Review of Hevieitt, 1/11/06. 



BOOKS OF THE MONTH, 



THREE NOVELS ON THE DETHRONEMENT OF LOVE. 



Ph.tc. by2 



[^Giinn and Co. 



Mr. H. Maxwell 



iAuthot of ■■ The Guarded FIntitl'). 



The holidays are still with us. Parliament does 

 not reassemble till next month. The schools have 

 not yet reopened, and there are still a few divine 

 davs of this glorious summer lingering on the 

 threshold of autumn. So instead of dealing w-ith 

 anv more weighty books, I devote this section of the 

 " Review " to the consideration of three new novels, 

 English, French and Italian. The Italian, it is true, 

 can hardly be said to be brand new, since it has 

 been out for a year, and has already been twice 

 noticed in these pages. But its importance justifies 

 a third notice in the shape of a quotation from a 

 contemporary, which gives in a couple of pages the 

 ■N^ential soul of the book. 



All three books, although labelled light literature 

 and belonging to the realm of romance, deal with the 

 most serio-.is and tragic of subjects. As in the 

 earlier times our ancestors discussed everything in 

 sermons, as a little later they handled every topic 

 in their plays, so nowadays the whole of the most 

 difficult problems of human life and conduct have 

 lieen taken possession of by the novelist. In "The 

 Guarded Flame " we have science and passion ; in 

 '■ The Disenchanted " the moral and intellectual re- 

 generation of the woman of the East, and in " The 

 Saint " the problem of religion and politics, of 



asceticism and of love, handled by men who are 

 masters of their art. No one can complain of these 

 books as being frivolous. Even the butterfly-winged 

 genius of Pierre Loti is for once constrained to 

 something like strenuous purpose as he describes 

 the working of the scepticism of the West on the 

 simple faith of the daughters of the harem. In 

 " The Saint " the strain is heroic throughout. 



Yet, as might be expected when philosophical and 

 religious questions fall into the hands of romancers, 

 they are all treated, at least in part, from the point 

 of view of Dan Cupid. In 'The Guarded Flame," 

 which is not the flame of love, but the flame of 

 scientific thought, jealously guarded from the devas- 

 tating influence of the storm-wind of human passion, 

 we have the cloistered man of science maintaining 

 the chaste frigidity of a passionless tenderness as a 

 substitute for conjugal love, with the result that the 

 young wife after years of suppression suddenly 

 blazes up a very volcano of lawless passions, with 

 results which can be imagined. In Pierre Loti's 

 book the women of the harem, who for centuries 

 have been dedicated to the cult of physical passion, 

 are represented as having now become educated in- 

 fidels in revolt against harem life, and betaking 

 themselves to a platonic affection as the ideal 

 human relation. In '■ The Saint " the love motive 

 plays much the same part. But whereas in " The 

 Guarded Flame " it was science which clapped the 

 extinguisher on love, and in " The Disenchanted " 

 scepticism substituted platonism for passion, in 

 ■' The Saint " love meets and is vanquished by his old 

 enemy, religious asceticism. Thus in the three 

 most notable novels of the hour Cupid is at a sad 

 discount. If his bow is not broken his arrows are 

 blunted and his aim uncertain. Here is a trilogy 

 which may justly be described as the dethronement 

 of Love as the master motive in the affairs of 

 mortals. 



I.— "THE GUARDED FLAME."* 

 Imagine Herbert Spencer blended with Alfred 

 Russell Wallace and you have Richard Burgoyne, 

 the scientific hero of Mr. Maxwell's powerful but 

 most unpleasant novel. Imagine this man abso- 

 lutely consecrated to the life of thought, a recluse of 

 the scientific cloister, but kindly hearted withal, 

 going through the ceremony of marriage with a 

 pretty voung girl of twentv-two when he had reached 

 the age of fifty-six. He appears to have married 

 her in sheer kindliness of heart as a subtle method 



•"The Guarded Flame. 

 Co. 6s.) 



Bv H. Maxwell. (Methnen and 



