The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-11-02

when various British hands wrote The
Neu Decdmeron. The chief family like
ness between the two Deeamerons is that
both are about people driven by boredom
to story telling. In the case of the new
one an accident which becalmed party of
Turpin's Temperamental Tourists in the
English Channel gave priest, psychic
researcher, a schoOlmarm, a professor, a
detectives friend and bureaucrat oppor-
tunity to reveal themselves by their favor
lite stories.
The NeW Decdmeron is varied in ortho-
dox editorial fashion to meet the tastes of
all readers. There is horror story, de-
tective story, pseudo Freudian problem,
a story for tired business man, one with
a hint Of the supernatural, romance and
a free verse or two. Boccaccio's sequel is
denatured of naughtiness. Compared with
the original or even with George Moore's
Story TeIler's Holiday, it is as safe for the
family circle as Elsie Dinsmore or the
Rollo books. Not that it's pious or dull.
Far from that. The stories are slightly
above the average of current fiction. But
the ambitious title leads you to expect
thrills of kind it may not be seemly to
ask but which certainly you don't get.
Possibly the ultra-fastidious may find
borderland thrill In the sehoolmarm's
rather free verse, A Near Thing, which
tells how Miss Brainybid saved the rep
utation of her school after ealumny had
started by an ingenious although slightly
uneonvincing explanation of the presence
of Mr.. Smiths sleeping suit in the laun-
dry. But even they must read the tale
twice at the very least to be thrilled.
The chapter which gives The Neu De-
cameron a slightly distinctive flavor is
The Upper Story, told by the Bureauerat.
A rich young man called Aelian, having
adventured early and often in love, went
for convalescence to a village "beleaguered
with very old elms, soaked in pagan sleep
and sunshine" He speart long days in a
garden of peoples and roses until return
LIZ aWdhCLCN q 0CohO 1OA AuOlC
concrete entertainment. Following the
suggestive whispers of the villagers,
Aelian went finally In quest of woman.
At night, under cover of banks where fox
gloves stood In rows and wicked little bats
filtered around his head, he approached
the cottage, his destination. Suddenly he
was aware of presence in the garden, a
perfume, gentle rustling and touch as
soft as falling dust But before his yhis-
pered "Who is itT was answered the
vision disappeared.
Next day, his imagination revealing with
enchanting mystery, he made bold day
light attack What he found we leave >
the Bureauerat to tell-but something I'M
usual happened, and when be went away,
down the garden path, "a tree rustled
mockingly like the skirt of a walking
woman"
The detectives friend story, The Stone
House Affair, follows the Conan Doyle
pattern-a limp, a boot and bit of red
hair dyed. The Beast With Fire
Fingers, told by the Psychic Researcher, is
a conventional horror story of the Poe
period. 1t would seem as if one dealing
professionally with the supernatural, at
tending seances and the like, could get
out Of Minnehaha or any reputable Hin
du spirit tale with newer and wagner
terrors than a mere dismembered hand
running around the house like a discon-
tented spaniel. g.
The Woman Doctor. however, is dis
tinctly modern, and she offers her Freu-
dian complex with all the relish of a
pathologist. Mother Love is the tragedy
of a woman married to a man she hates
That isn't modern, Of
course. Not even necessary. But if Mary
Charleton had worked for living outside
Of matrimony there wouldn't have been
any story. As it was, her loathing of
"that wicked marriage turned and rent her
unborn son." and in his day he could not