Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-09-18
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
I. G.. NJ.
Hilda . Vaughan

! /. e.. NJ. II
THE INVADER. Hilda Vaughan
Harper & Bros.
! This. the third novel by Hilda
Vaughan, is, like the other two, drawn
| off from the common daily life of the
| Welsh border. Very early in the course
of The Invader" IS the reader i'm
pressed by the authors intimacy, not
only with the face of this wild and
beautiful country, but with the people
also who have spent their lives there.
THE Battle to the Weak" and Here
Are Lovers" Miss Vaughan'S other
novels, deal with the same people and
locality in exactly the degree of
familiar friendship that this one mani
tests The old home corner, with every
part of which the author counts the
most intimate ASSOCIATION. Here Is a
fact that means much. Here Is depth
standing and Interpretation, that cam
not be achieved from a hasty touring
about in search for material" THE
| Invader" Is a story Of the soil Of Wales,
| of the farmer into whose blood has
gone a lifelong love for his land. The
| theme centers in Daniel Evans, ten
ant farmer, whose deepest ambition is
| to possess finally the farm upon which
he lives. Within year Of this goal
| there appears woman who has in
| herited the farm and who proposes
| to move in and work the place. 1t Is
this woman who gives title to the
story. 1t is the bitter warfare between
her and Daniel Evans that gives to
1t its effect of human greed and
; cruelty and gloom. Human nature is
an unlovely thing when it is embodied
in love of money, desire for gain. Yet,
here, where both sides arc anything
! but admirable in their hard struggle
against each other. ones sympathles,
Evans and against the invader" legal
ly right though she may. be. Beside
the struggle of which the novel is
made there runs a romance of re-
lieving quality. A young girl, also an
invader" supports her share in this
more pleasing situation. BY her quail
ties the invasion becomes a peaceful
conquest The two lines of action, so
unlike in mood and purpose. offset each
other and give. besides, the opportunity
for wider view Of the countryside
| pleasure in good workmanship will be
delighted with the structural excellence
of novel that is also founded upon
knowledge of the intimate sort and
| that is coupled with clear skill in
| projecting character and personality.
The WelShman stands out here as
definitely and as completely as he does
under the inspired hand of George
| Borrow himself, and that is saying
great deal.
THE BATTLE OF THE HORIZONS.
Sylvia Thompson. Little, Brown &
Co.
derstandings provide the medium by way
of which this novel makes its way. Eng
lish life as 1t is lived at the moment fur
nishes setting and background. An
English family to which has come a
beautiful new in-law from I.merica
gives focus to the situation and defines
| roughly, the course of the development
Every individual in this action is pri-
marily at odds with himself-rathcr
with herself-since 1t is the women who
find difficulty in effecting any working
compromise between what they really
are and what they aim to be. For in
| stance, the rich American bride and
beauty Is all filled up with the role she
is going to play in English politics and
culture and social benevolence. Being
young Englishman's wife is hardly in
her programmed visibly in her pro-
gram A daughter of the family is an
artist, sculptor-yet there is man she
loves far more dearly than the marble
men growing under her hand. He's al
| ready married. Another daughter is al
out-and-out feminist-with no matri-
mony whatever in her program. But
| there is Jeremy Ford-a dear! The adj
venture moves by way of these women
| by way of their gradual backslidings
! and the wreckage they are able to pine
up along the way of these changes If
heart and purpose. The men, on the
| other hand, are more stable. They stay
put, appearing to know pretty we'll what
they want and having only such I'M
Businesses as these women collect for
| them on their own road toward emanci-
patton. The theme itself is, you see, =
general one, gathering in just about
everybody, since we are all engaged in
fighting our own hosizons. This fact
makes the matter one of personal COR
Germ. as it were. The high point of in
terest is reached with the American girl
in her effort to be, first, an influence,
and, after that, the wife of Godfrey
The family as a whole and with each of
its members is a delightful one-sane
English folks Of much more charm than
commonly gets into print They are
wholesome, busy, intelligent. good-na-
tured and often witty. Fine and rather
exciting to meet. The girl. the rich
self than any of the others. Which is
to say that there may be hosts of rich
and beautiful girls on this side who are
as Self-deluded and really futile as this
one appears to be. There may be-. At
any rate, this one doesn't work out so
well In story as really she ought to
And beside that English Graham fam
lily she surely does cut slim figure.
Still, that is, perhaps not SO great G
matter where everything else is so MAJ.
ural, so spirited, so competently rounded
into the similitude of reality. and a very
| likable reality at that. Good novel?
Many hundred times better than the
average of these. A most enjoyable ex-
perience lies in the reading of it,
"a ~
TIDE OF EMPIRE. Peter B. Kyne.
Cosmopolitan Book Corporation.
They stand in the door or wait at
| the front gate for the next Peter Kyne
adventure to come their way-that is,
the great majority of readers, average
readers, do. For here, without fail, is
adventure that IS man-SiZe, robust, ex-
citing. Here is action, SO swift and
| changing. as to carry the reader far
| away out of himselt-about the best
service that novel can render. Once
started, Peter Kyne keeps moving.
keeps the reader moving also. Tide
of Empire" occupies the home ground
of this writer. Here is California at
the opening of the gold rush, 40 and
on. An invading army. with none of
| the order of an army, fills the field as
far as eye can reach Not an army
crazy mob instead. Adventure, Grim
inals, desperate men, thieves, cut
| Threats are here, filling the fore
ground. Around them are the Span
isl land-holders, living the leisured life
so dear to them. That which brings
this motley of effect into something
like coherent and ineligible action is