The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1919-09-28

The Mara Nostrum' Zone Sea- OF the
| title is OF course this blue and historical
| Mediterranean, but Ulysses sails other
| oceans and in all sorts Of ships before
he buys that vessel of his own which he
! christens Mare Nostrum" An intelli-
gent yet simple. vain. passionate and
/ sensual man in this Ulysses Ferragut.
direct. yet with a dual quality to his
/ nature which at every moment of i'm
portant decision causes him to hear two
inward, counselinS and contradictory
/ voices. Married to a good, gentle and
! devoted woman who has given him ono
child, his dearly loved son Estehan, he
| never even dreams of such a thing as
! being faithful to her. But his more or
less casual amours have little effect
upon his life until he meets beautiful
and seductive Freya Thalberg. the siren
| who for a time holds him in voluptuous
| bondage and under whose influence he
| commits the great sin of his life-aid-
ing the German submarines in the Med
iterranean. Swiftly and terribly in this
| sin punished, and Ferragut. seizing the
! only possible means alike of vengeance
and of expiation, devotes himself and his
ship to the service of the allies He
sends one particularly important Ger
man spy to a well-merited death. and
after that he is a marked man, one to
be hunted down and Killed at any cost
| while Freva becomes suspect because
of him. and at last pays the, Just pen
atty for her innumerabe crimes.
She is very real. this woman to whom
luxury was the very breath of life, with
her absolute immortality her pride OF
beauty. her passion for the man who
presently came to look upon her as his
evil genius and flung her aside her weak
striving at the first to save him from the
net she had been ordered to weave about
him. and that theatrical instinct which
led her to go to her death clad in sillxen
raiment and plumes and jewels, almost
eXultng in her star role until a sudden
| awful understanding of what it all i'm
piled pierced through the armor Of van
| ity she had flung about her The chap
ter which tells of Freya's fate is we'll
nigh perfect in its simplicity and direct
ness, its revelation not only of her
character but of the gallant old lawye-
who tried to help her. while the last
terrible scene in the grim gray dawn is
the readers memory. And when it is all
over, one cannot but echo the old
French lawyers pity for Freya i'm
placable warrior. unnerved by the bat
tie of the sexes"~
AS the Triton of his book stands in
lieu of the Centaur of the companion
volume, so do the torpedoed ships take
the place of the Marine, 1t is the sink
ing of the Californian which brings
Ulysses to the full comprehension of
the extent of his sin. and the account of
| that sinking and of the later effects
/ of the submarine warfare as seen upon
| the Mediterranean coast are admirably
related. Like most of its predecessors,
this book is very long. and we must ad :
| nit that we could very well dispense
with several of the many pages de-
| voted to the description of the aquarium
at Naples beautifully written though
| they are. But Toni, the mate, and Uncle
Caragol. the cook of the Mare Nos
trum, both of whom are fellow-coun-
trymen and old friends of Captain Fer
ragut, are people whose company we
thoroughly enjoy A good many of tn,
scenes are laid in Naples and it's en-
virons. but the Dardanelles Barcelona
Brest and many other places have more
or less space devoted to them while
colorful Marseilles witnesses at leas
one of the most dramatic scenes in the
book. The manner in which the Who'll,
story is woven about the figure of
Ulysses Ferragut makes this a far more
closely knit novel than THE Four
horsemen OF the Apocalyspe;" it II
indeed more of novel and less of his
torlcal panorama but it is also much
more personal, and in a sense smaller
IMAM the former work. Within the lin
ited space of a review it is. of course
Impossible TO do more than touch light
ly upon some few of the outstanding fea-
lures of this rich and powerful move,
whose color and warmth and brilliancy
enable it to convey to the reader much
of the very spirit of the Mediterranean
Our Sea"