The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1922-09-10

in liberal measure. There is never any
thing spshod or hasty about her work. 1t
is several years since she has published a
novel, and two years since her volume of
short stories. Now Nin this she shows not
only the brilliancy and power of her earlier
stories but also broader deeper maturity.
She is dealing gravely with serious things
and speaking of them out of a profound
and accurate knowledge of life. If her un-
derstanding of the makeup of human
creatures is not so wide in its scope as
that for example. of Mrs. Watts or Mrs.
Deland, she is wise enough to keep out of
unknown. or inexperienced territory.
This novel is built upon a large scale.
and if there is any room for slight fault |
finding, it is. perhaps, a little too long. 1t
does not drag, but is sometimes slightly |
overelaborated Yet one would regret the
omission of any of its incident, as it is all |
so good in quality even where the particu- |
lar incident may be redundant She is
never prosy, but she sometimes does hold |
on to one note a bit longer than neces-
sary.
The story is very definitely that of one
young man. Claude Wheeler is more than
leading figure he is overwhelmingly the
whole story, all the other characters being
entirely subsidiary, of little Importance ex-
cept they touch upon him and affect
him We are looking at life, almost all the |
time through his eyes; he is done from
the inside while the others are more ex-
ternalized. as we see Them for the most
part, also through his vision of them. 1t
is method that has marked advantages,
especially in that it keeps the novel a unit
The story takes Claude from his nine
teenth year through his unhappy youth,
his interrupted education, his mistaken
marriage, and the war up TO his gallant
death in action shortly before the arnis-
tice. He is the second son of very we'll to
dc people living on farm near a minor
town in Nebraska. His father is a man of
force but of rather coarse fiber; not ex
actly harsh or unkind but out of sympa-
thy with The finer things of life and capa-
BILE of small cruelties which seem to him to
be comic He despises his older son, Bay
lss, who is a cold. selfish. small souled and
physically weak creature but he can get
on with him. He also understands his
younger son. Ralph, but Claude is of a
different makeup, and there is little sym
pdtLy DtlWeen tHeIf 1lduue Is not the
kind to fit into any of the accepted grooves
as ordained in the custom of his neighbor-
hood. He is an idealist but withal solid
in his idealsm. He aspires to something |
beyond the ambitions of his associates and
does not feel that life is very we'll worth
while if it means no more than earning a |
Lying.
He is sent to a small and feeble denomi- |
national college at Lincoln. as his mother
is emphatically pious, a staunch believer
OF the old school, Not that there is any
thing of the fanatic about her, but she is /
incapable of understanding the mental at
titude OF the younger generation and fears
that the State University is a goddess in I
stitution. and therefore corrupting. Claude l
Is in sullen rebellion but at last manages l
to matrculate a special student in his
tory at the university and begins to perk |
up. He also falls in with enlightening |
friends-of German ancestry, and some of
father decides that he wants Claude at
home. to run the farm
Next comes his marriage largely due to
the accident OF propinquity, with the beau
tiful but very thin souled Enid AS the one /
woman who really understood something
of him puts it: IF he married Enid, that
would be the end. He would go about
strong and heavy. like Mr.. Royce (Enid's |
father), big machine with the springs
broken inside" And so it turned out (
Enid finally leaves him to go to China to