The Transgression of Andrew Vane

From The Literary World, Volume 35, 1904:FROM quasi-Gilbertian verse to a story of this calibre, with an interregnum of but two books, is a sign of the steady improvement in Mr. Carryl's style when his untimely death occurred. His previous book, "Zut and other Parisians " was a series of sketches of Parisian life, trenchant, piquant, and realistic, but only sketches. In this novel, "The Transgression of Andrew Vane," are poured into a consistent and satisfying whole more of...
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From The Literary World, Volume 35, 1904:FROM quasi-Gilbertian verse to a story of this calibre, with an interregnum of but two books, is a sign of the steady improvement in Mr. Carryl's style when his untimely death occurred. His previous book, "Zut and other Parisians " was a series of sketches of Parisian life, trenchant, piquant, and realistic, but only sketches. In this novel, "The Transgression of Andrew Vane," are poured into a consistent and satisfying whole more of those vivid phases of Paris at which the author has shown himself a master-hand.

The side of Paris treated by Mr. Carryl is not that of the Quartier Latin or of the Boulevard-- rocks whereon are wrecked many ambitious literary shallops,-but a less written and equally interesting side,--the American colony, a curiously unconventional, curiously careless, and curiously callous community. Of this colony, the bright and shining light is one Mrs. Carnby, shrewd and sharp-tongued, yet kindly and tactful. Nearly every speech of hers is a joy and delight, it so aptly hits the situations or characters referred to. The heroine, Marjorie Palffy, a fresh and unspoiled American girl brought into contact with Paris, is sweet and sympathetic, but not wholly free from the aroma of the conventional. Far more fascinating is the personality of Mirabelle Tremonceau. This woman, a type of the "demi-mondaine de luxe," is drawn with feeling and intelligence,-the slightest slip would have made her either brazen or maudlin, -and one can easily understand and forgive Andrew Vane's transgression.

Vane himself is a curious character. At first he seems no more than the ordinary jeune premier of fiction, but soon develops into a very individual and very striking young man. In fact, at the end he is presented (perhaps unconsciously) as the greatest problem in the book. True, everything has turned out well for him, but what is going to be the future of a man of his startling antecedents? It is a question which can never be answered in a sequel.

Radwallader and Vicot, the two mainsprings of evil, are appropriately and conventionally sinister, and therefore savor more of the romantic than the realistic. Much more convincing are the " bits " of characters, fragments of Parisian and Yanko-Parisian types that live and breathe and strut along the boulevards.

The scenes and situations, barring, perhaps, the melodramatic finale, are smoothly and cleverly, always naturally, and sometimes powerfully written. The prologue is as skillful a handling of a repellent theme as has ever been presented. The book is distinctly not one for the young person, but neither is it for the seeker after the risque or erotic; it delights not in evil for evil's sake, though it may dissect that evil almost minutely. It is indeed a pity that this latest book of Mr. Carryl's is his last, for its excellence gave promise of the better things that would have surely come.