Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-07-05
RICE WRITE THEIR DEFENSE-NEW NOVELS /
DO THE DEAD
COME BACK?
Three English Nouels Anstcer
the Question in Three
Different Wdys

| One of the indirect effects of war
upon literature is seen in the revival
of the mystical novel The ghost story
is rs old rs fiction. but n new kind OF
ghost story is coming into vogue. 1t
deals not with the terrifying spirit Of
the dead. but with the effective com
munication between the dead and the
living.
Three novels motivatcd by this theme
have recently appeared. each dealing
with different phase of it. f. F. Ben
sons Across the Stream" is charm
ing story Of man from his boyhood
up to his maturity. who receives mos
sagcs from n dead brother. The first
rnrt Of the tale is ms sympathetic and
appealing n tale of o small boy as has
ever been written. Mr.. Benson gets
into the Child's mind and intcrprets il
with uncannv skill The later parts
Of the book dealing with the full grown
man contain an interesting love story.
The mystical part of the book is con-
vcntional. and the point of Wow is
that Of the Roman Catholic Church.
Archie. the hero. gets 4 message from
his dead brother by automatic writing
when he is about ten years old, and
periodically thereafter receives other
communications. Finally he gets mes
sage telling him to dig beneath tree
for certain things buried there hy the
brother. Ilc docs rs he is. told and
finds what was buried. and his family
becomes convinced that the brother is
actually communicating. Years later
the girl who loves him warns him
against having further commerce with
the dead. lost tho devil himself begin
communicating through the person of
his brother. He does not heed the
warnings. and we are given to under
stand that the devil does actually i'm
rcrsonatc the spirit of the brother and
mislCad the living man. Then n case
Of satanic possession is exhibited TO us.
which continues until the evil spirit is
finally driven out by the love and pray
crs Of the girl who has for years done
her best for the hero. So far MS the
book is more than n story. it is
warning against dealings with the dead
Miss Firgal." by Mrs. W *. Cliff
ford, is very different sort of tale.
Miss Fingal. the heroine. is a beautiful
creation, simple. honest young woman
III 81 ull'lI'N tllNUlllNlultFS, WHO comes
into a fortune and through it into con-
tact with an unhappily ma:ried woman
who had divorced her husband even
though she loved him. The woman dies
at about the time Miss Fingal has an
accident which comes near ending fatal
ly. She had wished that the unfortu-
nate wife might be happy. and as the
story proceeds the reader is given to
understand by indirection that the dead
wife is living again in the person of
the heroine. sort of II rcincarnatiOn.
in fact. And events work themselves
out so that the happiness comes to Miss
tlngal herself that she had hoped might
come to the dead wife. One NAV call
it the viCarious sacrifice by good
woman of her own life for the sake Of
that which another woman desired. or
one may regard it as the transfer of
the soul of the dead into the BODY of
the living. In either case. one will find
the novel worth reading for its fine
literary quality and for the interest of
the tale itself, aside from its metaphysi-
cal aspect.
Algernon Blackwood. in "The Garden
OF Survival, has treated the case ir
Sllll IL ulHerPnC manner. Ills novel tells
the story of a man who married n
woman under the spell of her feminine
charm without loving her in the spirituol
sense. But she loves him with her
whole being. 1t is suggested that she
is the rcincarnation of a woman who
had lived with men without loving them
but longed to love and be loved, she
dies not long after the honeymoon. Her
spirit returns to het husband in the
form of n mystic influence which in tho
course of time he recognizes. IIe nover
sees her, but he is aware of her nros.
ence, and finally love dawns in his avn
heart and he insists that he has found
love and reunion with the loved one
The book is written in the delicate and
poetic style characteristic of Mir. EIork
wood. One might almost call it a nrose
love lyric.
ACROSS THE STREAM BY E. II. Rs,so,
New YO'k George II. Doran CompanV
$3.50,
MISS FINGAL. BY Mrs. w. X. Clifford
New York: Charles Scribner's Sons ii 70
THE GARDEN OF SURVIVAL. BY AlCernon
Blackwood. New York: Z. p button Z