Evening star., 1923-06-02
The Library Table
.BY THE BoOKLoVER.


themselves the STRINGS of poetic
activity. Sometimes they want ad-
vice; sometimes only an ear into
which to pour their embryonic imag-
inings Being a kindly person, he
listens to many a. hating lyric. many
a long and dragging piece Of blank
verse; and, OF course, to "vers libre"
without limit Once in a great while
he is rewarded by q few lines of real
poetic fire. When it comes to the ad-
vice. he never gives any to. the yers
librists. for they never take any. They
always know what they want to say;
and. recognizing no rules, consider
their own way Of saying. 1T as good
as another. To other would-be poets
the professor always gives the same
advice. First, he sends them all to
Milton, Shelley and Keats, not for
copies but for idealsg He feels sure
that after study Of "LAllegro, III
Penseroso," the ode to the West
Wind" the ode to a Skylark" and
the "Ode on a Grecian Urn" no one,
however immature, will be content to
write absolutely forrnless verse. Then,
as guides in form and possibly checks
on too exuberant imaginations, he
recommends several good, works on
prosody. such as George Saintsbury's
Historical Manual of English Pros
,ody,". Sidney Lanier's Science; of
English Verse" j. P. ,Dabney's 'Musi-
cal Basis of Verse" and William H.
Carruth's Verse Writing, Practical
Handbook" 80.
That jealousy and religious. fanat-
icism may both become so extreme as
to amount to insanity seems to be
the theme of Eden Phillpots' latest
novel. Children of Men" Jacob
Bu1lstone's inherently morbid, jealous
nature is the only cause for his alb
surd but acute and growing suspi-
cions> of the woman who has been
his wife for twenty years. Margery
finds that explanations and reasoning
help matters for only brief periods
and, indeed, Jacob will often listen
to neither. When the climax of their
domestic unhappiness is reached and
he does her an irreparable injury. she,
with her gentle nature. on account
of her love for her home and chill
dren. would forgive him. but then
the religious fanaticism of her self
righteous, unyielding mother. Judith
Huxam. steps : in and prevents.
able Margery who pays for. the seri-
Gus faults of character, almost mental
alterations, Of her husband and
mother. Eden Phillpotts recognizes
that such payment on the part of the
blameless is the way Of life. He does
not, however. permit Jacob Bullstone
and Judith Huxam 10 escape suffering
for their own acts In fact he prob
ably believes that in the development
Of his plot he has made them the
chief sufferers, but the reader is not
so sure OF this. The complete victim
izing Of Margery by the two dominant t
characters who control her life
arouses far more sympathy. on the
part of at least one reader. than the
unceasingi destructive remorse of
OF Judith. arising from the fear OBJ
session that after preaching all her
life TO others she herself may become
a castawave To the reader who loves
the Dartmoor of Phillpotts' novels.
the gloom of the tragedy is compen-
stated by the descriptions of the moor
land, the patches of forest where the
goats hide. the winding road which
runs to Brent. following the rushing
river Auna, Red House with Margery' g
old fashioned flower garden, Bull
stone farm which Is given to the
marriage portion of the eldest daugh-
ter. and Huntington, the white
washed cottage on the lonely moor,
where Jacob works out his repentance
and ms mInd'S SalVation. ''..f ..'
X X
The opening of the tomb of King
Tutankhanien has been responsible
for such an orgy of Tut styles, dances
Booklover may take the occasion to
mention some of the interesting Tut
books, or, to be less slangy, some
books in which Egypt forms the set
ting. There is first, of course, Shake
speares 'Antony and Cleopatra -
with its wonderful description of the
barge Of the Egyptian queen floating 6
down the Nile. in one of the most
| famous % historical novels. "Hy-
patia," Kingsley describes Alexan-
Christianity was beginning to dis
place the old paganism. An old
fashioned writer, a favorite of my
youth. but little read today. George
Ebers, gives richly. imaginative pic
lures of the life and customs of the
ancient Egyptians. In his 'Uarda'
and An Egyptian Princess The
prolific H. Rider Haggard has made
Egypt his favorite ground for the
events of his extravagant romances
Daughter" The Ancient Allan" anC
| THE Wanderers Necklace" Alger-
non BlaclkWood has an Egyptian
novel, The Wave" as Well, as the
| original John Silence" stories.
X X x -.
Having recently written his owr
| biography. Edward w. Box has now
employed some more of the leisure
| brought by his retirement from the
| Ladies' Home Journal in writing the
biography of his father-in-law, Cyrus
II. X. Curtis. This biography has the
| attractive title, The Man From
Maine" AS a biography, it is per
haps not :, as readable as Mr., Box:
own. because the personality and life
| of Mr. Curtis seem to be less varied
! and dramatic than those of Mr.. Box
/ Mr.. Curtis is presented as keer
business man and successful publish.
er, a man of simple habit and New
England reserve. His genius as 9
publisher is proved by his having &C.
his two magazines, the Ladies, Home
Journal and the Saturday Evening
Post
** X Y
! That even Turkey has been affected
by the feminist movement and sis
no longer the typical example
among nations of masculine suprem-
acy and feminine suppression has
| been brought to our attention BY
many recent articles and books One
of the most interesting of the books
is Demetra Vakas Unveiled Ladies
of Stamboul," a series Of vivid and
| authoritative sketches Of, the new
women of Turkey. tDemetra Vaka
| who is Mrs. Kenneth. Brown, is well
known to American readers not only
her books on Turkey and. the
Balkan countries, "Haremlik," ''Ir
the Orient" The Grasp OF the
Sultan" and The Heart OF the Bal
kans'; but also through her articles
published in Golfers In 1918 under