Transplanted — Gertrude Atherton

Mrs. Gertrude Atherton's treatise, in the form of a novel, on international marriages has been widely and favorably reviewed. The "Saturday Review"'s critic prefaces his praise by recalling the "crude vulgarity of "Patience Sparhawk,"" a work which, he thinks, in no wise indicated the advent of that first-rate woman-novelist which America "has long wanted." But "Transplanted" shows a great advance. He writes:
"The plot might easily have been stronger, especially in its final catastrophe; at least four or five subsidiary characters could well be spared, and Mrs. Atherton's narrative style lapses from its usual lucid correctness frequently enough to exasperate the English reader. These things, however, should count but small obstacles in the way of Mrs. Atherton's progress towards the distinction we believe to be waiting for her, and we base our belief much less on her present power to tell clearly an interesting story and to draw credible characters than on her very singular comprehension of the two widely sundered families of the Anglo-Saxon race,"
"Claudius Clear," of the "British Weekly," thinks this story should place Mrs. Atherton in the front rank of women novelists. He concludes by drawing its moral:
"As for the lessons, they are plain enough. If a man marries an American woman for her money, and for her money only, without respect and without love, he will suffer for it, and probably suffer more than he would if he married an English wife under similar circumstances. On the other hand, if a man marries an American woman for love, the condition of happiness is that one or the other should be willing to merge individuality. It is hard for the woman to do so. If she is brilliant and beautiful, she has experienced such courtship and reverence as English girls know nothing of. It will be very hard for her to lay this aside and to be satisfied with a share in the life of her husband. Even if she does it for a while she may not do it always. It is pretty clear that things in the happy marriage of this book might very easily have gone wrong. If the wife had gone to California her married life would have been wrecked. On the other hand, things being as they were, the husband had the superior brightness of America, and the loss was all the wife's. But I suppose Mrs. Atherton would say that if an English husband could be found to merge his individuality in that of an American wife, the marriage in that case also would be happy. That, however, would be a far more difficult thing, and probably the authoress intends to tell us that the marriage of an American wife with an English husband is in all cases a great risk, but that if it is happy it may be the most happy of all marriages. However, these are considerations with which most of us are not troubled, being contented in our own country. What will win readers to this volume is, as I have said, the extreme freshness, relish, vivacity, and grace of the treatment. What the typical American girl is among women, that "Transplanted" is among novels."
"There is not a dull page in the book; it is informed throughout with that most fascinating quality in all works of art-the point of view " thus the critic of the "Daily News."
-"The Academy and Literature," Vol. 53