Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-08-28
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM

They we're talking together about the
English novel, Sir Edmund GosSe and
George Moore, in the armchair f1reSlde
, fashion so much beloved OF Moore.
From Fielding forward and backward
tlev moved at will, discovering here and
| there fresh relationships of purpose and
achievement in the field of English fic-
ton. In this way they found them
selves setting up new groups, each one
in bond to the literary blood tie rather
than to that defined by years and
periods. -
At the moment Robert Louis steven
son was the point of interest Bofh
agreed that by reason of two facts
stevenson missed his greatest goal. on
the one hand was the mans unhealtn
and on the other his lack Of power to
partake vitality in his own inventions
A sick man. Moreover. an outside work
er, an impersonal onlooker, IAN eye
man" Moore put It, "a Wandefer
picking up halfpence and with eX-
nuisite craft turning them into g,ilneas
IF nature had given him health we
should have had the most Wonoeriul
| travel tales ever written "A superior
| kind of Lott" ventured Cosse. so
superior that no comparison Is possible
was the conclusive, Moore-ish reLort'
Rather unfair, as a conclusion OF Two
literary savants. don't you think? Ii
stevenson had been this or that. NJ
would have done SO and so. But ne
was not this or that. So he did not
achieve to the limit Of his fine gifts
and finer promise On the other hand
Lott. hale and lusty adventurer,
/ travelling the world over. always the
hero of his own drama, centering every
/ situation with his own temperamcntal
! exuberance-Loti actually did produce
/ inspiring travel tales-nOt might nave,
! but did-taleS that are the delight Oh
! hosts of readers He Is a clearly be-
loved travel writer in many languages.
| Why attempt comparison where only
contrasts exist? Basically different,
| neither serves to interpret the other.
/ Oddly two heroes of the present day,
| suggest the unlikenesses of Lott and
Stevenson. Here is one, Just naturally
and without design, the great hero OF
his own dventure-Comdr. Byrd. Here
Is the other, more imperSonal, cooler,
engrossed in the outcome-Lindbergh
Both doing their royal best, each In his
own way Both achieving wonders.
Why try to make them responsible for
identical effects and methods
However all this is a shade beside
the point. The matter of the moment
Is that the house Of Frederick A.
Stokes has decided 1t to be both good
business and good opportunity for
readers to issue uniform edition of
the works of Pierre Loti--I,ouis Marie
Julien Viaud, born in the middle of the
last century. member of the French
Academy, member also of the French
Navy travelling the world over in the
line of duty. prolific writer by virtue in
part of these adventures, beloved both
in his own country and other where.
Here al hand are four of the Lott
volumes, very substantial and dignified
10 look at Competently translated by
men and women who are at home with
the idiom of both languages, equally
familiar also with French literature and
its traditions The books are. besides.
freely illustrated in a fashion calculated
TO obiectify the text on the one hand
and on the other TO impart TO 1t sig
nifcances too elusive to be caught by
print. You will have genuine Joy in
the illustrations throughout
The Iceland Fisherman Con
stantinople." Egypt" Japan" These
are the four volumes at haud--four
that serve to illustrate both the scope
ard the characteristic quality of Lofts
work. The first of these, as you recall.
is an uut-and-out romance OF the sea,
a tale of Arctic stresses whose business
with the human appears to be that D!
discriminating all but the hardest and
the bravest who come its way. The
shore touch of this adventure is that
OF Brittany and the simpler fisher folks
along its coast. Vivid pictures of these
people in their primitive and unchang-
ing modes OF life stand out here in
proof of Lofts pictorial art. The world
Of these fishermen and their families
has but two zones, the home shore and
the frozen region of the Iceland fish,
cries. A love story. simple and mar
ticulate moves soberly toward its tragic
climax The whole Is somber, fear
some, forebodng. as any story needs
must be when its fate rests with the
sea- with the Polar seas, The trans
lation is a particularly good one. have
compared H. with another, the one I
have read over and over This Is the
better one. where both are good. There S
q reason.
Japan il a double adventure
Of travel and that of love. Yet they
are one. Madame ChrySantheme." the
japanese doll with whom Lott set up a
sort Of housekeeping while his ship
was In the harbor, WAS lust another bit
OF the landscape, Not much more
than an inseparable part of the pretty
pictures into which the landscape COM
posed itself, Just part of the fragile
fashions OF life that, certainly in that
day, made up considerable part of
Japan Not much more these Japan
dolls, than the lotus and the moth and
the flame that sometimes decorated
! lantern and fan. that sometimes walked
| the flowery gardens OF old Nippon.
! There is, TO be sure. new Japan, an
upland coming Japan busy making
things and turning the cold shoulder OF
denial upon such pictures as these
yet Pierre Lott and Lafcadio Hearn
| have, each. place in the poetic and
picturesque past lying just around the
corner back OF this amazing century
| that is destroying many legend while
II sets up miracles In their place. 1t
is not easy to describe the delicacy OF
Lofts work I'm this book OF Japan, The
best that can do III this direction is To
say that the whole story and the way of
its projection seem To be an actual
part of this romantic and beautiful
country drawn off and lifted over into
the imagination OF the reader.
"Constantinoplc, save for longitude
and the lady, save for widely differing
eXternals. is Just another Japan" Not
romance" says Phinkett, friend of
Lott. instead, II II be romance, ''it Is as
devoid of all plan AS was the life of its
hero" So. In the painless way OF diary
and letters Lott tells the story of Con-
Stantinople, meeting place OF all the
peoples of the world Here the lady's
name Is "Aaiyade and here the story
of STEAMBOAT and Its pictures come to
light by way Of the ardors OF Lott for
this Oriental siren Farther along these
grow clearer. better organized and pro-
iected as the flame of love subsidies 10
n point where the eyes are less dazZled
ha Judgment less warped by the heat