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."
The complex figure of Vendred, the hero of the story, the evasive
provocative Mona Lisa-like portrait of Mrs. Dover, the extraordinary
and stimulating art with which her husband is described, the agitating
and tragic appeal made to us by Vendred's child-wife, the unfortunate
Louise--all these together make up one of the most absorbing and
unforgettable impressions we have received for many years.
Of Mr. and Mrs. Dover in their relation to one another the following
passage reverberates through one's mind:--"They would sit opposite one
another silently, criticising with a drastic pitiless criticism. This
in itself showed where they had arrived; for faith has to be shaken
before there is room for criticism, and if love survives the criticism
of lovers, it is altogether different from the love they began with.
Lovers can be almost anything they choose to each other and still be
in love, but they cannot be critical. That is blighting."
Perhaps the most tragic thing in the book is the letter written by
Louise to Vendred when the luckless child discovers her husband's
intrigue with her mother:--"I came to you in the middle of the night
last night because I was afraid of the wind. The fire was burning and
I saw. I am gone, you will never see me again."
The last scenes of the unfortunate girl's life--indirectly described
by the ruffian who got possession of her in Paris--produce on the mind
that sickening sense of the wanton stupidity of the Universe which
fills one with hopeless pity.
The author of this book must have a noble and formidable soul.