The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-10-05
By REGIS MICHAUD.

~ activity during the summer months
an interesting crop of books is yet within
our reach. On the field of French fiction
the French Academy has just granted the
Grand Prix du Roman to thrilling book
by Pierre Benoit, LAtldntide, tale OF
mystery, blood, adventure and love. In
Koeniqsmark, a German spy and ghost
story, Pierre Benoit had already shown
himself master in reviving in fiction the
exploits of Alexandra Dumas and OF
Cherbuliez, the author of Count kostid,
not forgetting Edgar Poe and our modern
Conan Doyle.
Readers of LAtlantide, as well as
critics, will be glad to see French fiction
brought back to its original definition and
character. In France, as elsewhere. fc-
ton seemed to have surrendered entirely
to sociology and to the discussion OF
moral, religious or political problems.
(See Bourget, Balm, Bordeaux.) HAt-
lantide is the story of two French officers
whom the lure of mystery leads through
the heart of Africa toward the enigmatlc
Queen Antinea, the Cleopatra of the land
Of Atlantis. Love, archaeology and ad-
venture are wonderfully blended to keep
the reader painting for curiosity until the
end of the book, where, in hit. OF mad
passion and to please his vampire, Lieut..
De Saint Avit kills his friend Morhange
and vanishes ghostlike in the desert
In LIE Occur Est le Meme 1.-The Heart
Remains the Sarne) Andre Lichtenberger,
2he well known and delightful author OF
Mon Petit TrOt, Monsieur de Migarac,
&C., revives Anatole Frances Syluestre
Bonnard, and tells the story of middle
aged savant who falls in love with an Sin
eenue perverse," a very up to date girl,
brought up "a PAmericaine." The book,
besides that charming fiction, contains
great many sharp and clever sketches OF
French "high life" and amusing satires.
Lucie Delarue-Mardrus, one of the
leading women novelists of France and
wife of the excellent translator OF the
Arabian Nidhts, Dr. Mardrus, gives US In
Toutoune ct Son Amour (Toutoune and
Her LoUe) a pathetic study of the pure
heart Of a young girl. Toutoune finds the
ugly sides of life, all by herself, without
losing her charm or her innocence and
finally rescues her own frivolous and
pretty mother from her moral and matri-
monial tangles. The book recalls to mlnd
What Maysie Rnew Of our own Henry
James. That delicate study of the soul
CT child has for its background some
very suggestive descriptions of Norman
scenery.
The up to date French poet, with soul
like that of his patron Saint Francis and
p craving for the familiar beauties of ma
ture very much like WOrdsworth's, Francis
Jammes, has a new volume of verse pub
,ished bv the ''Mercure de France" under
a blue cover, La Verge ct les SonnetS
1.-THE Virgin and the Sohnets). That In
the land of Renan and Anatole France in
the year Of grace 1919 one of the leading
French poets dares to devote volume OF
verse to the Lady Of Lourdes is, if nothing
more, at least another proof of the wide
eclecticism of the French mind. The
"primitivism" of Jammes had already
reduced better results in Les Gsorgiques
Chretiennes, for instance. The sonnets in
the volume, however, will make up for
the artificial simplicity of many of the
other verses. Jammes is always exquisite
when he sings and describes, as he does
here, the green dales and the blue torrents
of his native Pyrenees, in water colors OF
q delightful touch.
IL
French war books, and not few of
them, are still thrown on the market.
Maurice Barres adds ninth volume to
his series lime Francaise ct la Guerre
1.-THE Soul of France at War. The chief
interest of the present volume entitled
n.,.:., tba RATTLE If Verdun will no