Evening star., 1928-10-22

We cannot tell the reader here what
she finds. To do so would be to spoil
the story for you If you ever read it,
as we sincerely hope you will, because
this book belongs to the dozen or so
entitled to rank as Dumas absolute
best. The $3.50 which the two volumes
cost would not buy seat at a musical
comedy. yet for that price one gets here
entertainment for a week This book
in all probability is not to be found at
the Public Library, and certainly cam
not be secured at any bookdealer's ex-
cept through special order. The trouble
that it may take to get it will be we'll
spent, however.
Few of Dumas romances offer more
interesting or varied list of characters
than THE She-Wolves of Machecoul." J"
In the twin girls, the precious wolves, !"
he gives the reader two of the worlds S
most interesting fiction girls. These
characters seem so compelling to us that
we can scarcely understand how this
good story remains so little known.
Whereas 80 out of every 100 men may
have read '"The Three Musketeers, Z"
probably there are not 10 persons among
the 100000 and more inhabitants of the
District of Columbia who have read
THE She-Wolves."
The character of Michel, the timid
young baron, is unusually we'll handled,
even for Dumas, who manages to give
touch of reality to most of his men
and women. Here the reader has a
young fellow so timid that he allows
himself to be coerced into tacit prom
Use of marriage to the girl he does not
1ANyA A. he cf
this same young man moves forward
with 1t; he secures the essential manli-
ness to straighten things out for himself
Yet Bertha remains such a clean-cut
character, such likable young woman
in her way. that the reader finds him
self dreading, with Michel, the in
evitable hour when she must receive
the shock of her life.
Besides this trio Of dominant char
acters, there are others almost as good.
Where. is more straightforward lit
erary portrait to be found than that of
the faithful Jean Oullier, who has so
many hairbreath escapes that the
reader instinctively knows that no mat
ter what happens to him the reader
knows that he will come out
of 1t alive? The last escape is a
corker, indeed-unconscious on the
water-and floating for an hour. Maybe
Dumas slipped up there, but it makes
no difference; his hearty Joy of life, his
appreciation of the desirability of a
situation, combine with his knowledge
of what the reader wants to make even
a fishy incident sound plausible. And
plausibillty, after all. is the secret Of
narrative art. The best writers make
every character, every action, plausible.
1t Is one CT the glories OF Dumas
that, given his characters as he paints
them, under the situations in which he
places them, they do and would act
as he has them act, and would say
what he makes them say. 1t is useless
to charge him with being melodramatic.
Life is startling-when it Is. Our au-
thor simply takes times and places,
and particularly race, in which and
among whom certain highly colored &C
tions took place. THE She-Wolves OF
Machecoul" is good example OF this.
The revolt fostered by the Duchesse de
Berry the Petit-Pierre of the story
was known by the participants to be
futile, just as the reader realizes 1t Is
hopeless proposition, but that mill
tated not at all against the fervor OF
the partisans, nor does it against the
interest of the reader. II any lover
of romance Gas popular as ever in the
minds and hearts of humanity de-
sires something in the narrative line
as little like Harvey Fergusons Wolf
song" as possible, let him or her turn
to THE She-Wolves of MachecouP'
with the certainty that he will find
something Very fine