Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-10-16

We are very busy at this time read
ing a little known romance of the grea
Alexandra Dumas, 1.-THE She-Wolves Of
Machecoul,' dealing with the attemp
of the Duchesse de Berry to incite {
rebellion against the government Of
Louis Philippe in La Vendee in 1882.
The historical background is distinct
ly secondary to the story itself, which
is a swiftly moving tale of plot anc
counterpart of the sort delighted In by
the hearty French novelist and, by one
remove. by all his readers of all nations
The tale is the thing!
Reading a Dumas romance is like
plunging into a strange country, where
one may run up against he knows moi
what adventures, and meet people d
all types, some of them friendly, some
unfriendly.
The Dumas country is glorious
country, since it's aspects of reality are
placed in a setting Illuminated by ths
great spirit of the story teller, /. e.
Dumas himself.
AS far as our reading experience
goes, there has never been a teller oil
tales before or since who had exactly
this same great gusto in the telling oi
story. They say that he simply out
lined his plots and left others to exc
cute them, being the head of great
fiction factory" but if that is so, il
makes no difference-he got better re-
suits by such method than most
writer's secure through intense indi-
vidual effort.
1.-THE Wolves of Machecoul" is 6
striking example of Dumas at his best
It belongs to the small group of stories
vaguely called the Napoleon ro-
mances," although the Corsican APP
pears in most of them simply as a sort
Of grand aside.
This group includes 1.-THE Companion!
of Jehu," the best known, "The Whites
and the Blues and The she-Wolve'
of Machecoul," the latter an incompa
rable title, since it intrigues the inter
est of any reader. Who or what arr
these She-Wolves"?
One must read four chapters to fine
out, an unusually long introduction TO
Dumas, who mostly plunges straight
into his story. In this one, however
he seemed to feel the necessity for al
adequate historical background Thu
first three, therefore, are devoted tt
this task, rather dry one, evidently
to the author, for the average reader
will say to himself, as he reads, This
isn't much of story, believe viii
quit"
One can we'll believe that Duma
commissioned one of his factor,
hands" to write those first three
chapters. The sentences are cut ant
dried, as BELTS the matter, with tina
unacceptable air of author boredom
which almost puts the reader to sleep.
No sooner has the reader completed
the fourth chapter, however, than HI
finds himself launched at once upor
a typical Dumas romance, with interes
picking up word by word, sentence b,
sentence.
Shortly he begins to make the &C.
quaintance of such list of character!
as only Charles Dickens or Alexandra
Dumas could have handled. What {
number of men and women cross thes:
pages, yet there is never bit of con.
fuSionl Here we have Louis XVIII
King of France; Louis Philippe, Prin.
cess Marie-C Caroline, the Duchesse du
Berry, travelling under the name o.
Petite-Pierre: Compile Henri de Bonnie.
vile, Baron de Lussas Marquis dt
Souday, Jean Oullier, a Vendear
peasant, one of the chief characters
August Francois Michel, Mile. Bertha
de Souday and Mile. Mary de Souday.
\ X 4 i
These are but a few of the leadins
portraits in a canvas which is as largI
as the countryside, and which is re,
markedly free from that device, so otter
Inisused. of working the reader up tx
climax with one group of characters
only to drop them to 60 back FOL