The New York herald., 1922-10-01

countesses and marquises. and ht
seemed so familiar with that mysteriou.
code of ethics that still rules, in novels
II least, the aTistocracy of Europe, thai
we always conceived of him as a very
austere person far removed from the
troubles and preoccupation of ordinary
men. And We remember distinctly the thrill
that came to US. some time ago. when hi.
slender and elegant figure was pointed ou
TO US in the Piazza di Spagna in Rome
and how we followed him along the Via
del Due Macell. TO a small and cheap res
taurant off the Via Sistina. where fol
three-quarters OF an hour We regaled our
selves with the spectacle of a celebrity
struggling with a plate of long spaghetti.
That was before We knew what simple
genial fellows Italian celebrities as a rule
are; especially when that celebrity is due
as is Luciano Zuccolfs. not to some ec-
eentricity that serves the purposes of ad-
vertisement but TO a lifelong application
10 an art modestly conceived and sincerely
cultivated. There are. We believe. some
twenty-six volumes on Luciano Zuccoli's
list. not including his two latest novels
"Loredana's Affair" ("L'Amore di Lore
dana") and Things Bigger Than Me" Gle
cose piu grandi di lui'). We ourselves can
remember, more or less wildly. a bakers
dozen of them: and our memories of Zuc-
coli are peculiar in one respect. Most often
the student of foreign things. by a pro-
fessional habit of mind. likes 10 ration
he comes to know. making them fit into
some general theory OF the strange society
whose mysteries he is trying to master
With results that are surprising. What
learned articles could be written about
Jack London or Upton Sinclair. once you
think of those authors as representatives OF
American civilization or of modern ideas
With Zuccoli We have never had any such
temptations. We do not recall that any
one OF Zuccoli's romances ever caused us
a disturbing thought or prompted in US a
firing meditation. In one of his stories
perhaps. he stacks the cards against a
Socialist and raises the problem of free
love- In another. called the "Illustrious
Unknown" he has written an amusing
oeANAAN VI UuANdUNA1tAI 4iiCtAAo+iiANs nut H1II
lapses from pure entertainment are rare.
Luciano Zuccoh has gone through his long.
artistic life unconscious of everything ex-
cept situation and character. He is story
teller above all else; and a story teller
he is one Of the most accomplished at
present writing on the Continent.
ZuccoH has been disparagingly summar-
lied as a combination OF Pittigrilh Cor In
verneriO) and DAnnunzio. as a writer. in
other words. who aims at the pot boiling
thriller disguised with this or that aesthetic
pose. There Is no doubt that Zuccon car
write a thriller even in the American sens,
OF that term. III maleficiO occulto" ''Th,
Secret Crime'O is a capital detective story
that has enjoyed an undiminishing popu
larity in Italy over a period of twenty
years. II is true also that he makes
lavish use OF the aristocratic environment
frequently portraying. for the benefit of !
petty bourgeois audience, characters from
high life' who affect the eleganees anC
fads Of the best society" But there ar,
sincerer elements than these in most o.
ZuceOli's novels. Imagine Italy peopleC
with the prototypes OF the three or foul
hundred individualities which he ha!
created in his work as whole and yol
have as comprehensive a picture of thl
Italian life that was lived in the tw,
decades before the war as any that w
know.
Read "Farfui." for example. In thi:
novel. which We regard as the most com
Dacs and sound nf ZuccOIisS vro5rotfo,s
we have If you WISH the inevitable story