The New York herald., 1922-05-21


me, how far they might not have to
so with me-"
"A suppressed world conscience, in
fact" his friend, DR.. Martineau, sug-
gests.
But Sir Richmond is also person.
ally in trouble. He IS, or thinks he
is. overworked. His nerves are worn
to frazzle; he loses his temper and
is becoming inefficient. So he accepts
DR.. Martineau's prescription of a
three weeks auto trip with the doc
tor. to be spent in the search for
"self-knowledge." For the funda-
mental trouble with Sir Richmond is
sex; not in the crudest or merely
bestial form but as a subtler trouble,
which the book proceeds to turn in
side out in a rsychc-nalytic dissec-
ton. OF his marriage he says:
was hopeIessly disappointed
with everything that good
woman and a decent marriage had
to give me. Pure disappointment
and vexation. The anti-climax to
an immense expectation built up
through an imaginative boyhood
and youth and early manhood. 1
was shocked and ashamed at my
own disappointment.
There followed extramarital ad-
venture. OF which he reports:
My life has been laced by the
thread of these-what can one call
them?- love adventures. How
many? you ask. / don't know.
Never have been a wholehearted
lover; never have 1 been able to
leave love alone. Never
has love left me alone
These affairs are at once unsat-
isfying and vitality necessary. 1t
is only latterly that I have begun
to perceive this. Women make life
for me. Whatever they touch or
see or desire becomes worth while.
and otherwise it is not worth while
- Without the vision they give
me I should be a hard. dry indus
try in the world. a worker ant. a
soulless rage, making much, valu-
ing nothing.
To this the doctor retorts: "You
are. 1 think abnormal" but Sir Rich
mond replies: mot abnormal. Ex-
cessiye, if you like" And Mr.. Wells.
with rather fiendish acuteness.
makes you see that. allowing for a
certain "excessiveness" Sir Rich
mond is. indeed. an Everyman. The
process is an experiment in the new
psychology" conducted throughout
without any anesthetics.
due to the illness of his mistress. a
young artist. who has borne him a
child. and who loves him devotedly
He realizes that his attitude toward
her is cruel. but he can't help it. In
the course of their auto trip the pill
grimS fall in with wandering
American girl. who proceeds to ad-
minister a new experience to Sir
Richmond. In her he meets for the
first time a woman who might have
been-well. sufficient. But with the
state of civilization as it is the meet
ing is. Of course. too late. After a
few days of romance they feel that
they must part. She must not inter
fere with his work. She understand.
and has a world vision like his own
But they cannot work together. And
Mr.. Wells. with his superb mastery
of difficult material. manages tC
make this not at all the commonplace
situation of the might have -beeu'
and lifts it into a genuine sou
tragedy. 1t is something the prob
lem of the New Macchiavelli," or
in real life. the Parnell case, but seer
from a new angle.
Sir Richmond goes home to hi:
work. gains a measure OF triumph in
his committee. gets pneumonia anC
dies. the final note being the cruelty
of ii all. sounded in the appearance
OF his overlooked mistress. whe
breaks into a storm of passion
monstrously childish and dreadful
beside his coffin. to DR.. Martineau'.
refiection-"Always he had feare,
love for the cruel thing it was"
But the book has a deeper an,
broader content than even tn,