The sun., 1919-10-26
Consciousness Stream Through "The Tunnel"

otl!R. Il is 50 wan lie. There is 40 be
ginning, no end, only the everlasting in
tensiveness of the unwearying mind as 1t
observes, celebrates and draws its con-
Observation-Disclosures that are but start
ing point to further authorizations on the
morrow. Miriam Henderson, life in itself
is not especially interesting, if we except
certain detached moments and episodes
none of these too clearly put. But this
does not matter Whether it is Miriam
Henderson or another is not 10 the point.
The entire value and obvious scheme Of
The Tunnel is to project the human mind
upon paper In such way that the reader
may receive the impression of an actual
person. Is is like sitting down and look
ing into human brain, watching its
curious mechanism and understanding its
amending revolutions.
This fourth volume of Pilgrimage finds
Miriam Henderson living in a lodging
house upon one pound week. She Is pri-
vate secretary to dentist and a vivid
picture Of the rigorous routine Of den
fists Office is presented through her atti-
tude toward her work. She has few
friends, but enough to serve her as means
Of self-expression. Mag and the German
woman, Jan, are living figures, but they
never overshadow Miriam She is first of
all in the book; indeed, she is the book.
Miriam calls on friends, works steadily,
learns to ride the bicycle, is plairly inter-
ested in dentist, Hancock, and finally
makes up her mind to become a writer.
Dozens Of small episodes serve her as
means Of presenting her moods. One can
hardly call them moods, for the mogt part.
They are cerebral reactions; what she
thinks about this and that; how a certain
thing affects her; series Of mental pho
tographs, some Of them rather Opaque, but
most Of them stimulating.
It would be dangerous to call The TBI-
mel novel written IN the imagist style, for
hardness and clarity are not too often ap
parent But the work is an attempt de-
hberately to convey, with surprising com
pleteness, the history of stream of con-
seriousness. 1t is subjective theme offered
in an objective manner. The novelist
never intrudes, not for single moment;
there are no conclusions drawn. Even
Miriam never does that for the reader.
One must catch this mind on the wing and
adjust ones own conclusions to it. Whether
= this is worth while or not viii rest entirely
with the individual reader Miriam her
self is not worth any excessive intellectual
ardor, but the reader may be moved to
find certain answers to the great questions
of life in the eonvolutions of her mind.
Miss Richardson has set out to perform
a surprising feat, and from all appear
ances she has succeeded. That her method
Of composition will be widely popular is
to be doubted. Rather will it appeal TO
other writer's, to those earnest persons who
love a superabundanee of intellectual dis
tinction in their mental food. The average
reader Will get through the book for hun
bred pages or so, if he is really ambitious,
and then put it down with blank look
and feebly wonder what it's all about All,
dear reader, it is all about you; it is all
about the people you know. But even this
viii not impress itself any too strongly
upon the reader. He will look for story
and find no story. He will look for
coherent unfolding Of character and find
no such thing. 1t will not occur to him
that Life is no story as we understand
stories, or that no real character ever CO.
herently unfolds. These are things that
Miss Richardson has sensed and tried to
intimate.
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