Faint Perfume
by . New York: D. Appleton & Co. Lmo. vi+218 pp. $1.75
Faint Perfume, like Miss Lulu Bett, is the story of a sensitive woman dependent upon the charity of a vulgar family, but there the resemblance ends. Lulu Bett was an honest woman among hypocrites, and Leda Perrin is a child of light among Philistines. The Philistines, the Crumb family, are finely discriminated, and, like the Deacons of the earlier novel, are depressingly and yet, somehow, amusingly true to life. Their egregiousness is fully developed in the few pages the book contains by means of a rigid economy of style in which every word has — perhaps a little too obviously—been weighed, with the result that it seems at times somewhat mannered, and at times disturbingly clever.
The novel is the story of the love of Leda Perrin and Burnaby Powers, sensitive spirits who remain somewhat vague to the end. Lulu Bett, set. against the background of the Deacon family, was never for an instant submerged; but Leda and Barnaby, set against Crumbs, seem a little like pre-Raphaelite figures trying to remain visible in a genre picture. The trouble is that Leda and Barnaby, unlike Lulu, are complex beings, and seem out of key with the general style or complexion of the novel, which, more than its predecessors, is written almost in staccato with a leaning toward the epigrammatic. Complex characters cannot be flashed forth in selected attitudes and voicing selected platitudes. Even Shakespeare had to let his Hamlet talk and do more than his Osric. One feels that Leda and Barnaby have not a fair chance to develop their sensibilities in a style that is quite adequate for Mama and Pearl. Mama and Pearl have no overtones; Leda and Barnaby have little else; and the latter hover about, rather uncertain figures, for want of a sufficiently delicate medium of expression.
And yet, while there is no Lulu Bett in this novel, what a delightful talent is displayed in the creation of the Crumb family! One will not soon forget Grandfather polishing his coins on the hall rug, Mama scolding Tweet for using a solid silver spoon for her medicine, the Gideonite exuding esprit and counseling peace, Pearl kissing the postman, and Reesha acting the part of loving wife in order to impress the neighbors. The author’s method, like that of the etcher, of succeeding by omission rather than by inclusion, is most admirable here; and the portrait of Grandfather Crumb, achieved with an almost unbelievable economy of means, is veritably a triumph.
R M. GAY.