Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-01-22
THE LIBRARY TABLE
By the BookLOuer.

nave been the scene OF many III the
adventures of the Arthurian romances.
Tristram, the lover of the two lseults,
is often called Tristram of Lyonesse.
II was in Lyonesse that the final con
fiict between King Arthur and his
treacherous nephew Mordred took
place, and there "the last great battle
of the West" was fought, in which
Arthur met his death. According TO
legend, Lyonesse suddenly disappeared
beneath the sea. Perhaps some or the
many Jagged black rocks off the
Cornish coast are the high points of
Lyonesse, not quite submerged
Lyonesse has been brought back to
reality in a charming romance by
Compton Mackenzie, entitled FAIRY
Gold" 1t is called the County Pala-
tine of Lyonesse, and during the
World War became the scene OF
military and naval fiasco in connection
with the defense of the southwest
English coast. Most of the story takes
place on two islands off the main
land, Room and Carrackoon, which
may easily be identified with the Sicily
Isles. If one does not demand too great
accuracy of detail and remembers the
requirements of romance. The Ar
thurian land Of Lyonesse stretched
from Sicily Isles to the present main
land
"A land Of old upheaven from the
abyss
BY fire, to sink into the abyss again"
The real Scilly Isles annually supply
hundreds of thousands Of narcissuses
to Covent Garden. And after the war
Vivien Romare, daughter of the lord
nf hp oc,ir fGT1 rYfn
man she loves--not the sutton who
has money--and she and her husband
raise flowers for the market, to help
them keep the islands from falling into
the hands Of the creditors of the old
Knight of Room. The island setting of
Fairy Gold" is fragrant with the odor
of flowers-daffodils, bluebells, fox
gloves. sweet william, peoples, roses
and lilies. WOodbine and bitterSWeet
and ivy Irvine about the trees and
climb the hedges. There is a wide
stretch of heath, covered with heather,
gorse and bracken. There is an
aromatic pine wood where all vege-
tation is stif1ed by fallen pine-needles
80 that the surface of the ground
was of uniform brown except where
here and there the granite nosed up
through the drift or scarlet toadstool
lanes and shadOwy avenues of trees
and great undulating fields that
dipped toward. the sea. on either side.
There are turf-covered cliffs dropping
sharply to the sea and pebbly beaches
in sheltered coves. There are oozy,
dripping caves, reached either from
above by descending subterranean
passages whose entrances are con
ceaIed by ferns and brambles, or from
below by boat through black mouths
level with the high tide. In short, the
islands of Room and Carrackoon are a
complete fairy land. 1t is no wonder
that Venetia ROmare, child of the
islands, should say solemnly to her
new friend, and believe what she says:
You mustn't joke about fairies
I've seen them on Roon--often and
often. So I know"
"The Worlds Best Short Stories of
1926" contains 16 tales selected by the
editors of some leading American
magazines. The title seems somewhat
dogmatic and it's validity might easily
be questioned by any one inclined to
be argumentative. Almost any reader
will probably think of stories of the
year not included in this collection
which he considers better than any so
included. The stories represent, of
course, the tastes and prejudices of
the selecting editors. Some of them
are sweetly sentimental, some are
thrillingly mysterious. Few seem
subtle, few distinguished. The au
thors represented are: Booth Tark-
ington, Peter B. Kyne, Wilbur Daniel
Steele, Achmed Abdullah, Mary Ray
mond Shipman Andrews, Maxwell
Struthers Burt, Lois Montross, F,
Tennyson Jesse, w. G. Tuttle. F.
Scott Fitzgerald Charles Saxby, Edgar
Wallace, Benjamin Richard Sher,
Richard Connell, Raymond S. Spears
and Honore Willsie Morrow.
What Mary Wilkins Freeman has
done in the short story is one of the
things which Amy Lowell did in
verse-perfect, small pictures of &C.
centric New England characters living
an abnormal, repressed life. In one
of the posthumous volumes of Amy
Lowell's verse, East Wind" is a Sc
ries of such pictures. Two old-maid
sisters, one an invalid, live alone in
small town in the old house left them
by their sea-captain father, and in
winged chair by the invalid's bed al
ways sits a large wax doll with staring
blue glass eyes; when the invalid dies,
the remaining sister moves the dolls
chair to the window because ''it was so
dull for her after Jane died" A bent
old man owns the finest house on the
Main street of the village, but has
kept it shut up ever since his young
manhood when he failed to marry as
he planned; he keeps the outside of
Ill tod he
yard "redded up" but allows the in
side to fall into decay. A neighbor
comes in unexpectedly and finds an
old maid about to drink a cup of wood
alcohol because she is 80 tired O
seem tn path to tn barn." and when
she goes up to make her fathers bed
she gets seasick, "thinkin' I'll have to
see that old check spread agtn." A
wife dies Of consumption, resisting
death to the last, and screaming I'll
find some way O. Twin. Even eff they
bury me, I'll live" Soon after her
death her husband begins to sicken
with the same disease and soon dies.
Then the neighbors, fearing witch
craft, open the wife's grave and burn
her heart, which they find fresh as
Twin PERSONS" A middle aged
woman who has from her childhood
secretly hated another woman finds
relief from her suppressed hatred by
kicking her enemy's grave. A tomb |
stone accidently cut with the name
Joseph instead of James is kept by
the thrifty family underneath the
stairs, awaiting the death of the other !
son Joseph, who runs away from it |
and is drowned at sea; thereafter, be-
cause of the waiting tombstone, no
other boy in the family is named !
Joseph. In some of the pictures eccen- |
tricity becomes insanity, as in 1.-THE |
Note Book in the Challenged Table" |
1.-THE Rosebud Wallpaper" and And !
Pity IT'S, TITS True"