The New York herald., 1920-12-26
Reviewed by
MILDRED L. BLUMENTHAL.

IL Sou HdNC CNCi iCNOFSh ~
NAL de mer. or for that matter from
typhoid fever during the days when
physicians permitted a patient some
thing like a spoonful of egg albumen
week; If you have ever been
stranded in a strange city with no
work and no money and no friends;
or if some time between 1914 and
.191s you ever found yourself finally
back in quarters or on leave after
days of din in the front line trenches.
then you will probably know what 1t
is to want food more than anything
| hunger, maddening hunger with
capital II, the kind of hunger that
converts a mans thought into
strange freaks" that makes ordinary
mortals steal or kill--hunger, the
demon courier, first cousin to death.
and with whom Hamsun evidently had
more than a bowling acquaintance.
The experiences presented so i'm
| pressionistically in this book are
largely personal; that is. if we are to
accept the opinion of Bjorkman, who
has supplied us with snort bio
graphical sketch of the author. In
fact, we are told that most of Ham
suns heroes are nothing but
slightly varied images of himself" 1t
may very well be. for before achieving
literary distinction this Norwegian
had tried life "as a coal HEAVIER and
school teacher, as road mender and
| surveyors attendant, as farm hand
and street car conductor, as lecturer
and free lance journalist" The mid
die sos found him working on the
'plains OF North Dakota and in the
streets Of Chicago" And, although
the sufferings of the character de-
picted in Hunger" are violent and
terrific enough to unseat the reason
OF any individual. the authors vaga-
bond life and rowing spirit may help
to account for some Of the eccentric
and almost pathologic aspects Of the
book. Besides. Hamsun is a roman
ticist-passionate violent. rebellious
and individualistic to a degree-a
product of the Northland with all its
intense atmospheric extremes.
People, IL real, quite naturally reflect
their environment. Perhaps that Is
why Ellie Dunn in Shaw's "Heartbreak
House" tells audiences every night how
expensive a thing soul is, how one
cannot have a soul without lot of
money so that it may be nourished with
plenty of beauty. But though Ellie Is
unable TO keep herself ain gloves" she
is still one of the cultured leisured, so
| cha f- tyifh har-
self, her comfort and her cultivation.
Hence her strenuous assertion that the
soul is the body and the body is the
soul. Like everything else, poverty is
relative. One may be sure that even
Ellie's poor father, though one of the
thinking and not the drinking
lDunns," was never obsessed with work
ing out his ideas while living in "a
bare room with no proper fastening to
the door and no stove, .. the
floor of which rocked up and down with
every step one took across it," room
with no furniture except a poor little
red rocking chair in. the corner, far too
low for a grown man, a mere attempt
at a rocking chair, in which to sit in
the evenings and dose and muse on all
manner of things. - and which
one needed the aid OF bootjack to get
out Of" Yet journalist had to leave
this young palace for want OF the
wherewithal TO pay his rent.
We grant that Mazzini Dunn, still
speaking of Ellie's father, may have
been good man, and an idealist, or
what others call "a catspaw. At any
| % l.a a&o a. ,F
Heartbreak House, he was certainly a
poor man, even though ne owned a
beautiful bathrobe! But did ne ever
"lie on his socks at night TO dry
them little by mornlng?" Did he
ever sprinkle water on the shiny
knees OF his trousers" TO dull them a
bit. so that they would look a trihe
newer? For want of a Job, did he
ever offer TO enlist in the fire brigade.
"thrusting out his chest to give an
idea OF strength and bravery" and
after being passed up on account OF
his sight, returning again without
glasses, standing there with
knitted brows and making his eyes az
sharp as needles" all to no avail
We may safely assume that he never
applied ito a grocer who wanted a
man every week for n couple of hours
bookkeeping. demanding less
than any one else for his work" all
the while praying TO God i'm silence
for the place. There are lots and
lots Of Mazzini Dunns who wouldn't
pawn their only waistcoat to answer
strangers cry Of "a halfpenny for
MILK" True. the loan brokers
generosity left sixpence over for
"hrcad and cheese" but II was tine
first square meal in a long time" and
eaten in a park at that. Besides. this
journalist found himself 80 NJ. so
capable OF effort. and so mighty Of
courage after itsthat a contemplated
article on the Grimes of Futurity"
seemed too simple to tackle. Nothing
would do then but n treatise in three
sections on Philosophical Cognition''
only, alas! there was no longer a
pencil. the pencil which was for
gotten In the waistcoat pocket OF
course il would take a genuine scrib-