New-York tribune., 1921-05-22


Adams, which is published by Double
day Page, puts him a little ahead of
ANYTHING else which he has done in this
aeld. Specifically. the new book is sus-
tanned to the end. Instead of certain
scantiness of breath, which we think we
have observed in some of the other
Harrington novels, this comes on with
a rush in the final chapters. Plan and
execution have kept pace with intent.
Certainly no other novel OF Tarking-
tons is marked with the same care OF
sseadfastness of purpose. This stead
fsstness has kept him clear of all sweet
compromises and also from the intro
duction of humorous Interludes of any
sort which do not belong to the story,
Quite unfairly, Mr.. Harrington has
been cited, now and again, as dis
ciple Of the theory that everything is
for the best in the best of all possible
lands and more particularly in towns
and cities of the Middle West. Alice
Adams alone should scotch that notion.
1t has elear-sightedness enough to see
meanness as we'll as couragein the life
about US. Best Of all, it makes def
mite reaction against the all too prev
alent idea that heartbreak marks the
end of things instead of the beginning.
darlington has created a heroine who
locks a little white, wistfully, at the
pieces and then, squaring her shoulders
with an air of saying, "Well, that's
that gets TO work.
She passed the tobacconist's." he
writes of Alice Adams in the final
chapter about the mopping up Of the
fsmily's misfortune, "and before her
was that dark entrance to the wooden
stairway leading up to Frinke's Bust
ness College-the very doorway she
had always looked upon as the end Of
youth and the end of hope.
"How often had she gone by there,
hating the dreary obscul ity of that
stairway; how often she had thought
Of this obscurity as something TO lie
in wait TO obliterate the footsteps of
any girl who should ascend into the
smoky darkness above! Never had she
passed without those ominous imagin-
inga Of her pretty girls turning into old
maids taking dictation'-old maids of
dozen different types, yet al looking
little like herself.
Veil, she was here at last! She
looked up and down the street quickly
and then, with a little heave of the
SHOULDERS, she went bravely in, under
the sign, and began to climb the wood
en- steps. Halfway up the shadows
were heaviest, but after that the place
began to seem brighter. There was
an open window overhead somewhere
she found, and the steps at the TOP
were gay with sunshine"
And here the novel of Alice Adams
comes to an end. One may object that
Ny. Harrington adopts little too much
the air of discoy ere in announcing
that there may be an open window
somewhere in the path Of a young
woman about to seek job, but it is
a step in the right direction. Particu-
larly it deserves to be hailed in q
novelist who previously has seemed
to be somewhat of the opinion that
woman's place is in the home. At
least, ne has generally kept her there
in his novels. We must confess that
the author seems to US not yet quite
free from woman batting. Once again
the old cry of Genesis is raised and
we find that "the woman tempted
me-" The portrait of the mother OF
Alice Adams is as savage piece Of
destructive perturbation as We have
encountered in some time. Still, Tark-
ington is shrewd enough to recognize
the collaboration of intent upon the
part Of the man who is pulled down
by his remorseless woman.
The story, which is laid in Middle
Western city, not specified, of 100000
inhabitants, concerns the fortunes OF
the Adams family. Virgil Adams, the
head Of the house, has settled into q
rut in the wholesale drug firm of j. A
Lamb, where he has been a trusted
employee for thirty years. His salary
has not kept pace with rising prices
nor the increasing wealth of the com
munity round about, and his son and
more particularly his daughter are
drifting out beyond the fringe of the
set of young folk with whom they
grew up. Alice Adams feels her plight
keeniy when she suddenly discovers
that one Of the best catches in town
IS in the way of becoming smitten
with her. In order to keep herself
giamorous to the young man, she is
fcrced, or rather drifts, into many sub
terfuges and lies about her social posi-
ZION in the community. Her mother
makes her perplexities articulate and
is through her insistence that Virgil
Adams yields to the temptation which
mas long beset him.
zears ago, when q young clerk in
=" employ of j. A. Lamb, he was as
signed to work with another employee