University of Virginia Library

The drama, instead of literature, is the career of the chief figure in Mrs. Mary Austin's "A Woman of Genius" (Doubleday). It may safely be said that had George Moore never written "The Mummer's Wife," this book would have taken a different form. Olivia Lattimore is convinced that she can act. Her theatrical efforts shock her neighbors in Taylorsville, Ohianna, but eventually give her great wealth and international fame. In the pursuit of this fame, she becomes "emancipated" of most conscientious scruples, and lives, the author would have us believe, a very gay life. The book is in part a criticism of the moral narrowness of the citizens of the Middle West, an exposition of Genius breaking the fetters of respectability. But it is interesting to note that the author's conception of an actress's career is deliciously provincial—she describes Olivia as living a life of wild riot, and yet gaining distinguished success in the most exacting and arduous of professions.

This naivete gives an innocent charm to the book.