The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-10-31

no better, their types are the same
quarrelled loved, cozened, succeeded
or failed in the old ways.
1t would be unfair to demand of
these writer's what does not character
lie their readers. If the latter have
not changed they need not change
either,
The latest book to appear by w. H.
Maxwell again calls up this moment
airy wonder It, is For Better, For
Worse" and the title might be drawn
on to class the new novel, which is
neither better nor worse than its pre-
decessors, Mrs Thompson "In Cot
ton Wool" The DEVILS Garden" &c.
1t exploits again the writer's real abil-
ty to tell story, 1t has a throbbing
story to tell, it observes in the best
realistic fashion Can Improvement on
Zola's way, and it sis true to life"
But again, like the other books named.
the truth is narrow and confined, 1t Is
verify of a province, not of an
empire.
Claire, lovely youngest daughter Of
middle class London family, by the
other members of which she is uncon-
sciously neglected, is asked in mar
riage by "doddering" baronet, and in
her pitiable surprise because her fam
lily does not instantly reject him she
is driven to make the offer of herself
to a man she barely knows but to
whom she Is attracted. Her flight
with the bounder, bull necked and
flush of face" brings Mrs. Gilmour.
inconsequential mother, Emma, the
envious sister, and Cyril, the stage door
haunting brother, to what they think
is reason. "Roddy.' the bounder, wise
in his generation, guards we'll the
compromising situation till he can
bring it to the climax he desires-a
fashionable wedding in one of Lon
don's great churches. From that point
on he wastes her money. brings on the
premature birth Of her child and, in
word drags her through disillusion
and humiliation to final disaster.
Nothing is spared this unhappy hero
ine including his final victory over the
innocent woman in the divorce court
which drives her to the only refuge,
the only hope of knitting up the
snarled threads Of her life, the man
whom an ignorant jury most unjustly
had decided was her lover. In a hur-
ried page-the last one of the book
she throws her cloak about her and
takes his hand. Happiness, IL there is
any for her, lies in this first wild def
ance of convention and law.
Great space-far too much space--is
given by the author to the court pro-
seedlings. 1t is a fault of construction
surprising in a writer who from his
beginning has rarely failed in tech
nique. but he is led to do It by the
theme that has all along dominated
him, but which up to this point of the
story he was able to keep within the
limits of art. Here he changes into
the tract writer and inveighs against
modern laws of marriage and divorce
no people, he says, would endure ex-
cept "the Anticipated English"
In the unrelieved brutality of
"Roddy" and the resigned compliance OF
claire" to It's various manifestations,
a reminder must come up of Guy de
Maupassants powerful "Une Vie.'
The books may be compared profitably
IL one bears in mind the difference OF
race of the two writer's. The comparis
son must inevitably result to the Nor
mans credit, IL art is the standard by
which the reader judges them. "Une
Vie" Is Maupassant at his best, while
Miss Braddon's son has done better
work than this novel shows. He will
always disappoint those who wish him
well unless he recognizes that some
thing universal is needed under the
typical.