"Dewex ynes"—Dy L.A.
New York: Charles Bon In his introduction to "Dewer Rides," the third of Boni's Paozr Books, Everett Dean Martin says: "The reader will find in Strong's ook some suggestion of Thomas Hardy's novels, yet very different lis this—Hardy's fatalism is Greek. Strong's is mediaeval. Hardy's human charscers, living on the Heath are its victims, the victims of a blind, relentless," impersonal. fate, With Strong this fatality is like a personal malice, a spirit of revolt, something ungovernable in nature and in man."
But just where Hardy is so sue-[cessful in blending man with nature, fereating between them an inseparable bond, Mr. Strong succeeds only. in drawing nature as a background for his characters, To be sure, he makes you see the wild country of Dartmoor with Dewar, its genius. of evil, or preferably its untamed Pagan spirit, that rides by on the whirlwind of dark, stormy nights. But this spirit does not permeate the story and convey the impression that it is molding the course of events in the life of Dick Brendon, the hero. For Dewer is spoken of in only two chapters, the first of which is 50 far along that it comes in rather 25 an incident than a theme. This intended theme is summed up by the old innkeeper as he tells Dick about the ancient superstition of the moor. "Dartmoor, as the old saying goes, be slow to let in God or man: and so His blessed teaching have been slower in coming to the real dark heart of the moor than elsewhere, and, upon certain days, the old powers of evil ride abroad." And then, with the uncon scious suggestion that perhaps the' powers of darkness cannot always: be overcome by the Christian God, he adds, "Tis strong evil—and the best thing good Christian folk can do is to stop indoors and not tempt the Lord their God to exert Hiseelf delivering them from the evil."
Assuming Mr. Martin's statement ofthe relation between man and nature, the above quotation ex the conflict in the character of Dick Brendon. One one occasion after sire in life and then loses it at the Fast moment through his passionately independent spirit, each time jeonfronted by the softness and hypocrisy of Christianity. Here then is the real conflict of the story independence of thought and violence of action against the self' stnegation and gentle acquiescence outside force of nature is needed to make this more dramatic, for the whole drama can go on inside of a character such as Dick's.
Genersity, courage, conceit, love of physical combat, a capacity for blind loyalty of devotion—these are the predominant characteristics of the hero. In the first book his affections are centered upon a small boy of better social position than his own, through whom he gets the chance for a gox education. The small bey turns out to be a prig, and Dick quite reasonably gives him ducking after a fierce argument on religion in which Dick expresses hie unbelief, Thus end his chances for a higher education. In the second book he falls in love with a religious girl. However, her submissive puritanism is terrified by his arrogant vitality, and in the end of this section, she deserts him; and '30 again he is thwarted through his lown violence. The last book simply a sketch of Dick forty yea later, after a life of independence, at the end of which he remains wi regenerate in the eyes of Christian believers.
As a characterization of a single' individual or of a community the story never really succeeds.. The first. part is the most noticeably feeble in this respect. Dick and his friends as boys are wooden or unnatural in their behavior and stilted in their conversation. Only in the second book, when the action comes swifter and takes the place of conversation in bringing out character, is there any sense of real people. This section is the best, containing descriptions of the moor that make it really live. There also there is strength aid raciness in the incidents that bring out the passionate vitality that makes Dick clear personality. In contrast to vividness is the meek figure of typical unadventarous Two chapters contain as brilliant] and beautiful writing as has been done for a long time. The first of!
a young girl's first realization of herself as an individual and a part! of the great creative process. The second, "Dewer Rides," is the culmination of the whole story, in which the wild clements in Dick blend themselves with the mad uproar of a moorland storm. Here! there really-is that sense of man and nature inextricably bound together by a mighty force, It is in places Hike this that Strong's dramatic imagination runs free and produces a tremendously powerful picture. If he could only have sustained this level throughout, would have written a great piece of "Dewer Rides" is the first, novel of an author who has been known hitherto for his collection of poems, "Dublin Days," and for his anthologies of English and American poetry, as well as for short stories published "in The Dial. With the vivid poetic imagination which he shows and en ability to express vehement colourful personality, he should be able to write a nove which has the strength of fulfil. rant on his id PI
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.