The theme is the influence of heredity, as shown in
the working out of a strain of Spanish blood in a Sussex peasant stock,
the victims of this inconvenient blend being _Ruth_ and the young cousin
whom half-unwillingly she marries; with devastating results. _Ruth_, as
I say, was attracted to _Westmacott_ with only part of her being; the
better (or at least less Spanish) elements in her were employed in
making soft eyes at two other men, one of whom, _Malory_, is supposed to
relate portions of the affair to the quite superfluous outsider who
puts them down. This _viva-voci_ recital is subsequently rounded off
by _Malory_, in what is surely the least credible of all the unlikely
letters in fiction, nearly a hundred printed pages of it. So you see
the obstacles that Miss SACKSVILLE-WEST has placed in her own and her
reader's path. That, despite them all, the interest, and passion of this
first novel do get home is an encouraging omen for her success when she
has learnt a greater simplicity of attack.
* * * * *
_Wings of the Morning_ (HODDER AND STOUGHTON) might have been a most
recommendable book, for it is in essentials a pleasant story of a great
artist who for the crime of his hot-headed youth suffered imprisonment
in the United States, and, having "covered his tracks," came home, fell
in love with his delightful sister's delightful step-daughter and, after
much suffering for them both, told his history and won his lady.
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