HERE is little in the fiction of the last few weeks that is of the large and lasting kind, with one notable exception-Mr. Galsworthy's "The Forsyte Saga,' ," which is only new in its collective form. This is a magnum opus in both senses, physical magnitude and breadth of artistic achievement. It includes three of the author's best-known and best novels, "The Man of Property," "In Chancery," and "To Let," and, linking them together, two new and charming short stories, "The Indian Summer of a Forsyte" and "Awakening."

Whatever may have been Mr. Galsworthy's intention when he wrote the first one of these stories, they do in their present connected form present the good and bad, wise and foolish, romantic and stolid aspects of one English family's life and doings for three generations. One smiles at the genealogical chart, yet only wishes he had had it when reading "In Chancery" and "To Let." Once fairly entered upon, this "saga" is constantly more and more engrossing. That is because it deals with fundamental things the longings, passions, aversions, foibles, fatal misconceptions of men and women. Two comments, one from an English, the other from an American critic, tell the secret of the book's importance: The English writer calls it "A study of English middle-class life which will live, because he has made it to live, and by general verdict it is a masterpiece of ironic insight, greatheartedness, and an austere style." The American writer, Mr. Carl Van Doren, says: "It is beautiful literature; it absorbs the troubled lives of men into the serenity of art."

But I started to speak of strictly new novels. One thing rather noticeable this

1 The Forsyte Saga. By John Galsworthy. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. $2.50.

MARY JOHNSTON

NOVELISTS

stressing the agony of this situation; instead, she always softens it with the

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"2

Miss Lagerlöf is the only woman who ever received the Nobel Prize for literature. She is as much beloved by Scandinavian readers as was Hans Christian Andersen, from whom in the literary character of most of her work she differs as far as is conceivable. Why should a writer be so popular when her stories are not stirring, thrilling, or humorous? It is because Miss Lagerlöf has a sensitive imagination, a delicate perception of her environment, a deep sympathy with the struggle and tragedy and mutual helpfulness of common life. When she wrote of Swedish life for Swedes, she touched their hearts and won their praise. But the more she understood Swedish life, the more she understood life everywhere, and that is why she is so widely read in English translation. When, long ago, she was asked to write a "reader" for public schools, she wrote "The Wonderful Adventure of Nils," one of her best stories-full of talk about animals, plants, play, and old customs. One critic said of it: "This book was not patched together by a dilettante or by a committee. It was written by a highly gifted, warm-hearted seer, to whom the nature of children is not a murky pool in which to fish at random, but a clear, reflecting mirror." Not long after the publication of "The Wonderful Adventures of Nils" an orphan boy who bore the name of the hero wrote to the author and told her of the desolate little world in which he lived, whereupon the novelist sought him out and adopted him.

"The Outcast" has a theme that is horrible, yet is treated so tenderly as not to seem ghoulish. A sailor, returning to his village, is believed to have been guilty of cannibalism when shipwrecked; he is not even certain of his own innocence, for he was delirious under starvation. But this outcast finds relief from the loathing heaped on him through humble services to the poor, the ill, the unhappy. Long his help is rejected; even the children turn their backs on the schoolhouse he builds with his own hands; his own parents will not take his money. The war breaks out and, mystically, its horror swallows up lesser horrors. The story is essentially a plea for peace through sacrifice. When the time comes that removes Swen's imaginary stigma, he has become the savior and helper of his village. The story is infinitely touching; its art value lies in the author's restraint from

The Outcast. By Selma Lagerlöf. Translated by W. Worster, M.A. Doubleday, Page & Co., New York. $1.90.

Miss Johnston's "Silver Cross" is a sixteenth-century tale of friary against abbey, of miracle workers rivaling fakers in fraud, of a credulous and fickle populace, of the true love of a light-oflove, of jealousy and hatred among the great and holy, and of devotion to honor and truth in one who is sinful and despised. The author's method of bringing out the mediæval setting and pageantry of her romance is peculiar but effective; the diction is so odd that one. begins by wondering whether the author. has invented it and ends by guessing that she may have studied the common speech of the epoch closer than those who have built up a conventional and artificial sixteenth-century parlance for literary use. The narrative is abrupt, but purposely so; the movement is rapid, sometimes elliptical, but always fervid and vital. It reminds one of Maurice Hewlett's "Richard Yea and Nay" and other pseudo-antique гomances. It will not appeal to so large an audience as Miss Johnston's "Prisoners of Hope," but it will be recognized by a choice class of readers and critics as a delicately wrought tale with a passion of soul showing itself beneath the curt sentences.

It is a far cry from mediæval romance to modern realism. Mrs. Watts deals, here as always, with people as they are, and does so pleasantly, fairly, with kindly humor, with admiration for sincerity and contempt for those who temporize with false standards. The main theme in "The House of Rimmon" is the temptation of a young literary genius, Cleve, originally a dishwasher,

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3 Silver Cross. By Mary Johnston. Little, Brown & Co., Boston. $2.

4 The House of Rimmon. By Mary S. Watts. The Macmillan Company, New York. $2.

MARY S. WATTS

76

to prove false to his ideals of art and to make his plays meretricious, cheap, and vulgar in order to get them on the stage. He yields, "follows after false gods," or, as the title suggests, in Scripture phrase, enters into "The House of Rimmon." His wife, a pathetic little ignoramus, is matched against a fascinating woman of culture. There are agreeable pictures of New York literary and dramatic circles and two or three possible suggestions of real personages. Many readers will be pleased to take the excursion to Bermuda in such pleasant company. The novel is thoroughly readable, but it is something more than entertaining, for it makes a fine protest against vulgar and sensual incursions into drama and fiction.

BIOGRAPHY

Notable among other quite recent novels by women that have something to lift them above ephemeral fiction is Mrs. E. M. Delafield's "Humbug," which is remarkably searching and vigorous in driving home its point-the mischief done by parents and teachers who fail to look facts in the face, who dodge responsibility, and let supersensitiveness and sentimentality rule them. I should be decidedly surprised, judging from past performances, if also in this same category does not belong Anne Douglas Sedgwick's "Adrienne Toner" (Houghton Mifflin Company), which reaches me just as this is written.

R. D. TOWNSEND.

5 Humbug. By E. M. Delafield. The Macmillan Company, New York. $2.

MANON PHILIPON ROLAND (Early Years). IllusBy Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield. trated. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. $3.50.

This is the first volume of what was intended to be a two-volume life of "the true heroine of the French Revolution." The author died before she was able to complete her work; her son tells us that "she left a large quantity of notes but they are mainly memoranda and useless without her own interpretation and elaboration." This first volume is admirably written. It is evident that Mrs. Blashfield was familiar with her subject, that she wrote con amore, that to her familiarity she added very careful study, and she has produced a wholly admirable picture of Madame Roland's early life and an artistic portrait of her character. But the most important part of the life is of course left untouched, and the volume will be valuable chiefly to students of the French Revolution who from other sources have some informa'ion respecting Madame Roland-unless,

as we sincerely hope may be the case, some one may be found able to complete the work so well begun.

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON. By Theodore

Stanton and Harriot Stanton Blatch. Illustrated. 2 vols. Harper & Brothers, New York. $6.

The forceful and eloquent pioneer of the woman's rights movement in this country is interestingly revealed in this work through her written reminiscences, her letters, and her diary. The story of the movement of which she was an acknowledged champion, at first discredited and at last triumphant, is a stirring one, full of incident, personal detail, and outspoken characterizations of her contemporaries. Mrs. Stanton was woman of abounding vitality, physical and intellectual, and these volumes are permeated with her virile spirit. The work unaccountably lacks an index, but is otherwise highly creditable to the editors, Mrs. Stanton's children, Theodore Stanton and Harriot Stanton Blatch.

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