Evening star., 1918-12-29
Reviews of New Books

, hHE CLUTCH OF CIRCUMSTANCES.
BY Marjorie Benton Cooke. author
Of "Bambi." etc. New York: George
H. Doran Company.
"O at '.rhe Clutch Of Circum-
stance to the stage would be.
one assumes. an easy matter
for the playmaker. 1t moves
by. well defined acts. 1t mounts to an
impressive climax. Its course to this
end Is by way Of simultaneous action
and speech-the one purposeful and
direct; the other fresh, clever. stimu-
1ating. These points Of Workmanship
are the ones, also. that give the in
Upon Its surface this Is q brilliant So
pial drama Of war time. Beautiful
And clever women, serious men-both
good and bad-animate 1t. Under
meath 1t is the spiritual struggle Of a
woman-born American Of German
ancestry and married to an English
man Of great political influence and
equal social standing. The roots OF
Lady Trask are German, sentimental
fious obligations are all on the other
side. The German spies Of London,
through Larry OToole. an Irish spy
and general trouble-maker. enlist
Lady Trask to their service. The
progress of this intrigue. offset by the
stitutes the line of action around
which the graceful social life of the
group involved circles. A love story
Of somewhat idyllic pattern-the love
Of Sir Ashton Trask for ms wife
plexity to the already involved mat
ter. It Is q tragic little story. as 1t
turns out. And from start to finish
It is clever and brilliant invention
Of enough plausibility sy TO- carry the ne
or question.
THE VANISHED HELGA. BY Eliza
beth F. Corbett, author OF "Cecily
and the Wide World" etc. New
York: George H. Doran Company.
The Helga Is ship-a yacht. It's
owner Is young woman of mixed
breed--the father an Irishman. the
mother Scandinavian, both Of the law
free type. In effect. this is study OF
the temperament produced by this ILL
assortment Of mating. The dominant
strain in the daughter of the va
gran tpair is rebellion against the yoke
of surrender to either the conventions
set up around her, or to that moro
intimate surrended of herself under
In0 SOIlCltdtlOIlS Ol lOVo anu phSSloH'
When the young woman goes sail
ing on the Helga for weeks with
young man--in effect with a kidnap-
ed young man-her freedom from the
bonds Of social rule Is fully estab-
lished. After this adventure the story
proceeds by the advances and re-
treats Of this young lady, before the
overtures Of love made by the captive
male of the long sea voyage. The
story fattens out at the end to the
finally accepted domestication of the
fierce female marauder. 1t Is pretty
certain that this writer has hold Of
some deep seated instinct of the fe-
male, but has seized 1T incompletely,
or. having 1t in full possession, either
does not know what to do with 1t, or
does not dare it's objectiication in
words. The story in hand suffers
ness. 1t is daring story. but 1T is not
q convincing one. The convincing one
Will come later.
Drummond. New York: Britton
Publishing Company.
This man is a doctor. The woman is
his wife-and Jealous. Certain is it
that there is no other place in the world
where the little devil with green eyes
disports himself in such riot of un-
holy glee as in the household of pop
ular physician-provided only that tho
wife permit him to set even one wicked
little foot over the threshold of her
door. The wife here is of hospitable in
stinct toward this super-troublemaker
Of tho world. Therefore the story Is an
account of the growth Of suspicion, Of
the acceptance of unhappiness and of
final domestic disaster. Gratifying to
the reader of logical bent Is the con-
sistency with which this writer let's the
story come upon its own climax. in
stead Of tacking the happy ending to tho
wholly unhappy course of the develop
ment To be sure, this is a wretched
climax from the average point of view,
but 1t Is the only one that fits this CASE
The story is very literal in its everyday
manifesto tions-so 1t is, in the main, q
shabby story of married life, often q
sordid story. But 1t strikes one as q
true story. The setting Is small town
where really human beings behave ac-
cording to the habit Of this species, and
where the sum of small-town life Is
easily recognizable. The whole consti-
tutes a conscientious effort to portray In
reasonable realism O commonplace of
A POET OF THE Arr Letters of
Jack Morris Wright, First Lieuten-
ant OF the American Aviation i'm
France, April. 1017-January. 1918.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Only eighteen years old-this pilot
aviator Of the American Aviation