The New York herald., 1920-12-05

versely the art of condensation which
Is apparent in several chapters, AS 1t
Is. the book will be found extremely
helpful and instructive to any who are
interested In Italian literature, for 1t
contains fund of information regard
ing the output, spirit and message of
those countless italian authors, some
of whose writings and very names are
practically unknown in this country.
Futurist writer's. too? Yes. only they
are given a special chapter in which
to stretch.
Four significant contemporary liter
ary figures are considered at length.
Panzini who Knows the emotional
desires and reactions of the average
man, senses his aspirations and his
appeasements understands his virtues
and infirmities, and reveals this under
standing OF his fellows in a diverting
and instructive way" but who, unfor-
tunately, is not as enlightened about
women" At least one infers the au-
thor believes not as much so as Piran-
dello, who did not get his stride until
he began to satirize social and do
mestic problems with an art which is
subtle display of paradoxes and
analyses of motives" An altogether
novel study is to be found of Papini,
the "psychopath, of far-reach-
ing ambitions, who discovered
evil and Monism. whose love
child is The Twilight of the Philoso-
piers cross between a philosophic
treatise and popular polemic,
an index of his emotional equation;
Papini, who is Frederick Nietzsche
viewed through an inverted telescope"
and whom DR.. Collins finally sums up
as "a clever, Industrious, versatile.
sensitive, emotional man Of forty,
whose mental juvenility tends to cling
to him" And, when 1t comes to that
brilliant dissection of D'AnnunziO,
poet, pilot and pirate that Diony-
sian -Heraclitian- -Nietzschian. who is
represented as an egocentric. self-con-
ceived Uebermensch, DIR. Collins really
surpasses himself.
In fact dissection of one kind or
another is the slogan of the book.
Even "The Moon and Sixpence," that
absorbing but painful caricature of the
restive Gauguin, comes in for its share;
and DIR. Collins does not mince words
when taking issue with Mr.. Somerset
Vaughan in his grotesque attempt. in
that novel to relate intellectual or
emotional expression of the creative
will with the sex instinct.
THE Literary Mausoleum of Samuel
Butler" forms the subject of a par
ticularly ingenious and suggestive
study. OF course the attentive reader
will be somewhat amused at the au-
thor's mild protest against those de-
lightful individuals, more especially
biographers who do not leave us in
possession of the cherished delusions
that add to our happiness or who
"give us a wealth of sordid details
about our gods" True, Dr. Collins does
not give us sordid details concerning
Mr.. Butler. But he does use his ever
ready scalpel and microscope to such.
good purpose that we find ourselves
wondering about the Erewhonian god
and how II came to pass that so many
"intellectuals' admittedly knelt at the
brine of an evidently vain, insensitive,
unkind and unreverential Pharisee.
But "when false gods go the gods ar
rive" so we welcome this flash of
truth.
Speaking OF truth, it flashes often
I'm this book, even when the author
concentrates his attention on things
other than literature. For instance,
DR.. Collins ventures the belief that
when woman finally achieves her full
liberty and throws Off the shackles of
the centuries sit will require the best
effort of man to outdistance her. even
though he has the benefit of ages of
experience and the advantage OF a
start of forty thousand years. And
the reviewer, being a woman, finds
truth in this Furthermore, the au-
thor maintains that. although there
are undoubtedly many intelligent,
honest, serious women who subscribe
to st. Pauls teachings of woman's