Evening star., 1932-02-07

Is the way of Sylvia ThompSons latest novel.
The surface movement carries toward the
marriage of the rich Jews daughter JaSmin,
with Charles Bitterne, of the old, old
masters OF Melcombe. AS mere courtship and
marriage this is no more than one of the ST
varieties of that special form Of possession
and prepoSseSsion Save only that Sylvia
Thompson is an adept in the Of detail
as the only means Of delivering words over into
life itself So here is finely sensed seizure
of two complete disparates approaching each
other along the old road leading TO wedlock.
Even this momentous matter is not the high
point in Summers Night" though it serves
so powerfully to bring the true essence Of
the story into the open. That high point,
that open, is the portraiture Of contrast be-
tween an older England and the one of today
that carries this novel to a level certainly not
reached before even by Sylvia Thompson.
Living pictures, innumerable little and big,
animate the theme and bring every turn of it
straight to the eye ard mind. And this gives,
it seems to me, the most permanent and most
significant quality to the novel as a whole.
new way with words, Staccato way, is
less pleasing than the substance of the matter
is. A drift toward epgram and caustic phrase
also scales off a shade from the usual work
of this writer. But the story as a whole is
quite conclusively big and fine
THE SILVER BRIDE BY Ethel M Dell
author Of Storm Drift" etc. New York:
G: P. Putnam's Sons.
\ BRIDE OF the silver wedding variety, take
it, since the pair had already been mar
ried long enough to achieve a couple of
children, many disagrcementS, and rather
complete disenchantment. That is, on the part
Of the lady herself. This was in World War
times. Patriotism called and the lady went to
the front as hospital nurse. One night enemy
bombs stormed the building. Out of immediate
death menace, the nurse and her patient were
saved. A common peril and mutual gratitude
are provocative influences and so the two, quite
naturally, fell in love with each other. But
you recall, there was back in England hus-
band and two children and home. So, Marcia
Templeton went back where she belonged. How
to manage? What to do in respect to the new
call? Being a woman, Marcia developed a
theory of the benefits to be derived from family
ties broken for-Say week each year. And
that was the way Of it for a quite considerable
time. Several years maybe. Then, one day
the soldier hover brought the lady back to a
perfectly good husband with the cheering
word that the husband had, all the time, been
in reality, the object of his wife's dreams to
say nothing of her waking moments A frank,
and manly, aVowal with assurance, tacit but
none the less sincere that here was precious
package of positively undamaged goods. But,
why, in even slight measure, mar the joy of
Ethel M Dells thousands of readers In an
other romance from this writer who for 26
novels has held them in thrall! These will
accept the outcome by virtue of the one offer
ing it. Had providence turned the trick, or
any other Of the gods of life, these readers
would have said: "Nonsense!" "Pish!"
"Pshaw!" "Pooh!" But Ethel Dell is
magician with words and inventions and, so, to
her large following she has become a sort of
literary mama provided, periodically, for the
refreShment of this host