Evening star., 1927-11-01
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
I. &. N.

CELIBATE LIVES. George Moore.
Boni & Liveright.
George Moore writes. not for the
public, but for men and women OF
letters instead. At any rate. this Is
what he says. shade wearily one
fancies that so patent a purpose
should stand in need Of definition
Yet popular editions Of Moore have
for some time now been coming freely
out into the open to the delight OF
an appreciab BILE part of that negligible
commonalty, the public. And. after
all, George Moore is made for the
commons to meet and enjoy. Simple
and candid. much as children are,
he absorbs himself in facts and ap
pearances. that lie at the root OF
human life and behavior. Like a
child in garden, he walks among
his observations of men. free from
inhibitions as children are. free from
any sense Of the proper and the
improper-plucking tasting, holding
or letting go as the mood or need
of the moment decides. This is the
garden of life in which no growth is
inconsiderable And as he walks he
talks-talks to himself--or so il
seems-uninterrupte back and
forth and round about. And as one
listens he knows himself to be In
the company of experience and In
sight both Of which are free and un
afraid. And the way of a man talk
ing Is a charm. just his own way
Some one has called George Moore the
greatest living stylist. l don't know
what that means unless being 10C
per cent ones self constitutes style
Nobody else writes like this man
hardly any one else approaches him
in personal attraction as an author
Here is "Celibate Lives'-no, not
what you are thinking about, not al
all. Five short stories-each a long
story-every one having to do with
complete Illustration, with essential
unfulf1llment. For instance. the first
one. "Wilfrid Holmes"-there are
millions OF him-is a youth with GER
tain gifts but with no stability of
mind. Each talent beckons and to
each he responds for a while. Ficlle
wavering and beset, he passes from
one lure to another till time has
beaten him out of any stable pursuit
spirit. is lone Of those weak, timid,
harmless souls, come out of the
mould that Nature reserves for some
great purpose known only to herself
--mayhap the preservation of pity
and passion in the world" And
so with the other stories OF this
volume--all embodying living forms
Of Illustration and futility. men and
women walking the common levels
of existence in common defeat by
forces both within and without them.
selves. Projected in the atmosphere
of sincerity which is the literary
breath of life to George Moore, "Celi-
bate Lives' comes to readers as an
exhilaration that not many writers
can hope to provide them.
81 y
MONDAY TALES. Alphonse Daudet.
Little, Brown & Co.
Half hundred Of the famous Dau-
det short stories, Monday Tales,
crowd into this single volume without
any effect of crowding whatever, since
each is so compact of substance as to
ask no more for standing room than
the thickness of three pages or there.
about. The captivation of this volume
lies in large part in the economy of
mea MS that compasses so much of life
in so little of space. One is tempted
now and then to stop the story in ad.
miration of the method. A few sen.
tences. Il short paragraph at most, and
there before one is man or woman
or child, more real than reality. for
the reason that, as a rule, human
reality is not so very compelling,
whereas here critical instants or mo-
mentous seconds step forward embod.
led and vital in some gesture or some
deed OF arresting quality. History.
fancy, caprice. recollectionS make the
substance Of these amazing inventions.
with all Of them equally real in their
effect upon the mind of the reader
Many of these tales go back to the bit.
ter days of the German victory over
France in 1870. The first one has to do
with that sad day at school when the
old master was leaving the children
because word had come from Berlin
that henceforth in the schools Of AL
SAGE and Lorraine all instructions
should be given in the German tongue.
And your new master will arrive to-
morrow" Just a moment. just few
words of story. but one of the bitter
and significant points Of the war of
1870 stands clear cut as flashing dia.
mOnd in the hands of this master Of
French fiction. From war and it's
anguish these stories move on, here
to personal experiences of little red
partridge in a time of great danger,
there to the unhappy fate Of a little
Creole girl moved up into the cold
North away from the warm and gold.
en- sunlight of her home in the South
SO many subjects crowd here in a
single volume. each in effect a flawicss
jewel cut from the unwieldy bulk Of
common speech. that normal joy in
these tales is now and then dimmed
in amazement over the sheer artistry
OF their construction. What :udv
these would make for--but, no, that
is poor suggestion. fit only for
prompt suppression! Rather what de-
light meets readers. shut out from the
native speech in which Monday
Tales" We're written, in a translation
that has held fast to the spirit and to
the medium of their transmission into
another tongue.
STEEL AND JADE. Achmed Abdul.
lah. George II. Doran Co.
Native to a life as remote from
Americans as it is bound to be inter-
esting to them. Achmed Abdullah pos
sesses, or has acquired. a way of tale
telling that fits exactly into the story
pattern of the American mind. just
enough Of restraint and Withholding
where there is clear urge toward
exuberance in every direction. coupled
with a quite modern, and Western,
philosophy of outlook on the part Of
the narrator. these two elements seem
to work in admira BILE harmony toward
the sumptuous effect. and the believ-
able effect. of the stories of "Stecl
and Jade" That Achmed Abdullah is
grounded in the life that these tales
project seems obvious. There is a
detail of every aspect of this Oriental
existence that produces a gorgeous
ensemble: familiarity with the ira
dition OF race and place that roots
each event in past that is we'll
H. IL