Life — July 22, 1926 — page 24: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

T is pos that John I worth new novel, “The ver Spoon” (Scribner), may strike some of you as not being up to the mark which that gentleman has set for himself, so as a Gals- worthy fan I feel it my duty to suggest an explanation before little groups begin to gossip on the strect corners. The fault is not with Mr. Galsworthy, but with his material. The most that can be asked of a novelist is that he reflect to the full- est extent of his powers the life of the period which he chooses as his backgrouyd, and how beautifully Mr. Galsworthy can do ible tomary buzzing on the groom's side of the church to the effect of “I can’t understand what he sees in her!” must have been unusually brisk at her wedding. In the second place, the action for slander, which is the basis of the plot, is a theme of in- sufficient magnitude, and Marjorie Ferrar, the young woman who brings it against Soames and Fleur, is what the academicians would call Some- thing Awful. That a fist fight in the House should be one result of a guest's calling her hostess a snob is amusing but unimportant. That the libeled one should joyfully that is household talk in bookshop circles. He docs it in “The Silver Spoon” — all the sympathy, under- standing and word magic to which he has accustomed us are there. But having brought the Forsytes up to the period of con- temporary — civili- zation in London, he is confronted with a pretty problem. The diffi- culty of doing very much with a sow’s car is pro- verbial. Inthe first place, Fleur page Tio upon her injuries as a happy means of collecting enough money to pay her debts is, to those unfamiliar with the workings of the English law, ridiculous. Yet Mr. Galsworthy has done exceedingly well with what he has had to work with, and “The Sil- ver Spoon” as a literary perform- ance is worthy of your consideration, however little you may care about what is happening to its charac AND BEYOND,” by Wharton (Appleton), consists of six short stories, three dealing with things which are seen and temporal and three dipping into those which are unseen and eter- nal. It is herewith recommend- ed without reser- vation. In his dis- tant sphere Henry James must be murmuring, “Well done, thou good and faithful dis- ciple!” The best of the uncanny group is “The Young Gen- tlemen,” but I shallmakeno comment upon any of these for fear their tenuousness might not with- stand my clumsy touch and your Forsyte, with her reversion to the ancient Athenians pleasure and inter- est in’ them be thereby spoiled. in her enthusiasm for the dernier cri, is not a young woman of charm. The most interest- ing thing about her is the amaz- ing affection which she inspires in old Soames, her father, and in her delightful hus - band, Michael PEGCAEUER. Of the others, “T he Temperate Zone” should top any list of short stories which is now being made out. In it a young man in search of biographical mate- Mont. The cus- A LETTER FROM A LADY SEE BET i T implies in his findings the relief which the widow and widower of (Cont. on page 30) comicbooks.com