The Right of Way by Gilbert Parker

The Right of Way Reviews

• 
  Stephen Gallup

  I will never know why this musty old book (copyright 1901) came to hand. The first time, it was in a stack of titles the public library had on reserve for me. The others, I had requested. This one I'd never heard of. I did open it up and read a couple chapters, but had other commitments and so returned it. A month later, guess what–the library gave it to me again! At that point I thought maybe the universe was saying I should read it, so I did.
  
  The story concerns Charley Steele, a bright young lawyer in Montreal in the late 1800s. In the first chapter, his compelling oration succeeds in winning acquittal for a murder suspect that everyone had expected to hang. Emboldened by his sudden acclaim for that astonishing feat, he proposes marriage to a socially prominent young lady named Kathleen. The match seems appropriate for both of them, so she accepts, despite harboring some affection for another fellow.
  
  The narrative then skips ahead five years, to a point at which neither of them is happy. Charley has become an alcoholic and a flâneur (that is, an idler) and his reputation is in ruins. Kathleen is disgusted with him, not only because of the drinking but because she blames him for having corrupted and led astray both the local pastor and her brother. Actually, as it turns out, those two are both bad apples, quite apart from any influence Charley may have had, but he makes no effort to defend himself. Privately, however, Charley confronts the brother with knowledge that he has embezzled money (forging Charley's signature in doing so); but before he can do anything about that, Charley is roughed up in a barroom brawl and tossed into the river.
  
  His body is never found. The brother keeps the money and lets Charley take the blame. And Kathleen marries her old beau.
  
  That's what Charley discovers seven months later when he recovers from amnesia. You see, the murder suspect he'd saved years earlier happened to be in a boat that night when Charley's unconscious body came floating past. He saved Charley and cared for him in his remote cabin until the parish priest stopped by and then returned with his brother, a visiting French surgeon. The surgeon treated Charley's head injury, enabling his full recovery.  Practically the first thing Charley sees at that point is an old newspaper article describing Kathleen's remarriage and his own disgrace.
  
  Seeing that returning would only add to the pain he had already caused other people, Charley starts a new life in the obscure village where he now finds himself. He's had sufficient time to detox from the drinking, although the old urge still comes upon him intermittently. Going by the name Charley Mallard, he finds humble work as a tailor.
  
  "It mattered little what he was, tinker or tailor. He had no wish to go elsewhere—where could he go? He had only to work his way back to the mind of a peasant; to get close to mother earth, and move down the declivity of life." 
  
  Some of his new neighbors accept and like him on those terms, in particular Rosalie, the sweet young lady who runs the post office. Others are very suspicious of this man without a past. He's not a Catholic, which is a serious strike against him, and there's reason to suspect he may not even be a believer! Since an infidel might be capable of doing anything, he is blamed (in a way reminiscent of Kathleen's earlier accusations) for a variety of misdeeds.
  
  And perhaps I should stop my summary there to avoid saying too much.
  
  I still have no idea how this book came to me. But contact with it has prompted certain responses.
  
  First, simply holding such a volume evokes nostalgia for bygone times. It has a smell that brings to mind a vast used-book warehouse I frequented long ago, where I could buy old Tom Swift Senior tomes for a nickel. Like a lot of those books, it not only has a frontispiece under a sheet of onionskin but has several rather good illustrations of scenes from the story appearing every few pages.
  
  
  Secondly, from the viewpoint of what I'll call mechanics, this leads me to think the reading world must have changed a lot over the years. For us today, the inclusion of pictures, while nice, might suggest a lack of confidence that the author's words are sufficient. And I do have to acknowledge that this is not great literature. The worst problem is the plot's reliance on a multitude of timely coincidences or contrivances (the grateful boatman, the visiting surgeon, the newspaper article, etc.). The plot hinges on one such intrusion by the author after another. At a low point, Charley considers suicide (as a means of pursuing "refuge and seclusion" to a further degree than he has already attained), but suddenly Rosalie steps out of nowhere and convinces him not to do it. From a narrative sense her presence at that moment, and her awareness of his intent, is just not credible.
  
  One such coincidence per novel is considered the limit, I believe. Also, amnesia in particular has long been a device no self-respecting author can touch. (Ditto sleep-walking, which also occurs.) When introducing characters, the author tells us, almost in so many words, whether we should like them or not. Charley's self-destructive behavior at the beginning is presented with no attempt at explanation. What caused his once-promising former life to go wrong? In particular what prompted him to go into that tavern, knowing in advance he'd encounter trouble there? Gilbert Parker makes a lot of assumptions about his readers' willingness to accept anything without asking such questions.
  
  Finally, there's the context of nineteenth century literature. I can sense the influence of some of Parker's recent predecessors, especially, I think, Victor Hugo. (Charley's noble concern for others in his new identity brings to mind Jean Valjean.) But this book is not in the same league. The reason is simply that the plot moves forward not because of choices we see the characters making but because of author intrusion.
  
  Is there value in having read it? Well, yes. In many ways it's almost a textbook example of what a writer ought not to do.  And yet, despite all the above complaints, I did rather enjoy the experience. And some further benefit may yet reveal itself.
• 
  L. (Being kinder to my books for 2023)

  Charley "Beauty" Steel is a Canadian lawyer with a weakness for alcohol. A visit to a seedy out-of-the-way pub gets Charley involved in a brawl. The resulting injury to his head causes amnesia. After several missing months he regains his memory only to learn everyone thinks he was killed in the fight and didn't really miss him at all. Especially his wife who quickly got over the mourning period to get started on her second husband. Charley decides to take this opportunity to start his life over with a new identity.
• 
  Samantha Glasser

  This book was adapted to the screen several times including the very creaky 1931 version with Conrad Nagel and Loretta Young.
  
  Read this book online for free through Project Gutenberg:
  http://www.gutenberg.org/files/6249/6...
• 
  Susan C Lance

  Canada and a new life for a lawyer