Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-23
THE LIBRARY TABLE
BY the BookloVer

arg AAoAAJ OtAlCL IAlu1So, VA SOAAoC' ouNAA
as demoralizing, boresome, depressing
One of the biographies Of 1929, written
| in the new" style, which stresses char
acter and personality more than achieve
ments, may be considered an educa-
tional course on the French Revolution,
| seems to one reader at least more in
tensely interesting than any OF the re-
cent novels, but above all has the in
| ter of the Seine: The Life of Madame
Roland" by Jeanette Eaton. The
story of the stormy life of the woman
who was undoubtedly the most heroic
| figure of the French Revolution is told
with enthusiastic sympathy by jean
cite Eaton. Drawn even by less
| skillful hand, the character OF Mime.
Roland WOULD still be notable example
of the conquest of external ctrcum-
stances by pure mind. 1T is by this
| detached, intellectual vitality rather
than for any other attribute that Nine.
Roland stands forth as rare example
of womankind. Other women have been
brave and capable Of heroic sacriflce.
But all too few have preserved as she
did that self Observation-Disclosures only
untouched by circumstance, but free
from the fierce claims Of personal emo
| ton"
Arrested in her home, without legal
process, and carried to the Abbaye pris-
on, she remained calm, even happy,
thinking with satisfaction that her hus-
band, whom she had just sent out OF
Paris, might escape, that 'f the Com
mune had her, they might well let Ro-
land CO." AS she passed within the
thick dirty walls of the Abbaye; the
lailer's wife said wonderingly, Few
cub hou nQVa
air as serene as yours, madame" Dur
ing her first evening in prison. she
heard the tocSin sound and remembered
that only nine months before political
prisoners had been dragged from their
beds in the Abbaye and murdered by
hired assaSsinS. Yet she slept we'll.
On her first morning in prison, she
rose, dressed, arranged her books-an
English dictionary, Thompson's poems,
Plutarch and David Hume" Much Of
her time was spent in writing sketches
of the public men she'd known and
comment on the revolution as she'd
lived through 1t. She called the whole
her Notices Historiques.' The sheets
were carried away secretly by friend
and hidden for future publication. Elk
cept' for the luxury of a private room, at
her own expense, she accepted the pro-
visions made for the poorest prisoners
the poor and sick prisoners. Later she
was released for few hours and then
rearreSted and taken to the prison OF
Sainte-Pelagie, step nearer the gull
lotine. Here, after a brief period Of
despair and nervous exhaustion, she
summoned her mind to take command.
Enough of thisp she said. sternly.
What are you doing but permitting
your enemies to torture and debase you!
Haven't you your books? Is your time
not your own? Then use it to good
advantage, Marie Philipon, and regain
that independence imperviouS to cir
| cumStance.' She continued with her
Notices Historiques' and began to write
her autobiography the last page CT
which was completed the night before
her execution. AT the National Lii
script, almost unblemished by erasureS
and changes, the writing vigorous and
clear"
Not even within sight of the guillo-
| tine did Nine Roland lose her. intel
| lectual control. On the morning of her
| last day she ate her prison breakfast
of bread and water as usual, greeted
her jailer cheerfully and then carefully
made her toilet for the gruesome ride
| through the streets of Paris. "It was
| in its perfection that she betrayed her
sense of impending fate. She put on
frock of white English mousseline.
patterned in bouquets of roses and
| fastened by a girdle of black velvet
ribbon. She dressed her hair carefully
and let it fall in its luxurious thick
ness over her shoulders. Then she
donned a bonnet of blue. When the
jailer came to admit her to the cor
ridor she stepped out looking. more
regal than she had ever permitted her
| self to look in the beautiful palace of
| the ministry" Her one companion in
the creaking tumbril on the way to the
| guillotine was a terror stricken elderly
man. When the final moment came
she turned to him and said gently: go
| first. You have not the strength to
see me die" In a little street close to
the Seine, Marie-Jeanne Philipon had
been born, in house facing the Pont-
Neuf she had passed her childhood.
during her married life her homes had
never been far from the Seine, and on
the Place de Ia Revolution, now the
Place de la Concorde, stood the guillo-
| tine where she met her death.
X y = X
During the World War German liter
allure was practically at standstill and
translationS into English stopped alto
gether. Recently numerous translations
of German postwar literature have APP
peared: 1.-THE Gateway to Life" by
Frank Thiess; 1.-THE Days of the King"
by Bruno Frank; Maria Capponi," by
Rene Schickele; WAY of Sacrifice" by
Fritz Won Unruh; THE Redemption of
Tycho Brahe," by Max Brod; THE De-
cline of the West" by Oswald Spengler;
Defeat" and Victory" by Ricardo
HUGH; Prisoners ALL" by Oskar Maria
Graf: "Trenck," by Bruno Frank; 1.-THE
Devils Shadow" by Frank Them: 1.-THE
Devil" by Alfred Neumann: Bona
parte," by Fritz Won Unruh; "Reubeni,"
by Max Brod, and "All Quiet on the
Western Front" by Erich Remarque.
George w. Gable, whose romances of
Louisiana were much read in the 80s
His daughter, Lucy Leffingwell Gable
Bike, has written his biography,
George W. Gable, his Life and Let
ters." The Gables were an old Virginia
| family, but George W.. Cables mother
was of Puritan ancestry, and it was
the Puritan strain which predominated
in his upbringing. Though he was to
become a rather prolific writer OF nc
| ton, he was brought up to consider
fiction pernicious and it was forbidden
| to him during his boyhood. Prejudice
against the theaters, instilled in his
| youth, lasted until his middle age. Mrs.
Bike says of her father: Though he
was my father, he never. until the very
last years of his long life, seemed to
me old. Yet, for all his youthfulnesS.
he never seemed truly young. Greatly
as he enjoyed the companionship Of
his children and devoted as he was to
their happiness, his endeavor, con-
scious or unconscious, was always to
| lift them toward the level of his own
mind rather than to bend down to
theirs. He was never intolerant of
any expression of opinion honestly ar
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