Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-12

To have created two such Older men
/ as Sorrell and Old Pybus and two SUCH
young men as Christopher Sorrell ana
Lance Pybus ought to serve to place
Warwick Deeping among the makers
| of real literature as distinguished from
i the members of the younger generation
who are merely determined to express
themselves. '"Sorrell and Som was
such a fine piece of fiction that we
hardly dared expect another SO GOOD
| from the author, and "Doomsday' dld
| fall short, but in "Old Pybus" the high
level is in reached. The ardor OF
Lance for his craft of writing and his
determination to interpret life mysti-
ca]lv and to avoid cheap cleverneSs
must surely be the experience OF War
wick Deeping himself. The small
statured. white-haired grandfather, Old
Pybus, or 1.-The Venerable" as Lance calls
him, is the mentor who keeps the boy
from that tendency to write for gilt
ter" which is the temptation of the
younger writer. 1t costs the Venerable
acute suffering to tell Lance that the
! five chapters of his novel. Rust" which
| have been written during the entirely
physical adventure with Olive Gadsden,
have "a smell of cheap scent" but he
tells him, even though he knows he risks
losing the affection which has given
Joy and tranquility to his old age. And
Lance is hurt, and, just as Old Pybus
feared, thinks his grandfather cannot
understand his generation and the Lon
don of 1927 Old PybuS goes on ruth
lessly, for he feels that his grandson
must be brought back to the insight OF
his earlier work: 1.-The works damned
cleyer-too damned clever. Surprising
I saw that you had set out to paint an
impression of Piccadilly and that what
Won produced turned out to be the
Marviebone road?" 1t is acrid medicine
at the time, but later. when the clarity
of vision which is his normal endoW-
ment has returned Lance comes back
humbly to the little stone and brick
cottage, Just outside the Saracen's Head
Inn. and asks for help in his time OF
great need from the old man who has
been honest with him because he loves
him.
-, The personality of Old Pybus, eccen-
trio, philosophical, proud, entirely low
able, is like no other in fiction, though
it has kinship with the elder SOrrell
Like Sorrell Old Pybus is hotel boots
not ashamed of his honorable work nor
of taking tips, which he adds to his
slowly increasing bank account. Books
are his best friends, for he has found
them more reliable and satisfying than
human beings-books and his pigeons
and the view from his cottage window
over his patch of garden land beyond
it to the green slopes of the castle field
and to the castle itself. with it's walls
tufted with Wallf1oWer and snapdragon
Some ver' old ash trees grew among
the ruins. The Hart Royal tower still
showed its cancellations black against
the sunset Beyond it the ground fell
steeply to the river. the banks deep with
the shade of beeches, and always there
was a murmuring of water and the play
of the wind in the trees" After hi
had discovered that his wife was weak
and sentimental but argumentativt
woman and that his two sons. Conrad
and Probyn, were aliens to him, John
Pybus had withdrawn more and more
into himself and into companionshiT
with his books. In his old age. wild
over and entirely estranged from his
sons, he expects nothing more from
life. Then suddenly and as if acct
| dentally Lance finds him and gradu'
ally values change for the old man
His hermit philosophy Is no Longer
enough. Youth calls him from his in
tellectual retreat because youth need:
him. Lance is what he wished his owr
I
brings Joy he has never known before
not even in his own youth. and on his
birthday "he was in great spirits. fol
here were these two young things
Lance and Mary Norris sitting dowr
with an old fellow on his seventy
somethingth birthday and looking al
him lovingly. They were gentle to him
not with the patronage of youth, but
with fine and delicate courtesy, be-
cause that old body of his was growing
frail And he had nothing but few
hundreds to leave to either of them
His amber had no such fly in it: He
was the Venerable, the head Of the
house, their ancient of days"
X X x
AS the old romantic Paris is passing
away through the tearing down of his
toric buildings and the building of more
or less ugly new ones, through the kill
ing of the trees by gasoline fumes
through the shrouding of the city in q
pail of smoke, through the vanishing
of the distinctive old cafes and balls
and mouths" perhape lover of Paris
appreciates all the more the books
which tell of the old Paris and attempt
to preserve its charm. Such book Il
"A Book About Paris" by George and
Pearl Adam Admitting that much Of
the magic of Paris has disappeared, the
authors believe that something still re-
mains. There are the book and picture
stalls along the Seine, there are the
possible to find beautiful medieval gates
courtyards, fountains. bridges and
houses about which clings the atmos-
phere of their history.
| X X
Prof. Horace A. Eaton of the English
department Of Syracuse University in
! his De Quincy researches has come
across an early diary of Thomas De
Quincy in the collection of Rev. c. H
Steel The diary. which has never be-
fore been published, was kept by Dis
| Quincy in April, May and June OF
1903, when he was only II years old
DR.. Eaton has published it, "A Diary OF
Thomas De Quincy, 1903" in both
facsimile and modern type, with many
pages of notes. There is no plan in the
diary; 1t is only rather chaotic mass
of notes on events StrOllS about Liver
pool. thoughts on what his future life
should be, reading lists, and even ey-
pense accounts. Opium had not yet
become factor in his life.
X X X
whittier, Mankind? A Panorama of
| Modern Civilization" is edited by
Charles A. Beard, who so recently wrote
THE Rise of American Civilization. II
Contributors to the volume are Ber-
trand Russell, Emil Ludwig, George A.
Dorsey. John Dewey. Carl Van Doren
Everett Dean Martin, James Harvey
Robinson, Beatrice and Sidney Webb
Havelock Ellis. HUI Shin, Hendrix Will
lem Van Loon, Julius Klein, Howard
Lee MacBain, Edward Amory Wilson,
Lewis Mumford and Stuart Chase. Each
writes upon some phase and tendency
in modern life
| X X
| Glenway Wescott, who won the Har-
per Prize with his novel, THE Grand
mothers" a species of prose Spoon
River Anthology" has written second
book, collection of tales, Goodbye
| IL Al,n or nicrl,