The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-07-27

him in most enviable position in tn lowed his notable book on George Gissing, hisS own experiences being very similar to Gissing's, although he has nothing of the perverse gloom and despondepcy of Gisslng. i A queer coincidence is that Mr. Swinnerton, like MT. Gissing and Mir Stevenson, has been the victim of terrific i'll health, as I mentioned be- fore, being "a young man of so slen- der health, 80 frequently i'll that even for the most sedentary purposes during the war his country would not take him." according to MT. Arnold Bennett.
 My first. introduction to Mir Swim merton was several years ago. through that inimitable book of his, "On the Staircase" In defiance of all claims of the indivdualists, Mr. swinnerton hymns the family" and in "On the Staircase. if you recall, in the pie lures of the two family groups Barbara Gretton and her household, gays quarrelsome, affectionate, inde fpendent. and Adrian Valencourt and Gissie, his wife-inevitable tragedy turks; cruel, pathetic, yet MT. Swim | merton handles the subject with such delicacy--and sureness that you feel yourself e member of each house. hold as you read.
 Then followed September" that rema rkable story which 1 have yet to find to any middle-aged woman's lile- ing, because 1t is too uneomplimen- tary to any woman who at SS thinks she can compete with one of 22, yet nevertheless interesting and grip ping
 The manners in which Mir. Swinner- ton has drawn the picture of the friendship of Marian Forster and Cherry Mant is finely penetratingi
 the conflict, the anguish, between these two women is inexpressaPly yirle and poignant.
 Follows then his masterpiece, Noe turne," of which H. G. Wells said to Arnold Bonnet:
 You know Arnold, this young Swinnerton achieves perfection n 'Nocturne' that you and never get within streets of"
 Tho two girls, Emmy and Jenny, in '"Nocturne," sisters with the maJestlcI invention of Pa looming above them Pa. with Pas meals and Pas accl- dent and Pas beer binds the bum dle together with the lovers of theI two girls, the aneffable All, tickle and unreliable and one of the best types of the English cockney imaginable. and Jenny's dis reputable sailor lover Keith form group of as finely drawn types as l have ever seen from any authors craft.
 | shall never forget Jenny's final cry of
 Keiith Oh Keith
 It fairly rang in my ears long after I'd laid the book aside and I'd findt myself going back to it. and reading those last pathetic, tragic pages over and over again.
 I haven't read Shops and Win dows," neither "The Easement" norl "The Happy Family but I've just finished. as I said before, reading "Coquette." MT Swinnerton's latest novel written with the same tense, emotional quality the same force and the same thrill that made "Nocturne' vibrate and ring through ones mind and heart like the deep tones of bell
 She was an urchin," was sally. | the heroine of "Coquette," ~<freckle- faced, andssandy- haired, homely and not quite 18 but with marvelous quickness and nmbleness of wit, | cIearness of understanding, inge- nuity and a cool ability to meet a crisis. like unto a woman of 3o-
 Sally was interruptions and liar | but she knew a great deal for her years and she never shrank from knowledge, for she was athirst for it. |
 Her two lovers, Toby, big, slow moving, muscular, doubting coward [ when "presented with real prob lem which a man who loved her would have solved" and the foppish | Bertram Merrick, son of the nsodiste, Madame Gala" for whom Sally | worked. and whom the girls nick named "Gaga;" unlike Toby physi- | cally, but exactly like him when it came to stupidity, both up to cer- | tain point being mere pawns in the l game which Sally played
 Then poor old Mrs. Minto Sally's mother. whom life had beaten into | imbecility. yet she had gleams of the | telligence far surpassing either Sally's 1 or Toby's or Gaga's.
 There is great emotional inten- | sity in "Coquette,. and the poor lit- [ tie Sally. storm-toSsed between love | and ambition forced toward the rocks | at the end which will surely battaf