"THE FINER GRAIN."

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14566, 31 December 1910, Page 4 (Supplement)

"THE FINER GRAIN."

11k, Hitv J .oiks it; not at- his best in "The Finer Grain"' (Methuen, London). By the * finer grain" Mr. James means "a peculiar accessibility to surprise, to curiosity, to mystification or attractionin other words, to moving experience. The Literary World says that it is a "little uncertain whether the author suggests that this, quality belongs to Ins characters or that it is necccsaiy in his loaders if they are thoroughly to enjoy his book." Ceitainly it is necessary in his readers. For the book sets before us. in five short stories, a succession of people, placed—for the entertainment of the render —in various ambiguous and perplexing circumstances. The best, as well as the longest, of these stories is '"Mora Mont ravers.' It is excellently told and presents a really delightful comedy, in which some of the chief characters —and the reader —are kept in a state of mystification to the end. Mora Mont-avers is a very much emancipated and very headstrong modern girl of 21, who greatly shocks her natural guardians—a commonplace, respectable uncle and aunt —by suddenly leaving her home apparently to put- herself under the protection of a certain artist named Puddick, who had given her lessons. The aunt set? herself resolutely to persuade or wheedle or coerce Mr. Puddick to regularise the relationship—and the result is a still more extraordinary entanglement. For Mr. Puddick proves a most innocent and chivalrous gentleman. If none of the other stories give us quite such a surprise, there is a delicate flavour of ironic humour in them all, and they are marked by Mr. James's characteristic skill in revealing the intimate thoughts and emotions of the men and women out of whose lives he takes one central incident.