Evening star., 1924-08-31
ONE OF THE GUILTY. BY w. l..
George. author of Ursula Trent"
etc. New York: Harper & Bros.

Slonal seeming excursion
out into other fields of fic-
ION. He may, as he has done in this
case. set out to tell n story whose
surface drift heads quite away from
this. mans immemoriaI trouble max
er. One discovers in Eo time at all,
however. that the originating under
current. the regulating and directing
force. is none other than the single
one from which the whole of this
writer's inspiration springs. "One Of
the Guilty" is the story of owen
Prendergast from boy to man. On
its surface il is the realistic account
of a boy who goes wrong, first by
paSsionately desiring things that he
cannot afford, then by seeing ways Of
meeting this desire through the easy
way of lingering the Office cash till.
The whole career. in effect a whole
career OF crime. is effected by way
of these initial desires and magin-
ingS, turned into deeds. The boys
first theft was committed to buy
present for the pretty and innocent
daughter of his employer. Gifts fol-
low homage. in love as we'll in re-
ligion. With Rosemary as the goal of
all his ambition. with honest work as
far too long and rocky a road for his
racing desires to follow, young Prem
dersaSt becomes a thief of ever-in-
creasinS skin and eyer-enlarging
sums. But Il is Rosemary who. un-
consciously. but none the less certain
1y. makes the boys course a crooked
one. down hill and steep. 1t is Rose
mary who, unWittingly, paints all the
shadows so black and deep. Looking
around him. young Owen sees the de-
nandS OF Women-nOt of Rosemary,
not of any one in particular. But
surely 1t is true that the man must
come bearing gifts. II is this spirit
that The boy. under the special in
spiratlon of the author himself. ac-
cepts and uses as his directing genius
in the adventure of young love. An
interchangeable realism projects this
story of the downward course of a
young American under the tempta
ti0ns Of modern life and the ease with
which one is invited into crime. The
prime temptation, the fundamental
cause Of this degeneration, is. how
ever, the concept OF woman as the boy
of today has come to accept her
SO BIG. BY Edna Fcrber author of
$1,000 a Year" etc. New York:
Doubleday. Page e Co.
likable fellow. so Big" other
wise Dirk De Jong. Good looks good
clothes, good manners. kind heart,
and an amazing way with his eyes.
ANY one would like him. Everybody
did. When. though. il comes to feel
lnCs of admiration and homage these
do not 20 To- so Big" To Selma. his
mother. instead. Selma held "a vision
ANA fought for it. till ii became
fact. so Eig" did not have a vision
either of his own or one borrowed
from his mother. That was not his
fault. 1t is only fair to the boy to
say this. His fathers part IN him
WAS the qUIrSrcnt strain, Il heavy
Dutch strain. that does not grow
wings. Along these two lines of tenn
permanent Edna Ferber develops the
story of so Big" On the one hand,
the radiant battling Selma. ON the
other. the kindly fellow of ready
Weddings toward material success.
And Dirk De Jone had what people
commonly call suCceSS-Some money,
some standing, some influence.
Whereas selma led what in ordinary
speech is called dogs life" And
certainly il Was filled with work of
the grinding Narlety-turning a patch
of clay lift her by PervuS De Jong.
her husband. into 4 fruitful garden.
= ina made a nigh creative act of this
"lerYday business of truck farming.
'Thr story begins only little before
the pretty school teacher in the Dutch
settlement Of High Prairie. on the
outskirts Of chicago. became the
bride al PcrNuS De JonC. 1t follows
W liD tue hiltt ana bpN Nnppu tl 80
Big" through the death of Pervus,
and through the heroic work of Sc
lima. SO Big was to be an drchi-
tect. 50 Selma said. He was to ere
ate beautiful buildings in harmony
with the big spirit OF his great coun-
try. Eut so Big" found one Of the
easy ways of success where no
dreams We're needed And Selma took
on her first hitter disappointment. An
y1t,El ia III this
woman and 50 one follows Selma in
JOY ana stimulation along her uphill
way. TIL" Dutch settlement. the one
woman. the one boy. each N its own
characteristics comes out here to
make n plctur" Of Hf" that iS as real
rs il is beautiful in its complete sin
rertty and in it, HAWKES. consistency.
THE TAKING OF HELEN: Aud Other
Presc Selections. Ey John Mase
field. author of The Everlasting
Mercy" etc. New York: The Mac
milan Company
That devastating woman-Eve
Helen, Cleopatra. the whole brood of
world wreckers-who transformed
Eden into a workadaY field, or set
the fires of war ablaze. or turned war
rorS into lovers, or tossed Kingdoms
about as a child its toys. that sur
passing she continues to he as she has
ever been. the source of mans chief
inspiration and delight. Through the
many glamOurS of their own far
away times. these shine out again in
song and story with undiminshed
appeal. And among them all the story
of Helen of Troy stands in peculiar
power of perennial freshness. John
Masetield here reViNeS the undying
story again-just the same old story.
He projects it, however. in a blend
of modern significance and archaic
circumstance. one loses no one of the
old navors of classic simplicity while
he at the same time gains the sense
Of CompanionShip. of going along with
the tremendous business of overturn-
ing the world. Just "A romantic love
story Of ancient days. POLITICALLY
brought over into the present and set
before US without any loss to even the
least of its elusive and delicate beau
ties.
THE COMMANDMENT OF MOSES.
BY stephen MCkenna. author of
"Nindication." etc. Boston: Little,
Brown & Co.
IF Moses could have looked ahead
he might have saved his breath on
nine of the pronouncements of the
pecalogue. In that case. he would
certainly have made the seventh one
first, calling the job finished with this
single verbotcn. Looking into the
future, too. he would have seen that
the solution of the endless problem
set by that one SHALT not" would fall
exclusively upon the female of the
human order. This is the problem
that stephen Mckenna here imposes
upon Joan. Her handling of it makes
,lp the substance of this novel. There
IN O world