Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-10-26
THE LIBRARY TABLE
By the Bookloper

Russians. This knowledge is the basis
of two of his most subtle novels, THE
Dark Forest" and The Secret City,
and appears incidentally in many
others. With this in mind, one car
hardly read his latest novel. Hans
Frost" without seeing in its theme the
last weeks of Tolstoi's life. Tolstoi. very
old, embittered by his inability to bring
his material life into harmony with his
theories and. ideals, secretly left hi:
home at Yasnaya Poliana and wan
dered Of, with no definite aim, simply
to end his life in freedom from al
human interference. Illness overlook
him, and he died in a lonely monastery
Hugh Walpole's Hans Frost, veteran
English novelist, whose SEVENTEEN
birthday has just been celebrated
by his colleagues, awakens to the
fact, through train of circumstances
that he is not free man: that
he has been flattered and coddled until
inertia not inseparable from old age
has settled upon him. This realiza-
everything in his comfortable, well or
dered life. 1t seems a case of acute
artistic temperamentalism, but Mr.. Wal
pole means it to signify more than that
Apparently possessing all that is deSir-
able in life-wealth, literary success and
fame, honor among his associates, a
beautiful, distinguished wife who has
provided for him the milieu suited to
establish him as tradition-he is yet
miserable because he feels himself en-
shaved by all these things. SO, with the
undercurrent Of desire to break away
from his enviable. too perfect surround
ings, when accident offers opportunity
he drifts off without definite intention
and never returns. We leave him liv-
ing in two whitewashed rooms in a tiny
cottage high on hillside in a small
"Glebeshire" fishing village. Directly
In front Of him was a roughly cobbled
square. On this beats were drawn up
and beyond 1t bright yellow sand ran
out to misty. glittering sea. Clus-
tering around it were the heaped cot
tages. white and gray, two Of them with
green shutters. one with blue; little
higher tier of little houses. In front of
some of them as they climbed up the hill
were small gardens with chrysanthe-
NUNS and fat, deep-green bushes. 1t
was all like a painted scene" Here
Hans Frost knew that he had never
before been in contact with such peace
He didn't know it, but in the
bed at which he was now looking he
would one day die"
The sudden love of Hans Frost for
his wife's niece, l9-year-old Nathalie
Swan, protective. paternal. but certainly
not free from egotism, is probably plau-
sible enough, but seems to cloud the
spiritual theme of the search Of Hans
for perfect freedom from human ties
and material slavery before his death.
In following Nathalie in her flight, for
her protection, he happens upon the re-
treat OF his last days. He feels that in
the girl he has found at the end Of his
life human relation of complete I'M
Outstanding. "Once or twice in a mans
life, II he is lucky, he loves some one,
man or woman, with complete trust
with great sentiment Of honorable
dealing, understanding. noble generos-
ity. and is loved in return in truest
fashion. After their talk last evening
he knew that they felt, and now would
always feel, such love for one another
Nothing could touch or harm It," Yet
he admits to himself with perfect hon
esty that.he does not wish even Nathalie
to share his solitude. He tells Ruth
his wife, who has come down to the
remote west corner Of England to find
him and bring him back to London
comfort and safety and trammels, that
he is never coming back, and that he
wishes no one to share his exile. In
her natural lack of comprehension OF
his behavior she accuses him of being
in love with Nathalie. He denies II
calmly: She's my niece. you know
I'm not as modern as all that.
Besides, I'm too old" He patiently ex-
plains further to her puzzled mind
There is no one in my life. no one at
all. I'm tired Of people, tired of human
beings. Nathalie is darling, but I'd
be tired Of her, too, If saw very much
of her"
The Hohenzollerns were autocrats In
Germany for six centuries. Their his
tory has been written by Herbert Eulen-
berg III THE HohenZollerns." The first
important appearance of the Hohenzol-
lerns in history was as margraveS OF
Brandenburg, and the first member OF
the house to consolidate dynastic power
was the Elector Frederick William I,
the Great Elector. Herr Gutenberg as
serts that 1t was his connivance, or at
Louis XIV of France to become pos
sessed of Strasbourg and much of AL
sace-Lorraine. He was thus an enemy
of his country. though its hero in his
tory. OF Frederick the Great. Herr Eulen-
berg says: There is something startling
almost shocking for the modern Ger
man in Fredericks aversion for-nay,
active hatred of-all things German.
The recent attempts to make this man
OF all men, this scorner Of Germany
who himself spoke, wrote and thought
nothing but French, the prototype and
champion Of a new German folk move
ment betrays the total lack of historic
sense among u.s." William I, founder
Of the empire, is the Hohenzollern con-
sidered by most non-students of history
as the founder Of the dynasty. He had
little tolerance for the German revolu-
tionistS Of 1846. because they threatened
the empire, yet he was not on the whole
illiberal He was the son of Queen
Louise of Prussia and the grandfather
of Kaiser Wilhelm of the World War.
For this last of the Hohenzollerns to
rule, at least up to the present time,
Herr Gutenberg has little but denuncia-
ton. William II, he says. destroyed the
results Of centuries Of German thrift,
energy and intelligence. The warlike
actions and speeches of the Kaiser he
considers, much as does Emil Ludwig,
as a protective mechanism to conceal
his real lack Of courage. "On the eter-
nally ignominious night of his deSer-
ton William II demonstrated before all
men that the resounding phrases with
which he had deluged his country for
five and twenty years were so much
flummery. himself no more than an
actor. He was. indeed. one of the most
brilliant frauds ever wrapped in royal
ermine"
A record of the part Of the World
War seen by German private Is given
in "All Quiet on the Western Front"
by Erich Maria Remarque, translated
from the German by A. w. Wheen. It
Is the story Of an average boy of about
20 who, without knowing or caring
much about the issues of the war, was
sent to the German front to fight.
None of the horrors Of the trenches is
passed over, but even worse than those
horrors was the psychological effect
upon the young men who were made
old and cVnirAl almost hAforA ffev had