Evening star., 1924-05-17
The Library Table
BY THE BoOKLOVER

Papinis Life of Christ" will perhaps
be extended to another book by Pa
PM, recently published in translation
In this country, but written before the
Life OF Christ" This is called "The
Failure" or, in Italian. "Un Uomo
F1nito." 1t has been called 1.-The YES.
tibule to the Life of Christ" and Is
really the mental biography Of Papini
during his first thirty years-the BIZ
ography of a lonely, restless, morbid
man, or, as he himself says, "the SEN
timental and abusive misanthrope for
whom, God willing, so many people
have felt profound dislike"
4 x X
As child Papini was a most pa
thetic figure. He says: II was never
a child; never had a childhood" He
describes a photograph Of himself at
the age Of seven: "The washed -out
lace OF a dreamy child is turned to-
ward the left. because in that direc-
ton, as you feel. there happens to be
no one whose gaze he must endure.
In this bit of faded photograph
! nnd the dead soul of those early
gays OF mine; the sickly face OF a
born child. the seif-possessed dejec-
ton or an old man. / feel a grip at
my heart as think of all those
oreary days. of all those endless
years, OF that fettered. imprisoned
guish."
His discovery of the solace and Joy
OF books is one of the most pleasing
parts OF this rather depressing
biography. He came across a round
wicker basket in the attic contain
ing the whole family library, d hun
oreo books or more, and was given
by his father the freedom of this col
lection. Here he found with other
things Life Of Garibaldi" Plu-
and six volumes of VoItaire's apho-
fisms. The basket was exhausted in
4 lew years and then when he was
about twelve, he was told by an
older boy of a magnificent library in
the town, full of books which mi ght
be taken out by any one-''best Of all,
without spending a cent" Cnfor-
tely, Ito gain admission to those
paradises you had to be at least
sixteen years old" Papini went to
y
70 add three years to his age, de-
ciared that he was fifteen; but he
was turned away and had to wait a
whole year before he was allowed
to draw out his first book He de-
scribed his unsuccessful visit: "One
Trembling, fearful. my heart beating
violently, ] came to a long stone
stairway-how broad how immense
now imposing it seemed At the TOP
! hesitAted for two or three minutes
but finally mustered my courage and
entered the application room. I filled
out slip the way / thought it ought
to be. and handed it in. with the self
conscious and guilty air of a person
who knows he is doing wrong. The
CLERK can see him still. curses on
him a little man with a big
belly, a pair of squirting watery
blue eyes (like the eyes Of a dead
nsh). and deep shrewd wrinkles on
either side Of his mouth" This in
dividual looked the boy over. asked
his age and dismissed him with the
words: Not old enough. Sorry. Read
the rules. Come back in year"
:: x x
In view Of Papini's mystical and
orthodox Life of Christ" his repeat
ed assertions OF his disbelief in God
are interesting. After reading Car
duccis Hymn to Satan" he always
felt a greater love for the Rebellious
Angel under the earth than for the
majestic Old Fogey who dwelt in the
heavens. Later on I came to realize
how crude and unsound all that anti
owe the fact, be 1t good or bad, that
am man for whom God has never
existed. Born of a father who was
an atheist; baptized without his
Iyy lAlr -
in ignorance of church and catechism
l have never had so-called crisis Of
the soul night of Jouffroy,' dis
covery of the death of God For me
God never died, because He never
lived in my heart"
Instead of the league of nations. a
pan European league, from which
Great Britain and Russia are to be
excluded, is the remedy for the chaos
of Europe suggested by an Austrian
writer, Richard n. Coudenhove- Kali
ersi, in his book. Pan Europa" Ac-
cording to the argument set forth by
this author, the world should logi-
cally be divided into four groups of
nations. The basis for the division is
eIpediency and common interests.
The first group would be pan Amer
lea, the whole western hemisphere
with the exception of Canada. The
second group would be the British
empire, as at present constituted. The
third group would be the Russian
territories, in Europe and Asia. The
fourth group would be Eastern Asia
including China and Japan, which
should logically be united. The fifth
group, which is the main subject of
the book, would include Continental
Europe. except Russia, and the Afri-
can colonies of the continental ma
tions. DR.. Coudenhove-kslergi is
tions because it enables nations out
side Europe to dictate in purely Eu-
ropean affairs. He says: Europe
one hundred years after America,
Monroe doctrine; Europe for the Eu-
ropeans."
Certain novels are so large in sub
ject and treatment as to justify their
being called epic. Such were Goethe's
wilhelm Meister,' Tolstoi's War
and Peace" and most of Victor Hugo's
novels. In the twentieth century
there are Ibanez's -Four Horsemen
of the Apocalypse" and Mare
Nostrum," Roman Rolland's Jean
Christophe," knut Hamsun's Growth
of the Soil" Arnold Benefits "Old
wives Tale" and Galsworthy..s For
syte Saga A German novel OF the
same epic type, written some years
ago. has just been given to English
and American readers in translation
Thomas Mann's "Buddenbrooks 1t
is the chronicle Of four generations
of the Buddenbrook family. begin
ming with 1880. Johann Buddenbrook
is a prosperous and influential mer-
chant Bile OF Lubbock. Consul Bud