F. W. K. The Sewanee Review. July 1927, pp.364-66.
THE ALLINGHAMS. By May Sinclair. New York: The Macmillan Company.
1927. Pp. 368.
TO THE LIGHTHOUSE. By Virginia Woolf. New York: Harcourt, Brace
& Co. Pp. 310.
These two novels invite comparison because they are both
studies in family relationships, and because in their approach
and manner they are so different. The Allinghams portrays one
of those delightful English families, familiar to us in such novels
as The Hounds of Spring or Miss Sinclair’s earlier Tree of
Heaven. Each one of the six Allingham children is individualized
from the outset, and each is carried into the crucial years
of life and love. With so many heroes and heroines, the story
lacks the concentration of Miss Sinclair’s recent studies of a
single character. Nor is there one dominant motive, but rather
an interweaving of several themes familiar to her readers. The
hereditary neurotic strain works itself out in the lives of the