Evening star., 1924-11-02
Reviews of New Books

| farcical elaboration rises to its best
| height, causing what follows in the
| South Seas to slide off into an anti
climax of interest and effect. The pre-
paratory stage of the adventure Is ripe
| comedy-luscious stuff, elaborately
| faithful to it's essence Of actual fact
and to its grain Of human nature, which
are extended here to the pattern OF
pure farce and embroidered in the curlf-
cues of mans generally nonsensical be-
haviors. Such a leisurely getting ready
! this, that one, reading, slips of into It's
time spaciousness In a happy surrender
to the fun of the moment-of the hours,
rather-that go by in the strenuous en-
deavor to secure passage on the OBJ
viously difficult and exclusive Octoroon.
BY the time of sailing one Is ready to
stay at home to enjoy in huge laughter
the great preparations. And, indeed. he
would not miss SO much by doing that
very thing For this is, far and away,
the better part Of the adventure. How
ever, it is not easy to see how the hler
pitch set for the beginning of the matter
could be sustained throughout its fuii
course.
NINA. BY Susan Ertz, author of Ma
dame Claire" New York: ID. APP
pleton & Co.
Is the Nina" sort of woman going
out of fashion? Or is it that. she no
longer holds exclusive possession OF
the field; that another kind OF woman
today challenges her all-Worthlness
However that is not the question OF
this novel. The question crowded 1t
| self in through the faint Victorian
| quality of this Nina so faithful IN
| love through an unfaithfulness that
was open and brutal and conclusive.
! Nina Wadworth's husband, Morton
| Caldwell, had simply no talent for
| matrimony Beyond its first newness
| it bored him unutterably. when he
| finally did gain the courage of speech
| he made it Enthusiastically clear that
| his own pleasure in the wide helds
| of personal enjoyment was or 1ar
more worth to him than the daily
| compromises and .self-denials or the
marital state, eveh with so beautiful
a girl as his wife. The story goes on.
| cleverly and believabIy, through the
| futile efforts of those two to come
| upon some working enterprise. These
all fail as they were bound to do, tili
! separation and divorce come as the
sequence of this experiment in matrl-
| mony. And the girl keeps right on
| loving this self-absorbed fellow, just
| as the true woman" is supposed TO
| do and is upheld in doing. At the
! stration that the human heart re-
| uuires the Sustenance of reciprocated
| effection. no matter how much SEN
| time ntal morality may prescribe and
! applaud eternal Constancy. The dem
| onstration' takes on point and OBJ
! jectivity by way of another marriage.
! No, Susan Ertz has not fallen of
! since Madame >Claire'-of course
| not Gifted and promising writer's do
/ Col Oft 10 on
! tainly. no one in Nina" compares in
any respect with the gay and witty,
! the wise and waywise Nine. Claire.
| who gave name to the earlier story.
AN ASTRONOMER At LARGE, BY
A. q. Thornton. New York: q. +.
Putnam'S Sons.
So little a thing may serve for
mans undoing. Now it was no more
| than the sight of his gardener dig
| ging in the good soil that worked the
| downfall of Edward Joslin. An as
| tronomer of high repute, Joslin. who
| had SO long engrossed himself in the
study of the heavens that he had be
| come almost as remote from common
human interests as is Il distant Sa-
tellite, or a swinging constellation.
But Spring was about her immemorial
business that day, making use of the
pungent soil to open up the being
! of Edward Joslin to far reminders
Of youth and gayety and a bewilder-
| ing clamor of the blood. And JoSlin
ran away-just turned tail and ran
| away from the stars and the tele-
scopes and the invqluted computa=
| tions and the elder sister who guard
ed him, 50 competently, from any
soft menace to his fame as a scholar
or to his quite satisfactory role as
home maker for herself. A gorgeous
truancy that wherein the stars them
selves-so despised for the moment
by Edward Joslin-must have put
their heads together to give their for
mer devotee a bewildering run for
his money. You'll get the fun of it
all only by going along-by drifting
into the race course along with JOS
lin, by putting your bet on the dark
est horse possible for no other reason
than that it's name, Ptolemy. ap-
pealed to the classic fabric of the
astronomers mind. And you'll win.
if you follow Joslin--helped by the
heavens, without doubt. And that
further adventure with the lady
we'll, you'll not believe a word of this
unless You do go along, for-just in
a whisper-the lady was far very
FAR, from what she should have been
and JoSlfn was an unborn babe for
innocence. as you already know. And
that was the very quality that saved
the whole unpromising to-do, for no
girl, not any sort of girl. could
snatch an apple away from a baby,
you see. And it is upon this fact that
the whole matter turns away from
being an uproariouS farce into being
a rather touching romance between
an unworldly man and a world beat
en- woman. And by and by when it
is all over-for the girl is big and
fine, after all-you go back to the
stars, and the sister, with the as
tronomer. sight better for the
truancy, as you know that Edward
Joslln, savant. also is
GOLDEN BALLAST. BY Fl. De We're
Stacpoole, author of The Blue La
COON" etc. New York: Dodd, Mead
& Co.
Where to find treasure is not BY
any means the purpose of this sea
faring. Nothing so commonplace as
this objective had become will serve
here. Where to hide the treasure
mere becomes the paramount ques-
ton, instead Where to hide it for
the sake of coming upon it later
under sanction of the law and in the
hope of legal ultimate possession
that's the point of this particular
undertaking. The story hardly, gets a
| start before it is plain to the young
adventurer who is to carry the bust
ness forward that the derelict craft
OF his desire, at the moment serving
as house, boat for a young woman
| and her fathers old and devoted
| friend, is ballasted with gold bricks
No, not the kind used to excite. the
cupfdity of Simpletons, but real gold
! bricks instead. How to gain posses
sion of the boat? How to get away
| with the precious ballast? In what
far of ha (.