Evening star., 1919-12-07
THE STRONG HOURS. BY Maud
Diver. author of "Unconquered.
etc Boston: Houghton Mifhin
NCompany.

NCompany.
!" HE strong hours" are. as a
matter of course. the war
hours. as these stress the
character of men and women
the world over For the purposes
of this big story. however. it is a
single English family whose war
time portraiture widens this romance
10 the limits of imperial England
India, Australia. Canada-and mar
rows it again, and. finally. to the i'm
mediate concerns of the family OF
Lord Avonleigh Of Avonleigh Hail,
great man of an English county. This
however. is a novel of character not
a novel of place. The spread OF ter
ritory that il includes is merely for
the sake of portraying the efsc. of f
environment on the essential nper OF
one or another of the Avonlelghs.
younger son stands as the center
of interest here-an honest, ideailstlc'
outstanding Englishman, whose eA-
cess of idealism makes MIN iook
good deal, of a fool now and then.
but whose fundamental soundness
rounds him out. finally to one OF
any readers we'll beloved heroes. Sc
against the worth-whileness OF inns
son is the lordly uselessness of the
stacking heir of the house. The
mother is the delicate portrayal of
selfshness embodied in the personal
ity of a great lady. The father is
finely perceived projection of a true
Englishman of the best sort. With
the war surrounding this group, with
the pro-German contributing to the
exactions of the situations. Maude
Diver moves serenely and securely
to the achievement of remarkable
study of English character and to the
setting of rich and convincing Eng.
lish background. The movement
throughout is leisurely one-too
leisureiy for the impatient reader of
plots alone. The ordered progress is,
however. a delight to one who, page
by page. tastes. and retastes. the
mellow artistry of this writer. A
piece of work to make any author
proud.
FREE AIR. BY Sinclair Lewis. au-
thor of THE job" etc. New York:
Harcourt, Brace & Howe.
1t was bound to come-the novel of
the automobile. There appear to be
two perfectly good reasons why the
public has not already been swamped
in romances of the motor and the
slick speeding highway. There is only
now and then person who Is abie
to capture joy of any sort and to hold
. IL ~nlie ne nus It's lOIIilS dnu Soioi o
to the different molds Of speech. That
is the best of reasons Mr.. Lewis is,
clearly one of these rare now-and-
then persons. Again, the confirmed
motorist cannot stop long enough to
wise wish to share the rapture of the
road Luckily, Mr.. Lewis, again. does
not belong to this class. So. by virtue
Of his power to go ahead with his pen
and to lie OFF with his wheel, he puts
fr,tn q filing UnnG story nf the
open. 1t is love story-of sort.
That Is to say, there is captivating
girl in the adventure and an engaging
rough-diamond boy there also. And
persons Of this keen drama. however,
are the gorgeous country. stretching
half across the continent in its west
ern reaches, and the two motors
other an humble native. These are
the elements-the Turing road and
the companionablc machine-with
which the writer Is himself genuinely
in love. And to these he does genuine
poetic justice--in an off-hand sort of
that would, one judges. disclaim
vigorously any kinship to the frailties
of average poetry. To be sure, one
cannot make novel; a romantic ead-
reckoning road. So. this writer lifts
the delightful girl into the grand car
with her father. whom she is to speed
across to the coast for the toning of
humble native car he waves the
rustic knight who is to follow, along
-unbeknownst like-to rescue that
girl from every possible mishap that
has ever yet befallen anything. on
wheels. Things happen every. minute,
thanks to the obliging cussedness of
both road and motor, and then
comes the usual fulflllment OF roma nee.
A first-rate story, fresh with the airs Of
all ouf-of-doors- Z ka
THE HEART OF PINOCCHIo. By
Collodi Nipote.p From the Italian
by Virginia Watson. Drawings by
J. R. Flanagan. New York: Harper
Bros.
You remember how Pinocchio hap
pened-how the furniture maker cut
with his hatchet into the pine stick
for the making of a table leg. and
how at the sharp blow the bit of wood
cried Ouch! You hurt me-; and how,
again. the frightened carpenter threw
the stick from him, running away in
panic; and how, once more. Papa
Geppetto fashioned the wood into a
boy puppet painted it gaily and
named 1t "Pinocchio." Then the fun
began. you remember. For Pinocthio
snatched the wig from Papa Geppet-
to's head and played no end of other
impish tricks. And Pinocchio learned
to walk and run. Then it was that he
ran right away into the war. And if
you want to know what a real hero
this wooden toybey turned out to be,
il 1t would please you to know about
his fun making right in the midst of
the most awful dangers, of his gallant
behavior, of his nimble mind turned
hard against the unspeakable enemy
to his beloved Italy-in case you
would like this adventure with Pinoc-
chio-why, then. settle right down
here between the covers of this cap
himself to be a regular warrior and
a delightful all-around person. And
when you have read, and maybe re-
read, the delightful thing you will
send off a word Of gratitude to Signor
Nipote for creating Pinocchio, and to
Virginia Watson for passing him on
into your own English way of getting
acquainted
THE WORLD OF WONDERFUL RE-
ALITY. BY E. Temple Thurston,
author of The City of Beautiful
Nonsense" etc. New York: d. APP
pleton & Co.
A novelist that has any. regard at
all for things as they are must do,
finally, just what Mr.. Thurston has
done here in regard to John Grey and
Jill Dealtry. You recall that these
two, like lovers the world over, had
some time back taken refuge in the
"city of beautiful nonsense" "A
fools paradise" forgetful old people
call this delectable land. To get them
out of this enchanted spot and to set