Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-09-20
HISTORICAL NOVEL
is COMING BACK
Peter the Great and Frederick
the Great Among Person
1lities Pictured

The goodly proportion Of historical
novels in the list Of new books seems
| to show a definite return to the costume
type of fiction. There are enough Of
them seemingly to indicate trend
toward the romantic past for fctional
material. The situation is rather in
terestinr IL it means that the public,
which is today in one of the great his
tory making epochs Of all time, seeks
to relax by reverting to the past lt IS
passing strange that these historical
novels seem to outnumber the formal,
| serious novels inspired by the great
war.
Chronologically, the first Of the group
is Spears of Destiny which dates
| back to the first capture of CONSTANT
nOple. with its earlier scenes laid in
the exciting events Of the Fourth Cru
sade. The hero, son Of one of Richard
Lionheart's followers, sets off on
mission to rescue his father. meeting
many exciting adventures between Eng
land and COnstantinople. One of the
great figures in the book is that of the
Venetian Doge. Dandolo. The style is
rich and picturesque and the authors
powers of invention are unflagging.
Peter the Great Of Russia and Charles
XII of Sweden are the outstanding his
torical figures projected by Marjorie
Bowen in Kings at Arms" In this
interesting novel Miss Bowen seems to
have recaptured some of the old rap
turOus romance that made her first his
toriCal novel, The Viper of Milan"
Il r.
dozen or so years ago, when the writer
was girl in her teens. This book, with
its carefully "documented" social and
political backgrounds and its intensively
studied personalities of the great pro-
tagonists, is a much more subtle-and
solid also-accomplishment Miss Bowen
has in the interval written a dozen his
torical novels, none of them an "Ivan-
hoe or Queens Necklace" but all
of them readable and some of them
brilliant. Her practice has qualified
her with a recreative historical imagi-
| nation, and her personages are alert and
active-not mere puppets. Her new
| book is highly interesting.
H. c. Bailey, whose THE Highway
man." published earlier in the season,
was a bully good story of eighteenth
! century England and Jacobite plotting
has written another charming romance
| of older. more adventurous and courtly
days in The Gamesters. Unlike the
writers of the two previously mentioned
! books, he does not center his interests
on historical persons for principals, but
| devises delightful pair in a fetching
woman and her brother, whose wits
are their livelihood. They are involved
in intrigues in an eighteenth century
| environment, their hazards of fortune
taking them from place to place among
the small German courts of the time,
Gaming, swordplay and intrigues of so
| ciety, politics and love make q rapidly
| moving tale
The Duchess of Siona" also be-
longs to what may be called the "ideal"
class of historical fiction, in that it does
not develop the careers of notables but
projects fictive characters, in their own
particular drama, against the back
ground Of a historic period. In this
case it is the hot blooded, hectic Italian
| Renaissance. The story is quick in
! movement and highly dramatic in its
concerns of intrigue and warfare.
THE The DtcHEssu ut5G" OF s1oSA. VI By Ernest
Coco GoOSwi91i, sd Boston; HOuEhton Mifflin Com
SPEARS Of, DESTINY. By Arthur. D.
rIS RSreR GRaS%g%EEys SG%%@RInys sa;SG hxa r R.u.v xm
New York; E P. Dutton s C, si.75. "