New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1922-09-03

n
nator of literary intelligence
can have failed by this time
to mention the publication
Of Rebecca Vests second novel, "The
Judge: as soon as it falls into the
hands ~ the reviewers we shall doubt
less observe the beginning Of equally
copious reference TO her first. "The
Return of the Soldier" which appeared
in 1918 between such diminutive boards
that any careful person would insist
quite properly upon calling the book a
novela.
The authors nearly faultless execu
ton makes one doubt that this is really
a maiden effort her particular critical
doctrine of severity surely would have
urged her to suppress any writing that
fell too far short of perfection; and
her first printed fiction so lacks the
quality of crudity that no reader ac-
qua,nted with Sherwood Andersons
theories would be mislead intos the
belief that it was the work of an
American artist just because it first
came out in 1.-THE Century Magazine
for February and March, 1918.
The book also was published in,
Marcia circumstance which points
to the probability that Miss West de-
rives small JOY from reading proof.
But 1T may be as easy for her to
achieve in manuscript the rare finish
of phrase which gives her writing its
great charm, as others find it impos-
sible to detect gross errors until they
are irrevocably printed, for she does
put her words together in manner
that makes enc realize their almost
tactile value Specifically, she has,
among others, this signal qualification;
spite the fact, which is common knowl-
edge, that comparisons outside metrical
shackles are odious.
THE plot of this book is scarcely
L. credible as coming from "rhe New
Statesman's" critic of novels-there is
actually certain redolence of Mrs
Wards Missing" Captain Christopher
Baldry has gone to the war, leaving
his pretty wife, Kitty, and Jenny, his
cousin and childhood playmate, ain Eng
land. He is injured, mentally by she'll
shock and his memory of the last if
teen years is wiped out. He does not
remember that he is married and in
| sists that he loves Margaret Arlington,
now Mrs. Grey, an innkeeper's daugh-
ter, whom he knew before his mar
riage. He is brought home, but he
cannot recall the last fifteen years.
He remembers Kitty only vaguely 'as
one knows a woman staying in the
same hotel"
That is the synopsis of the first
three chapters as it was printed at
the head of the second installment IN
THE Century" for March, 1918. The
other three chapters tell how Margaret
/ Arlington restores Chris's memory (by
that act, of course, she also deprives
herself of the benefits of his revived
youthful ardor) through the method of
treatment suggested by psyche
| analyst, the miracle being effected by
showing Chris toy that belonged to
his and Kitty's dead baby. Now, | am
in doubt whether this truly deserves
to be called "an account of how things
do not happen" (Henry James apud
Lawrence Gilman). Mr. Gilman, when
he reviewed the book in 1918, thought
/ it did.
But 'The Spectator considered it to
be not unlikely story, in view of
that of humanity which has come to
US from Vienna and Zurich. AT any
rate, slight familiarity with the
ideas OF Or. Jung would have explained
away the objection (adyanced by an
undivinable reviewer in "The New Re-
public" whose initials We're O. X y that
Chriss amnesia would have been much
more credibly cured by the sight of
Margaret turned dowd; it would be
very easy for a patient thus afflicted
to- substitute in place of the reality
sort of Margaret-imago, which would
successfully ward off any restorative
shock.
But "The Return Of the Soldier" is
very different both in size and content
from treatise on psycho-analytic
therapy, although the second novel of
It's author may not escape that SINH
arlty in either respect And it is
not merely war book, either, for all
it's beautiful indignation feeling
evidently possible only to youae
'Englls hwomen Cone thinks of Miss
Macaulay, Miss E. B. C. Jones, Miss
Romer WILSON,, who stayed trembling
l'at nome under the Zeppelins while ali
those young men went to fight.
I'M ORE than anything else, it sup-
1'A gests the fact that Miss Wast ;s
also the author Of an inestimablv valu-
able book on Henry James. The limits
within which she tells her story are az
carefully defined by the crystal con-
seriousness of Jenny as in anything Mr..
Hueffer's Master ever did: that is the
technique" External events are over
Swallowed by the large-looming i'm
portance OF those exquisite and com
pick relations that rise from human
contact: that is the plot A world of
coiors, textures, emotions: that is the
mllleu. But beside these things there
1 IS even philosophy of life: ~
leaned over the balustrade and looked
down at the fineness of the hall. tho
| deilbe crate figure of the nymph in her
circle OF black water, the clear mink
and white of Kitty's chintz, the linnij
surface of the oak the broken burning
OF ali the gay reflected colors in the
paneied walls. | said to myself. IF
everything else goes, there is always
TINS to fall back on and | went on.
| pleased that was wearing delicate
stuffs and that / had a smooth skin
pleased that the walls of the corridor
were so soft q twilight blue, pleased
that through a far-off onen door there
came stream of LIGHT that made the
carpet blaze its stronger blue"
This, coming from a woman whose
happiness was almost visibly tumbling
I'm ruins about her, is as complete and
as joyful refutation of anv schooner
hauerian will to the nothing as the
most inveterate of yea-sayers could
/ wish wv
1 The tale of Miss Was+,s aaeA;