New-York tribune., 1921-02-06
pEBATABLE GROUND. py G. n. S,
Published by ~ A. Knopf.

,NNdbANu derived an enorm Gus
* amount of comfort out of view
m~% ing the restless and unconvcn-
tionsl behavior of women in
England during the wax as a war psy-
Ghosts. 1t was good deal easier to
regard 1t as an ephemeraI. passing dis
order than to face the fact that this
stampede for adventure, for sensation
and for the whole forbidden field of
experience is symptomatic of the crum-
bling of fundamental social and moral
assumptions.
Whatever the reason, England saw
women exploring the field of personal
experience with something OF the ad-
venturousness of men. 1t witnessed
with some shock, initiative and curios-
ity loosening the bonds OF convention
Women, IL they did not frankly pur-
sue, at least went out half way to meet
experience. This is the theme of De-
batable Ground,
Deborah Marcus was keen to seize
upon her share of experience in the
turgid life that eddied around her.
Once it meant sharing her pursuit of
the young soldier home on leave with
Jenny Carew in the semi-public glare
of boarding house life. Sometimes it
meant being pursued. 1t involved
numerous hole-and- episodes,
touching and flying, inviting hazards
and bringing through her chastity, but
not her self-respect.
She was half Jewish, and because
she was dark and beautiful in an exotic
sort OF way she made the mistake of
believing hsrs naturally ardent tenn
permanent. Tier revolt from convention
was the stronger because it was Il re-
bound from the structures of tribal
Jewish life as we'll as from the narrow
ness Of her middle class. 1t was not
until she met Blair Stevenson and was
faced with choice that she found her
adventurousness rose not out of pas
sion but out of an immense cold curl
osity. In the mean time, however, she
had been presumed the erring daugh
ter. The old-fashioned parental curse
was little out of fashion. The new
fashion was to turn the erring one out
With an allowance.
Whereupon Deborah joyously goes
to Bohemia, where little chiaroscuro
of character is regarded as interesting
and plunges into the life of queer
motley crew of demi-respectables
There is IL Lorraine, the elderly music
hall artistic, making her battered vir-
- Il
ter; Manon, the correct jeune file
with her hard, glittering sophistica-
;iou; the free-ranging Zoe with her
rolyglot amours; the tiercely virginia.
Antonia. and Gillian Sherwood, the
cacteriologist, the consciously free
#oman, who reasons thus:
I'm fed up with the type Of woman
uho can't sling sex out of her mind.
The mind isn't the proper place for
COX ] want my mind for my work.
,i.bforced virginity, not chosen, mind
sou, but enforced, is unbalancing; it
hangs about and takes up more room
than it ought TO. My work has
got TO come to fruition sooner or later,
and all this has got to be cleared out
of the way, somehow, first. Theo is
thoroughly unsuitable; he's younger
than | am, he's married, he's fast and
horrid granted! But Theo is
u factor that can't be slung out. So
he's got to stay-with as little fuss as
possible"
G. B. Stern has dedicated her novel
70 H. G. Wells, and certainly she has
lighted her taper at the Wellsian flame.
The book is full of exceedingly good
talk 1t presents in the figure of De-
borah Marcus the transition species of
feminist youth--curious, avid and ir-
responsible-cr crassly concerned with
exploring her capacity for sensation,