The Washington times., 1923-02-11


tility, Novel on Russian
Themes" by William Gerhardi,
the latest publication Of Duffield
& Company, New York. In these
days when Dostoievski, Chekhov,
Tolstoi, Cork. and Gogol have
prepared American readers to ex-
pect only gloom, gloom and more
gloom from Russia, it is most
wonderful relief to have humor,
though at times sardonic and grim,
applied to tale Of Russia, for
the much-tossed-about Nikolai
Vasilievich is but symbol of his
own great far-flung country, the
glorious Little Mother"
The keynote Of most Russian
stories is their lack of beginning
and their lack of ending. This Is
a true view of life, for as we
come in we but join a great pro-
cession over Mirza's bridge until
we find our own special trap,
when we disappear, unknown to
a majority in the long line.
Most Russian writer's surround
this view of life with words. end
less chains of words, their char
acters giving no indication of
knowing more than that they have
places in the grand procession for
a brief while and eventually are
due to lose them. They have few
high lights in their march into
eternity, little grief at leaving it.
They take their ending with what
is fast becoming known as a
Slavic acceptance of fate.
And then it struck me that
the only thing to do was to fit
all this into a book. 1t is the
classic way of treating life" That
is the opening of this novel on
Russian themes" You are taken
right out of nowhere and placed
in the here The last scene shows
a steamer sailing away from
Vladivostok toward Shanghai. II
peered at the horizon to see if
could spot the smoke from it's two
tunnels. But there was none"
Thus you never know how
Nikolai Vasilevich and Fanny
Ivanovna and Zina and Magda
Nikolaevna and Uncle Kostia and
Kniaz and the various daughters
>~~~~~~~N>~~~~~~~ ~~~~~U~~~~~~~~~~~~|
and weird imagination which ex-
pressed itself again and again
in his painting.
Curiously, little has been said
about Vedder as a writer and
poet, yet 1.-The Digressions of W.
and other of his books of verse
and prose show him to have
been an unusual and vivid per-
sonality, which expressed itself
as readily through the medium Of
his pen as of his brush.
THE February Bookman gives
prominence to a review of
Harvey O'Higgins' "Some Distin-
guished Americans" by Edward
Fl. Reede. who is none other than
DIR. Reede, one Of the foremost
psychiatrists of this country,
and a resident of this city.
A review of fiction by a doctor
of medicine is rather unusual,
but in this case is warranted by
the undertones or subconsciouS
background of many of Mr..
O'Higgins' stories.
In the course of his review DIR.
Reede puts into print for the first
time some of his findings on the
human mind and their relations
to literature as a record of life.
Those interested in books will
find not only an excellent review
of a much-discussed book, but
sort of handbook for the newer
phases of American writer's.
ONE of the fascinating things
about reading the novels of
Rafael Sabatini is the manner in
which historical characters sud
| denly appear in the midst of the
scenes. In THE Snare" for in
stance, Wellington, the Iron Duke,
| plays small but significant part
| in the melee. He wore" Mr..
Sabatini tells us, "a plain gray I'M
dress frock and white stock,
| buckskin breeches and lacquered
| boots, and he carried riding
crop tucked under his left arm.
| His features were stern and bold
| ly handsome; his fine eyes singu-
larly piercing and keen in their
| glance; and the sweep of those
| eyes now took in not merely the
adjutant, but the spread table and
the ladies seated before it. He
swept a cooked hat from a brown
head that was very slightly
touched with gray, and bowed
with mixture of stiffness and
courtliness to the ladies'" Ger
tainly, the old boy himself.
!