The New York herald., 1921-05-01
Reviewed bv WILLIS STEEL.

Reviewed by WILLIS STEEL.
No literature is richer in memoirs
than that of France in the eighteenth
century and the delightful habit of
writing intimately about themselves
and their neighbors seems not to have
been lost when the French emigrated.
Especially was it kept up by the aris-
tocrats who founded New Orleans and
established there the Creole type, thus
providing Grace King with abundance
of fine material when she undertook
the task--a labor OF love foN her-of
writing brief histories of these families
and binding them together i'll boolf
that possesses rare charm.
This author by personal traits and
by training, as well as by reason of
having lived her own life in New Or
leans, would have been universally
chosen for the work Her own novels
where the scene is laid in or about
-NcW oIieiHS ueioilS III u very Selecl
class, her style abounds in those negli-
gent beauties which we used to think
were particularly feminine. she can tell
a story sympathetically and spiritually
without confusing its details. She ex-
cells in painting individuals, but she is
able also to give the effect of crowds.
Thus she brought to this genealogical
grouping that might be commonplace
or irritating by reason of necessary
repetitions a genuine talent With her
novelists gift of producing a double
effect of details and ensembles her
scene resembles vast historical movie
with the Photographic apparatus now
turned on city square, or 'islet" as it
used to be called in New Orleans, now
on the levees and now on the planta-
tions to be succeeded every now and
then with close up on a Marigny or
a Pontalba or other parsonage whose
influence in former times was both
political and aristocratic Although
crowded with little things (actually
the charm of memoirs) the last i'm
preston is of an immense scenario. a
sort of Birth of Nation, all the time
moving, very lifelife. and stiiI little
exaggerated in places
Miss Kings art helps US to assist at
this perpetual and unceasing comedy,
but she has something else that helps
us too, she is not the mere artist the
the onlooker: she is in
tensely interested and she knows her
nnOnIa InfimafalN qn
therefore, as the scenes succeed one |
another the groups stand out, and |
Bienville, Lafreniere, De Bore. Chal-
mette Almonaster Macarty, Beaure-
gard and two score other historical |
rise to their feet from off |
her page, walk before us and salute us. |
She effests this by utterly sinking her
self and permitting every one of these |
founders of a family to speak for HIM |
SELF a method due to the numerous
documents at her hand, as Wen as to
her memories. for if she never w
these men herself she has talked with
some silken clad nonogenarian wbose
mother or grandmother coquetted with
them. Each aristocrat, French or
Spanish. reveals himself and his "a
ture, ana as In everyday Ire eaCh one
is not alone but brings on others in
this rare procession.
Happy, indeed, is New Orleans IN her
loving chroniclers. They have been
few but very select, and two of Them,
Charles Gayarre, who died not many
years ago at 80, and Miss King, should
receive. as probably they do, the graft
tude of the ancient city. In the cele-
brated lectures of the former and in
Miss Kings writings the history of
the town and the personal lives of its
founders are ineXtricably mingled.
From the day of the pioneer Bienville,
who laid 1t out and achieved his am
bition to make New Orleans a capital
IF a province, to Bernard de Marigny. |
nero OF New Orleans traditions and |
.ha host axamnlp of the Creole type