Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-10-06

| Some day soon we propose to reat
Victor Hugo's LES MiSerableS."
{, No doubt we have missed something
| but then. we have never read Anita
Loos' Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,
| either.
No one can have read everything.
Let those who would sneer at us fol-
being so remiss recall their own read
ing deficiencies and dry up.
| Think what treat we have in store
| in the book that has been called the
greatest story in world literature.
Perhaps we have been saving Les
Miserables," much as a greedy child
keeps the biggest piece OF candy until
| last.
The danger one runs with such clas-
sizes, is in being disappointed through
surfeit of praise in advance.
There is something about the human
mind which resents laudatory phrases
whether 1t be in relation to men, Wom-
en-, books, plays, music.
Visitors to Washington who have been
told what a wonderful building the
Library of Congress is have been
known to look at It critically and then
declare, "Oh, 1 don't think 1t is SO
much"
No one can read everything.
No one would want to, If he could.
It is well to always have something In
reserve.
Would he not be the most unhappy
booklover In the world. who had read
everything, and who therefore had TO
depend upon the new books?
He who listens to the voice OF his
own preference, his reading conscience
as it were, will find many OF the world
greatest books still waiting for him.
How many reading here, for instance,
have read Dante's Divine COMEDY
called by many critics the finest thing
of its kind in any language. :.
Well. all we can say for Dante, In all
honesty. is that we do not care for him.
To us the Divine Comedy" is hope
less piece of reading.
We have tried 1t many times, in va
rious translations, including both verse
and prose. The last time we beat IN
vain against the sides of this mountain
was several years ago, when we picked
up at a book sale a three-volume edl-
ton done in the original form OF verse.
Dante's catalogue of the miSeries OF
He'll left us very, very tired. Time and
space had divided us hopelessly from
any interest in Dante's enemies and the
petty italian politicians he flags.
We have been able to find nothing
either of interest or inspiration in the
Divine Comedy" No doubt this is
our misfortune, yet 1t is good to know
that many persons feel the same way
about it. On the other hand, there are
many who like or profess to like 1t, and
with them no one would quarrel.
That is the beauty of books, at least
one of the good things about them.
What is one mans meat is another
mans poison, as the homely old maxim
had it. since no one can be attracted
by everything.
Life and the human mind are too
widespread. This great and glorious
sphere on which we all live has space
and to spare for all books, all music,
all interests, varying from religion to
sports, from meditation to base hit
The very variety precludes fixity.
In the great sea of books there are
no doubt as good fish as have ever
been caught. Not only is this true Of
undiscovered things, but particularly
true in relation to every reader,
The world of reading is great coun-
try into which every reader advances
in the true pioneering spirit. Under
the guidance of parents and teachers