A "SUFFRAGETTE" NOVEL.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 88, 7 January 1908, Page 3

A "SUFFRAGETTE" NOVEL.

The"Boston Woman's Journal," perhaps the leiiding advocate of woman's suffrage,.devotes! several columns of a recent-issue to. a roview and appreciation of "The-Convert," Miss Elizabot-h Robins's new novo]. -It says:

Oiir readers probably, remember reading reports of the woman-suffrage play | which stirred London so deeply sonic little timo ago. It. was written by tho American author arid artist, Miss Elizabeth Robins." Miss Robins has now written a novel founded on the plav, and it is certainly, a remarkable .book—tliQ, most powerful story that tho woman's rights, movement has yet called out; It will be remembered that Miss llobins read .with great disapproval the ..newspaper; reports of the alleged disorderly behaviour of-the:"Suffragettes,", but when she attended'one of. their meetings to see what they wero like, she was surprised, to find them'. so : different from what slio cxp'ccted, and slio- ended by becoming -an onthusiastic. sympathiser. Tho title of her novel, "Tho Convert," is therofore -appropriate, as its heroine goes .through a similar experience. Vida Levering, a rich and attractive young Englishwoman, is leadjng an idle socicty life; and resisting her sister's efforts to draw her into conventional charity work, through a feeling thnt it is'ineffective, and rather a comfort to the feelings of the rich than any real good to the poor. In tho early chapters we sec her gradually perceiving the unfair and contemptuous attitude toward women that prevails even in the most aristocratic circles of England. Then tho unlimited abuse showered upon the "Suffragettes" moves her indignation faintly, and her curiosity more - koonly. .She goes to hear thorn; is first repelled, then interested, then convinced, and finally enlisted as an ardent and wljole-hcartod worker, in tho cause.

A large part of .-the-book is made up. of vivid accounts of various open-air mpctmgs, and it is surprising that the descriptions can, be made so life-like and so interesting. The. fascination that steals upon one charactcr in . tho story'after-'another .takes-possession of the reader also. All that seemed mysteriousabout the strange actions of the "Suffrag- 5 c-t-tcs" in England grows clear, and the lukewarm American .'suffragist gets an idea of an carnestnoss that is like a fire in the bones. .-

Many interesting points aro also brought out-, showing tho.incredible stupidity of some legislation, owing to tho fact that women had no share hi framing it—-like the regulations in London for .the municipal feeding of poor school-children, which limit its benefits to children living "undor their father's roof": —tho children of widows are not allowed to be fed! —or the provision of '.cheap arid decent lodging' houses for the poorest class of men, but none for the poorest class of women, the refusal of the London County Council to provide them for the women being based on tho avowed ground that homeless women of bad character might make use of them. No certificates : of character are asked of tho men who use the men's lodgings. From the summary of the story which follows it appears that the heroine has had an experience in her early youth that "has killed her love for her lover, and almost wrecked ber' Iranian riaturo." Strong dramatic interest is.required to make a problem novel go; but it is a.pity Miss Robins should have selected that, situation, because it in no way adds to the strength of hor argument. '

. Mrs.' Carrie- Catt, nn eminent' American suffragist, writing an enthusiastic appreciation of the novel says

The usual problem novel is a failure, for the reason that the problom' fits into tho plot so clumsily, •it boras. Miss P.obinn's book is an exception. Modem taste in fiction demands art, and this she furnishes in most dol/ghtful fashion. Tho book treats of woman suffrago, and nothing else, jv,t it is bo cleverly, so artistically, woven into fcho simple plan of her story as entirely to obscure the joints where one fits into the other. Hor characters arc real people, with whom one becomcs acquainted, and not the wooden creatures prosentod by so many writers. Tho interest is not decreased by the fact that fictitious names proyide only a thin disguise for the introduction of men and women already woll known in the suffrage movement in England. New Zealand women havo been so long in possession of the franchiso that they have almoßt forgotten how they fought and why they fought to win it, and many of them find it difficult to understand the attitude of the suffragists in England. But they should all be interested in a novel that puts the position-clearly and dramatical!?-