Evening star., 1915-11-28

pany.
- OMEWHERE well along in this
amazing realism of connubiaHty
Edwin Clayhanger. the husband
~ in These Twain" gives voice to
an oyerflowing conviction. What
Clayhanger says is that each is 1or
himself in this world. and that's the
bedrock of marriage as of all other IN
stitutions." In substance this is the
theme of Mr.. Benefits new 60O-page
novel The novel is merely an amplifi-
cation of the inevitable makeshfts of
comproh1ise that are universally en-
p1oyed to sustain the matrimonial con-
Germ after the water, so to speak. has
been squeezed out of the legitimate
stock value Once get past the newness
of marriage, past the natural emotions
of mating, past the illusions of early
dreams and the unrealties of anticipa-
ton then the real business of two
strangers trying to live together be-
gins 1t is with the perpetual read
justments that marriage entails with
ones daily and endless edging along to
make room for another in the comfort
able but unaccommodating quarters of
his own personal habit, that THESE
Twain deals in the manner of surpass-
ing realism that waits upon the keen
penetration of this writer. AS eVepts
commonly count this is an uneventful
record. No gossip touches the fair front
of the welded life of Edwin Clayhanger
and Hilda Lessways. There is no hint
of lover in the offing or mistress
around the corner. There is no su-
preme crisis, no overwhelming climax.
The story leaves the pair pretty much
as it finds them. engaged with break
fast. lunch and dinner. going to bed and
getting up. with breakfast. lunch and
dinner again. with business for the
man and pleasure for the woman. But
in the realm of the feelings, of swift
alterations of love and it's opposite.
of joy and misery, of contentment and
unrest, of infatuation and disillusion-
ment. it is prodigiously eventful
count. And it looks pretty much like
the universal story of wedlock. That
is why it is so important. except that
1t is about equally important in the
genius of its conception and produc-
tion.
OLD DELABOLE. BY Eden Phillpotts.
author of "BruneFs Tower" etc.
New York: The Macmillan Company.
To Philipotts readers the west of Eng.
land-now Cornwall and now Devon
has reached the measure of human per-
sonality, it has taken ON the qualities
of a friend in the flesh and assumed
reality equal to that of the neighbor
across the way. For, whatever may be
the thread of action that serves the
purpose of a Phillpotts novel in pictur-
lHB lHe Ire OF lnlS west COuHliS. lHe
effect of each and all of these stories
is that of the land itself exalted to the
role of master-craftsman, shaping the
character and setting the course of the
men and women within it's keeping.
Old Delabole is a hamlet that the slate
quarries of Cornwall created. Here the
grandfathers and great-grandfathers of
the present generation were quarry
men, just as its grandsons and great
grandsons will be. "Since Tudor times
the slate of Delabole has come to mar
ket. for men worked here before
Shakespeare wrote" Out of this an
cient mold SO resistant to change; out
OF this slate-quarry habit of muscle.
this slate-quarry mode of thought Mr.
Philipotts creates and projects the
drama of Old Delabole. Simple mat
ters. the business of plain folks. en-
gage this quarry community. And the
story advances in perfect time and tune
with the slow thought, the deliberate
movements, the ponderous attention to
little things. that Old Della bole, out of
lts narrow routine and isolate condi-
tlon, weaves into the fiber of it's people
A love story, peculiarly calculated to
Try out the real stuff of the three young
ioIks caught within a single smolder-
ing ring of passion, brings into focus
and high light many of the staider
events of the old hamlet Single char
scters flash out here and there in vivid
1ts nkeness and picturesque appeal.
This is a human story, strongly and
compactly built, soberly beautiful
thoughout-a poem in low tones of dun
and gray That it is such does NOT in
any degree take away from its tran
scriptve quality. Mr.. Phillpotts is a G
downright realist as Mr. Pennett o.
any other notorious character in the
School OF realism ever dared to be PM
Hs Is reallst with a difference the
diHerence being his choice of esid
: instead of making reports ON a sI,r,
or on the dead-level quarters of the
EIsat average. he has chosen to give
nidnseH up to the modern aspects and
meanings of the ancient and .nsta
Lands End of Devon and cornwam +.
IL this choice that lifts the pbi1Inots
Ho'eis INTO a uniquely beautiful hod,
&c. eSnstlc hction. And among them
cid Delabole" stands so far 40 ~
most finished in form and the ,nost sa.
,siyinsly human of all the novels bv
this writer. ny
THE FORTUNE OF GaRIN a..
5o0hston. author of "Hagar." etc
0os'oh. Houghton Miffiin companv
Ihe quality of Miss Johnston's fmagi-
H8tioh Is OF poetic stripe, rich and col
o3tuI 10 the eye, fun and resonant ,o
fr ear IL lends itself best to tales of
ngn romance, as her drama of tho
Frtnch revolution proves and her storg
g. .onor tihes. and here again in The
fortunes of Gariu." This is tueif,h
century adventure set in sor,hern
rance, where chivalry fowered 90
tFeely against this rich background
IS shetchfo the story of Garin. at first
squire and humble singer, at last q
great kniRht by virtue of his ya!or in
oae OF the crusades. and famous
FoIoadour by virtue of his golden
solce And in this knightly Romance
thefe Is. 10 be sure, great lady, on.
OF the wise women. one Of the kindI,;
rulers, respected and beloved such a
anedieVal days more than once revealed.
through the ceremonials of uetry
courts, through the rivalries of feudal
lords. in challenge and combat, in as
sault and siege. the brave story ad-
Nances 20 the day when the princess
summons Carin OF the Golden Island
ard asks him II he will marry her One
Is able 10 escape by way of this fasci-
mating romance into a time when in
some respects they did things better
than they do them now.
OVER PARADISE RIDGE: A Romance.
by Maria Thompson Daviess author
Of The Melting of Molly" etc H.
lustrated. New York: Harper &
Brothers.
When. all claims against it settled,
the fortune that Samuel Foster Crit
tenden expected to inherit turned out
TO be only a scrap OF a farm over be-
yond Paradise ridge" Sam, to the
amusement of some of his smart
friends and the dismay of others of
these, quietly turned himself to the
business OF farming. This romance is
.n part a record of Sans highly sue
cessful experiment in scientific farm
inis, but in larger part IL is the record
lvu