The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-12-19
Reviewed by SUSAN STEEL.

IL.
right.
Reviewed by SUSAN STEEL.
What If the acknowledged masters
OF fiction could come back and, as
the school ma'am corrects her pupils
exercises. rewrite the novels Of the
present generation. Thackeray, per-
haps. would naturally turn his prac-
ticed hand on Galsworthy; Bulwer
Lytton would surely wash out many
pages of Stanley Weyman to fill them
in with his own crowded. hysterieal
pseudo history This interesting di.
gression was INDUCED in after reading
Perley Poore Sheehans badly named
new novel. If literary spooks do ever
return to real work the one who Cor
which) should tackle this book ought
to be Nathaniel Hawthorne. There
could not be higher praise of the mod
ern's novel than to think the spirit OF
the great New Highlander would as
sumo the task con dmore
For there is a subtle and delicate
pastel color in the way this writer
paints the faint romance that still
| haunts neglected corners Of New York.
Number Cinnamon street Is one stich
spot. not difficult to locate, and around
n lovely old house he weavts a spell
OF poetry and beauty. little too senti-
mental. perhaps, for present day taste,
hut catering to the latter by the char
aeters Of the policeman on the beat,
old Goodenoueh and the vivid black
and red hues OF Nine. Janesco. Family
reminding one of "The House of the
Seven Cables" the book evoked a de-
sire to know how the shade of Haw-
| thorne would rewrite it,
For Hawthorne and all the famous
authors Of the great past would write
differently were they alive to-day.
People don't generally concede that
the law Of supply and demand operates
i'm literature. They think that the in
! telligence which produces books sud
| denly now and then takes a new form
to which readers must adapt them
/ selves. Writer'S and readers are the
product of the same social and mental
| conditions, and the thoughts of both
will be commonly Of the same order
and Kind. All authors, however widely
they vary among themselves. feel the
! compelling pressure from the world
/
! comply with an uhwritten law. which
is to write so as best to be read and to
do that they must study the needs or
| their readers.
The true hero of 1.-THE House of a
Bad Name is a butler. Partridge is.
| indeed. a butler apotheosized. impos-
sibly noble and altruistic. and yet 30
unobsirusively are these traits at
tached 10 what is additionally a comic
character that the reader finds him.
self accepting the new version. Melis-
sine daughter of the house, always
presented in the antique finery OF her
long dead mother. Is dream as vague
(but sweeter) as Melisande Her re-
senBance to a La Tour portrait is
convincing touch of life carried over
by white magic from the suave
eighteenth century to it's hurried, un-
poetic successor. Only when the love
story begins, however, do the faint
and exquisite lines of this character
focus into figure on the borderlanj
of life.
We say. When the love story be-
gins as if 1t were unwarrantably de-
layed ~ starts on the first page when
BuclShannon, the youth who dreams
OF becoming n great architect. hap
pens to be in Cinnamon street at the
moment when Melissine and her father
set out for their daily drive in an
ancient chariot. The eyes Of the young
pair meet, that is ell. but It IL enough.
for straightway the love story begins.
II is a charming love story, with Incl
dents as tender and innocent as ae-