The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1921-05-12
| it's details, yet inflexible in mat

all it's details, yet infexible in mat
tiers of cause and effect. "Her under
standing Of human nature" says Mr..
Fredric T. Cooper, ''is unsurpassed by
any other woman novelist now living"
As we consider Mrs. Wharton's sit
uations and problems, we cannot over
look her attitude toward the person.
ages Of her stories. This attitude is
that in the sorrows and misfortunes
of our friends we find something that
is not altogether displeasing. And her
stories allow her abundant opportun-
ity to do this. From first to last they
deal with the victims of fate-men and
women who are caught in the :neshes
of circumstances and struggle with no
possible way of escape. There is a
great deal Of predestination in the
philosophy of Mrs. Wharton's stories.
Nearly all of her heroes and heroines
seem foreordained to failure. For this
reason, casual reader is very apt to
offer adverse criticism. Her tragedies
belong to one or the other of two
classes, or to combination Of the
two: on the one hand, to the comph-
cations arising from not understand
ing, from the impossibiIity Of ever
wholly getting inside another persons
mind; and on the other, from the
realization that one cannot escape
from ones environment, that ones
whole family and race have for gen
erations been relentlessly weaving, a
network of custom and precedent too
strong for the individual to break.
!. Before taking more specific
glance at some of the separate stor-
les or situations, it is we'll to consider
Mrs. Wharton's technique of construc-
tion- Sine is one. of those: exceptional
writers who do not greatly concern
themselves with conventional rules Of
length and breadth. Economy Of
means is principle which never binds
her against her will. Her short stor-
les frequently lengthen out into the.
structure and dimensions Of novel
cite; her NOVELTIES, might so easily
have been expanded into full-length.
novels. She writes apparently to suit
herself, i'm whatever way the nara
tive comes most naturally to her. 1t
is here, as we'll as elsewhere, that
critics have sufficient grounds for de-
structive criticism. We must accept
Mrs Wharton as she is, recognizing
frankly that she is one of those writ
ers who must do the thing their own
way if they are to do it at all. Al
though her stories are remarkably
good, yet they are not OF f1awless
technique.
J A word must be said in passing of
her theme. In order to be reader
Of her books, one almost needs regu-
lar injections which have as their
basis concentrated cheerfulness. New
er were there more depressing and
sordid situations, and utterly imposs-
ibTe circumstances than those which
Mrs. Wharton so cleverly introduces
in her stories. One critic says that
her subject is painful to the reader:
If any one feels that he is too blessed
with high spirits, that for some season
he needs taste Of melancholia, then
read Edith Wharton.
II would be impracticable as we'll as
bewildering here to attempt detailed
survey Of any Of Mrs. Whatt0p's
stories. The following is list of her
best known works: The Greater IN.
clination in 1899, The Descent of
man, Madame de Treymes, the Her
nit and the Wild Woman, Ethan
Prone, The Fruit of the Tree, The
House Of Mirth, and her last, The
Age of Innocence.
AS an illustration of the complied
tions of circumstances which Mrs:
Wharton delights in working out, I
shall give very briefly a synopsis OF
The Custom Of the Country, written
in 1918. Undine Spragg, first mar
ried and divorced in western town !.
Is brought to New York, introduced
into society, and is "made" by her
good looks and her brazen ambition.
She wrecks the life Of her second
husband, refined gentleman; then as
a result of much foreign residence,
marries a Frenchman Of family.
From him she runs away, finally to
marry Moffatt, who, throughout the
story, has been her familiar spirit,
subtly revealing his intimacy Of feel
ing, and increasing his hold upon her
as he rises in the money world. The
title gives the cue to the story as
whole and to its several parts. BY
nature Undine is coarse-grained:
snowy, and selfish; by upbringing she
becomes incorrigible. Her first and
last husband is one of her own kind
sufficiently SO that he is capable of re-
suminp with her after her streaky, in
termediate career. The 4, second is
broken by her overweening selfish
ness; the third, by virtue Of his an
Gent family tradition, is able to save
himself though not to mold or modify