
age, fortuitously enough, has been
proved worthy, though as low as Mrs.
Brent's.
The books gentle pages have many
passages of great beauty. Of these
there is the closing scene between
Viola and Jane at the woodland pool.
Here the subject of immortality, close
to many hearts wounded by the war,
is treated with an insight whose pene-
tration is keen because it is spiritual.
And the world has many readers who
will linger over James sentence: "All
of him we loved is alive somewhere"
L. H. A.