Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1924-02-26
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
THE ROVER. Joseph Conrad. Double

A trickle Of action. easy enough for
q pair of cupped hands to hold. It's
visible source. a sluggish backwater
Of forgotten days whose hours here
gather UP incidents rather than
events. A story OF unarresting move
ment, Of almost no movement, or SO
1t seems to one at the moment OF
coming out from THE Rover" A
snap judgment. to be sure, with no
more weight than decisions of this
In the company of Joseph Conrad one
Is used to the sailing OF endless seas
weeks and months on end. One is
used to the canopy Of unreasonable
skies. used to the lure Of widening
events ever reckoning to further out
beauty encompassing the whole. 1t
comes about. therefore. that the bare
physical Limitation Of THE Rover"
takes one with Jar Of surprise and
momentary misleading. 1t seems.
upon the surface, SO out of the run OF
u. X II
The romance carries one back q
century or more, to Lord Nelson's
two-year blockade OF the port of Tou-
lon in the war between England and
the French republic. Carries one fur
ther back than that even. since GER
tain OF its vital characters are
poignantly reminiscent of the atroc-
! Ties OF the French revolution itself.
These points of time serve, though in
unequal measure, the double purpose
or historical background on the one
hand, OF spiritual atmosphere on the
other.
The sea to the east OF Toulon,
sometimes In play and sometimes in
dark anger, has nipped and bitten
the coast into a perfect hide -and-go-
seek of inlet and cove. Above, the
enore iifts sharply in beetlinE
therefrom into field and farm. Here
lies the farm OF Escampobar. Es-
campobar and below 1t the notched
edge OF the Mediterranean become
me stage Of this adventure of which
Clearly the hero. That Is. he Is the
nero II a situation go generally IN
significant may. In reason, claim a
figure so valorous. Nothing happens
here save. the round-and-round Of
small activities. Nothing happens,
except that having come to Escampo-
par from long sea sailings, the Rover
after u ten-year anchorage in the
! farm harbnr, goes out again, finally
by way OF the sea. a great exit
that.
If. however. TO maintain balance in
the midst of topping human ruins
be heroic, then Citizen Peyrol is
hero. II TO Offset the daily terrors Of
the farm folks with a plain and steady
courage; II TO possess great common
sense and to hold II staunchly against
the immense no sense around it; II, in
sum. to be sane where the others are
obviously not sane--if ali this is not
OF the stuff Of heroism, then the rover
Is not hero. But he is. You your
self will gladly. and i take il a bit
humbly. grant Citizen Peyrol that
honor.
a motley assemblage, this az the
farm. Arlette the last Of the genera
tions of Escampobar. Arlette a beau
tiful wrath, her mind under D. cloud.
her eyes still filled with the hor-
rors Of the Toulon massacre, where,
at her.very side, blood mad men be-
headed both her father and her
| mother Arlette,s companion and
guardian at the farm Is Aunt Cath
stricken maturity. Then Scevola.
| revolutionary fanatic, constitutional
coward. "purveyor OF the suillotine,"
drinker Of blood" who by virtue Of
having rescued Arlette at Toulon and
OF having brought her back to Es-
campobar has settled himself at the
farm. where ne is engaged chiefly
IN making exaggerated and futile
gestures to the effect that the spoils
belong to the victor. Besides this
insane trio there is only Citizen
Peyroi, and now and then Lieut.. Real
comes up from Toulon on some err
rand OF espionage directed toward the
English sentinel ship offshore that
Down in the cove is the Rover's little
tartane. modest link between his un-
eventful present and a gorgeous past
OF sailing, fighting, winning. losing
on III the eastern seas along with
the others OF the lawless broth eril cd
of the coast. 1t is the little tartane
that serves, finally, 10 break the
secret bondage of Citizen PeyroI TO
set the Rover free for the longest
of all his sailings.
x \ y
That's all. That's the story. An
unpleasant tale of no great moment,
according to this clipped account of
Its bare surface movement. Not so at
ALL in reality. Instead, a story that
goes down deep into the places where
the heart of the human burrows, al
| ways in complete secrecy, always in
utter loneliness. From the super
fetal outlook also "The Rover" stands
as distinct departure from the
familiar Conrad romance OF the sea
A fitful wind ruffiinE the Meditcr-
ranean shore, a prowling craft under
lazy sails, a darting tartane--this is
no sea stuff. a pure in-Shore inven-
ton, or SO 1t seems. But Citizen Pey-
rol possesses memories that crowd
and press and clamor. These memo
ries talk. And from the day when we
come upon the rover at Toulon, mas
| ter-gunner of worn and battered
| prize ship. delivering his craft TO the
| authorities. and thereafter betaking
from that day to the other one when
on the little tartane he sets out for
| the most distant. of all ports, we are,
In his company. never far from the
spectacle of those old days of danger
| and adventure. In effect, this is a
of the rover's mind. And the romance
| as a whole is, despite it's seeming diff
| ference, quite of the usual Conradian
texture and pattern. Here, too, as in
| finds that leaning toward the areas
| lying between the known and the I'M
| known, where the. mind exercises
| gifts and powers that remain inert,
unawakened, in the turmoil of the
| outer day.
This deep personality of Citizen
}Peyrol is the real man that comes
out when the occasion for emergence
| arises. A strength and wisdom gath
i cred out of years and years of sea
! solitudes, out of immense spaces of
| tranquility. Such is the man and
! such his sources white-haired
| hero that one comes to know and
| love here. 1t is In this secret place,
| too. that there springs, to the sur
| prise and disinay of the rover, the
| feeling for, Arlette that determines
the end Of this action. a shadowy
| feeling, vague, elusive, such as Mr..
Conrad Is likely to create around
| emotions Of tenderness, especially OF
those emotions that arise between man
| and woman. Here. again, one comes