Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-01-23


teen years Immediately fol-
lowing the middle forties. In
general view 1t sketches
two decades Of English politics. In
particular terms it portrays the per-
sonality of Disraeli working out
through the channels of English con-
servatisrn. This IS the period OF the
Crimean war and the Indian muttny.
The awful uaismanagemen of the first
of these and the more unavoidable
horrors of the second, coupled with
certain economic and Industrial
stresses at home, have brought settled
discomfort to the country. This, In
search for relief, demands now a no
eral and now a conservative policy a'
the hands of whig and tory, respective
ty. The volume opens with tho over
throw OF Peel by his own party, the
landed and agricultural interests, by
teason of his repeal of the corn laws
and a practical advocacy of free trade.
It closes with the pending resignation
bf Lord Derby as the head OF the gov,
eminent and the approaching rise OF
Disraeli as prime minister me events
that lie between are presented, In the
main, by Disraeli's own letters to his
personal and political friends. This i'm
mediate source of information brings
out many of the inside aims and pur-
poses of the conservative party az
That period. 1t gives, besides, intimate
passing glmpses of any number OF eel
ebrated and interesting figures in Lon.
Son social and political life. But most
Of all does it, as truthfully as 1t Is
commonly given to man to reveal him
self. present Lord Beaconsheid In nus
personal qualities. in his private aims
and ambitions and in his public serv-
Ice to his party and to England. with
the full purpose of revealing Dlsraeh
In the growth of his remarkable ca
reer, these biographers-Mr Mony-
penny. and after his death Mr.. Buckle
have selected from the Beaconsnetd
papers material that is both intimately
personal and broadly representative
This they have welded into unity by
running lines of supplementary fact
and comment. The life of this brilliant
and significant figure in English poll
tics is notable addition to the warm arm
and living and true history that lies,
pne may fairly say, in biography
alone.
Mackenzie, author of Carnival"
etc. New York: d. Appleton & Co.
In Sinister Street" Compton Mack
snzie outdoes himself, as we'll as his
models and masters, in reek of real
ism and weller Of detail. Neither Mr..
Bennett nor Mr.. Wells could, at his
uttermost, surpass Mr.. Mackenzie
here In these particulars. That Eng
land should mako either an official or
social blue penciling of this novel
looks much like unnecessary precau-
ton. For long before the average
reader reaches the naughtiness of
sSinister Street" he will, ten to one,
have thrown the book down In de-
spair. Nothing short of g. literary
miner, willing to dig out and paw over
any amount of waste for the single
speck of gold, would stay by the story
TO the end. And yet the end does pay,
and pay richly. Young Michael Fame
Fane-is the subject of this stipple
work in portraiture. Meeting Michael
tirst as he is about to set out for OK
ford. the reader goes up IN ms con- ON
as 1t Is here set down, are enough TO
cause the usual story reader to take
leave OF the place and the book TO-
gether And the patient reader who
Oxford. where youth is on the ram
page, where bottles instead Of books
are the impedimenta Of learning, where
thick fumes Of smoking tobacco hide
,aterwauling of half-baked ideas from
this motley of youngsters. Is this OK
ford? Is the august, the venerable. the
haloed oxford, after all, but the trick
Of a long distance Imagination? Are
the great donS of wit and learning but
Hgments of the fancy? The reader who
IS not only patient. but long suffering
also, follows the subsequent career OF
Michael in his sentimental journey to
the London slums, where he hobnobs
with the people and is regularly done
put of pence, shillings and pounds, by
their solicltous lives. He even accom-
panies Michael in his pursuit of the
girl, gone wrong, whom as lad OF
sixteen he had loved and whom he now
proposes to marry in spasm OF
heaven knows what sort of knight
errancy. Eut he does not do this. And
The last one sees of Michael he Is
bound for Rome with some vague no
lion of the priesthood Tuning in his
brain. The reader will see Michael
Fame again. The author is honor bound
not to leave likely lad in the lurch
pr his own besotted mornings. And
when he does again appear. Mr. Comp;
ION Mackenzie will already have shed
some of his multifariousness, he will
already have shaken himself down,
nave acquired focus. have made
chemical compound or what is now
merely huge aggregation of things.
THE WONDERFUL ROMANCE. Pierre
de Coulvain, author of The Heart
OF Life" etc. Translated from the
French by Alys Hallard. New York:
Dodd. Mead & Co.
This is the romance of life itself. 1t
.s the marvel of man, the wonder of
The human. worked out from infinite
sources of time through the slow,
steady. undivertible processes of a
premeditated plan. Pressed in upon
the consciousness of this writer is the
conviction that every part of the in
siyidual life, it's coInmonest details,
.he most accidental of It's appearances,
It's critical moments, are all-small and
great alike-iii the prearranged pat
fern OF that particular life. Just as the
whole gigantic scheme of existence Is
set from the beginning. From this
standpoint of belief, 1t follows that
.ven the slightest event is charged
with meaning and fraught with its
purpose in the life of the Individual
And even the things that are to be
today. tomorrow aud further In the
luture-ars already half seized by
those minds that are able to appre-
bend the consistent whole of which
this or that Is timely and orderly
part. In 1.-THE Wonderful Romance"
Pierre dc Coulvain gathers up. with
out particular attention to any lit
srary rules OF structure, her impress
sion3 and convictions on this prede-
termined life. together with the mum
berless happenings ABOUT her that
serve to swell the current of this be-
lief. a child's confidence animates the
story. that is so personal in its attitude
out so general in its iuclusions. II Is
dominated by an absorption of inter
est in all the things about the writer,
as II is also marked by the habit OF
alasnifyinS even the smallest parts OF
This life pattern, strip OF which iS