New, Furey Lo Cuasre, By perial Library. boas jtearet. Cleland. Murray's Im These are three - tales of the AS.seventien of a. village, or two villages, in Pennsylvania. The laces," Old Chester and' Merees would probably be called towns'
America, just ax many a.smal settlement that would be called. hamlet in, England rejoices. in. the [title "city" in the new country. And the people take themselves much more seriously than do any' city [folk in England, Margaret Cleland Has taken them seriously, too. She has studied them 0 profoundly, indeed, that she m: them live for us, and we follow with deep interest And anxiety all' the ielsaitudes of thole narrow lives. In story-telling these three tales are. verite able triumph. Had. the" author shown us" soniething of the countryside we should" have hailed her as a second Miss Mitford. \But Margaret' Cleland is not interested in the country, only in the People. At all events she is not Fufiiently interested in the country to tell us anything about it. At no point. in the "stories can the reader clearly visualize the place of the action, whether it be on the road or inthe church or in. a oom of house; that is to. say he cannot visualize it from vehat, the Jauthor tells of it. Her triumph is that, in spite of this, the reader inst follow with an almost breath-Tess interest every word and action of every character. It is ax if we Were watching. and hearing absorbing drama played on a stage with only a black velvet background fin the Gordon Craig manner) 9 that there should be nothing distract the interest from the char acters.
The craftsmanship, the construction is lawless. There' is. no. tempt to mark a definite beginning or end. Theve tales are just sce:
fons ut cat of lives of which d the movement of the origin Hand the future, "At the same: time they are rounded wit with economy and polish very rare and vein these slipshod days.
Of the three stories it is difficult to say which is the best. Probably the majority of readers will choose ithe frst one, "Eliot's Katie" and the reason given will be the simple one that it is the longest. Te tells of one English workhouse girl who has emigrated to America as a servant," She has an illegitimate pehild for whose education she "lady" and despises her mother. The telling of the mother's final sacrifice of the truth she.cherishes, to serve her doubter's happiness, is Jdone with 2 quiet restraint which is masterly.
The other two tales are equally well told and the book places Mar-garer Cleland in the forefront of American story-tellers.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.