Evening star., 1926-08-15

brother to the prince. And so they're
off. The story. only month long. is
a very busy affair. Old unsettled
| scores of Monte Carlo pursue the rich
Prince Charming with plots of re-
prisal and revenge. Titled ladies of
mysterious background seek to renew
| old alliances with him. On the other
| hand, Cinderella has In these short 80
days to establish herself as the love.
liest thing in this galaxy of beauty.
| Moreover, the rather feeble best
young man must be shaken and other
wise provided for. The mind of Prince
Charming must be stirred to the prize
that he unwittingly has discovered.
A busy month. But this novelist is
an old hand at plans and plots of
depth and variety. So in his usual
urbane fashion he sets within this
picturesque and famous spot really
engaging romance, delicate in It's out
lines. smooth and agreeable in its full
! fillment. quite deeply interesting in it's
outcome. Just another Oppenheim
/ novel-one rather uncommonly dis
tinctive of the genuine Oppenheim
| flavors.
about the princes short tenure of
life.
ODTAA. BY John Masefield, author
of "Sard Harker." etc. New York:
The Macmillan Company.
! NOVEL readers, as a rule. skip the
long introductions to which novel
writers are clearly devoted. If any
thing worthwhile is going on, the
, reader wants to get into it with as
preliminary scramble of words de-
signed to create the proper atmo-
sphere, or to give legitimate ancestry
to the tale itself. or otherwise to but.
tress and project it, is lost upon the
reader no matter what intellectual
and artistic satisfaction it may give
to the writer himself. John Masefield
begins "Odtaa" with too long a geog.
raphy lesson upon South America,
where the adventure itself is set. The
plodding reader may go through with
| it. If he does, he attacks the story
itself with lowered vitality, or he may
even give it up entirely. Once past
this school-teaching point, however
one finds q very stirring tale, wherein
| liberatorS and dictatorS are making
of the Southern continent a prime
field for daring adventurers drawn
from all quarters of the globe. At
this particular point the Whites and
| the Reds are in mortal combat for
supremacy. An Englishman, a young
est son, has come to the New World
! to seek his fortune. Almost at once he
finds himself within the terror zone
Of a South American revolution. The
abduction of a beautiful young woman
provides the spark that fires this
youth to the adventure of rescue and
punishment. 1t is easy to see that
here is a theme and situation for
the romantic imagination to seize
! ND fn nd nf nf IN
trigue and prodigies of personal valor.
| To this theme the poet-noveliSt gives
vivid handling. with contending forces
forming a picturesque background
| for the more personal action of the
rescue of beauty at the hands Of
youthful heroism. A romantic tale
! with the touch Of an older day upon
it-a day when chivalry wore brighter
colors than it displays today.
o GENTEEL LADY, BY Esther
Forbes. Boston: Houghton Miff1in
| A ROMANCE which goes to show
that people remain pretty much
! the same no matter how much the
fashion of their clothes may change
| This genteel lady of the hoopskirt
period billowed as coquettishly within
! the vast borders of her crinoline as
the flapper today wriggles her hips in
a skin-tight garment. This girl, too
| just like her sister of the bobbed
hair, asserted her independence and
boldly walked out into the world, way
up to Boston. there to live her life."
A very good time she had of it, too
just about such a time as girl of
her gifts and spirit would have today.
Handy with her writing hand, she
engaged the attention of men who
print things for ambitious young
women. She met no end of people
whom we would give our heads to see
just onCe-all the Boston intellectualS.
And then-lucky girl.-she went over
to Europe, where she really had some
attention from Tennyson, and George
Eliot, and the Brownings, and such
| like. Was she a bluestocking? Didn't
she have any lover? Yes, she had a
lover-a perfect rake of a man, who
treated her very badly. But, like a
woman and dog, ill-treatment didn't
count. SO she chased him around
! Europe, he all the time lodging and
running. Finally she gave it up, and
then found, standing right at hand,
the very man she should have been
seeing all the time. After all. moth
ing changes-history repeats itself in
the great AFFAIRS Oh nations. human
nature keeps steadfastly on being
foolish and beautiful in just the same
ways; hoopskirtS or skin tights make
no difference at all in the feelings and
desires and behaviors of the girl folks.
And men, too-but that is another
story. This is a clever first novel,
which, under the modes of another
day, presents the eternal feminine.
x x
THE UNKNOWN GODDESS. BY
Ruth Cross. author of The Golden
Cocoon" etc. New York: Harper
Bros.
IT used to be that when a man or
woman fell such misadventure
marked the end of that man. that
woman. Thereafter the lives of these
were dragged out in a misery which
good folks all around sought piouSly
TO deepen. In these later days there
are faint signs that seff-rescue may
be achieved in cases Of fall and fail
ure. These signs are often defined
and empha sized by the novelist. whose
prime business it is to reflect life and,
if may be. to inform life as well. The
novel in hand is the story of a young
girl who, under the urge of adde's
cence and the emotional ardors of re-
ligion. committed the deadly sin for
women. A small community. where
anybody'S business is everybodv'S
business, devoted itself to the persecu-
ton of this young and unknowing
CREATURE That ia tho hapinpiucr of