Evening star., 1933-01-29

exhibit for the benefit of foreign students who
desire authentic knowledge of country, for
he is the "quintessence of the United States
Ann Vickers is Mr.. Lewis first novel since
"Dcdsworth," which appeared four years ago.
1t has more knship with "Arrowsmith,' which
many of us consider the most searching and
thoughtful of the Lewis novels, than with Main
Street" or Rabbit" There is not as much
satire; there is more swift punging after the
motives of action, more relating of the various
influences which affect each period of the life
of Ann, than in the development of Carol Ken
nicott and Babbitt. Yet it is question whether
Ann Vickers' will be as popular either of
these two novels Perhaps the American peo-
pie like to see themselves satirized. George
Bernard Shaw has said something of the sort.
Ann Vickers" is the story of the life of one
modern woman, who may probably be con-
sdered typical of many, though certainly not
Of all. The book is dedicated to Mr.. Lewis
wife, Dorothy Thompson whose knowledge and
whose help made it possible for me to write
about Ann" Yet the point of view is not
feminine; Ann is drawn with the broad, though
not heavy, strokes of a masculine pencil. At
the start we are shown AIMS early life and
plainly told that she never got away from its
influence. Her father was superintendent Of
schools at Waubanakee, ILL.,, and one of the
local gentry" The town itself became to her
merely memory picture. "a little humorous.
little touching yet that small town and its
ways, and all her fathers principles of living,
entered into everything she to do in life"
Her life led her, after a college course, into
"a wild medley Of jobs" She studied nursing.
headed toward social work, became woman
suffrage organizer and was arrested for breach
of the peace and several of the other charges
common in militant feminist cases Here Mr..
Lewis devotes some pages to description OF
the court procedure and conditions in the Jail
Other prisons come into the story later BY
1917 Ann assistant head-reSident in a
social settlement.
In her personal life she became part of her
modern world not at all what she expected Of
herself. She knew love and what passed for
love, and she paid penalties. Her career life
and her social life neither stagnant nor
peaceful Her companions along the way we're
not in the old-fashioned sense desirable" We
are left to decide for ourselves whether she
found it all satisfactory. Mr.. Lewis summarizes
her: THE Captive Woman, the Free Woman,
the Great Woman, the Feminist Woman, the
Domestic Woman, the Passionate Woman, the
Cosmopolitan Woman the Village Woman-the
Woman
FLIGHT OF THE SWAN: A MEMORY OF
ANNA PAVLOVA. BY Andre Oiveroff,
told to John Gill. New York: E. p. Dut-
ton & Co.
THE FIST classical dancer Of Pavlova for 10
years, Andre Oliverof accompanied her
on triumphal tours in New York Toxic Havana
and throughout Europe. His biography is not
confined to her art but is also an Interpretation
Of her as business manager of her company
and as just woman He says Of her: Anna
Pavlova was a curiously aloof person. She
had great warmth, great kindness and, OF course
as any one knows who ever saw her dance,
great passion, too; but in the last analysis
she pressed these things into the service Of her
art"
The great technical secret of Pavlova is ex-
planned in her power of shifting her balance by
moving the muscles Of her instep, while poised
on her toe. Oliveroff's first vision of Pavlova
is described in the chapter Mirage" where
he tells how he danced for her and felt like
"a befuddled youngster." The career Of the
queen of the Russian ballet was one with
few checks and hindrances, and when she died
at 49, she had, Of course, only decline to look
forward to, had she lived The volume is illus
trated with many photographs of Pavlova on
the stage and in private life. It is perhaps
blemish that the author has chosen to write
in the first person, as it places him at times
too much in the foreground, but he has dis
claimed any motive of autobiography. for he
says: The lives Of all OF us who came under
the shadow of her magic dancing arms, were
thenceforward nodded, shaped, by her"
JEHOL: CITY OF EMPERORS BY Sven
Hedin. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co.
A REPLICA of one of Jehols finest temples,
the Golden Pavilion of Potala was recently
erected under DR.. Sven Hedin's direction at the
Century of Progress Exposition grounds in
Chicago DR.. Hedin is at present, or was very
recently, in China and must have feen i'm
pressed by the way in which the Japanese drive
on Jehol has given unusual timeliness to his
book. In visiting and writing about Jehol, the
Swedish explorer chose deserted city, Sum-
mer home Of the Manchu emperors and seat
of their many palaces. called the Fontainbleau
of China. 1T was worth while building, within
the very boundaries of Mongolia, city that.
by its religious character and the splendor Of