The Washington herald., 1921-04-09
THE LOST GIRL. BY d. II. Law
renee. (Thomas Seltzer.)
REVIEWS

THE LUST elhb. by II. n. LAW =
renee. (Thomas Seltzer)
d. H. Lawrence has an establish
ed reputation; we know what to
expect of him. But, II may be be-
cause we are getting used 10 him
or because we are catching up TO
his ideas, in The Lost Girl" he
seems to be less cut of from the
rest of the world of novelists than
in his earlier works. II is not that
there is less feeling and less strug-
gle here. than OF old, but that 1t is
either better understood or better
controlled. The story Is of the
daughter of an English shopkeeper.
not an ordinary shopkeeper but
one of visions and ideas which he
never succeeds in carrying out. The
girl, hampered by the anomalous
social position of her father. her
duties TO a sick mother, and all
the inhibitions of a dreary town,
tries to live a life of her own with
out any greAt success. She has one
or two attempts at love-affairs. and
is finally infatuated with a strange
Italian mountebank actor. And
here Lawrence slips once more into
his old passionate analysis of Ital-
ian, animal love. The girl marries
her italian eventually and goes to
Italy and this part of the book. the
end, has a real. tragic beauty. 1t
ends in uncertainty and incomple-
tion, and the girl Is lost indeed TO
her old. English, shop-keepinS
standards.
THE HOUSE IN DoRMER FOREST.
Doran Company
This story of the struggle of an
spirit against its eY-
vironment is a peculiar mixture of
the realistic and the romantic. 1t
seems to us to have been realisti-
cally conceived but romantically
executed. The plot and its setting
are not unlike those of Hardy or
Eden Philpotts but the persons Of
the story are figures of romance.
They fall easily into two classes
the good and the bad. Some OF
them are extremely unpleasant and
they are never allowed by thcii
author the privilege of an occa-
sional good impulse. The good. who
are few in number and exceeding
ly obstinate in their goodness, SUI
fer as all good people do, but
eventually both good and bad re-
ceive their proper rewards. Mrs.
webb is skillful enough in the ma
nipuIation of her figures to secure
a hair-raising climax without for
a moment losing sight of the moral
which the tale adorns.
THE UNSEEN EAR. BY Natalie
Sumner Lincoln. ID. Appleton
& Coz
The publishers say on the Jacket
of this book. The final revelation
of what seems an impenetraole
mystery comes with a crash of sur
prise that gives the reader a real
thrill" To one reader at least this
crashing surprise caused pain rath-
er than pleasure. For 21s pages
the plot thickens pleasantly into a
very good mystery. Apparently IL
becomes so thick that 1t congeals
and the author is obliged to assault
It with an axe to find the solution.
The fact that the story Is laid in
Washington ought to mollify us
somewhat. but II doesn't much. We
can't overlook the fact that II Is a
good mystery which has been given
a very commonplace solution.
THE INVISIBLE CENSOR. BY
Francis Hackett. tB. w.
Huebsch. Inc.)
This is a collection of sketches
and critical essays which appeared
originally in the New Republic,
and the titles suggest the wide
range which Mr.. Hackett covers in
his weekly articles for that maya
zine. BILLY Sunday" whisky
"Henrys Adams" The Irish Revolt"
and Scientific Management" rub
elbows with "Of Pleasant Things"
The Next New York." and The
Age of Innocence" (not Mrs. whar-
ton's). Mr.. Hackett Is essentially
Of the present: he follows ten
denotes with the eagerness but
hardly the practically of H. G.
Wells. and he is always busy dig
ging at least one layer below the
surface. His style Is quick and re-
markably pictorial. He approach
ed autobiography buttoned to the
neck" he says of Henry Adams.
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