The New York herald., 1922-07-23

Mo writer better than Mrs.
Wharton knows the particular
type of people whose utilities
she exposed so ruthlessly in her
House of Mirth," and it is to them
that she has returned in her new
novel. But where. in her earlier
study. she showed Lily Bart as a
sacrifice, enslaved, exploited and
thrown aside when no longer useful,
she now gives us in Susy Lansing
girl who shakes off the clutch of
luxury for which she has almost
sold her soul and who chooses love
and poverty at the moment when the
golden prize is handed to her when
she may at last, instead of being a
hanger-on in the society of the idle
rich, reign as one of it's queens.
The book is an accomplishment in
clever writing, is delicately handled,
full of real eloquence of phrase and
sharpness of character delineation
that put it among the best things Mrs.
Wharton has done She has lost GER
tain affectations of style, deliberately
adopted from Henry James, that were
irritating, without losing richness
and measure. And she has gained in
the humanities. Her people are more
warmly presented, life itself is con-
sidered more comprehensively and
more sensitively. There is a tender
ness in this book which was absent
from The House of Mirth." not be-
longing to the incidents of the story
so much as to the attitude of mind
behind it. Susy is lovable creature,
and even the silliest and shallowest
of the women are drawn with more
Of pity than contempt.
This society, drowned in wealth,
without home or ties or natural af-
fections. made up of rich aimless
people, the busy people who. having
nothing to do. perpetually pursue
their inexorable task from one end of
the earth to the other" this dance of
marionettes now in New York or
Newport now in Paris or London or
Como or Venice, is astoundingly
feminine. Woman led and ruled, it
is shrill with nervous voices and it
bows down to clothes as its ultimate
god. Mrs. Wharton reveals it living
in the beautiful places known to the
world and never seeing beauty; sur
rounded by the highest achievements
of all the arts and knowing and car
ing nothing for art. Miserably empty.
and yet stuffed with all the luxury of
our civilization, it rushes about seek
ing amusement and making a deaf of
noise. Incapable of being either
amusing or interesting in itself, it
never actually finds either in spite of
it's efforts; and so it fills the aching
void with scandal, gossip and fever
ish rivalry. Curiously without roots,
having lost all touch with the warm
heart of mother earth, it grows more
and more unreal. In one thing only
II develops an increasing, violent
strength. That is in its determined
grasp on luxury, on material we'll
being-good food, comfortable sur
roundings that shall shine and
sparkle as well as satisfy, soft and
resplendent raiment. jewels. place
In the lime-light so that the envy
Of others may witness to the ,desir-
ability of these possessions. For
these things it will sacrifice abso-
lutely everything else. including wife.
husband and child, dignity, decency
and of course happiness. For the
last thing it could comprehend is
happiness.
Here then, in the heart OF this
social existence, is Susy, and has
been since her childhood. not as one
who belongs by right of wealth but
as one whose family belonged before
It was ruined. and who, left an or
phan, knew and cared for no other
life. Beautiful, clever with the clev-
erness required for her role, having
the entree everywhere, she has man.
aged-and it has been case of con-
slant management-to be one of her
set in appearance at least. For the
clothes and the jewels given her, for
her dinners and luncheons and her
stays at the great houses and on the