Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-02-01
Reviews of New Books
MvuHoEY DARE,s PROGRESS. BY
Archibald Marshall, author of 1.-THE
Squire's Daughter etc. New
Yorki Dodd, Mead & Co.


a NEW stage, this in the pill
~ grimage of Anthony Dare,
"A whom you have already had q
u chance to meet during an
earlier phase of his career
Here Dare. through many experiments
and indecisions, energies as an author
Of, as yet, no very great distinction.
Since, however, the real game of
being alive in an altogether live
world lies in the effort and not In
the fact accomplished, this story ad-
vances in sound parallelism with
the truth of individual adventure in
the world itself Many things be-
Sides work and future engage
youth. There is love. There are
friends. There are social meetings
There are thousand and one way
side interests that more often than
otherwise in these particular years
obscure the real roadway of advance.
So it is here. First there is the early
romance-that familiar case of first
love with the woman of more years
and more of the arts of invitation.
A diverting thing. Again, romance.
K Spontaneous meeting between two
young things, but quite out of order.
For the girl is of quality to COM
mand more in the marriage market
than the uncertain rewards of
literary spouse. It's after these
mischances of the heart that the
yourg author betakeS himself into
situation where more work and less
play test the quality of his nature.
An uneyentful story from the stand
point of adventure as we commonly
interpret and accept adventure. Yet
there is, after all, no event surprising
in Importance and real interest that
of the passage of human being
through the average days and years
that go into his making. And in
record of such momentous passage
Mr. Marshall is a true artist-under-
standing, sympathetic. deeply con-
sclous of the vital import of small
and great alike in the fashioning of
character and personality. The COM
potency of his art comes out satls-
fyingly in this story of young
Englishman set down in an English
soil and atmosphere where he takes
a hand at life in complete consonance
with his own inherent human quail
ties. Not a story for everybody, but
a notable book for certain readers.
ISLES or THE BLEsT. BY Wilbur
Daniel Steele, author of Storm"
etc. New York: Harper & Bro.
An old story. Robert Ling had run
away with another mans wife. To
complete the bliss OF this situation the
two had fed to one of those isles of
the Blest" found almost anywhere be-
yond the reach of civilization In this
case an island in the Caribbean. A year
Of each other. and nothing else, had gone
by when the story opens. Each is at
the end of the rope. BY a miracle, two
ships on a single day come into that
commonly ignored harborage. One
headed north, toward home. The other
toward still more remote islands of
blessedness. The urge is too strong.
They are going back home. So Ling
goes through the crude marriage cere-
mopy pertaining to the island in order
to let the girl go back IAN honest
woman" Then in an elaborate gesture
toward taking the home bound boat he,
sending the girl ahead on some pretext.
boards the south bound ship. He's
through. He's had enough. He can't
stand any more. Thinking these things
on deck that night as he moves out into
a further unknown, he realizes that
there is some one elsa woman, APP
parently engaged about as he is-look-
ing off into space, thinking in complete
absorption. In a minute he is looking
into the face of the girl who, in a
painstaking of preparation equal to his
own, is also running away--from him,
and home, and the deadliness OF that
adventure in the isolation Of just love.
The rest of the story, clever and anus
ing, with threads of solid fact and true
philosophy running through it, might be
called, II one were in poetic mood,
Sowing the wind and reaping the
whirlwind." In more prosaic statement
it consists merely in making poor
best out of an altogether bad business.
SAINT MARTINS SUMNER. BY Ra-
fael Sabatini, author of 'Scara-
mouche" etc Boston: Hough-
ton, Mif1in Company.
To go along with Saba:ini in an
other one of his enthralling forays
into the past you must needs betake
yourself into the France of some
thing like three hundred years ago.
Then, if you recall. Marie de Medicis,
1.-The heavy and lethargic Italian lady"
was queen regent while Louis XIII
was ripening to the kingship. 1t was
in this time that away in the prov
ince of Dauphiny d beautiful young
woman was held in duress by the ar
rogant Marquis de Condillac. whose
design against the lovely prisoner
was to confer both hand and for
tune upon her own son. Meantime
the heart of the girl had passed out
of her own disposal This situation
regent, the royal lady at once dis
patched NJ. de Garnache to the res
cue. That is the situation. If you
know Sabatini and everybody
knows Sabatini these days-you an
ticipate just the dash of adventure,
the swing of romance, the glamour Of
chivalry, the ultimate triumph and
the final reward that follow in swift
succession upon the beginning Of this
- in, Il OF
story, whose delightful blend of drama
and melodrama begins on the first
page and races in undated ardor
throughout the entire adventure. A
daring reckless gallant one man,
against many, brings on deluge OF
achievement here through which you
will push your way bent on missing
no single part OF 1t.
TOMORROW AND TOMORROW. BY
Stephen McKenna, author of
Sonia" etc. Boston: Little, Brown
& Co.
To round a period OF social con-
fusion and political ineptitude to the
dramatic content and point Of sin
gle novel is the heroic task set for
himself by stephen McKenna in
Tomorrow and Tomorrow" Here,
however, the familiar group OF Nc
henna actorS-Sonla ana Lady Bar
bara Neave, David O'Rane and Eric
Lane-lend their accustomed waywise
competency to the business of reduc-
ing the sprawling and unordered sit
uation to the sizeable limits of a sin
gle drama. The matter opens with
the end of the war, on the high key
of producing a civilization for which
any man would be proud to die. From
this uplifted level it descends through
the confusions OF the eight succeed
ing years of futility to the low notes
of disbursement for the present
and fear for the future. IF the aim