Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-04-19
BOOK REVIEWS.

BOOK REVIEWS.
STELLA MARIS. BY William j;
Locke, author of THE Beloved
Vagabond." etc. illustrated by
Frank Wiles. New 1ork. JONI
Lane Company.
~N the story of Stella Maris Mr.. Locke
creates and sustains most ingenious
n two contrasting worlds. These do
not merely exist side by side and
separate What is much more diff
ficult to control is their overlapping sur
faces and interlocking areas. One OF
these is poetic and fanciful place whose
queen is Stella Mards, little rich girl,
bound to her bed as IL Is supposed for
life. by some elusive malady. not SO
repeflent as disease, but rather like a
failure of the little body to coordinate
its parts to activity. The other is a very
real world, sordid In spots, and all over
a serious workaday affair. Its two CHER
denizens are a Flooding artist and a grub
b,ng journalist. These make excursions
over into the realm OF Stella Maris,
where. for her diversion, they invent
fabulous tales about the world outside.
and the grandeur of their own lives in
which palaces and servitOrs and cere-
rnonials of unbelievable splendor are the
Conmonest features. But, by and by, the
little girl becomes big girl, when the
strange malady disappears. The story
grows thereafter by the bewiidered emer-
gence of Stella Maris into world of
startling differences from the fairy one
created by the love and compassion Of
those around her. The qualities that SO
endeared 1.-The Beloved Vagabond" and
its successors to readers meet here at
their best in an invention that on this
side calls for the delicate touch OF highly
senstized finger-tips. and on that for a
ll-handed and brawny grip.
JEAN-CHRISTOPHE Journeys End.
BY Roman ROLAND. Translated by
Gilbert Canaan. New York: Henry
Holt & Co. Washington: Bren-
tano's.
This book completes NJ. Hollands three
volume novel, n-Christophe. Merely
as a thing accomplished, it is an impos-
ing work, involving an inexhaustible pa
thence and industry. And it is infinitely
more. This life-story of German COM
poser is great novel, one in which the
authors vision and his power to en-
body it meet on equal high terms. Here
a host of characters, diverse in nature
and outlook and conduct, move vitality
and with definite meaning into the warm
zone of the readers sympathy and COM
prehensien. Innumerable situations, full
and dramatic, springing out of the musi-
cal career of Jean-Christophe, expressing
themselves in work, and friendships, and
loves of many sorts. and degrees, con-
stitute the waymarks of this noble pro-
greSSion. Without a complete and lei
surely reading of the novel, it is not
possible to seize its sweep, and passion,
and proportioned fidelity to every part Of
Its lordly scheme. Too much of praise can
not be given to a translator who, like
Mr.. Canaan in this case, is able to lift
SO fine thing out of one speech and
set 1t down in another without appre-
cable loss of either substance or flavor.
AMERICAN NOBILITY. From the
French of Pierre de Coulevain, by
Alys Hallard. New York: E. p
Dutton & Co.
American Nobility was written prior
20 the writing Of ''On the Branch"
novel by this author of which there have
already been thirteen printings in Amer
lea The present story is less analytical
than "On the Branch 1t Is more of a
narrative with conventional plot On the
whole it gives evidence of less matured
powers than those that mark its popular
successor. An International marriage is
the familiar theme here. A French no.
bleman and an American millionaire's
daughter are the contracting parties. AS
Tor the girl. it is a marriage for love- With
the man 1t looks much like the same
thing. The further development of this
situation makes clever contrasts between
the national ideals and standards of this
pair with the subsequent disappoint-
ments and unhappiness. and slow adjust
ments imposed by this radical difference
of outlook and motive. The story moves
easily and enjoyably through the highest
of the high society of France. It's climax
Is establishment and misery, followed
by a makeshift read justment that is not
altogether and absolutely hopeless, though
Il Is a whole worlds breadth away from
the bright dreams with which the young
woman chose to expatriate herself.
THE INFERNO. BY August Strind-
berg. author. of "The Dance of
DEATH etc. Translated by Claud
Field. New York: G. P. Putnam's
Sons.
If it is needful for one to realize to its
full extent the torture that a disordered
mind is able, with truly devilish in
genuity. to inflict upon itself-why, then,
THE Inferno" is the very book for him
to seek. For in THE Inferno Strind-
berg. with every sort OF deadly little
probe. goes into the depths of his sepsi-
bilities inch by inch with MICROSCOPE and
camera at hand to insure exact accounts
of his various anguishes. Here the whole
whatnot OF mental disorder is set out in
a frenzy OF detail that could only aug
nnent the malady of the chronicler, and
that sets the mind of the reader himself
into tortured fears and apprehensions
Here is world packed with mean and
hostile agencies-signs, omens, demons.
occult and psychic currents of enmity.
the very face of the flowers set in derid
ing grin1ace. the very songs of the birds
twisted to tones and even words of men
ace, the accidental lines of tnanimate OBJ
.ects turned to peering and lurking foes.
All that can be said here is that in writ
ing THE Inferno Strindberg left not a
single thing unsaid. The only purpose
that this book can serve is to remind us
that there is a hell on earth. a fact that
ought to enlarge our sympathies to cover
some possible denizen of this Internal
state.
THE STRUGGLE FOR CHRISTIAN
TRUTH IN ITALY. By Giovanni
Luzzt, ID. D., professor in the Wal
densian Theological Seminary
Florence. New York: Fleming II
Revell Company.