Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-10-19
THE LIBRARY TABLE
By the BookloUer

ler's way of All Flesh" It is the re-
Elective account of the development of
child to Womanhood who is almost
from her earliest consciousness in SYM
pathy with her father and grandfather
and in state of antagonism toward
her mother. 1t is in a manner a study
in heredity. And Herr Freud might
also find something in it. 1t is not
Nellie Parsons fault that her father,
a Harvard graduate. who has aban-
doned his plans for the ministry in
order to lead life of freedom and de-
votion to causes" but is outwardly a
mere New Hampshire farmer, should
have married the uneducated but BEAU
tiful daughter of town carpenter, who
was bitterly disappointed when she
found herself the wife of farmer in
stead Of the mistress of parsonage in
Boston. But Nellie pays for this set
of circumstances all the same, as. of
course, all children pay for the clash
OF parental temperaments. The Par
senses are idealistS, lacking worldliness,
unable to make or keep money, living
in the world of nature and the spirit
and Nellie is a Parsons. Her mother,
in spite of her amber eyes. auburn hair
and white skin, which make her re-
semble Rossetti's Beatrice, is an ut
terly proSaic and stubborn materialist.
In her opinion it might be worth while
to educate a son, not too much, but
enough so that he could make a good
living, but education for a daughter is
worse than useless. for it is likely to
make her undesirable for matrimony.
Nellie early begins to have an un-
comfortable feeling that her mother
hates her-because she is SO much a
Parsons. But for long she loves her
mother, perhaps because of the mothers
beauty, and tries as best she is able to
win attention, approval, little love.
That she does not succeed does not
make her entirely unhappy, for she
has her grandfather. He reads with
her, teaches her to love nature, poetry
companion of his own age and makes
her long to champion the welfare of
all the oppressed. Then all this pleas
ant mental life is suddenly ended. After
a village Fourth of July triumph, in
which Nellie declaims the Declaration
of Independence, her mother pro-
nounces an ultimatum-that her daugh-
ter must no longer be made "ridicu-
lous" by her learning. that reading and
lessons with her grandfather must stop,
as well as drawing lessons with Miss
opCAlSCi III Vic IOWIl, anu lIldG IleEG~
after all time outside of school must be
given to cooking and cleaning, making
soap and rag carpets, connecting
messes for the pigs and chickens. She
brushes the opposition of Grandfather
Parsons with the words: I'm only
sayin' that I don't intend to have my
daughter made the talk and the laugh
in stock of the town. A tomboy to be-
gin with-thanks to your encourage
ment-and now blue
stockin'! A female scholar and book
worm. Yes. that. If you please, is what
the new minister called her. and she
only IL years old! Do you realize that
in other matters, like knittin' and bak-
in, she's not even a match for Eva
Kingsley, who isn't 10? And that
Louise Allen. who's only 10, has already
won two prizes at the county fair for
cake and biscuitS?"
X X
So Nellie's Parsons life is checked,
while her mother tries to make her
over into Dodd. But she continues
at the academy and is graduated first
In her class. Her father has plans made to
send her to Vassar, by extra work and
scrlmping on his own part, when he is
suddenly killed by bolt of lightning.
Hard, and almost triumphant in her
grief, the mother exultingly skaters the
hopes Of Nellie for further education
and announces to her that the beloved
farm will be sold and that she and the
two daughters will take boarders in the
town. Here comes the unsatisfactory
part OF the book-the part that makes
a reader feel that an unfair trick has
been played upon him-for the last
chapter ends without telling what hap
lie managed to go to college, whether
she submitted to help feed hated board
erS or whether she found a country
school to teach. All we are told is that
the author, at the time of writing, is
nearly go and has been for most of her
life plain and questionable old maid
teacher, housemother, chaperone and
factotum in a fashionable
girls boarding school, Yet the book is
dedicated to her husbandl Is there
sequel in the authors mind?
\ X X X
The ambition of Emile lola to be
elected member of the French Acade-
my and his frantic efforts to bring
about this honor are described by Mat
thew Josephson in his book. "Zola and
His Time" Thirteen times lola offered
himself as a candidate. Each time a
member died he would, after waiting
the customary month of mourning,
send his little note" with the informa-
ton that he was again a candidate.
A Jester at his expense suggested that
the note be printed for regular use. He
visited each of the Dukes" Of the
Academy, but found no friend except
Francois Coppee. The academicians
dld not approve of the exponent of
Macquart series of novels. But lola
was not a quietly defeated candidate.
NO campaign for the academy was
ever conducted with more noise, with less
tact and political acumen In the
beginning, he had been hopeful and
TRANQUIL. Hugo even had to present him
self four times. Victor Hugo! The
french ACADEMY conSecrateS the
talent of number of men whose merits
the public mind is in doubt of. It is
the ful enjoyment of life to know ones
sell famous, to anticipate posterity, to
nave today the pleasure and privilege
of fame. But it is not only with this
desire that am anxious to enter; my
chlef reason is to obtain for the Natu-
rallst school a conservation that 1t has
never received. They shall have
every opportunity of admitting me-"
Zola's many defeats and his lack of
dignity IN seeking the election gave a
welcome occasion to his enemies, of
whom he had not few, and they were
not slow to ridicule him. They called
him arrogant. and lola, as if to prove
them right, retorted: IT shall insist to
the bitter end. On the day of my death
shall present my name. So long
as there Is an academy must be part
OF 1t. am making literary history
My grandchildren will know that lola
was refused IS or 80 times by the
French Academy. So much the worse"
Shut out from the French Academy, he
was to have been the head of the new
academy projected by Edmond de Con-
court and later established in his will
as the Goncourt Academy. but hostility