Evening star., 1924-09-06
The Library Table
BY THE BOOkLOVER

| Ulrika Woytich in Jacob Wasser-
manns recently translated novel
! cold. The dominant personality of
this ambitious woman, who, free from
all personal ties, insinuates herself
into the lives Of others ONLY to ruin
them, is not as convincing to the
reader as it appears to be to the au-
! thor. That Ulrika Woytich, after an
| accident has given her access to the
| home of the Mylius family, should
/ faScinate the younger members of the
| family is understandable but that she
| should so rapidly reduce to sub
servience Herr and Fran Mylius is
| hardly plausible. Esther and Aimee
| become her slaves because she fur
nishes them the adornments and
| amusements of which their youth has
been deprived. Josephine. whose
! character is stronger, yields more
slowly, and then only to q species Of
terrorism. Lothar, a pretty, dissolute
| boy, is quickly subdued by her appeal
to his sex and his greed. What causes
! the reader TO pronounce the story i'm
| probabl almost impossible, is the
collapse of the elderly MyliuS couple
who are portrayed as by no means
weak personalities. Herr Helmut
Otto MyliuS, world-famous dealer in
antiques. small, pale, pinchcd man.
with bowed shoulders. evasive eyes. d
"sour-sweet Smirk" and the features
| OF bird Of prey, has amassed a for
tune of millions and kept the fact
| from every one, including all the
members Of his family. Yet. for no
reason whatever, in boastful
moment, he reveals this secret of a
lifetime (and he is past 60) to
tlr!ka, who makes prompt use Of her
knowledge. With equal ease, the
crafty Clrika. in few weeks time
rndermines the wifely duty Of Frau
Christine Mylius, the product of
hereditary tradition, training and d
quarter Of a century of practice. Then
the masterful Ulrika overturns all
the MyliuS menage; gives up the old
house and rents a palace" engages
expensive servants, establishes
SunptuouS cuisine, marrieS off the
daughters with handsome doWries-
and Father Mylius, the miser, stands
by enashing his teeth, but pays the
bills. And Jacob Wassermann does
not even pretend that Mylius is in
love with Ulrika; in fact, he often
explains that Mylius hated and feared
her. Why he feared her and why he
did not turn her out of his house is
not explained nor can the reader find
any explanation.
\ X
For readers who desire to know
something of modern continental nc
tion and yet do not read the Ian
guageS a number of recent transld-
tions. will be helpful. Among the
French books are Henry Bordeauxs
Bourgeois The GaoI." Marcel Pre-
vost's The Don Juanes," Roland
Dorgeles' Saint MagIoire," Andre
Maurois' Ariel" a novel based on
the life of Shelley, and two novels,
respectively, Of eastern Jewish and
French colonial African life, by the
brothers Jean and Jerome 1'haraud,
The Shadow of the Cross and The
Long Walk of Samba Diouf.' All the
Scandinavian countries have produced
new fiction of merit. From Denmark
comes The Philosophers Stone" by
J. Auker Larsen, and "Christopher
Columbus" by Johannes V. Jensen:
from Norway, THE Prisoner Who
Sang" by Johan Bojer. and children
of the Age" by knut Hamsun; from
Sweden, Gods orchid" by Hjalmar
Bergman. a German family epic,
written some years ago, but recently
translated for the first time. is
Thomas Manns "Buddenbrooks." Jury
Libedinskys "A Week." is one of the
most notable pieces of fiction pro-
duced by Soviet Russia. The trans
lation- from the Italian of Papini's
novel, The Failure" written before
The Life of Christ" has done much
to explain the latter book. Two in
teresting Spanish novels are Mari
flor" and The Red Beacon" by
Concha Espina.
Victorian poetry, seen through the
eyes of a modern-but an apprecla-
-; a1ar
presented in the volume victorian
Poetry" contributed by John Drink
water to the Modern Readers Book
shelf Series. Mr.. Drinkwater Ven
lures to admire Tennyson. unpopular
as that attitude is today, and sees his
influence on other poets such as Kos
setti, Morris, Swinburne and even
Browning. In Matthew Arnold he
finds "a more rewarding poet, with
less waste tissue in his work and, as
time goes on, richer in undiscovered
country than either Tennyson or
Browning" Mr.. Drinkwater has di-
vided his book into two parts: The
Manner of Victorian Poetry" and The
Material of Victorian Poetry"
* x x
The essay in it's perfection, COM
bining refectiveneSS, humor. orlSinal
point of view and cultivation OF
style-such an essay, as Montiagne,
Charles Lamb or Walter Savage Lam
dor could write-is rare thing to-
dav. Among the few real essay
writers now practicing their art our
country has several who need fear
no comparison with the best of the
past or present. Agnes Repplier Is
one of these. She has never courted
popularity through fiction or the
drama, but has limited herself to
the essay. In this field she has a
small but devoted circle of readers
who always look for her essays in
the magazines which habitually pub
lish them, and buy her volumes when
they appear. The last volume of
Miss Repplier's essays is called
Under Dispute and includes
dozen titles AS the volume title
indicates, the essays are all on sub
jects concerning which there is dIf-
ference of opinion, even controversy.
She discusses, with humor and satire.
the preacher at large, the masterful
Puritan, the divineneSs of discomfort,
the battlefield of education. allies.
when America laughs. the happiness
idolatrous dog.
X X X
To the growing literature of mental
hygiene, composed of good, bad and
Indifferent books, that are either
erotic (mostly Freudfan), neurotic,
or simply tommyrotic. has recently
been added a sane, helpful book, THE
Mastery of Fear" by DR.. William s.
Walsh. The author holds that 1T
is only theorists and others who
have little or no clinical knowledge
of abnormal fear. who offer as
panaceas, platitudes, dayby-day and
similar formulas, and so on. Such
methods may be of limited utility
in mild and transient fears, but they
do person who has a well estab-