Evening star., 1925-04-19

of discursive wanderings into this
exciting field of struggle. The au-
thor has here successfully resisted
such temptation. 1t is the straight
line simplicity of this study of San
Martin that gives to it its best value
and its highest service.
STACEY. BY Alexander Black. author
of THE Great Desire" etc. In
dianapolis: The Bobbs Merrill
Company.
THE Stacey of Alexander Blacks
new novel is too human, too fluid,
to stand as a type. Yet, despite this
lack of exact accommodation to rule,
Stacey does stand for an enormous
number of the young men of the
moment. These are the army of op-
timistic, buoyant fellows who, with
neither native aptitude nor special
training, step out into the highly or
ganiZed and complex present hopeful
and expectant. It's a pathetic busi-
ness, that of these unequipped young
sters trying to make headway in
world so highly organized and equipped
as is the one Of today AS one fol-
lows this particular Stacey, chasing
one rainbow opportunity after an
other. he is at the same time follow
ing dozens like him picked out from
1HioilS MS own dcQualntanceS.
The whole haphazard business of
life, its accidental and incidental char
acter, comes out here strikingly in the
career of one young man. Not alone
In the way of trying to make a living
does Stacey demonstrate his unreadi-
ness, but in all the other common
relations of everyday existence does
he emphasize his lack of prepared
ness. In matters of the heart no one
expects youth to be anything but
stone blind, and Stacey quite lives up
TO the rule in this respect. So futile
business projects and futile love af-
fairs chase one another around here
in realism that takes Stacey COM
pletely outside the covers of a book
and identifies him with the youth
full street mob of which he is so
clearly a part. A true story in
it's projection of the fact that the
human is very helpless in the tide
OF circumstance around him. True
also in the implication that little
Is being done to help the human
In his dilemma. AS to writing, no
body else is doing 1t just as Alex
ander Black is. A pure economist
Each word has a real job and does
it. No padding, no fine writing for
filling-only a boy in his imme-
in words that set off high aims
against futile achievement. Real life,
this novel, lifted out Of a literal Grub
Street by the buoyant beliefs and
hopes of youth.
THE CHASTE DIANA. BY E. Bar
rington, author of 1.-The Divine
Lady, etc. New York: Dodd,
Mead & Co.
A STREAK of luck for lovers of
fiction is that along with the
ma Jority of novelists straining nova
days to set down matters exactly as
they are there are, nevertheless, a
few who, unashamed, stand out for
pure romance. These, in so far as
they are able, piously live up to this
declaration. Pure romance thrives
best, oddly enough, in the past 1t
needs the fair perspective, obvi-
ously, to melt love into the features of
truth. 1t is, therefore, through the
convincing vista of a couple of CEN
turtles or thereabout that we here
look in upon the English stage when
the "Beggar's Opera" was the vogue
and pretty Polly Peachum was capti-
waiting all hearts and yielding to
none; that is. to one alone. Around
the lady historic men and women
gather; around the theater historic
actors come and go. King George
and Queen Caroline appear on stately
occasions. Lord This and Her grace
That make ceremonial festivities
around the lovely actress, Lavinia
Fenton, the "Chaste Diana" of that
day. A new edition of the novel, in
brand-neW dress, says something
of the taste of readers for romantic
tales of love and its fulfllment
THE WIFE-SHIP WOMAN. BY Hugh
Pendexter, author of PAY Gravel. :"
etc. Indianapolis: The Bobbs- Mer-
rill Company.
EARLY American history gives
background to this romance. Along
the Atlantic coast were the English,
creating settlements and homes from
their sturdy immigrant stock. All
down the Mississippi were the French,
establishing forts to link up Canada
and the Gulf. Within this wide COM
petitive scheme the settlement of
Louisiana provides the immediate
stage for the romance itself. A
threat of Indian raid. a friendly act
by one of the hated English, the ar
rival of the wife-ship, planned for
consolation and contentment to the
unhappy settlers; the action of the
governor of the colony under these
perplexities-these are the means by
way of which develops through many
danger peculiar to that time and
that place the old romance of the
man and the woman. A sober story,
plainly told, to accord with the sim
pie people and the rude life that in
folds the heart of the matter. The
feeling of the period and of the place
and of the immediate project pene-
trates the action itself. giving one a
very satisfying picture of what might
easily have taken place just as this
author has represented it to have
done.
THE LOVE OF MONSIEUR. BY
George Gibbs, author of 1.-The
House of Mohun," etc. New York:
d. Appleton & Co.
THAT was a gay time in England
that time of Charles the Second
And in the person of this Monsieur
Mornay are concentrated the gayety
and the folly and the license of the
laughing monarch's reign. A gor-
geous figure, Mornay-laces and silken
hose and bright garters and buckled
shoon, garments as ample and shin
ing as those of any lady of the land.
But Mornay was no seventeenth CEN
tury f1apper. A reckless adventurer
instead, whose blade was a sudden
and slithering thing quite fearful to
encounter; man of parts, captain
of a privateer as well as fine gentle
man of the kings court. And from
first to last he is the busiest of men,
whether the great emprise at hand
be the winning of a lady's heart or
freebooting on the Spanish Main. A
really f1rst-rate story OF its kind; not
one thrown together out of odds and
ends of forgotten history; rather one
built with way-wise hand out of q