Evening star., 1923-03-31
The Library Table
BY The BOOklOver

Among the many novels of each
year whose interest lies in the treat
ment of individual characters and
situations. without any broad or gen.
eral Significance, there is occasionally
one Of epic quality. Such is knut
Hamsun's THE Growth Of the Soil
and such also, in a somewhat less
universal way, Is Sheifa Kaye-Smith's
Sussex Gorse." Tho subtitle Of "Sus-
sex Gorse" Is '"The Story OF Fight"
The fight is not between individuals.
but between q man of indomitable
purpose and a monster Of the soil
the great, shaggy Moor of Boarzell.
The moor was on the eastern edge
Of the parish, five miles from Rye.
1t was hummocked and tus-
socked with coarse grass-hcre and
there spread Of heather. growing.
like all southern heather, almost
arboreally. In places the naked soil
gaped in sores made by coney-war-
rens or uprooted bushes. Stones and
roots, sharn, shards and Jumps Of
mari mixed themselves into the
wealden clay, which oozed in red
streaks Of potential fruitfulness
through their sterility. The crest Of
Boarzell was marked by q group OF
frs, very gaunt and wind bitten, ris-
ing out OF mass of gorse, as the
plunes of some savage chief might
nod mangily above his fillet."
~ X
field. despising his father. whose
philosophy Of life was summed up in
the words. I've no ambitious, SO I'm
Il happy man" resolved that one day
he would own Boarzell moor and
suodue 1t. Five years later, when his
father died and the farm OF Odiam.
on the edge Of the moor, became his
property. his task OF conquest began.
Year by year he worked and saved
and purchased section after section
OF the moor and brought it under
cultivation, meanwhile sacrificing to
his great purpose all the joy and
kindliness Of life. His ageing mother,
his brother, his wife. his children as
they came, his second wife and her
children, his one real friend, who
was tho only woman he ever truly
loved. were all sacrificed to the moor
victory was complete and the last
acre of the crest OF BoarzeIl became
MS; but he sat in his lonely kitchen,
deserted by all except his blind, idiot
brother. OF his two wives and his
eleven children all had fled from
Boarzell or had been killed by it.
But i've Won" he said softly to him
self. I'VE won-and it's bin
worth while. I've wanted a thing and
I've got II. sureiy-and 1 aunt too old
TO ENJOY 1t, nuther.'
The recent unhappy events in the
Levant makes especially timely "A
Short History OF the Near East" by
William Stearns Davis. favorably
known as historian and novelist.
Communicating in his final chapter on
the latest bloodshed. tho author says
that OF all the treaties designed to
liqu!date the world war. that Of
Serves. between the western powers
and Turkey, was the one most obyi-
ously writ in water. AT this mo-
ment, he says, 1T seems probable
that. TO the outragirG Of all western
pubic opinion, and especially that of
America, the Turks Will be granted
a circumscribed and tenuous occupa-
tion of Constantinople for at least
little longer This is a pitiful
fulfiIlment of the promises Of many
Franco-British statesmen during the
world war. 1t represents apparently
n non-mora1 temporary arrangement
dictated by Sordid eXpediency and
promises new wars in the not dis
tant future" The history gives the
background of the age-Iong struggle
between orient and occident, showing
how European ambitions have COM
bined with local Jealousies to perpet-
uate the conflict.
= X x x
The Best Short Stories of 1929 and
the Year Book Of the American Short
Story" just published. is the eighth
in the series compiled by E. J..
OBrien. The stories chosen are TWEEN
ty in number, and some Of the
authors are Sherwood Anderson,
Katherine Fullerton Gerould, Joseph
penheim, Wilbur Daniel Steele, F.
Scott Fitzgerald. Ring Lardner and
Waldo Frank.
A lifelong devotee of extreme real
ism in fiction and an opponent Of the
classic standards imposed by the
French Academy. Edmond de Con-
court. at his death in 1896, left a
fund to establish an annual prize to
be awarded to the young writer pro-
ducing the most remarkable prose
work of Imagination of the year. The
award Of the Goncourt prize of 5000
francs by the ten members of the Con
court Academy always causes a storm of
discussion in France and milder furry
ill this country. In 1921 the prize went
strong but disgusting novel of the
, Jungle, "Batouala-" The prize for 1922
was given to Henri Beraud. because
, of his two books, lie Nitriol de Lune'
! Is thirty-seven years old and cor
! pulent He was formerly dramatic
/ critic of the Mercure de France and
at present is on the staff of LIE Petit
Parisien. The first of his two books
crowned by the Goncourt Academy
; is a tragedy of the events leading to
! the death of Louis XIV: the second is
a farce of the adventures of u fat
! fat celebrities. including Marshall
Jotfre
Tho first issue Of a. new bi-nonthly
magazine called Orient appeared in
February. 1t is to be a magazine of
art and culture, with the purpose of
! showing the spirit of the present
renaissance in Asia and making
! known 10 western peoples the art,
! literature and philosophy of the east.
! The initial number contains an article
by Roman ROLAND entitled Homage
! to silva"
| x X Il x
In a recent letter to Christopher
| Morley Of tho New York Evening
Post, George H. Locke, librarian of
| the Toronto Public Library. says that
| he asked the question of the students
In the Ontario Government Training
, School for Librarians-''What dozen
! books Of prose fiction would best rep
resent the works Of Canadian authors