independence of Edith Wharton and Willa Cather. The year 1920, marking a
peak in the triumph of one or two species of naturalism and in some ways
closing a chapter, affords an admirable occasion to take stock. This
book, indeed, was planned and begun at the close of that year and has
firmly resisted the temptation to do more than glance at most of the
work produced since then--even at the price of giving what must seem
insufficient notice to _The Triumph of the Egg_ and _Three Soldiers_
and of giving none at all to that still more recent masterpiece
_Cytherea_. While criticism pauses to take stock, creation steadily goes
on.

Acknowledgments are due _The Nation_ for permission to reprint from its
pages those portions of the volume which have already been published
there.

CARL VAN DOREN.

March, 1922.




CONTENTS


I OLD STYLE

1. Local Color
2. Romance