New-York tribune., 1920-10-17

this country was a wave of a hand
toward northern England upon a map,
with the inference of "anywhere"
Really, we'd like to know exactly
where Locke imagines the house Of the
bombing and the awakening Of the
elder Baltazsr was. 1t is safe to assert
that the remote region of the Scottish
border may have been in the thought
Of the writer of this deservedly popu-
lar novel of the war.
W. J. Locke was saved during the
war from the shivers of his fellow
noveists by his sense of humor. There
is in him an indefatigable, undefeat-
able defiance Of serious and ponderous
affairs of lie. Light is on all his
chartcd paths and laughter is in the
hedges that skirt them The hero of
The Rough Road doesnt have TO
have the grit of the war rubbed into
his flesh. Calamitous catastrophe does
not snitc the Baltazars as it might
have done. And so, while W. J. L.
does not push his way into the pews
of the hierarchy. the Bennetts, the
Wellses. the Bercsfords ct al, he is up
in the choir where refreshing music is
always on tap, with q twinkle in his
eye and Il glarcc at little secret door
that opens on q road that leads to the
hills of comfort and merriment
Snaith Seeks Rural Scenes
J. c. Snaith is of London, but his
characters are created in the heart of
d rural atmosphere. He left one novel
Of excellence behind him in the brack-
cts of the war era. The Undefeatcd,
IN which he rounded out a figure of
true man and gave many Of his brother
Englishmen a lesson. 1t was the old
legend of the jewel before swine, the
presence in a community of a man who
had no opportunity of showing his
mettle until called by the war to q
theater where he could reveal his own
indomitable self that gave the novel
its urge. The Undefeatcd stood, per-
laps. nearer to Miss Kaye Smiths The
-Four Roads than to any other piece of
fiction inspired by the war.
Snaith hands us a novel in & dis
tinctly different vein in his 1920 offer
ing. The Adventurous Lady Apple
tom. Its locale, Clavering St. Mary's,
is not to be discovered on a map, but
1t is removed from any considerable
city or town. Lady Elfreda CatHins
proceeding to house party, meets on
the train a young governess who re-
sembles her closely. In a spirit of fun
she induces this governess TO take her
place and play her part at the party
10 be brief, the two swap roles, one to
be plunged almost over her head into
world OF gayety and fashionable
amenities, the other to act as the men
tor OF two youngsters, named Joan and
Peter. We hear the laughter OF II. G.
Wells. There is much rich fun in The
Adventurous Lady, with a constant in
terweaving of coming and departing
men and women who add to its hilarity
and do not compromise its vcrity
George Woden's first novel Little
Houses, published in 1919, elected i'm
mediate praise from the critics. As
genre picture it was distinguished by
freedom from flourish, by d style that
indicated a maturity unusual in nov
elst's initial book.
Wooden writes Of people who live IN
the Midland district of England A.
once, reader who is fairly we'll &c
qualnted with modern British fiction
examines points of contrast and re
semblancc between his pages and those
OF Arnold Bennett Both GO to tho
same region for their plots and both
draw from the seethe IF Industrial life
much Of their measures OF ideas.
Wooden is content with the romance
of little things. His novel of this
year, Our Peter (Dutton), is the story
OF a young mans struggle from re-
spectacle poverty to a place in his
small world that at least gives him a
'lny home, wife and happiness. Such
relation Of life could easily be made
sordld in general effects or be punctu-
ated with commas Of PAIN. But
Woden's corner of England. his fc-
tional ground, is sunny and mildly
DEFIANT OF tears and regrets. Peter,
from the day when he rails into the
local pond, with slip Of girl laugh.
ing at him, the girl who is to he the
shaping force OF his clreer nlods
along, winning successes in business
and on the fringes of society. and car.
ries US with him with the keen sense
that we have Travelled with a real
living man and not with a punnet of
fiction.
4 Real Personality
In other words, George Wcden writes
a novel in language that, lacking the
artficlality of the unreal, actually in
cllnes US to the belief that we are
reading transcript of experience Of
breathing, talking, human being. Aft
er all, it is delight to sit down to
book that breaches no sermon. devel-
ops no startling situation, IS concerned
simply with the history f an ordi-
nary type Of humanity. Take our ad-
vice Read both of George Woden's
novels.
From the industrial center of Eng
land we s,ri rcrose