The New York herald., 1921-05-23

strong The large output cf
some authors is explained when one
says that they are such addicts to
the writing habit that they can't
stop: they have got to go through the
motions or expire. This Is the cause
of so much bad work. Prolificacy be-
comes profligacy. This, happily, is
not true of Mr.. Harrington, who al
ways has a point to make. frequently
an unimportant one, bur always an
interesting one. In alice Adams"
what he has to say is both interesting
and important. To us it seems the
best thing he has done, a fine, brave
book that should add considerably to
an already solid reputation. 1t is the
most serious piece of work he has
ever undertaken, profoundly moving
tragedy.
The bigness of Alice Adams" lies
in the fact that the tragedy it depicts
is honest The author does not hunt
high and low for gloomy incidents
to drag in by the hair of the head.
One is not asked to accept the phi
losophy of grayness: one is merely
asked to liSten-and it makes easy
listening-to the profoundly moving
SlOIy VI Il SlIl WHO mas uSeu poor
Judgment Alice Adams is a notable
character, perhaps a great one. Vari-
ants of her have appeared in other
books, but never, to our knowledge.
has she been as faithfully and SYM
pathetically portrayed as Mr. Tark-
ington portrays her in his poignant
story.
Alice, charming and clever. finds
herself. at the age of %. neglected
by the young men of her town. She
is out of the picture. What is the
reason for this? she has been
belle too soon. when she was 16
all the nice boys in town as her
mother said, crowded the Adamses'
small veranda and steps, or sat
rear by. cPosslegged on the lawn, ON
summer evenings; and at IS she
had replaced the boys with the older
II en- BY this time most of the other
girls her contemporaries, were away
at school or college, and when they
came home to stay they came out
that feeble revival OF an ancient Gus
tom offering the maiden to the cere-
monial inspection of the tribe Alice
neither went away nor came OUT and
IN contrast with those who did she
may have seemed to lack freshness
OF lustre. Jewels are richest when re-
Vealed all new in white velvet box
one day an opportunity presents it
self to Alice to land "a big fish" as
her brother calls wealthy young Ar
thur Russell a newcomer in the city
Arthur notices her at a dance and, at
tracted by her appearance, asks to be
In hnr Tn, 60
they become infatuated with each
other But even when Arthur is most
attentive she is filed with gloomy
forebodngs. She is obsessed with the
idea that she will lose him: she fears
that the difference in their social posi-
tions will bring this about. In a fool
ish effort to make him believe that
she too comes of a wealthy family she
lies to him about her fathers position.
humble figure in reality, she pre-
sents him as a man of means. One
falsehood leads to another; she can
not stop. .. Thus Alice builds
her walls of flimsy. working always
gaily, or with at least the air of gaiety;
and even as she rattles on. there is
somewhere in her mind a constant lit
tie wonder. Everything she says seems
to be necessary to support something
else she has said. How has it hap
pened? She finds herself telling him
that since her father has decided on
making so great change in his ways
she and her mother hope at last to
persuade him to give up that foolish
little house he has been so obstinate
about: and she checks herself abruptly
on this declivity just as she is about
10 slide into a remark CONCERNING her
own preference for "a country place.
Discretion catches her in time; and
something else. in company with dis
Cretion. catches her. for she stops short
in her talk with bushes"
She loses Russell, of course. The
scene in which he calls on her for
the last time is one of the most pa
thetiC we have encountered in long,
long time. 1t leaves one with a heart
ache. 1t fills one with sadness, the
Kind of sadness that Walter Savage
Landor's Rose Aylmer' or almost any
lyric of \. Il. Housman's induces, the
overpowering distress that almost
every reader feels after the hanging of
Hardy's Tess or the burning of the
bird-girl in w. RI. Hudson's Green
Mansions" Mr.. Harrington is travel
ling I'm select company when he can
play upon the emotions as SUCCESS
fully as this. The strange part of it all
is that nowhere does one feel that the
author Is striving for AN effect. TN
like many of our novelists. he in
dulges in no elaborate psychologizing
about his characters: he lets them
speak for themselves. He gives us
mage after page Of dialogue that Is as
absorbingly interesting as 1t is exposi-
tory of the motives that actuate his
characters.
Mrs. Adams, the nagging wife; Mr..
Adams the conscience stricken father