The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1915-11-09

soul. IL one with the lawyers when
he knocks the ground from beneath
| his adversary's feet. IL lacks the
lofty impersonality of the great
| preacher, which the subject wouid
seem to call for. sherman, French
4 Co.. Boston.
| Midsummer Magic, by Walter eam'
fvids. An English novel with Two
bIa and commanding characters.
There is a depth OF feeling ana
beauty of simplicity in English
novels OF the best class which Only
a very few American novelists seem
capable OF experiencing and eN'
pressing. Whether this is because
the American life they usually por-
trav is superficial and lacks the
elemental quality which is neees-
sary to all great fiction, or whether
the writer himself If incapable OF
getting back to the beginning OF
emotional living in the real man or
the real woman, we do not know.
So far America has produced few
great novels and England many
Walter Bamfylde is a comparatively
new name TO us and his last book,
Midsummer Magic" has to do with
some curious superstitions of the
English people in the Cotswold
Hills: but il Is not this superstition
which makes this book not 10 be
passed over lightly, but the two
characters of Mathew Beech and
Sally Burdock. man and woman
of the yoeman class. who love each
other and live together without ben
eft OF clergy. Sally Is a big, glori'
Gus creature and Mathew a man
battling with the primitive passions
which never have been uprooted
from his heart by new standards OF
civilization. He loves and he hates f;
he is jealous and he Is rocked TO
his foundation by hearing that the
wife, who deserted him, was moth
er OF his child. He cares little for
the opinion Of his neighbors and
takes 10 his heart the woman who
is willing at any moment TO leave
him IL il will be for his good. IL
Is a brave story and the curious
English dialect used In that section,
substituting the I for me, adds to
its charm. None OF the characters
are overdrawn but the more lowly
Adam, Dick, Sophie and the two
central figures ara the ones which
appeal to our hearts and our intui-
tive taste. Putnam, publishers. New
York. $1.35.
L'Hommedieu,' by Geo. Bronson
Howard, has its beauties AZ a
series Of essays but 10 unwieldy az
q story.
II all the chapters In George Bron-
SON Towards book were as beauti-
fully written and held as much in
terest as the first, we would be In
danger of forgetting the piles of
books waiting patiently foro a re
viewer to open their covers, and
would bury ourselves away from the
world and the click of the type
writer, In this ample volume. L'Hom-
medieu, Goods Man." takes its title
from the hero who has 1t handed
down to him by a doughty and chiv-
alrous ancestor Of Norman conquest
days, but, unfortunately, we are
swiftly transported to New York and
Long Island and the peccadilloes and
escapades Of three college boys who
style themselves the three musket-
GERS. These adventures make up the
next two books and in the third this
man OF God follows the line OF least
resistance, carrying his more or less
harmful youthful follies into the
realm OF manhood.
| The pink kimona" enters the
scene and Arnold begins. as he says,
to "see life" and lays the blame