Evening star., 1930-06-28
THE LIBRARY TABLE
By the BoOklouer

To meet the demands on public
libraries for courses of reading on for
eign life and letters. the American Lii
brary Association has published Scan
dinavian Literature" the third course
in the Reading With Purpose" series
dealing with foreign literature. The
booklet, which has just appeared, was
prepared for the association by Hanna
Astrup Larsen, editor of the American
Scandinavian Review. Deeds of those
hardy Norsemen who worshiped pagan
gods, plundeFed the coasts of Europe
and drove their Viking ships 20 America
long before Columbus sailed past the
gates of Hercules" are recounted in the
SagaS with which Miss Larsen intro
ouceS the literature of Scandinavia
Handed down by word of mouth through
the centuries, these sagas are rife with
poetry, adventure and drama and col
ored by the epic struggle with the ele-
mental forces of the Northland How
literature developed from these folk
tales to the charming fairy stories of
Hans Christian Andersen, the social
drama of Ibsen, and the gloomy pas
sions of Strindberg, is told by Miss
Larsen, who traces the varied trends in
Norway, Sweden. Denmark and Iceland
and calls attention to many writer's, fa-
| nous in their native lands, but less
well known in America, whose works
are now available in translation. Among
living authors. she pays particular trib-
ute to Knut HamSun and Sigrid Undset
whose novels have already attained wide
popularity in this country. Americans
OF Scandinavian descent will, of course
ENJOY this simple and comprehensive
of hn 1f l,af,
fathers. Other Americans, who are
planning Summer tours, will find it a
useful guide to the mythology, history
and modern trends of the lands of the
midnight sun. In the words of an old
Viking verse, "a better burden may no
man bear for wanderings wide than
! wisdom" Courses on French and Eng
lish literature have already been pub
lished in the Reading With Purpose"
series and one on Russian literature is
now in preparation. The books recon-
mended in all of these booklets may be
obtained through the public libraries,
where the courses themselves are also
available.
Osbert Sitwell, in "The Man Who
Lost Himself" tells an odd anecdote OF
the ways of luck, chance or fate with
human beings. Nielsen, a Scandinavian
poet, living in London and starving in
various professions, began drinking and
stopped eating and was finally well on
the way to the mad house. His de-
lusion Of being prosecuted took the most
frequent form of people armed with
black umbrellas who would glide up to
him in the street, tap him on the
shoulder. humble some unintelligible
words, and glide off again into the
crowd or dark passage. A friend
after much difficulty, persuaded him to
consult physician to whom his case
had been explained beforehand. The
physician had remarkable success at
the first and only visit. He called the
friend into the consulting room at the
end and said to him in Neilsen's hear
ing: He has now confessed to me that
the occurrences which he has been talk
ing about are not real, but invented
ones. He admits and knows it; and
have warned him of the appalling
danger he runs by indulging in such
fancies. - And he has given me
his word to drink no more alcohol fol-
year." AS the two left the doctors
Office, Nielsen was cheerful and sensible
and his eyes had lost their look OF
fear, there for so long. The friend felt
that a crisis had been met and passed
Remembering that he had left his
walking stick in the doctors Office, the
friend ran back for it, leaving Nielsen
waiting for him under lamp post. As
he came back he saw Nielsen, with the
light shining on him, suddenly turn
around. "AS he did so, a nondescript
figure, carrying black umbrella, Sidlee
up behind him, paused, tapped him or
the shoulder, mumbled few indistinct
words, and rapidly shuffled away into
the darkness. The man was perhaps
himself, mad or drunk do not know
but the fight for Nielsen's reason was
from that moment lost; for this Incl
dent, which had so often befallen him
reality, had now been enacted in front
of witness. I could not deny what
had seen, for to have done so would
have been to sap still further his be-
lief in me and in the world of COM
mon sense. One shadow behind his
sick brain had taken to itself SUBJ
stance, and had thereby supported, and
guaranteed the existence Of all the
other spectres stalking in the back
ground. And this casual veri-
f1cation of fiction by fact was in the
end responsible for Nielsen's death. for
before a month was past he had killed
himself"
* = y X
Suppressed In italy, but read with
interest in other countries. the volume
Escape" by Francesca Fausto Nitti
tells of the imprisonment of the au-
thor, nephew of a former premier OF
Italy, in the Fascist prison on the Is
land of Lipari and his escape through
the assistance of two friends. The
prison occupies the whole of the small
island, which is connected with the
mainland by a narrow jetty. Along
this jetty, which lay in deep shadow
from the steep rocks which formed one
side of the harbor, Nitti escaped. In
the little town on the coast the cafes
and taverns where the fishermen were
drinking were brilliantly lighted. At
the foot of the crooked steep street
leading into the town were soldiers,
playing cards and drinking, but holding
rifles between their knees. There were
warships lying in the harbor. Every
thing seemed staged for recapture,
but Nitti got away and made his way to
Paris, where he was able to write his
book.
Stella Cardross, the villainess Of
Cynthia Stockley's new novel "Tagati"
Cynthia Stockley always has vii
laineSs), is one of the worst. She Is
beautiful and when attired in a shim-
mering green evening gown looks like
"a tinted cameo rising from a sea
bath" But her beauty is not that of
the soul. Not satisfied with her pro-
prietary right to her husband, good
natured Dick CardroSs, she claims the
same right to the two owners of the
Tagati mine, in Rhodesia, near her hus-
bands farm. They both fall in love
with Felicia LiSsell, who comes out on