Evening star., 1926-10-17
REVIEWS OF AUTUMN BOOKS
The Newest Fiction and Some Tall Tales From the Kentucky
Mountains-AstronomyW Written of in Manner
Appealing Average Readers.

be that Of recoil from the babel of
tongues that runs out to meet him.
that gathers him In, that envelops
him and buries him under avalanches
and tidal waves of words? Clearly,
Rose Macaulay has speculated upon
the effect of such circumstance. For
getting, for the moment, the benefits
Of the acquired art of language. she
ponders instead upon it's powers of
mischief. confusion, insincerity. abuse
and general deterioration. She pic
lures in this connection a silent bar
barian suddenly pushed into this chat
terbox of a world, shut in there with
echoing and re-echoing cackle OF gen.
eral and uninterrupted vocality. Day
and night the babble goes on. with
no more than shreds of thought and
sense behind the eternal racket OF
talk And she sets this picture to
drama. London Is the stage. The
barbarian, English in blood, is brought
from the shut-in Pyrenean republic OF
Andorra. The purpose OF the busi-
ness Is to swing the fair outlander
into the current of sophisticate Lon
don social life. The effect of this
plan, not only upon the girl herself,
but upon the kindly relatives under
taking her case as well. provides oc-
casion for the exercise of Rose
Macauley's special gift of comedy
shaped in satiric comment upon the
claptrap of social procedure, upon Its
airs and 'make-believe." upon its
general futility of attitude and be-
havior. The shock to the young bar
barian by the strange place and out
look Is in q measure balanced by the
jar which she herself gives to her
London sponsors through her long
Gil iv1 or nf
chatter. through her disregard of
crippling rules. through her straight
course to the point other desire. In
a new element and not easy to make
over, the girl messes up her own life
q good deal and. besides. throws a
lot of grit into the creased social ma
chinery around her. This is a prime
situation for Rose Macaulay. From
1t she produces a comedy of clean
cut satire whose foundation is built
from certain facts of social life where
unbridled loquacity is in control for
the bewilderment of the few who are
trying to find out what Is really under
the tremendous noise. The title? A
casual matter, indicating that the
"Crewe Train" is the wrong one.
y X
THE MAD-SONG. BY Mabel Wag-
nails. author Of Opera and it's
Stars" etc. New York: Funk &
Wagnalls Co.
THE avowed purpose of this novel
l. is to create a more general in
terest in great music, to draw the
common public away from its pas
sion for the merely mediocre or plain
ly erratic aspects of this art. The
theme is, therefore. music in it's high
est manifestations. Realizing that
the story provides one of the best
means of reaching the general reader,
this author, rejecting analysis and
other formal modes of approaching
the subject, has created social
drama whose guiding force is great
music in it's immediate effects and in
f1uences. Naturally. the setting of
this romance is not America. Rather
it is Europe-Russia. Germany, Italy
France-musical Europe. expressing
itself through a group Of men and
women more or less absorbed in the
music that one or another of these
countries has produced, From these
are drawn the persons who embody
the general theme of this story and
who. besides. enact a tense drama
where love and sudden madness and
retribution culminate in the mad.
SOHS sung Dy q young ana Dedutuul
genius. While there is plenty Of
modern social activity carrying this
romance forward. it's general effect is
remote and somewhat exotic in ef-
feet. This not merely because the
entire action is of another country
than our own. but because it partakes
in spirit Of the elaborate griefs that
characterize opera, because 1t eX-
presses the anachronism-as q mode
of life-that every part of grand op-
era really Is. One is not able to read
story upon this theme, developed in
this way, as having anything to do
with daily existence. In spite of his
desire ii is bound to shade off into
an extravaganza that bars his appre-
citation of its intrinsic musical worth
and beauty. Philistines, the most of
us. Very likely.
Y x x *
THE COMEBACK. BY Joe Mills. II.
lustrated by Howard L. Hastings.
New York: J. II. Sears & Co.
WITH a dog for his best friend and
possessed of words in any degree
adequate to fit the case of that friend.
why man can't help writing a good
dog story. Here's a man of that sort
So here's good story-almost a good
one. The one black mark against 1t
comes from the fact that this writer