As Mrs. Wharton Sees Us

(Continued from Page 1)

and Henry James, for the love
scenes in this book are fully worthy
of those two men of genius. So little
is said, so little is done, yet one feels
the infinite passion in the finite
hearts that burn. I wonder what
old Browning would have thought
of this frustration; for the story is
not altogether unlike "The Statue
and the Bust."

I do not believe I shall ever forget
three scenes between Archer and
Ellen—the “ outing ” at Boston, the
night carriage drive from the ferry
in New York, and the interview in
the corner of the Museum of Art,
with its setting of relics. These are
scenes of passion that Conrad, or
Henry James, yes, that Turgenev
might have written.

I wonder if the horrible moment
when Newland Archer, looking at
his incomparably lovely and de-
voted young wife, suddenly has the
diabolical wish that she were dead,
is a reminiscence of Mrs. Wharton's
early studies of Sudermann. In a
powerful story by that writer, "The
Wish" not only is that momentary
impose the root of the tragedy, but
it is analyzed with such skill that no
one is likely to forget it. It comes

into this novel like a sudden chill--
and is inexpressibly tragic. You re-
member what the doctor said in Su-
dermann's tale?

The harmony of Mrs. Wharton's
management of English sentences is
so seldom marred that I wish she
would change this phrase, the only
discord I found in the book (page
141); "varied by an occasional
dance at the primitive inn when a
man-of-war came in."

And is not Guy de Maupassant out
of place in the early seventies?
Archer is unpacking some new books
(page 137); "a new volume of Her-
bert Spencer, another collection of
Guy de Maupassant's incomparable
tales, and a novel called 'Middle-
march,' as to which there had lately
been interesting things said in the
reviews." I suppose Mrs. Wharton
knows her Maupassant thoroughly;
but unless I am quite at fault, it was
not in the early seventies, but in the
early eighties, that his tales began to
appear.

But these are flecks. The appear-
ance of such a book as " The Age
of Innocence " by an American is a
matter for public rejoicing. It is one
of the best novels of the twentieth
century and looks like a permanent
addition to literature.