A NEWCOMER.*
Mn. DESMOND MACCARTHY, in writing a preface to this first novel, truthfully and wittily describes it. "If 'Paul Redway' were a racelmrse, it might be described as out of 'The Young Visiters ' by 'The Way of All Flesh.'" The book is extraordinary in that the author has been content to take the literary convention of high life, and yet into this familiar stock has infused new blood. Is it beginner's luck that has helped him to succeed in being original without conscious effort, or is he a skilful artist with deliberate crafts- manship? A second novel may settle that question.
If it be true that genius, that presence of irrational power, is demonstrated in the detail of an artist's work, then we must ask the author to submit to being called one. He has a downright, almost naïve, style that will terrify the comfortable- minded ; and that, not by reason of verbal vehemence, but because of the astonishing vitality of the ideas which teem in his mind. This is how he begins the book :— "Mrs. Redway lay on her bed weak and exhausted, but with a happy sense of fnitilled hope. It had always been her desire to perpetuate herself in a child ; it was the form her self-love and egotism naturally took ; and now, though well on in life, her wish was granted."
A few pages further on we get this :— "He seemed to know at once what was in her mind and it annoyed him, for there is always a peculiar exciting irritation in the antagonism of the opposite sex which seems, at once, to touch sonic sensitive association with sex itself, and may even excite the passions."
Here, again, is a characteristic passage which shows that rare faculty, the ability to convey tersely and objectively the abstractions and niceties of psychological phenomena :— "Harry was possibly more candid than honest ; he would give Paul straight, outspoken advice, yet he never quite revealed what was in his own mind. He often tried to appear complex when hi reality his emotions were obvious and simple. He was quite capable of making a fool of himself in love, and merely because his affection did not carry him off his feet, he tried to make out, both to himself and everyone else, that this was in some way due to the ideal nature of his emotions. Actually he was probably more fickle in love than Paul, being unprotected by Paul's disinclina- tion to action. Paul dimly realized all this, for he was shrewdei than Harry, but much less capable of expressing what he thought, and this increased his lack of patience with Harry's evasiveness, and it was with a slight feeling of irritation that he continued thr discussion."
The reader will see at once that here is no average beginner, nor merely a good general practitioner at work. The skill is that of the expert hand possessing a great reserve of strength. "More candid than honest "—such a phrase as that is packed with thought ; yet it is thrown off as a sort of back-hander, with the greatest ease imaginable. The reader is gripped at once, recognizing that here is a mind worth grappling with ; here is a personality taking a grand and aggressive look at the world, and then speaking "out loud and bold."
Not only in detail of phrase, but in the placing and move- ment of his characters, and in the disposition of his plot, the author shows that same strength of personality. There is a certain nakedness about his work at present ; he conies in on a strong east wind. Let him shift just a little toward the south, and with his strength will come embellishments of perfume and sinuous airs that will give his power the subtlety of charm.
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