Evening star., 1926-06-01
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
HELOISE AND ABELARD. George
Moore. Boni & Liveright.
/. G.. M.

Moore. Boni & Liveright.
James Huneker, looking backward.
| calls it 1.-The pathos Of distance that
| charm of mingled beauty and sadness
| which a long past casts over every
| present. And in no other domain is
| the spell of time more potent than
| in that of love-the love of men for
/, women, of women for men. 1t is as
| if the pallid and f1eeting wrath Of
| love manifest around and about, eva
| nescent as hurrying shadows under a
, cloud.clOtted sky needs the long rays
out of great distances, violet and pur.
| pie rays, to redeem it's squandered
! heritage. Love. immediate and near,
lacks the shining grace of that old
divine passion" of the poets. Be-
| trayed by a thousand errancies Of
| unfa1th, bedraggled by countless usu.
| rious bargainings and exactions, the
| love at hand must needs turn. now
ana then, to the great lovers Of the
| past. deep in the glamourous fra
grancies of time, for a refreshment
OF Ns vision. for a repeopling of it's
| dreams.
So, out from Avignon does one.
time and again. betake his way to
the shrine Of Vaucluse. there to re-
memDer Petrarch and Laura. the
abiding flame of whose passion has
warmed 500 years of waning personal
directions. Or. further back. to old
Paris. where 900 years ago Heloise
and Abelard taught men and women
TO love through all behooving and
uhpehooVlng, lesson reconned
tnrough the Intervening millennium
or lnnumerable broken faiths.
ANA here, by way of George Moore
the old story of Heloise and Abelard
comes into current life again. the
oe"y freshness of the morning upon
II, tne ieaplng ardOr of eternal youth
"ltnlh It, France, under the Capets.
~ JUST rising into a nation out of
.ne ,lRhtlng feudal states that hither-
10 nave constituted the Fra nkish
empire" Paris, the center of tba
Young kingdom then. as it is the cen.
Ter or the great nation now.
oucn. roughly, Is the material ont
VI when with words more plastic than
wet clay this artist rebuilds old Paris
ana sets alive within it the men and
women at whose center of poignant
concern are the moving figures Of
Heloise and Abelard
The most inspired realists Of the
present. each digging with infinite
care in his chosen garden spot of
human needs and behaviors. each re.
cofdlng straight from eye to hand
.hdt hothing of essential truth
he lost-not one Of these operatinp in
the immediate field around him has
presented a more vivid, a more tan
gible, fmmediacy of impression than
George Moore has achieved out of
thls one-thousand-Hear distance from
MS subject. One marvelS at the man
recreating this long-gone past and
moving II forward to the forefront of
current interest.
Critics call George Moore the great
stylist-whatever this may mean. If
he be such, then it would appear that
tne term connOtes the man possessed
OF no generally regularized and ac-
cepted style of literary invention.
mere is here but rare individual
lucidity In the ways OF speech. There
is here but an infinite patience that
brings to the highway of this central
and conclusive movement innumer-
able little paths and trails and lanes
each contributing to the vivid life of
the whole, to its naturalness. to it's
charm. Here, besides. is a complete
seizure Of relative values To the
front are the great lovers Near them
make up the learned and disputatious
coterie of philosophers whose support,
or overthrow. makes up the existence
OF the famous medieval scholar. And
through haze of time old Paris rears
itself in the true features of that day.
This the Paris into whose streets
wolves from the forests of Orleans
were sometimes driven by hunger
The Paris, nevertheless. Of the great
cathedral
1t Is not only the hand of the artist
that is at work here setting the mas
terly composition out in it's revealing
relationships. The mind of the
scholar is here as well, familiar with
the Latin and the Greek. with poets
and philosophers and dialecticians,
carrying on gravely and knowingly
through the SubtletieS Of analysis and
the delicate points of logic. And equal
to all this-indeed, source of all this
Is the Irishman whose Celtic imagi-
nation has been vigorously suhdued to
creative service that stin holds
beauty dear possession.
The whole is cast in a speech so
simple, in a feeling so sincere. in an
intimacy so warming that. under such
lmpulsion. the great story grows to
its tragic fulfillment in a singleness
of effect that is classic and beautiful
and surely enduring. One reads 1t
at a leisurely tempo so that none of
1t may be missed, so that all of it
may filter into ones deepest apprecia-
tion and satisfaction. And having
read it, always thereafter will the
names OF Heloise and Abelard evoke. |
not a bit of the dead and forgotten
past, but rather the high living spirit |
that serves to inspire the present. |
Having read it, never again will one
give careless tribute to this twain w.
ing in the cemetery of Pere Ia Chaise.
but rather will he pay deep homage |
to the gallantry and daring, to the |
good faith and enduring of this i'm |
perishable pair Of great lovers and |
great souls, Heloise and Abelard.
THE OLD FRANCISCAN MISSIONS
OF CALIFORNIA. George Whar. |
ton James. Little, Brown & Co.
The old Franciscan missions Of the !
West and Southwest are but frag-
ments Of a great historic adventure
left upon the shores of a new and |
urgent day. They are the driftwood
of an old order around which have
risen the tides Of young and diff
ferent civilization. A pictured rem
iniscence, these, Of discoverer and ex.
plorer and ruler, followed promptly,
after the fashion Of the Christian
world, by priest and missionary.
Under the practiced and interesting
leadership of Mr. James, one is per.
mitted to travel from one to another
Of these missions, reviving the history
Of their origin and service, rebuilding
around them the life to whose bene-
faction they were consecrated. 1T is
Of incalculable benefit to the race
Mr.. James talking-"that the mission
fathers lived and had their fling of
divine audacity for the good of the
helpless aborigines. With all their