New-York tribune., 1920-03-07
Acid Test of a Hero
Miss Spadoni Appears to
Think 1t Is His Voice
~ HERE is in Adriana Spadoni'

" HERE is in Adriana Spadoni's
new novel, "The Swing Of the
Pendulum" (Boni G. Liveright),
a character who has for years planned
the writing of novel and who gives
it up at the sixth chapter because his
hero seems to him to fail of vitality.
With this proof Of weak will, the
author cndows the young man with an
effeminate mouth and thin, high
pitched voice, which combine to prove
sufficiently that he is unworthy Of Miss
Spadoni's high heroine. And
yet, that did not seem to us altogether
fair to the young man with the high
pitched voice. 1t must have been
good deal of wrench to abandon so
long g-cherished an ambition, and his
reason, far from being q trivial one,
seemed to US one of the best in the
world for abandoning novel.
Miss Spadoni is made of sterner stuff
than the young novelist Of her book.
Having set herself the job of writing a
novel, she did not spare herself. She
was not to be weakly deferred by a
little limpness in the constitution of
her characters from dragging them
through the 462-page stint she had set
herself. But industry alone seems a
rather doubtful literary virtue, and un-
less this volubility traverses vast spir-
itual continents it seems no more than
mere exercise in self-indulgence.
The disturbing thing about "The
Swing of the Pendulum" is that it has
all the contours of the modern novel.
That is, it takes account of the fact
that life is likely 70 fall into more
subtle and intricate patterns for a
woman after marriage than before. In
taking Jean Norris through an unhappy
marriage, through an affair Of passion,
to final anchorage in human rela-
tionship that is sort of compromise,
Miss Spadoni has used the stuff which
the modern novel best interprets.
But only the contours are modern.
The stuffing is the old one of platitudes,
generalizations and the authors pref
udices. The old-fashioned novelist's
arbitrary division of his characters
into the worthy and the unworthy is
blithely followed by Miss Spadoni.
Her heroine is doubtless meant to rep
resent strong, pure, noble woman, but
she very soon proves herself thor
oughly irritating, dull and pretentious
prig. She marries the young man so
fn ofo11 or d1rpi%h o,,%t
disapproval early In the book, and after
three years of marriage with him is
revolted one evening by the carnality
Of his affection for, her.
Repulsed by his pure wife, the young
man reverts to a former love, and the
heroine is then complacently free to
leave him and to find her consolation in
settlement and other good works. Later
she meets man who is unfortunately
mismated with woman whose whole
Jean understands him far better than
his wife and their relationship, though
it is an Illicit one, is plainly an exalted
one. When it comes to its inevitable
impasse the heroine finds her final
mate in some one else as interested in
settlement and good works as she is.
1t is book full, of sentimental pos
turings, full of completeness Of un-
orthodoxy. The febrile intensity of
Imagination which is the true quality
of the modern novel is not in it, Nor
, is there any critical sense, or charm or
humor. 1t is appallingly voluble and
appallingly dull. None Of the char
acters even flickers to life even for
an instant. 1t is pity that Miss
Spadoni did not share the scruples of
her despised and rejected young man.