Evening star., 1928-06-05

| A novel that creates an atmosphere
of reality Is none too common thing
| Scores of stories leave the reader with
| the feeling that he has been, after all,
| just reading a story.
To the rare first class belongs "The
| Closed Garden" by Julian Green, a
| young American, writing In France,
and, what Is more to the point, writing
| In French.
| The translation just issued by Harper
& Bros. shows that the great French
! tradition of simply standing outside a
story and telling 1t because the writer
| is interested In 1t himself still remains
one OF the best methods In the world
| for novel construction,
| Out of the great simplicity OF the
| telling. young Green builds an atmos-
phere in which the reader moves,
breathes and has his being for the time
| 1t takes him to read 1t.
Offhand one might think the theme
chosen an almost impossible one If he
were not acquainted with the fact that
Guy de Maupassant had managed to
achieve the same results with some
what similar material.
"The Closed Garden" tells the story
of a young girl who falls In love with a
man she has never spoken to. who
his death, and who finally goes mad.
1t takes writer to create a real book
out of such a theme. While 1t may
sound almost Russian in Its briefest
statement. 1t Is typically French in its
presentation,
This Is sadder story than De Maui
PEASANTS "Une Vie" often called the
SaddeSt novel in world literature. To
one reader at least 1t seems an infinitely
greater story There Is nothing morbid
about it, however. 1t has all the clean
swing of romance. since life is romantic !:
at the same time IL Is pitileSS, as life Is
pitilesS.
What struck us. above all, about this
book Is that ii allows the reader to go
into one of these houses you see every
where and watch the daily life that
goes on there. Have you never wished
to know what went on behind the walls
of a neighbor's house?
That Is one of the oldest wishes in
the world! Human curiosity compels
one to be interested in other people. and
propinQuity forces one to be more inter-
ested in the people directly around one
than in the flood of men and women
who pass at distance.
Always in a neighborhood Is at least
one house into which those interested
in life would like TO take a peep. This
is not mere prying 1t Is largely, an in
tense interest In people and motives.
Let him who will say that he Is not
so interested: we set him down for q
liar, and let it go at that. Human be-
ingS are the most interesting factors in
the world to other human beings, espe-
cially to those of emotional and intel
lectual dispositions interested in read
ing novels.
This Is one reason. 1t seems, why The
Closed Garden" is of such compelling
interest. The house where the old
Mesurat and his two daughters, Adri-
eme and Germaine. lead their abnormal
lives is the duplicate of all such houses
Their abnormalities are no more than
the abnormaiities of thousands of people
who pass on the street every day with
out calling any attention to themselves.
In society they act like nice people. :"
But one suspects that when they get
within the sheltering privacy of their
own walls they do all sorts OF things
Our young novelist takes us inside
one Of thes3 houses. and what we see
and hear there more than confirms all
our suspicious.
Tragedy OF the inevitable sort that