The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1915-08-22

At your masthead and 20 Satans for your
crew. you will see what love, hate, jeal-
ousy and revenge can do in disturbing
the souls of men; you will live through
such an adventure of land and sea, of
love and murder of raid. duel and battle
as you never imagined could exist. Let
rs salute MIR. Sabatini. May he give us
another tale combining the same life.
action and romance.
The English reviewers had full cause
to be enthusiastic From the Manchester
Guardian: "Of it's kind. then the book
could not be better. and Mr.. Sabatini
easily out-Orczys Orczy." From the
seofsman; "A tale full of vivid color.
dramatic action and strong invention"
From the Sunday Times: IF you want to
lose yourself in a stirring romance. IL
You would like to come to close quarters
with the sort of breed to which the Eliz-
abethian sea captains belonged, get hold
of Mr.. Rafael Sabatini's new story of
The Sea Hawk The Americans will
say the same and more.
THE NURSES STORY"
BY Adele Bleneau. Illustrated by NJ.
Leone Breaker. The Bobbs Merrill com.
pany, publishers
The reviewer is at a loss to know what
is fiction and what fact in this book,
nor does it make the slightest differ
ence, for the whole thing is reality
|.
ter of the work lifts it above the plane
of mere war reporting and should carry
its life far beyond the life of the war.
In other words, the story is not depend
ent on the war for its interest. 1t is like
the novel, 1.-THE Conscript," in which the
battle of Waterloo is celebrated. In
arousing the readers interest in the per-
sonality of the narrator, the author has
done a very adroit thing. 1t is not
ms
scenes at the front. 1t is an individual,
and woman at that, of whom the reader
knows and cares nothing. All of the Sit
uation. as she found it, all her impress
sions and her details. are interesting in
the extreme, but the great general in
terest lies in the great human interest
that develops in and around the mar
rator-the central character of the drama.
Her experiences are varied and thrilling
and are told with fine simplicity
There is a very definite vaaee In the
fragmentary method of wrEsA ~ it
creates an impression of beint "a From
the fire, of not having been deSt1sd for
literary garnshing. There are the in
cidents of the Atlantic crossing, of the
new aspect of old London as the outpost
of a military camp, the young aristocrat
in the restaurant with his mother and
sorrowing fiancee: the description of the
boulogne hospital. of the thick-coming
ambulance trains filed with wounded
soldiers who are caked with mud, many
of whom have received first aid, but more
who have not. When the heroine takes
her ride of 25S miles by auto to her new
post there are many dramatic pictures
of real war, after and during battles.
She is driven to her assignment by an in
valided French officer who has won
cup for expert auto driving, and the car
carries supply of cigarettes, sweets and
ftA Hes DfEIN
needed hospital stores. The incident of
the blowing up of the fine old bridge over
which the car hurries at the last moment
and that other of the desperate sally
when man after man is killed, are dra-
matte in the extreme With the ar
rival of the heroine at the abbey, with
its beautiful farden and gray Gothic
arches, where the main part of the hos
pital work is to be done. the feeling of
reality is increased That these details
and incidents and descriptions are writ
ten by an eyewitness seems unden1able.
But the great novelty and great eff
fectiyeness of THE Nurses story lie IN
the fact that the truthful account OF ac-
tual happenings is imbedded in ro-
mantle story of great human and heart
interest The narrator is the heroine;
the English captain she meets under
thrilling circumstances when they cross
on the Lusitania, is the hero. And ii is
their fortunes, their adventures, their
sufferings that the reader breathlessly
follows until they reach happy cul-
mination. "The Nurses story is unlike
any story of the war; for it is not only
n story of the war, but story of q
man and a woman as WE'LL In the sim
plicity of it's narration and in its charm
ing self-revelation, 1t reminds one of
that success of a. few years ago--"On
the Branch I
OTHER BOOKS RECEIVED GRE
VIEWS LATER).
.'PENELOPE'S POSTSCR1PTS." BY
Kate Douglas Willin. Houghton, Mifflin
Co, publishers Boston.
THE SOUL OF GERMANY. BY Thom-
as F. A. Smith, Phi. d. George H. Doran
Co, publishers. New York.
"AERoPLANES AND DIRIGIRLES
OF WAR BY Frederick A. Talbot ]. u.
Lippincott Co. publishers, Philadelphia.