Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-06
% IDA GILBERT MYERT
Il VoInme on NatiouaIism and Mterua-
HouaIim-7He Nezvest NoveLS and n
Book of Short Stories.


SO much that as it is the devilish art of Henry
James in portraying a purely diabolical mat
ter.
THREE AGAINST FATE. BY Mary Agnes
Hamilton. Boston, Houghton Mifiin Co.
HERE is a truly tragic matter. Drawn from
the familiar current of modern life for its
characters and action, for background and out
come it is, in effect, nevertheless, of classic au
sterity of attitude before fate that is uncom-
promising and memorable. Just story of young
love in the war time, decade and half ago.
An idyl of a love and marriage to set out with
The immediate English setting has both beauty
and blot upon it, but the partnership of the two
chiefly concerned is finely flexible and whole
hearted undertaking. Then the war, with The
young husband going the way of the great body
Of EngliShmen. Both good soldiers, the man
and the woman alike. Home again, upon leave
the man is changed so utterly as to bring ap-
prehenSion and fear to the girl. 1t was but the
war. horrifying the young soldier Throughout
body and soul. No doubt, like woman this one
failed to seize the deep cause, hitting instead
upon some superficial source for the great
change Once more the soldier is home, coming
without notice. There he finds his wife and
their friend-that clever pacifSt NJ. p. Dis
heartened, deranged, Mortified by the war, as
SUCH he, for the moment loses his balance
dvidual that which he had done in bulk, so to
speak, in the trenches. So-you see. Here are
three lives moving along the course prescribed
for them, just as we move. No wrongdoing on
the part of any one of them. All living honor
ably within a common sphere. At the last one
of these is dead murdered. Another is waiting
trial in prison. The woman, blamelesS, yet the
most heavily stricken of all. What about it? An
memorable fate marching upon blind humans
remarkable novel. Its theme big, and por-
tentouS. It's conception adequate for such depth
of vision. It's development steady, straight, sure
toward doom-yet working in material so
human so familiar as to engroSs the reader de-
spite his fears and apprehensions. And Is there
not at the last any easement at all from this
grim destiny? Well, there is a gesture of such
implication-I guess there had to be-but 1t IS
hardly easement after ALL A strong and beaui-
full novel of superb workmanship
CONTACT: And Other Stories BY Frances
Noyes Hart author of The Bsllamy Trial."
etc. New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co.
THE second coming of war literature Of the
war story is now at its height. For definite
reasons this later appearance SurpaSSeS in effect
those writings that were offered a dozen years
ago and thereabout. Then deeply excited
emotions were paramount. There were no
perSpectiveS for readjustments and corrections.
There were no colors save dead blacks and
hectic chromatics. Print, along with every
thing else, partook of the general madness.
Readings were made, when made at all, in the
same extravaganza of mood and feeling. Now
it is different. The healing of time IS in
evidence Only at this later day could the
war story be written in the dispassion with
which war even must be represented. 1t is
only now that the really great war novels are
Ii-I.k hot IaoI With fINo ION
and the trench and the slaughter and the
horror not with movements and campaigns and
commanding officers. It was In this first issue
of the war romance that Contact" made its
appearance. beautiful story, rather mystic
in its Implications romantic throughout. 1t
at its original printing was different thing,
though made of war stuff. Even then warmly
accepted page of artistry I've just read it
again. The same story, the very same. Yet
set in this later atmosphere of tranquility, of
radically changed attitude toward that war,
Contact" takes on new fragrance, new
beauty a new value Not changed in work
manship yet wholly different in its effect. In
this volume there go several Of the Frances
Noyes Hart short stories, some OF th"m new,
few of them reprinted. All Of them sourced,
not alone in pure romance, unless it be the
perennial romance Of fair dealing, rich living
in the things that count fidelity to friendship,
honor among men. Yet these are tales OF the
sophistcate sort, even though they do deal
almost exclusively with good faith and 1air
intent. A fine craftsman joins here with the
imagination of the romancer.
GOLDEN DAWN. BY Peter B. Kyne, author
of Tide of Empire" etc. New York: Cos
mopoitan Book Corporation.
CCIENCE serves the fairy tale even better than
~ the ancient myth does. Evidence of this comes
out in the current novels all around us. Peter
Kyne's latest romance is a case in point. Mod
ern psychology in its probings and findings lies
at the root of this matter. Double personality
accounts for the bewildering behaviors of a
young girl-Penelope Gatlin yesterday, Nance
Belden this morning. The adventure-a true
Kyne invention-gets ahead, on the one hand
by way of the ardors CT detection and pursuit
of the entire police force of the town: on the