The Washington times., 1923-02-11
ENCHANTED APRIL
GIVES US A
LAUGH
New Book by Elizabeth"
Full of Ironic Humor, Which
Earns 1t Place in Our Af-,
fections.

0NE of the least Of our wor-
ries, on those rare occa-
" sions when we find a book
that promises to cause an undula-
ton Of the diaphragm or that con-
veys the remotest possibility Of
causing our stern and classic fea-
lures to relax into semblance of
grin, is the question Of its
status as a masterpiece Of litera-
ture. Neither is it our practice
TO beat the tom tom, assemble the
folk, and descant learnedly Of its
relation to the previous work Of
the author, either to praise it as
showing wonderful improvement,
with a promise of greater achieve
ment to come, or as being sad
evidence of the declining genius
Of the writer. Nope, the man or
woman who wrings the laugh
from us is tolerably sure of
friendly welcome.
All this is merely prelude to the
tribute we are about to pay 1.-THE
Enchanted April by the author
of Elizabeth and Her German
Garden" Doubleday, Page & Coz.
It is a book of great charm; it
tells an entertaining story in
clever fashion; it achieves, in
spots, devastating analyses of
character; and. of chiefest con-
Germ to US, it Is bespangled with
humor OF so caustic and pene-
trating a character that we are
going to place the book alongside
Merton of the Movies" and
Bunker Beam" that 1t may be
ever handy when we would divert
ourself.
We set all this down with full
knowledge that some of the
learned and authentic fellows
have already deserted in 1.-The
Enchanted April falling off
from the high achievement of
"Vera." Moreover, they fortify
this assertion with specific in
stances. and are apparently ready
to specify chapter and verse, If
need be, to convince one of the
validity of their criticism. But
In face of this we remain i'm
movable in our position. despite
the disquieting thought which
has just assailed us that we, alas,
have never read Vera" Never
theless. we still insist the latter
can possibly be no better than
''The Enchanted April" or, at
least, not so very much better.
WE are informed by the urbane
and scholarly Page Cooper
that Mr.. Gissing. THE Mr.. Giss-
ing of Morley's Where the Blue
Begins" recently entertained a
number of personalities from the
Columns" at party held on the
lawn of the County Life Press.
Fortunately" write our CORE
spondent, there was mild wealth
er, and it was charming indeed
to see these staid old aristocrats.
Sir Kenelm Digby and Captain
Fitzurse, playing at tennis with
Hermione and Dulcinia. We heard
Hermione cry quite happily, It's
the deuce you know, il you get
what / mean to which, Dull
cinia shrieked back, All, yes:
deuce-the deuce-ha, ha,' and
the game ended quite pleasantly
when Captain Peter told of play.
ing racquets with Kenelm's
grandfather on the courts at
Versailles. just before; no, on the
same day the famous oath was
signed there. At which they
strolled over to share Mr.. Giss-
ing's pleasure in watching II.
OLOoh on lump IlcIC dIIu lHSTe
with the Old Soak Don Marquis
Archie couldn't come, but dropped
q communication saying:
dear mr.
gissing the
boss wont let
me come hope you
have a good time yours
for rum riot ruin
and corruption exclamation
point archie.''
MINDFUL of the thrill we got
reading Simon Called Pc
ter" and THE Mother, of All
Living" we picked up Robert
Keable's latest novel, "Perad-
venture" one very cold evening
with the expectation of getting
at least a genial warmth from
its pages. So far as we can dis
cover, though we have not com
pleted the book, it concerns it.
self mainly with discussion
of dogmas and creeds, and con.
tains not a vestige of the anna.
BILE dissertations on amour which
made the other works of Mr.
Keable anathema to village Ii
brarians and so popular with the
unregenerate.
But we still! have many pages