Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-04-19
% IDA GILBERT MYERZ
ADitJerent Sort Of Novel From the Pen Of a
NezU WrIter-More About the B0rgias.
Politics and Some O. the EarySpring
Fiction
NezU Writer

will be more .ot more, to say later. The very
print is swollen with promise. OverenthusaS-
tic? Well, let me alone.
THE BORGIAS: Or, At the Feet of Venus. By
Vicente Blasco Ibanez, author of THE Four
Horsemen of the Apocalypse" ETC. From the
Spanish by Arthur Livingston. New York:
E. P. Dutton g. Co.
A CASE of special pleading for the Borgian
Popes, Spanish in blood, like Ibanez him.
self? Not at all. Not in any sense that. A
quite splendid historical novel instead, whose
controlling purpose is to hold its substance
strictly to the time and the customs to which it
belongs.
We humans are meddlers and compound be-
sides, of enormous egotisms. Therefore, our own
period Is the one by which all others must be
appraised and usually condemned. 1t is such
myopic disability in our historic evaluations
that Ibanez confrontS and resistS in THE
BorgiaS." ReSistS, not by declaration and pro-
nouncement, not Vicente Blasco Ibanez. In
place Of such impotent procedure he spreads
gorgeous story, a love story in effect, though
through it runs thread Of research by way
of which the old canon descendant and devotee
of the Borgian PopeS, revives in strict detail
the history of these famous Spaniards. His
nephew in purpose student, precedes Don
Balthasar to Rome for the sake of these hlial
researches. But love is mghtier than lore,
and So before Rome is reached, young Claudio
Is ensnared beyond any usefulness in behalf Of
the honor of his ancestry. To both of these
lines, passion and piety, Ibanez devoteS his
own lavish eloquence and rich artistry. And to
both he Is equally faithful. Therefore one
draws from this novel an authentic picture Of
Rome in the Borgian era, and an equally be-
Gevable account Of the vagaries Of a young man
in love. Especially pleasing Is the expert and
unreserved psychology exercised here upon the
male in this trying and revealing period. The
whole, however, is commanding in its interest
whether one reads for authentic history or for
the less stable manifestations Of passionate
human love.
OF one thing we may be sure The effort,
quite praiseworthy. on the part Of this writer
to give pause to people in their swift and ig-
norant judgments Of other days and ways will
fall away quite useless. We shall go on exc
Grating Lucretia Borgia a female monster
though many times she has been proved a
model to the day in which she lived. We like
to be that way.
A most absorbing romance, q sumptuous pic
ture.
RELENTLESS. BY Myrtle Johnston, author
of Hanging Johnny" New York: D. Apple
ton Co.
THE story gets its start by way of a mans
revolt against the civilization into which
he was born. A few years ago 1t was quite
common, you know, for genius to betake itself
to islands Of the sea, there to go native" Well,
this particular rebel went from London to ST.
fore setting out achieved matrimony and twins.
The account has to do, therefore, with life for
this family among wild Siberian tribes and the
rigors Of Siberian weathers. The wife died. OF
course. The man turned tail TO his great adj
venture Of simple living and ran back to Lon
don with his children, for succor and support.
A little late for him. He died. too. It is the
effect Of these early years upon the children as
they move along toward youth and its beckon-
tngs Unhappy in the one bewildered and I'M
fanVA In tINA 9TH NHWN gaVNf
So was Hanging Johnny" Both Of them, how
ever, bespeak openly . quality Of workmanship
so austerely honest, so undeviatingly faithful
to the spirit Of the theme and its development
in circumstance and mental reaction to this,
that the author OF these two novels comes, it
seems to me, as near to the rank Of genius as
any other writer OF the present Nearer than
all, save couple, maybe. So young, too. When
Myrtle Johnston wrote Hanging Johnny" she
was only 10. That but couple Of years ago.
Nothing savoring Of the prodigy here. Fine and
high work, instead, that Is calculated to de-
light readers who do like the touch of the artist
now and them even in the matter Of current
novels. Not fronted upon popularity, this adj
mirable work. It is too penetrating. too con-
SciouS Of the terror OF life, as well as of its
beauty. Two novels to bring joy to exacting
readers. The second one bigger than the first,
but no more inspired, no more competenty
pursued as art in current literature.
POLITICS. BY Harold j. Laski, professor Of
political science in the University of Lon
don. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co. The
Hour Library.
THE excellent purpose Of the Hour Library
Is to establish practical relationship be-
tween the crowding hours of the present and
the scant time for reading or study that can be
snatched from these.
Ponderous volumes, save for special research
or professional pursuit, are as much out OF
step with the modern rush as would be the
camel train or the covered wagon Their