New-York tribune., 1922-10-15

uTHsHB from hSr husband, tGlAudlne
concentrated her hopes and affections
aon her children. She would live
through them. 1t did not occdr to her
that they would want to live for them
selves. When her daughter, Andree,
did just what Claudine had done, mar
ried man her mother disapproved of.
Ciaudine was amazed as we'll as heart
broken. And when Andree in turn
found married life irksome, Claudine
was still surprised, still determined to
prevent her breaking free. Herself
living apart, inaccessible, unchanged
by all her experiences, she still be-
lieved she could affect others. direct
them in the way Of happiness she
had never found.
Within every human being, Mrs.
Holding seems to say, is that infexible
core Of egotism. which makes intimate
contact with another not only impos-
sible, but painful to attempt. If. they
love each other, SO much the worse;
they will only try harder and suffer
more keenly. And this quietistic
pessimism is so unhrokenly sustained
throughout that it is spiritual strain
to read to the end; although in one
sense no easier reading could be asked,
owing to the authors lucid and graphic
style. 1t is style of wonderful hard,
bright finish, cold impeccability. 1t
is as precise as Mrs. Wharton's. and
more glacial; or, rather, it is quartz,
not ice. 1t contains no possibility of
thawing into pity.
If this is problem novel, the prob
lem 10 "What's the use?" and the
answer appears to be. "It's no use.
But you've got TO go through with it /,
just the same"
Problems, Mrs. Holding would seem
to say, cannot be solved. They can
only be outlived or ignored. You may
fight or you may submit; it all comes
to the same thing in the end. Therein
lies the sting of the motto.
OF course, like all writer's Of thesis
novels, Mrs. Holding does not play
quite fair. The defect is not inten-
tional, however; it is not the chicane Of
the propagandist. 1t is that with all
her wit-and she has great deal
she is lacking in humor. Her people |
are too tense; they never relax and
ND hoo W.,
can give you a character in one master
stroke, for example, Claudine's husband:
Evening dress did not become his
thick-set figure, but he was naturally
not aware Of that" Now, if he had
ever become aware Of 1t, there might
have been some hope for him. But he
never does. And Claudine herself is
"assuaged," but she does not find one
spark of amusement in her son-in-law's
asking her for the secret of her power
to let people alone, to accept them as
they were. when in fact she had never
accepted them as they were, and had
just been reproaching herself for let
ting them alone. Yes, a humorless
Wolla Woulo De quite as Cerflnle as
Mrs. Holding shows it. Only it isn't
so. We are not, thank heaven, quite
so refined as all that.
When one bears that in mind, the
book becomes enjoyable. 1t is even
tonic in its bitterness, since you not
only won't but cannot believe it en-
tirely. And the interiors alone, the
evocation of the corseted gentilities
and solemn, stuffy comforts of the
past generation, are not only master
ly as art, they are as quantity interest
ing as an old album. They have the
quality of painting by Alfred
Stevens. To be reminded of those
horsehair horrors and wax-fower,s
glass -cased correctitudes is enough to
make one applaud the fapper; and to
have them alchemized into beauty is
double delight. Imagine making the
Brooklyn of the '9os interesting. It is
no mean feat.