The New York herald., 1922-09-17

always seems a rash venture when
successful novelist decides in mid
career to change his method 1t is
less startling, no doubt. than when popu-
lar preacher changes his creed or a prac-
titioner of the old school shifts over tc
osteopathy or to mind-cure. But at least
it means that he has lost his old faith,
worn out his old formula, and perhaps is
merely cropping for a new one. Conse-
quently the admirers of Mr.. W. L. George
were excusable if they felt something akin
to dismay at his recent announcement
that he is tired of the psychological novel
and will never write another. He con-
fesses to radical change of front:
II feel that in these times psychology
has done its work and that it is out of
touch with the vivid activity of the
men and women of to-day -. I
am tired of She did it because she
thought that he thought that she
thought Tired of sociai conditions, tired
of the condition of marriage, mis-alli-
ances. war. the press. etc. I am tired
of subjects and am coming to care only
for that most singular and complex
subject: The mind of individual man
kind So l have tried to drag myself
out of the attractive morass of psychol-
ogy and to remember that people do
things quite as much as they think
things. 1t is more interesting to watch
a man at work than to watch him medi-
tate in an arm chair
No one can question the fundamental
soundness of this doctrine. Yet the fact
remains that while we have an abundance
of writers who can give US Ia literature
of action. Mr.. George has hitherto stood
almost unique among his contemporaries
in the wizardry with which he threads
the battling labyrinth of woman 5
thoughts. Consequently ones first reac-
ton to Her Unwelcome Husband" is not
an immediate recognition of its almost
fiawless workmanship but rather sheer re-
lief at finding that the author has merely
deluded himself into the belief that he has
made any radical change in his method
He has. TO be sure, somewhat varied his
proportions The book has rather more
action, more conflict of will, more dra-
matte moments than his earlier books;
and conversely it's psychological analysis
while keen ever. Is more compressed
essentially the same. He still lets us
watch his hero mediate in an arm chair
and his heroine mediate in a bathtut
IT before her looking glass while she
combs her hair-and despite his denial he
makes the process quite as enthralling
as when he shows them in action. After
all, the essential difference between a real
ist and a psychologist is that the one
shows US what men and women do and
let's us guess at what they think from their
actions; and the other shows what men
and women think and thus let's US foresee
wha. they will inevitably do. Mr.. George
has always seen life the second way and
he always will
Yes. beyond question "Her Unwelcome
Husband" is essentially a w. L. George
book with all the accustomed mannerisms
the magic flashes of intuition, the pitiless
probings of tortured nerves and anguished
hearts. To pronounce it the best novel
he has yet written is perhaps too bold
Yet 1t has the advantages of the most
carefully interviewer of his plots and a
heroine who is not merely one of the
most unerring portraits of a human being,
SOUL mind and body, that he has ever
drawn. but-what is vastly more impor-
tant-one of those rarest of all characters
N fiction, woman whose personal charm
emanates from the printed page like a rare
and elusive fragrance
Mr.. Georges central purpose in this
story is, in his own words, ITO show a
woman who lives according to laws which