New-York tribune., 1922-05-28

analytical novel Anne Douglas
Sedgwick has accomplished not
IA able character study. She has por-
traycd for US, vividly and from
many angles, woman whom she
likcns to the seagull, "the seagull
caught and battered by the waves, with
sodden wings, half dragged down, yet
summoning its strength to rise from
the submerging sea"
For Adricnne Toner, the central fig
ure Of the book, is one who spreads her
wings to sail into the sunset, and finds
all too soon that cold storm winds
must beat her down; she is one who
sets forth with serene self confidence,
believing in the world and in herself
only to learn that not all clouds are
goldcntinged and not all beauty comes
for the asking. Disillusioned, she is a
pathetic figure, but not beaten one,
for her story is that Of one who
struggles from despair back to useful
ness, though she knows that full hap
piness can never be hers.
wealthy American heiress, Adri-
enne Toner has all her life had every
desire granted; she has all her life
been led to believe in herself and in
her power to accomplish whatever she
wishes; she has grown to look on the
world with an assurance born Of her
blindness TO her own limita atlons and to
those of others. Some time she is
doomed TO dlscnchantment-and that
time comes when she marries. Her
husband is an t.nglishman, who adores
her; her husbands $ friends accept her
warmly and with admiration--al ex-
ccpt a certain Oldmoadow. who rclent-
lessly points out to her her faults, IN
dermincs her faith in herself and ulti-
mately paves the road to her undoing
The effect of this ardent and volatile
girl upon her prim and staid English
surroundings IS something like that Of
al acid upon p metal; she initiates such
changes that before long those who had
received her ents1us usiastically come to
turn against her. condemnng her be-
cause she has the courage to believe in
herself, and trying TO strike her down
because she is bold enough TO defend
her own ideas.
u LSi II II Iti udilnM dnO power OF
~ will, this Adrienne Toner is after
all but fragile thing. One moment
she is brave. as is the robin who sings
heartily TO all the world: the next, she
IS panlc-stricken, as is that same robin
upon the appearance Of hawk For
IN the world as she Conceiyes il there
are robins but no hawks, and in her
actions she does not take due account
of the possible arrival of creatures of
prey.
Without realizing it, she fails to
harmonlze with the world as it is: and
the inevitable result is clash, a clash
certain to be the severer because she is
unprepared for it, And so she. who is
one instant we'll loved and generously
supplied with friends, is the next in
stant unloved and almost friendless
But, weak though she is, she has the
power to survive the test of adversitv:
and she proves her worth by the dill
gence with which she devotes herself ia
the service of others
Her faults, as we'll as her merits arc
we'll summed uD in line or two bv one
OF the other characters: "Adrienne be-
l'eves that everybody has wings as we'll
as herself and the only difference she
sees IN people is that some have learned
and some haven't how to use them, Sho
may have made mistakes: but
they're mistakes Of flame; not of earth.
mess" y"