The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-01-09
AMONG The BOOKS
Another Glimpse st Herbert
Hopkins Work.
Not the Usual Story of Callow
Undergraduate.
OF INTENSE INTEREST.
1t Meets All the Requirements
of Novel.
One of the Most Readable Books
OF Season of 1908.

"She walked rapidly and soon reach
ed the great sloping campus of the uni
versity. AS she glanced up at the long
row of dingy buildings she smiled with
vague apology at the moment
the institution looked like some forlorn
asylum. One object, however,
anonymously beautiful. broke the
level skyline of roofs. The tower of
the library sprang up against the blue
and even as she looked the chimes
shook down a shower Of sixteen sweet
notes followed by five brazen beats OF
the great bell. The autumn
sun dropping lower suddenly snote fire
from the windows of the tower until,
to her swiftly changing mood, it SYM
bolized the torch of learning uplifted in
those western prairies. She paused to
watch the lower windows catch the
glow and soon all. the buildings seemed
| af1ane."
In these sentences from the opening
chapter of The Torch, a new novel by
Herbert NJ. Hopkins, we get at once
the significance of the title and a
glimpse at the mise en- scene of the
novel. But because it is a college story
The Torch is not to be COMPOUNDED with
that class of fiction to which SO many
contributions have been made of late
years which deal with the callow un-
dergraduate, his daring FRANKS and
acters in The Torch are the members
of the faculty and the narrow life, the
petty jealousies and the mean politics
Of the small western university are de-
picted with life like fidelity. The stu
dents figure only like a mob in play
to give the necessary touch of local
color and verisinliIitude but with them
individually the book has little to do.
The real heroes are the professors and
assistant professors, the heroine is a
i1x-;T n xunr1dI7y selfish hIlf fhOT0uQh-
ly charming woman, a leader in the
town and university society and per
feet siren among the susceptible young
dons; the vallain, if so strong a term
common faults of vanity and selhsh
ambition, is the young president of the
university. Henry Darlington"
Undoubtedly those ''in the know will
recognize the particular college which
masquerades in Mr.. Hopkins book as
the state university at Argos but it il
tribute to the authors realism tina
almost every one who reads the BOOB
| will be able to recognize many analogue:
to the particular college or colleges O.
his intimate acquaintance. There /:
something in the segregation Of uni
versity life that uaakesi for narrownes:
of the broadening influence OF learning
and Mr.. Hopkins has portrayed this
spirit of small pickering and hair
splitting and little senseless rivalrie:
perfectly. the BOOK IS intensely inter
esting throughout, even in the absence
of a definite plot. Its characters are
lifeIike and convincing. The heroine
Mrs Van SAINT. is especially magnetic
and her creator is to be congratulated
on his success in making her very i'm
projections fascinating much after TIL
fashion of a flesh and blood woman
She is very human, this "Susanne Van
SAINT" pleasure loving. vain and selfisf
but she has beauty, wealth, good birth
knows how to wear her clothes and ha!
a perfect social instinct so it is no won
der that half the men in the university
are in love with her. She finally mar
ries the right one-that is, the one TIL
author evidently thinks the right one
although a good many people will no
be without a regretful sympathy TO
that thoroughly good fellow "Niehola.
Lee" who was lucky at every thing ex
cept love. THE Torch is really On.
of the best and most readable novels
of 1903. It stands out from the barrel.
of rubbish which the publishing houses
have been turning out and promises wei
for its author, who is evidently young
writer.
The Torch Herbert NJ. Hopkins. Thu
Bobbs- Merrill company, Indianapolis
publishers. Price $3.50.