New-York tribune., 1919-11-29
eeks Among Peaks
Some Books of the Year Which Stand
Out in Crop of the Recent Novels
By Haywood Broun

but it is unfair to assail it. as some
have done, as a bit of intellectual
posing. After all, it is the technique of
our moving pictures.
We should be inclined to place John
Galsworthy's Saints Progress" next.
In it one misses the passionate convic
tions of May Sinclair. Galsworthy is
the professional neutral of the world,
but it is all wise and obscrvant and
there are moments in which we find
him partisan enough to call eloquently
for the readers sympathy, even though
he, the author. assumes an aloof and
God like attitude to all that his char
ucters do.
of these is w. Somerset Maughams
"The Moon and Sixpence," which is
also easier reading than either. Therer
is more technical story telling facility
in this than in any Of the others
Moreover, in spite OF violent protests
from some of our readers we are pre-
pared to maintain that Vaughan has
accomplished the exceedingly difficult
feat of saying. This hero of mine is a
genius" and then actually making him
seem like one.
This very quality has been seriously
brought into question by many who
say that Strickland is much too con-
sistent. too lacking in sensitiveness,
too assured, too hard. We can only
say that we work on a daily newspaper
and have a limited frst-hand knowl
edge Of geniuses, and that, to us,
Strickland seems like a genius. We
will grant readily enough that the pic
ture is no more than sketch.
Vaughan has lodged the difficulties
of complete portrait. He has kept
the man at arms length, and has pur-
posely avoided the necessity of giving
any accurate impression of the way
he talked His technical scheme per-
mits him to make all the accounts of
Strickland come as slightly dimmed
"reminiscences of persons who are try
ing to bring back the picture of the man
some years after his death. He makes
these story tellers say again and again.
in effect. Il am not giving Strick-
lands exact words but merely the sort
of impression they made upon me-"
This serves to acQuit Vaughan, to a
certain extent, from the charge that he
could never think up anything for
his genius to say in time OF stress
except "go to hell" Many of the
details are missing but it seems to us
that Vaughan, has succeeded admi-
rably in making q convincing and en-
trancing sketch Of a genius. The out
lines, we think, are correctly drawn.
"The Querrils" is passionate and
eloquent attack or the sweetness of
the home, plea for q retaliation of
the fact that just being nice and neigh
borly to people is not enough to meet
all the problems Of the world This is
best expressed, perhaps, in the words
OF one of the characters called Tony,
who is evidently acting as the authors
mouthpiece:
"You know, Pete. your people are too
sweet l don't mean in the jollying
sense; l mean that they really are too
sweet Family life is the finest thing
in the world-it's certainly the happi-
est-but it can be overdone Blologl-
cally it's bad when it harries the indi-
vidual powers Of expression. :.
What it doesn't allow for-this atti-
tude, mean, this Querril outlook--is
that in all the big things of life one
has to act alone. In every adventure,
in every experience, there comes a mo-
ment when one has suddenly to weigh
chance, make a quick decision-and
one has to do that-alone. And in the
end one has to stand before the bar Of
God-alone. l don't really mean bar,
and I don't quite know what | mean by
God, but there must come a moment
W
ones life and impulses and tempta
tions-one's whole story, in fact-and
then all these others exist only in the
way that they affected US or we affect
ed them. One must be terribly alone
then. And this mutua self-effacing
business is bad for race. Unselfish-
ness becomes seltishness."
Of course, the reason that Tony did
not know quite what he meant by God
L. I
dying Fire" of H. G. Wells. This last
1t retells the story Of Job in modern
conditions. But to say it is tract is
not to dispose of it, for it is one of the
most eloquent tracts ever penned. AS
a story it is nothing. Most of US re-
member our Bibles we'll enough to
know how the adventures of lob turned
out, and there is, therefore, no quality
of suspense in the narrative OF Mr..
Wells. On the other hand, it has whole
chapters Of Wells in his most flaming
moods, talking with marvellous elo-
quence and writing with a fire which
is shared, perhaps, by no other prose
Fire" is, however, by no means as fine
a book as Joan and Peter" If you
nave not read this we pray you not TO
be deferred by anybody who seeks to
tell you that the book is merely an ex-
tended dissertation on education. To
US it is a profoundly engrossing and
moving story. Nobody should read
anything else" of Wells's until he has
read Joan and Peter,' no matter how
loudly Mr.. Mencken may disparage it
in favor of "Tono Bungay"
Leonard Merrck's Conrad in Quest
of His Youth may hardly be classed
as a novel OF the wear. but ii is out in