The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-12-15
THE BOOK SHELF
By THE BIBLIoPHILE

THE FOUR HoRsEMAN f OF THE ss APOCALYPSE.''
 Translated from the Spanish of Vicente
 Blasco Ibanez by Chadotte Brewster
 Jordan. E. P. Dutton & Co.,, publishers,
 No. 6S1 Fifth avenue, New York.
 Of all the war books written within the last five years (good, bad and indif- ferent, they have been, ftoo), MT. Bril- ing Sees It Through" Jean and Peter" 'Elizabeth's Campaign" "The Tree of Heaven and ''The Four Horseman of the Aposalypse,' stand out in my mind as the four best books.
 The Four Horsepnan of the Apoca- lypse" is a translation from the Spanish of Vicente Blasco Ibanez, by Charlotte Brewster Jordan, and it is one of the most thrilling, the most virile, the most romantic, and the most exciting of all the war novels depicting the fearful trag- edy enacted lover There" when the Ger mans in all their brutality, cruelty and violent Imperialism tried to grind suffer- ing humanity under their autocratic feet, and failed.
 ''The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse begins with a superb drama of modern life, leading up to and describing the first stages of the war in France; "The Four Horseman," of the title of the book, are f'Pestilence, War Famine" and Death" who precede the great beast of the revelation.
 The story is one of great inspiration, the inspiration of great genius stirred to the bottom of his soul by the weeks of tension, violence and horror which culminated in the great epic of the Bat tie of the Marne," and by the splendor of the Spirit of France under the trial
 "The Four Horseman of the Apoca- 1ypse" is sn epic of the Marne: it is a work of genius from the hands of the greatest of the 1berian novelists, for Blasco Ibanez is considered to be one of the foremost novelists produced by Spain in the last half century He is a valencian and has fought on the side of the revolutionists against the organ ized forces of social and d.secclesiastical conservatism. His serious concern with questions of sociology and religion, and his inclination toward the radical side have acted as a balance to his Latin temperament thus inducing sobriety of judgment that is so essential in a work of this kind.
 The Four Horsemen of the Apoca- 1ypse'' has only the merest plot It con tains nothing spectacular, nor is there any undue striving after dramatic ef- fleets. On the contrary it is pitched in singularly low key and the coloring Is decidedly sombre But it is power full and masterful piece of writing with a sense of restraint that places the au- thor in the front rank of novelists.
 The story begins properly with the his- tory of Marcelo Desnoyers. In 1870, while yet a youth of l9, Marcelo, a believer in peace, refuses to join the army iof the French Emperor and set sail for Buenos Ayres in search of his fortune. There he works first as wood carver, then as a farmer and fcattle driver, and at 30 be- comes an employe of Julio Madariaga, a rustic, eccentric millionaire and Spaniard who has made his fortune by trading in lands, cattle and horses. Madariaga's s family consisted of his wife, Misia Pe- trona (whom he always called China) and two grown daughters who had been edu- cated in Buenos Ayres.
 Marcelo was a serious young man. to whom Madariaga was immediately att tracted, and his ability to manage af- fairs soon caused the old man to ele- vate him to the rank of overseer, and permit him to dine with the family. This privilege was sure to develop into a closer intimacy with them. and it was not long before Mareelo married Luisa the elder daughter.
 The creation of Madariaga is a char acter study for aspiring young novelists Nowhere does Blasco Ibanez show his skill so much ass in the building of this enigmatic figure. Not by mere descrip- tion does he create the old Spaniard, but by record of his violent temper, his shrewd observations of life, his lcen- tious conduct in Buenos Ayres, and the evidences of his supreme belief in him. self.
 On one of his trips to. Buenos Ayres Madariaga met a Karl Won Hartrott a young German whom he immediately engaged to take charge of the accounts of the estate. It was not long before the fawning, obsequious Karl had made