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The Eyes of the World
Another from the famed Harold Bell Wright, this is THE EYES OF THE WORLD, a romance that takes place among the orange groves of Southern California. This is a morality play whose lessons are as suitable to an artistic society today as they were nearly a century ago. The characters include a portrait painter, a famous novelist, a young violinist, a respected media critic, and several irresponsible art patrons. The story laments the success given to the art that is corrupted by it. The novelist, Conrad LaGrange, professes that his own wealth and popular approval have been bought by calling attention to the indecent, thereby surrendering the dignity of his profession. Wright presents a sordid bunch who captivate us with their pomposity and gossiping harangue. The selfish art patrons are all-too-willing to watch how the artists prostitute their work and to allow their own reproach as long as they can control the power of the artistic transaction. Such is the power one of the patrons, Mrs. Taine, wields when she says to the artist, Aaron King, the following: My influence would insure you a favorable reception from those who make the reputations of men like you. I could have made you the rage. I could have made you famous.
322 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1914
44 people are currently reading
226 people want to read
About the author
Harold Bell Wright
83 books86 followersHarold Bell Wright was a best selling American author of the first part of the 20th century.
Between 1903 and 1942, this minister-turned-author wrote nineteen books, several scripts for stage plays, and several magazine articles. At least fifteen movies were made from his novels. Seven of Wright's books appeared on the top ten best sellers lists, two of them twice, including a number one seller in 1914, a number two in 1916 and a third best seller three times.
He's best known for his work entitled The Shepherd of the Hills which was made into the well known, outdoor play, of the same name, performed in Branson, Mo.
Between 1903 and 1942, this minister-turned-author wrote nineteen books, several scripts for stage plays, and several magazine articles. At least fifteen movies were made from his novels. Seven of Wright's books appeared on the top ten best sellers lists, two of them twice, including a number one seller in 1914, a number two in 1916 and a third best seller three times.
He's best known for his work entitled The Shepherd of the Hills which was made into the well known, outdoor play, of the same name, performed in Branson, Mo.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
October 30, 2013
I don't care what the critics say, I used to get lost in this book. It was a favorite of mine growing up. I read it at least 3 times!
November 3, 2016
This is my second HB Wright I've read, and this gets another positive review from me. There are a range of characters, page-turning plot, and a bit of fairytale romance. My main objection to the story is how he repeatedly referenced Myra Willard as "the woman with the disfigured face" rather than simply Myra once her description was complete. There are some slow passages leading to the meat of the story, but I enjoyed it all the same.
March 27, 2016
This book was a lot of fun; there's a maiden in distress, a villain, and artist, several secrets, and a hero. I've reread it several times. Yes, a few of the scenes might have been far-fetched, but I didn't care because I liked the characters.
October 29, 2013
Loved it. A little idealism now and then flushes out the effects of the prevailing cynicism in the world.
November 28, 2015
One of my favorite Wright books yet. Dealing with motives, and the influence the world has on our reasoning.
September 1, 2024
It had been a while since I’d read any of his books so it was fun to get into it again. A very simple story in lot of ways and yet beautifully written!
July 13, 2018
This took some threading my way into because of the "wordiness" of the narrative and some of the archaic terms (which I didn't take the time to google to find out what they meant), but once I forced myself into it, I liked it. It was published in 1914, so it is understandable that some of the phrases were not easily grasped. It really is an allegory of civilization and its way of warping its environment--physically, mentally, and even spiritually--good vs. evil per se. The main characters are a novelist who has sold his soul for riches and fame, an artist who is just finding his way in the world, a disfigured woman who finds her redemption in taking care of an innocent child, and that innocent child who becomes a woman whose virtue is never lost (even though she learns more of the outside world and that it is safe to love).
I thought the author painted the story well with his use of long physical descriptions of people, places, things, and thoughts. Some of the narrative might have been a little too long in detail, but that may have been the charm of his story--especially during the time that it was published. There was no real media in those days except for newspapers and books, so those had to be written in a way to envelop the readers' senses. Maybe without the short attention span of modern audiences, it was easier to sit down with a good book and really absorb it.
I thought the author painted the story well with his use of long physical descriptions of people, places, things, and thoughts. Some of the narrative might have been a little too long in detail, but that may have been the charm of his story--especially during the time that it was published. There was no real media in those days except for newspapers and books, so those had to be written in a way to envelop the readers' senses. Maybe without the short attention span of modern audiences, it was easier to sit down with a good book and really absorb it.
October 11, 2011
This was terrible. I mean, I'm not wholly on the civilization side in the civilization v. nature debate, but I am wholly in favor of making sense, and of knowing what you're talking about, which I don't think Harold Bell Wright does. Yeah, critics didn't like your books, Mr. Wright. I can't say I blame them.
I just wish there had been at least one three-dimensional character, or even a likable two-dimensional one who didn't ruin it all by trying to make blackmail seem like a moral choice--one apparently also espoused by the author.
I mean, I like ridiculousness, but this is just miserable and manipulative.
I just wish there had been at least one three-dimensional character, or even a likable two-dimensional one who didn't ruin it all by trying to make blackmail seem like a moral choice--one apparently also espoused by the author.
I mean, I like ridiculousness, but this is just miserable and manipulative.
November 23, 2014
Love at last
great read, not a fan of love stories, but this great.
tHis a book written the year my mother was born.
great read, not a fan of love stories, but this great.
tHis a book written the year my mother was born.
May 15, 2015
Very thought provoking for those wanting success in our world today. A well written romance/mystery.
May 5, 2023
I’m fairly certain I read this book in junior high because it was set in a place in the mountains where I lived. When I figure it all out, I’m come back and write more.
So I am coming back after re-reading this number one bestseller (Wright, the author made a million dollars) in 1914!!! Critics hated it. (While they certainly have valid points which I will get to, I have to tell you that Wright skewers critics in this novel. Um, I don't think the critics were totally unbiased.)
You will not find The Eyes of the World on any current list of 1914 book list challenges. You will find 3 James Joyce pieces: Dubliners, Araby, The Dead; Bram Stoker's Dracula; a couple of L.Frank Baum books; Arthur Conan Doyle; Kahlil Gibran; Jack London; G.K.Chesterton; H.G.Wells; Elsinore Pruitt Stewart's Letters of a Woman Homesteader (okay, so this last one probably not many people know but I have read it).
So, what's the issue here? When I first read it as a middle schooler, my friend Merilee loaned it to me stating, "The writing is not very good but it's about our Eyes of the World (location)." I didn't realize until I read it last month as an adult that "eyes of the world" had more to do with how people try to be a certain way for the world (and, goodness, how the eyes of the world have multiplied here close to 110 years later).
The story is clearly melodramatic, yet at the time I read it (and somewhat to this day) I was in love with these mountains in the same way that Wright was. The area is real. I visited there recently and the way he describes the opening and closing into the canyon is perfect. As for Fairlands, it is a very thinly veiled portrayal of Redlands (the wealthy at the time could not have been too happy with this). Wright was a pastor in Redlands, and I would love to know the story why he could not be a pastor and a novelist at the same time.
The story is quite moralistic -- perhaps not so strange for 1914; however, Wright includes situations that would definitely rate some trigger warnings. For those of us who lived in those same mountains as young children and either saw, lived it, or learned later in life the worst of the Hollywood types come in and get away worse things than James Rutlidge did (if only they had met their end in the same way as this fictional character).
Wright is an author of his time and there are cringe worthy passages: "Will Andres was as true and square and white a man as ever lived" (hand to forehead); Mexican outlaws; Yee Kee the Chinaman...ugh, ugh, ugh.
The Eyes of the World is an allegory of sorts, but an overly obvious one where Wright tells you who is Nature (the innocent maiden), Civilization (the author who sold out to popularity, fame, and wealth) who remarks: "Well, here they come -- 'The Age', accompanied by 'Materialism', 'Sensual', and 'Ragtime' -- to look upon the prostitution of Art, and call it good." As overdone as this all is, the subject is discussion worthy.
1) I would not have called the innocent maiden (who Rutledge seeks to despoil by force) Nature. I think she is Beauty as in one of the Transcendentals (the Transcendental most forgotten in the triad of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty).
2) It is perhaps ironic that this book of Wright's was a number one bestseller and made him a million dollars. "We use our art to gain our own vain ends instead of being driven by our art to find adequate expression for some great truth that demands through us a hearing" (34%). "Thus it is when 'Art' becomes entangled with the family of 'Materialism.' It's hard to break away from the flesh-pots -- even when you know you are on the road to the Promised Land."
3) I had just finished reading a book on Thomas Merton so I had thoughts from Merton on the false self, writing, materialism in my head as I was reading sentences from Wright such as 'And must one be known -- to be great?' she asked. "Might not an artist be great and still be unknown?'" and "No, no, you are joking. You do not really think that being known to the world and greatness are the same." ""It's so hard to be yourself in the world. Everybody, there, seems trying to be something they are not. no one dares to be just themselves."
For myself, as much as I appreciate Wright's attempt at getting to these thoughts on Materialism, Civilization, Art, etc., I couldn't help but feel sorry for the character who represented The Age, Mrs. Taine. The author makes no allowances for how an evil man deceived her mother, took her away, raised her up, married her off in a loveless match to Materialism, and made her what she was. I probably wasn't meant to see real people in an allegory, but that can be the challenge with allegories, isn't it?
I just gave three stars to a book many of my friends gave 4 and 5 stars (and even I admit to the writing being better in the other book), yet here I am also giving this book 3 stars. But, the other book I would pay book subscription price for and this book I would pay thrift book prices. Three stars is my challenging area. For me, this book represents places I love and this discussion on materialism, art, civilization, but I thoroughly admit to it being melodramatic product of its time while still being ahead of its time in some ways. When my husband asked if I was skewering it or giving it a positive review, I replied, "praising with faint damns" (a phrase that is going to come up quite often -- along with its opposite -- as I do a massive book review drop in the next few days).
My mom? Maybe? The whole allegory thing might throw her.
So I am coming back after re-reading this number one bestseller (Wright, the author made a million dollars) in 1914!!! Critics hated it. (While they certainly have valid points which I will get to, I have to tell you that Wright skewers critics in this novel. Um, I don't think the critics were totally unbiased.)
You will not find The Eyes of the World on any current list of 1914 book list challenges. You will find 3 James Joyce pieces: Dubliners, Araby, The Dead; Bram Stoker's Dracula; a couple of L.Frank Baum books; Arthur Conan Doyle; Kahlil Gibran; Jack London; G.K.Chesterton; H.G.Wells; Elsinore Pruitt Stewart's Letters of a Woman Homesteader (okay, so this last one probably not many people know but I have read it).
So, what's the issue here? When I first read it as a middle schooler, my friend Merilee loaned it to me stating, "The writing is not very good but it's about our Eyes of the World (location)." I didn't realize until I read it last month as an adult that "eyes of the world" had more to do with how people try to be a certain way for the world (and, goodness, how the eyes of the world have multiplied here close to 110 years later).
The story is clearly melodramatic, yet at the time I read it (and somewhat to this day) I was in love with these mountains in the same way that Wright was. The area is real. I visited there recently and the way he describes the opening and closing into the canyon is perfect. As for Fairlands, it is a very thinly veiled portrayal of Redlands (the wealthy at the time could not have been too happy with this). Wright was a pastor in Redlands, and I would love to know the story why he could not be a pastor and a novelist at the same time.
The story is quite moralistic -- perhaps not so strange for 1914; however, Wright includes situations that would definitely rate some trigger warnings. For those of us who lived in those same mountains as young children and either saw, lived it, or learned later in life the worst of the Hollywood types come in and get away worse things than James Rutlidge did (if only they had met their end in the same way as this fictional character).
Wright is an author of his time and there are cringe worthy passages: "Will Andres was as true and square and white a man as ever lived" (hand to forehead); Mexican outlaws; Yee Kee the Chinaman...ugh, ugh, ugh.
The Eyes of the World is an allegory of sorts, but an overly obvious one where Wright tells you who is Nature (the innocent maiden), Civilization (the author who sold out to popularity, fame, and wealth) who remarks: "Well, here they come -- 'The Age', accompanied by 'Materialism', 'Sensual', and 'Ragtime' -- to look upon the prostitution of Art, and call it good." As overdone as this all is, the subject is discussion worthy.
1) I would not have called the innocent maiden (who Rutledge seeks to despoil by force) Nature. I think she is Beauty as in one of the Transcendentals (the Transcendental most forgotten in the triad of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty).
2) It is perhaps ironic that this book of Wright's was a number one bestseller and made him a million dollars. "We use our art to gain our own vain ends instead of being driven by our art to find adequate expression for some great truth that demands through us a hearing" (34%). "Thus it is when 'Art' becomes entangled with the family of 'Materialism.' It's hard to break away from the flesh-pots -- even when you know you are on the road to the Promised Land."
3) I had just finished reading a book on Thomas Merton so I had thoughts from Merton on the false self, writing, materialism in my head as I was reading sentences from Wright such as 'And must one be known -- to be great?' she asked. "Might not an artist be great and still be unknown?'" and "No, no, you are joking. You do not really think that being known to the world and greatness are the same." ""It's so hard to be yourself in the world. Everybody, there, seems trying to be something they are not. no one dares to be just themselves."
For myself, as much as I appreciate Wright's attempt at getting to these thoughts on Materialism, Civilization, Art, etc., I couldn't help but feel sorry for the character who represented The Age, Mrs. Taine. The author makes no allowances for how an evil man deceived her mother, took her away, raised her up, married her off in a loveless match to Materialism, and made her what she was. I probably wasn't meant to see real people in an allegory, but that can be the challenge with allegories, isn't it?
I just gave three stars to a book many of my friends gave 4 and 5 stars (and even I admit to the writing being better in the other book), yet here I am also giving this book 3 stars. But, the other book I would pay book subscription price for and this book I would pay thrift book prices. Three stars is my challenging area. For me, this book represents places I love and this discussion on materialism, art, civilization, but I thoroughly admit to it being melodramatic product of its time while still being ahead of its time in some ways. When my husband asked if I was skewering it or giving it a positive review, I replied, "praising with faint damns" (a phrase that is going to come up quite often -- along with its opposite -- as I do a massive book review drop in the next few days).
My mom? Maybe? The whole allegory thing might throw her.
May 21, 2024
Well written over a hundred years ago and the truths within its pages are still relevant today. Starts a bit slow, but it takes time to set the scene and develop the characters. A classic tale of good vs. evil, genuine vs. fake. A wilderness adventure wherein Wright weaves a young man's struggle to define and achieve true greatness with a wholesome love story. He contrasts the religious and social elite with genuine Christianity, tearing the cover off of the hypocrisy of the one while revealing the trueness of the other. Well worth reading.
February 26, 2025
"The Eyes of the World" is a classic Harold Bell Wright novel. Written in the early 20th century, it can be hard to understand what is happening in some scenes, but the moral message of the story is clear and still very relevant (perhaps more so) in today's world. The author wrote beautifully and poetically throughout the book about his cast of characters, their interactions, and their choices in life. I really enjoyed reading the story, but I think my favorite from Wright is still "That Printer of Udell's".
December 20, 2018
Harold Bell Wright was an unknown name to me till I read a list of bestsellers from the early part of the twentieth century.
Let's just say I won't be reading any more. Flat characters, a strained plot and a moral message that is completely subverted by the ending. Some sins are obviously more pardonable than others.
Let's just say I won't be reading any more. Flat characters, a strained plot and a moral message that is completely subverted by the ending. Some sins are obviously more pardonable than others.
August 6, 2021
Up until now I’ve enjoyed all of Harold Bell Wright’s books, but this one is a real snoozer. A rising young artist meets an old, worn-out writer who became popular by catering to the lowest common denominator. They become good friends. Will the young artist follow the bad example of the old writer? Heck, who cares? There are vague women who come and go with little purpose in the story. I’m not sorry to say I didn’t finish this one.
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December 3, 2021The eyes of the world revlves around protagonists rand al 'thor, matrim (mat) couthon perrin Aybara, egwene al'vere, and nynaeve al'meara, after thier residence of emand's field is unexpcetedly attached by trolloes (the antagonist's solders) and a myrddaraal (the undead-like officer commanting the rollocsonrapturing rand. Mat and perrin.
May 1, 2025
glad i finally got this one marked off my list! a good old fashioned story. tho kinda one that makes me roll my eyes just a touch cuz did the “young woman” actually go dancing thru the meadow mimicking the butterflies? like how “young” are we talking? 6? lol
definitely puts “the eyes of the world” in perspective tho and whose approval are we really looking for?
definitely puts “the eyes of the world” in perspective tho and whose approval are we really looking for?
November 20, 2022
A artist must make a choice between his dieing mothers wish for him or to turn away from the ever watching Eyes of the world.
This is a true novel in all sense of the words. It has something for everyone mystery and romance with fast paced action that few writers can bring to books these days.
This is a true novel in all sense of the words. It has something for everyone mystery and romance with fast paced action that few writers can bring to books these days.
September 20, 2020
This was a lovely slow, yet enjoyable read about an artist discovering how to preserve being himself in a world where compromise means money.
September 3, 2022
Book club August 2022
A charming old-fashioned story! I don't recommend the audiobook though.
A charming old-fashioned story! I don't recommend the audiobook though.
February 25, 2023
A well written book that will not let you put it down.... Will read again.
April 4, 2024
Such a good book. Definitely one to read just to enjoy the art of writing. Written almost poetically.
March 3, 2025
I will always love this book.
Read
November 22, 2019A disappointment.
June 24, 2021
Young Artist travels to Southern California in search of a rich patron. He is almost corrupted by tainted City Woman but is ultimately saved by the purity of Country Girl. Then Interesting Character shows up at the end which is why I give this three stars. Would really like to read more about Interesting Character.
July 30, 2014
I was interested in this book because it was so popular during its time, but has since faded into obscurity. There were a few moments of greatness in this story, but mostly it was just okay. The symbolism seemed forced, and the characters felt caged by what they were supposed to represent. I felt more connected to Wright's ability to describe the beauty of a particular moment or scene than I did to any of the characters.
January 25, 2016
It was hard to get into and I found it very rough...some vulgarity and sexuality that I didn't care for. But in the end it was very interesting and I couldn't put the book down. It had a great point to it as well.
June 22, 2009
One of my very favorite by this author. Just a good book!
November 28, 2015
I found this pretty thought provoking, as many of Wright's books are. The primary subject is motives.
January 29, 2016
4* can't remember much about this one.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews