The New York herald., 1922-08-13
MARY LEE-By Godfrey Dennis. Al
fred A. Knopf.

uooh, one lnat VIII make a
deep and lasting impression
upon the comparatively small class
of readers to whom it is addressed.
1t is quite out of the vogue of the
day, both in the manner of it and in
the conception of the theme as a
whole. 1t belongs rather to the great
Victorian tradition in its technique,
especially in the thoroughness and
breadth of its construction. 1t is
nearer to the school of Dickens,
Thackeray and De Morgan than TO
that of ID. II. Lawrence, but it has
curiously definite individuality of
its own that forbids too easy a classi-
fication. The author-Geoffrey Dem
mis- is a new name, this is a first
novel, and we are definitely told that
he is a man, not woman masquerad-
ing with a pen name, although the
whole subject of the book is an
analysis of the inner life of a girl
has some literary kinship to De Nor
gan, especially in his superbly good
treatment of the ghostly, the super
normal, even the supernatural ele-
ment. But he has not De Morgan's
geniality or comprehensiveness. Af-
ter all, the dominant note in the book
is that of mysticism. but it is a
mysticism that never is tenuous or
unreal for to the mystic there is as
much solid reality to his vision as to
the most brutally commonplace ac-
tuality.
The story is told in the first per-
son. From the very outset we are
in the heroine's inmost confidence
a confidence that is more convinc-
ingly, genuinely. self-expository than
the diary of Marie Bashkirtseff.
1t is the record of a soul stripped
bare, and up to the final scene it is
an almost unrelieved soul tragedy.
In one sense it is a painful book, a
too pitiful narrative, but ii always
remains a brave affair, and there is
not a trace of the false pathos of
weeping Dickens in the narrowing
scenes of childhood. There is rather
something of the savage directness
of Mrs. Voynich's method, but it is a
more subtle performance than that
of any of its predecessors in a simi-
lar field
The construction is very intricate
in it's superficial detail. and the plot
as whole defies any brief condensa-
ton. But the thing may be boiled
down to a summary. to the general
statement that Ii deals with the yari-
Gus successive stages of develop
ment of the child Mary Lee from a
harsh, unlovely, crabbedly religious
into a sort of spiritual
and ultimate happi-
ness. The scene is laid for the most
part in Devonshire, at Marlborough
and Torribridge, with an excursion
into France. 1t begins in 1S4S and
ends about 1870, and is given in the
form of her "reminiscences written
down when she has reached SO and
has thus gained a proper perspec-
tive.
More than three-quarters of the
tale is devoted to the life among the
Plymouth brethren of the Sos in
Mary is the daughter
of a middle class woman who has,
most unhappily. married scion of
the aristocracy, cousin. in fact, of
the local magnate, Lord Marlborough. |
in whose family she had been a
governess. The husband is an in
human monster, from whom she is at
last Obliged to flee. She dies at the
birth of the Mary of the story, leav-
ing the child TO the care of her
and great-aunt, Han |
nah Lee and Jael Vickary. These |
two old women and Mary's uncle. |
Simeon Greeber, are grotesques; so. /
too. are the many characters among |
the Plymouth brethren, who act as
a sort of Greek chorus. But they are |
never grotesques in the Dickens |
sense of being merely grotesque and |
grimly humorous. They are hideous |
realities, and one feels creepily that |