The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-04-13
"Conrad in Quest of His YOUTH and Barrie

easy feeling that if the public viii not take
his works. to their hearts there must be
something wrong with the popularity of
their own. Unless you like Merrick also,
please not to like me- Or we may put it
more benignantly in this way, that as you,
the gentle reader, have been good to US,
We want to be good to you, and SO We
present to you, with our compliments,
just about the best thing we have got
an edition Of Mr.. Merrick's novels. There
have been many authors editions, but
never, SO far as know, one quite like
this, In which she author is not the
writer himself, but his contemporaries,
who have entirely engineered the edition
themselves and have fallen over each
other, so to speak, in this desire to join
in the honor of writing the prefaces. Such
is the unique esteem in which Mr.. Merriek
is held by his fellow workers. For long
he has been the novelists' novelist, and we
give you again the chance to share him
with US; you have been slow to take the
previous chances and you may turn away
again, but in any case he viii still remain
our man"
Those of you who do not know Merrick
might gather from Sir James's delightful
homage that Merrick is trifle beyond the
average reader" that his works are re-
eondite, that You @really ought to know
him." as you ought to know Eucken and
Bergson. Such, of course, is not the case.
In the days when / was improving my
self with The Egoist used to read Mer-.
rick stories In the same breath, as it were,
with O. Henry, and with sophomore COM
placency put the American and the Eng
ishman into the same class as popular
fellows" Merriek was delightful, Of
course, and he could write first class Eng
ish, but after all one read him Just for
diversion. When people asked me what
I was reading 1 replied little self-con-
sciously, "The Egoist;" never, "Tke Man
Who Understood Women" or "The Actor
Mandgerp
So far as / can see Merrick lacks no
element to afford him wide popularity,
and I am inclined to think that this new
edition viii soon have accomplished its
purpose In advertising the fact that Mer-
rick is not @dead," but very much alive
and eminently worth reading. 1t viii
give him fair chance, and that is all he
needs.
CenrGd 81 Quest of His Youth 1 have
just read for the first time, and I am
more firmly convinced than ever Of what
I said to myself some years ago when /
read The Actor-Manaoer and Tho House
Of Lynch, that Merriek, while he cannot
be other than charming, is not great
novelist. He is supreme as q writer Of
short stories, but when he attempts the
novel form the result is not wholly salts
factory. True, in Conrad IN Quest Of HIS
Yosah, I find nearly all the ingredients Of
q good novel, but often wished, when /
was reading IT, that it had been broken
up into several stories or else that the idea
had been compressed into single master
piece. Mr.. Merrick evidently cannot
quite encompass the field Of the novel and
the result is a little patchy. Conrad, in
spite Of Barnes eneomiastic preface, is
not q perfect novel: there are three or
four places where the interest flags, and
this is due to the authors inability to see
the story clear and see it whole. There
is a point toward the middle where he ,
seems 10 have lost hold of the threads and
foundered about for a new start. Per-
haps this is due to his interest In char
and r.fr,nfsn-. ..-h.ol. A. q