Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-08-26
BY IDA GILBERT MYERS.

THE CLOSED GARDEN. BY Julian
Green. author of "Avarice House"
etc. Translated from the French
by Henry Longan Stuart. New
York: Harper & Brothers.
THIS is the story of Adrienne
Mesurat. Story? Hardly that.
Rather, a clinic, psychological,
L. wherein the behavior Of 81
young French girl is expertly
traced back to its emotional source and
this. in turn. is allied in part to i'm
mediate environment In part to family
descent and in part to the great COM
mon heritage of human nature.
Almost exclusively an inside matter.
this of Adrienne Mesurat. Only such
externals have place here as serve to
candle light the secret existence of the
girl and help to account for it. Here
is the narrow household of routine
cleanliness and punctilious order, the
sick Older sister, the dull and self
absorbed father. One can see house
across the street, the roof OF another
one around the corner. There is no
play in that household. no reading, no
music. no outings. no neighborS. AT
night game of cards, dolOrouS as
funeral rites-and then to bed. There
is. besides, glance at the joyless blood
of the house of Mesurat. Over all is
the rigid social convention of the
French. Within this setting is placed
the girl, about is. pretty beautiful even
had there been identifying agency, A
girl. young and ardent. thrown wholly
upon her own imaginings for existence.
In this life of pure inhibition she makes
her own secret freedoms. sees herself
tOI,od al yiric ianu n hp She pIVnG
her heart. in fancy. to man whom
she had seen pass by and to whom
she had never spoken. Innumerable
actions. gestures, futile movements, all
motivated by unsatisfied feelings and
imaginings. gradually take possession Of
the girls full being. Moods OF despond-
ency, moments of wild behavior follow in
a gradually degenerative process. So the
record runs So the clinic proceeds
till there is laid out in open sight and
effectively the toll taken by the emo
lions upon the deeply inhibited life. A
story? You know it is not a story,
lust as you know that it is a deeply
significant body of psychological truth
founded upon a concrete human case.
The doctors will call this an amazing
piece of work, especially those doctors
who make sick souls and minds their
chief concern Those who admit 1t to
the realm of romance will accept 1t AS
deep tragedy. The artist will exalt 1t as
a pattern of literary construction of the
French pattern piece of pure syn
thesis, with no grain OF alloy in 1t any
where.
Interesting person, this Julian Green.
Writing in French. being translated
into English, though the young man
is an American, father from Virginia,
mother from Georgia. Born in Paris,
he has not only taken on the language
of the French. but has absorbed as well
their literary tradition and outlook and
method. And the French hail linn as q
countryman in literature. and applaud
his work as among the best OF French
novels
The work of Julian Green brings up
the old. old question as to the prime
purpose of the novel. II 1t is to reflect
life, that Is one thing. If it is to in
form life, that is the same thing. II,
however. it is to lead readers for the
time being away from the realities
around them into pleasant places that
exist only in dreams-why, then, this
novel has no place at all anywhere.
However, the literary readers and the
StuuentS Oh hle Will ucNiac AoA AAS
Closed Garden" to be one of the most
impressive and important novels of the
day.
AEE
PORTRAIT OF LADY MARY MON
TAGu. BY Iris Barry. Indianapo-
lis The Bobbs Merrill Co.
FRENCH women of earlier days any
number Of them. and an occa-
sional English woman OF older times
step forward now and then to inform