The touching figure of Mrs. Pendyce in the “Country House”—­the tragic figure of Irene Soames Forsyte in the “Man of Property”—­the pitiful figure of the little Model in “Fraternity”—­have all something of the same quality.

95.  W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM.  OF HUMAN BONDAGE.

In this remarkable book Mr. W. Somerset Maugham surpasses by a long distance the average novels of recent appearance.  The portion of the book which deals with Paris, especially with that mad poet there, who expounds the philosophy of the “Pattern,” is as suggestive a piece of literature as any we have seen for half a dozen years.

The passage towards the end of the book on the subject of the genius of El Greco is also profoundly interesting; and the sentences which comment so gravely and beautifully upon the cry of the Christ, “Father, forgive them; they know not what they do,” have a rare and most moving power.

96.  GILBERT CANNAN.  ROUND THE CORNER.

“Round the Corner” is perhaps Mr. Cannan’s best book but “Young Earnest” and “Old Mole” are also curious and interesting volumes.

Mr. Cannan is as typical a modern writer as could be found anywhere.  And yet modernity is not his only charm.  He has genuine psychological insight and though this insight comes in flashes and is not continuous it often gives an original twist to his characters which helps to make them strangely convincing and appealing.  “Round the Corner” is a genuine masterpiece.  It is the history of the most charming and touching clergyman described in all English fiction since the Vicar of Wakefield; and the massive, solid manner in which the story is constructed, the vigor and reality of the interplay of the various members of Francis’ family, the admirable portrait of the mother, the grand and solemn close of the book, make it one of the most powerful works of fiction England has produced during the last decade.

Now and again—­and what praise could go further?—­there are little touches of clear-cut realism, of that kind which has a mystical background, which actually suggest some of the lighter and more idyllic work of Goethe himself.  The book has genuine wisdom in it, of a sort superior to any philosophical system, and one feels at the close the tonic and soothing effect of a powerful moral influence, sweetening and refining one’s general reaction towards life.

97.  VINCENT O’SULLIVAN.  THE GOOD GIRL. Published by Dutton & Co.

This admirable work of art is not known as well as it deserves either in England or America.  It is a work of genius in every sense of that word, and it produces on the mind that curious sense of completeness and finality which only such works produce.

Mr. L.U.  Wilkinson—­himself a writer of powerful achievement—­says of “The Good Girl”:  “It does what I have always desired should be done; it reduces ‘atmosphere’ and ‘nature’ to their proper subordinate place.  It wastes no energy.  It focuses one’s intellect and one’s emotion.  It creates characters who resemble none others in fiction.  It is imaginative realism of the highest level of excellence.”