The New York herald., 1922-07-09
The World of Foreign Books
ITALIAN BOOKS.

I ian children are taught to contem-
plate suffering and to pity the unfor-
tunate-a tendency diametrically
opposed to the sentimental Polly
annaism of our society. And here,
where we Craze the vitals of life. the
formula for the successful Italian
novel calls, not as might be sup
posed for negation, for gayety and
responsibility, but for affirmation
for the unhappy ending and all the
minor tragedies that go with it.
But the chief lesson that formulas
teach is to beware of formulas. To
have found the broad lines of Guido
da Verona's method is not to have
found the reasons for his astonish-
ing popular appeals nor to have dis
covered the key to successful imi-
tation of him. The fact is that he
gives you your moneys worth from
whichever point of view you approach
a book stall to buy one of his novels
An Author of "Erudition."
The two hundred thousand words
that he sells you for eight lire forty
eight cents at current exchange)
are sort of review of your elemen-
tary education, conducted with an
urbane regard for your probable for
getfulness, but with discreet eye
for your vanity. Guido da Verona's
illusions are not. like those of DAN
nunzio. challenges to German re-
searchers. but batteries to grammar
school graduates. MY Life in Ray
of Sunlight" contains, for example.
a description of Verdi conducting his
last opera (who was Verdi? Oh, yes.
1 remember): a depreciation of
Petrarch (My. how the "Canzoniere"
bored me my senior year in schoolD:
paean to Dostoiewski profound,
these RussiansD; playful jibe at
Blanco Ibanez (that American
writer, you knowD; an idealization
of Meachnikoff (the sour milkman
from PARISH and a somewhat BAN
tering analysis OF the famous realism
of Flaubert.
The American magazine of big
circulation expects its great" writer's
to demonstrate something that every
body knows. some article of the
must be sublimated and disguised by
witty sentences and ingenious illus
tration till you have convinced the
reader of what he already believes.
Now. this novel of Da Verona con-
tains a theory of insanity which
puts the pretentious alienist in his
place and proves. with many a
sparkling page. a platitude so old
that we have forgotten its originator
unless it be Lombroso: that madness
is akin TO genius. namely So
lengthy discourse on ethnoiogy re-
duces to the doctrine that Bolshevism
is an invention of the Jews, a race
which occupies the neutral territory
between Islamism and Christianity,
combining the dreams of each and
owing it's survival to a capacity for
inventing dogmas to disrupt its foes
whence our modern chaos: De-
mocracy. Socialism and Communism
in succession
Those who read Guido's last book.
''Sciogii la treccia, Maria Magda-
lena" Uoose your hair. o Magda-
lene). remember that it contained a
well documented account of the
Spanish bull fight. So the present
volume is an overt challenge to
Blasoo Ibanez's Informative por-
trayal of gambling at Monte Carlo
1.-THE Enemies of Women") and a
less direct competition with the
Orientalism of Pierre Lott and Claude
Farrere. The description of a trip
to Mecca, the Forbidden City, eul-
minating in the purchase at the
slave market of Sarah, the enigmatic
Jewish girl, in addition to being
serious effort at painting in color,
may be relied upon to engage the
conversation of romantic feminine
minds in Italy till the next da Yer
ona novel appears. For with My
Life in a Ray of Sunlight" Guido da
Verona Joins the imitators of "Jean