Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-25


etc. New York: Harper g. Bros.
~ ASSIGN, lust, thwarted desire, re-
- sentiment, hatred, brutality and
crime, small cupidities, mean
i jealousies, an avid taste for evil
report, an enormous curiosity
4 about every manner of secret frailty
man and women as poor in personal
charm as they are mean and venomous
In thought and feeling-what Is this?
who is this7 1t is Julian Green gath
ering up the human stuff out OF which
he Ia to make a new story. An ILL
natured Landscape, graceless hamlet
huddled under skies that never smile
fretted by winds that never cease-and
such is the setting for the new story
Its name Is THE Dark Journey; its
theme the swift and uncharted transit
Of man across time. Now the story is
In your hand. Not even q Pickering
candle light marks 1t at any point In
the blind journey; not q moment OF
easement; not an instant Of release from
Its blanket of gloom. Now you have
read the matter; that is, maybe YOU
have. Takes o stout heart, for this is
. fearsoTne tale. not because it has en-
crossed itself SO wholly, so deeply, in
the darkness" of the journey-not
that. One gets used to the dark. But
because the story opens up to us from
our own depths, not long stretches OF
| truth but certain points of human ma
ture and human feeling that so clearly
are drawn straight from our ownselves
Not that Julian Green has engaged him.
SELF In writing our own conviction for
the sake Of our own repentance-not at
| all. He Is not thinking of you nor of
me: He has collected his human mate
rial. proved and authentic. With it he
Is building the journey, the dark Jour-
ney," and nothing else.
| "A terrible book" you say. Yes, all
OF that. Yet assume 1t is the terror
OF 1t that constitutes its greatness. A
great book, certainly. A book for every
body TO read and run to get3 Not at
an Few Wall read 1t. just those who
delight In the art Of the artist will
applaud this new novel by Julian Green,
specialist In dark stories about the deer
insides OF the human. And already
nave these experts passed upon THE
Judge and jury have declared for 1t
as Harper's prize novel for 1929. Here
are the judges: Carl van Doren. Ellen
Glasgow, Grant OVerton. And Julian
Green, an American. born in Paris
french clearly in his clarity of mind
IN his relentless drive to the heart OF
| human motive and action, in his clean
projections, in his honesty Of statement.
knowing ones are likening this man to
one or another Of the recognized gen.
fuses OF literature. Still, he hardly needs
such support. A writer who can seize
all OF human existence on its darker
side by way Of half a dozen middle
class French people huddled In a drearv
hamiet-Why, that writer needs no
SHINING comparisons to establish his
place. mat Is already fixed and secure.
y y
THE DEATH OF THE GODS. Bv
Dmitri Merejkowski New York;
The Modern Library.
HE Blue Faun Bookshop, Twenty
third street, New York. is the place
Wnere Bernard Guilbert Guerney NAV
pc found, an enviable man, living on
BOOKS and translating for a larger use
certain classics Of other tongues. The
/ Death OF the Gods" is a case in peint NJ
such service. This Is the story Julian
tne Apostate, ito me"-Mr Guerney
speaking-"one of the most poignant
ngures In all literature. What greater
! spiritual disaster can there be than
I thts7.to have in forced hypocrisy upon
ones lips q name execrated in ones
heart; to tear of the hated mask at
! iast-to declare against the religion
forced upon him? Truly a poignant
figure! OF the story of Julian himself
| by this Russian author Mr.. Guerney
| writes in a spirit of such wisdom, in an
appreciation so profound, that q little
OF his appraisal In his own words should
be given here. 1T is beauty that is .he
true religion to Merejkovsky; 1t is the
true beauty of Christ's soul; it is the
spiritual beauty of theoretical Christi
| anity which makes him real Christian
even as the lines of Homer or the
beauty Of the Apollo Belvedere make
him true pagan. 1t is this
sensitiveness to beauty which makes
Julian the result Of first -hand impress
stons on the authors part and not of
mere hookishneSs. In Julian he does
for Christianity in a single chapter
what Flauhert did for all religions in a
full noyel-play." And at the end of his
introduction Mr.. Guerney says: II bid
the reader to feast on the pages within. :"
| A sulnptuous feast it Is, engressing
through that experience when the
choice must be made between the gods
OF paganism and the Son of God. A
beautiful story-history set to drama.
| To the Modern Library, once more, is
the reader in debt for q rare journey
through o field of beautiful writing,
through the field of high literature
working In the service of historic fact of
surprising moment.
ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN
FRONT. BY Erich Maria Remar-
que Translated from the German
by A. w. When. Boston: Little,
! Brown g. Co.
THEY had been boys back home to-
= gether. And as luck turned out
they went into the war together. And
here they are, Just q group of lads,
doing their do, every sort of it and in
between whites handing out CHUNKS of
wisdom about war In general, about
their immediate superiors, about mud
and slime and lice and the rest Of the
gorgeous business of martial glory.
Simple as A B Is this record. So per-
fectly free from hatred and passion that
one is not able to tell which side the
boys are on. And by virtue of this
straight and impersonal partaking in
| the battles and attacks and respites-
why, the reader himself comes closer to
| the n1onstrous thing than he has been
able to do before through the war Ii
braries that have piled up all over the
world. Youth, just boys. really doing
the thing-day. night. storm, terror.
wounds and suffering. All here. Then
tremendous talking about 1t all, about
war-futile as well as brutal. "Kropp
is thinker He proposes that declar-
alton of war should be kind of popu-
lar festival, with entrance-tickets and
bands, like q bull fight. Then in the
arena the ministers and generals of the
| two countries, dressed In bathing
drawers and armed with clubs, can have
It out among themselves. Whoever sur
wives his country wins. That would be
much simpler and more Just than this
arrangement, where the wrong people