New-York tribune., 1922-10-29
Rebecca Vests ''The judge
BY Seward B. Collins

THE JUDGE. BY Rebecca West. George
IL. Doran &, Co.
r N "THE JUDGE" the most inter
csting and the most highly gifted
feminine scrivener of English pre-
~ sents her longest single docu-
ment. Therefore the book is an
event. What it is besides that, and
Just what the event portends, is deli
cate problem, not lightly to be settled
with another string of superlatives.
In general let it be said that "The
Judge" IS powerfully moving and
singularly beautiful piece Of writing,
winch yet as novel does not quite
come off. AS an evidence of the quail
,ty OF woman who has already passed
her coevals and is destined to go far
The book is eminently satisfying. Con
sidered as contribution to the mod
ern novel it has some troublesome
faults.
Rebecca West has a style that can
be described as no less than magniii.
cent. In "Thc Judge" she establishes
that she has developed full control Of
the rich, intense, vivid, persuasively
personal manner of writing which she
has shown in her occasional pieces
and in her two previous slim volumes
and is able to carry 4 reader with the
rare pleasure of complete surrende,
through q long and complex narrative
Phrase after phrase, passage afte,
passage, CLEAN and CLINT and strike fire
on the page, burning themselves into
memory. There is breathless beauty
lowering over all the book, Likewise
her insight into character and her abil-
ity toe onvey subtleties Of personality
arc of a high order that make her al,
exceedingly impressive figure.
The story of "The Judge" concerns
all Edinburgh lass of seventeen, pic
turesque, much-traveled young sci
enlist who comes to win her, and the
hero's mother, the victim OF involved
tragic circumstances. The first half
Of the book sets forth the girl and the
man and the feeling between them. Al
most no fault can be found with it. All
of Miss Vests superlative qualities
are at their unimpeded best. The
background of Edinburgh, the shy, Sc
rious, sensitive, independent, red-haired
Ellen, the Office in which she Is a stem
ographer and her employers, her moth
er and her home, all are given the
perior Richard, aloof but susceptible
against his will to laomely human
worth, likewise becomes g completely
drawn familiar figure. The tale OF
their meeting and what ensued while
certainly along the orthodox romantic
lines, is love idyll of infrcquently
surpassed beauty.
The trouble, both in the tale and in
the telling, begins with almost the ex-
act middle of the book, where we are
transported overleaf from Edinburgh
and its youthful, romantic associations
to the heatha and marshes Of Essex
the home of Richards mother and the
locale of her tragic history, which
casts its weird and dismal light over
the remainder Of the narrative. The
facts make it dismal; Miss Vests
treatment supplies the weirdness to
tb" detriment of the book.
The theme is the not unfamiliar one
of rnot..er's conflict over a much
| loved natural child and an unloyed
legal child. The author has attempted
with thoroughness and intensity
probably not elsewhere equalled to
fathom and reproduce the feelings OF
the situation-anl has not been entire
ly successful.
1t is in this section that Miss West