Evening star., 1922-12-02
The Library Table
BY THE BOOKLOvER.

books, new and old, and their near
relatives. magazines. will try to share
with his readers his own reading
pleasures. He will write Of books
about to be published. of those re-
Gently published. not infrequently OF
older books. of magazines just started
and OF noteworthy articles in various
periodicals. He will roam at large in
the world Of print. and, assuming that
his interests are typical of those of
the other cultivated readers of The
Star, will Gull from his reading and
tell about 1t in the hope that some
of his own enjoyment therein may be
! communicated to others. Comment on
new books in this column may precede
| or may follow their more formal re-
view in the regular book review col
umns of The Sunday Star.
| X *
| This year I am going to give books
for Christmas to all the members of
the family circle. 1t will be so much
more satisfactory than selecting un-
| welcome ties for father and Tom;
| bric-a-brac for mother, for which she
can find no place, and fnery for Lii
liam that she exchanges the day after
Christmas. I am selecting the books
carefully from the seasons list and
| trying to suit the special tastes in
volved. Father has two special in
terests in his reading. archaeology
and British political history; and. as
he plays Santa Claus SO generously
to all the family, l am going to give
him two books-'Inca Land" by Hi
ram Bingham, and Prime Ministers
! OF Britain. 1721-1791," by Give Big
| ham," AS mother is an enthusiastic
Daughter of the American Revolu-
| ton. she is to receive William Roscoe
ThayeTs George Washington" AS
| soon as winter comes grandfather
\ shuts himself up in the house, but
his eyes are good and he loves to
| travel through books. He has always
been a Bible student and has often
| wished he could visit the Holy Land,
| so he shall have Frank G. Carpenters
| Holy Land and Syria Lillian. of
| course. must be given a new novel.
She reads all the popular magazines
and browses at will in the family
library; but mother still has the idea
| that a schoolgirl of sixteen should
! not read anything and everything, so
! I shall avoid some of the new novels
and select for her one which has
ideals as well as originality and
literary value Dorothy Canfield's
Rough Hewn." For the children /
! prefer the older classics to untried
new books. Tom, fourteen. will de-
light in a good edition of Stevensons
kidnapped" Little Mary, who is an
outdoor child and cares not at all for
girls stories, but very much for ad-
venture. will find by her stocking
Howard Pyle's beautifully illustrate
Aunt Anne Is rather fashioned
She cannot endure problem novels
must have happy ending. and likes
bit of quiet humor; so Joseph Lin
coins Fair Harbor' will suit her.
am sure. While at the bookshop
shall probably select three or four
new novels for several friends, and
among them will certainly be Hugh
Walpole's The Cathedral and Anne
Sedgwick's "Adrienne Toner"
X X
The eyes of the world are turned
toward the near east, to the south
eastern projection of Europe known
as the Balkan peninsula 1t now con-
talns more of human misery than al!
the rest of our war-weary world.
There. also, lies most peril of another
war. The 5000 years of its troubled
life have always been filled with
tumult and conflict, in which Greek.
Roman, barbarian. Persian and Turk
have struggled for the mastery. The
contending forces of European and
Asiatic civilizations have engendered
the most intense national and impe-
rialistic rivalries. and the end is not
yet. Although there have been many
books recounting the stories of sepa-
rate nations and of special periods of
the Balkan states, only now has there
been published in any Ianguage a
whole. This is found in The History
of the Balkan Peninsula" by Prof
! Ferdinand ScheviIl of the University
of Chicago. Excellent as the book
is. the limitations of this or of any
historical writing are strikingly
shown by the fact that, although this
| book has been published during the
present autumn, the note of finality
, in it as to the settlement of the Bal
kan problem, SO far as the Turk is
concerned. makes it in that respect
already out of date. The author in
his opening chapter. in outlining the
epochs of Balkan history. refers to
that total breakdown of the Ottoman
power OF which the living generation
has been the astonished witness" IN
the light of later events, the reported
death of the sick man of Europe" ap-
pears somewhat exaggerated.
Tracing influence IS a captivating
literary pastime, though perhaps not
without its dangers Sometimes the
influence of one writer over another,
in general or in a specific drama or
novel, seems obvious: at other times
the influence may be partly matter
of the critics or readers imagina-
ton. Chaucers Canterbury Tales"
are reasonably supposed to have been
suggested by Boccacio's 'Decameron,"
Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice"
or Marlowe's Jew of Malta But
how Interesting it would be if Chaucer
and Shakespeare had expressed them
selves on these subjects! Hugh Wal
poles most recent novel, THE Cathe-
dral," seems to be a good example, If
not of literary influence. at least of
literary similarity. The central char
acter OF this fine piece of fiction,
dominating all the human characters
and their lives, is the beautiful.