Evening star., 1933-06-04
BOOKLIST BOOKS: 1892 A Selection
(Pamphlet). Chicago: American Library As
sociation.

- VERY year the American Library Asso-
citation issues a selection of books of
- the year before grouped under classes,
which are recommended as essential to
L. the collections of small or medium
sized public libraries 1t follows that
the list Is a good one for individuals to use
in selecting books for their reading, for there
many persons who cannot read every
good book within a month of its leaving the
press, and after all, book year old is not
yet either senile or classic The classes
under which the books are listed are: Books
and Reading, Ethics and Philosophy. Religion,
Economics and Social Sciences, Language,
Science, Useful Arts, Technical Books, Fine
Arts Literature, Drama, Poetry, History and
Civilization, Travel and Social Conditions,
Biography, Fiction, Childrens Books AS might
be expected, the list has been lavish with its
budget for Economics and Social Sciences, for
interest in those allied subjects has kept pace
with the world depression. Some of the most
important works in this field are "The Unseen
Assassins" by Sir Norman Angel; 'The Mod
ern Corporation and Private Property" by
Adolf Berle; Education and the Social Crisis"
by william H. fitzpatrick; War Debts and
World Prosperity" by Harold G. Moulton; "Re-
covery," by Sir Arthur Salter, and THE United
States in World Affairs" by Walter Lppmann.
Seven books In this list appear also in the
Fifty Books of the Year" collection of the
American Institute of Graphic Arts: Lives"
by Gustav Eckstein; "The Scottish Queen by
Herbert German; COLLECTED Poems of Elinor
Wylie," "Hepatica Hawks" by Rachel Field:
"The Odyssey" translated by T. E. Lawrence;
Mozart" by Marcia Davenport, and The Let
ters of D. H. Lawrence" 1t would be interest
ing to mention titles from every group, but,
since there is not space for that, we will jump
ahead to fiction, which most people read and
in which there is such tremendous gap be-
tween the best and the worst. 1t is an acci-
dent of the alphabet that Phyllis Bentley'S
Inheritance" appears first on the list, but
that is where it belongs, as perhaps the best
novel of the year, unless We give first place
to Hugh walpole's Fortress" third novel in
his Herries series. Pearl Bucks Sons" sequel
to 1.-The Good Earth; Ellen Glasgow's "Shel-
tered Life" Louis Golding's Magnolia Street."
Charles Morgan's Fountain" Nordhoff &
Halls "Mutiny on the Bounty and Francis
Brett Young's "House Under the Water" are
all excellent selections. An outstanding chill
'Hepatica Hawks
MARIE ANTOINETTE The Portrait of an
Average Woman. BY Stefan Zweig New
York: The Viking Press.
\h/RTTERS Of the history of French Itera-
w ture have said of Froissart, historian of
the fourteenth century, that he wrote the first
reduction of his famous "Chroniques" while
under the patronage of Queen Philippa of Eng
land and made it English in its sympathies, but
that in the revision, made when Gui de Blois
was his patron, he rehandled the work to the
advantage of France. Stefan Zweig finds in
the treatment of the character of Marie An
toinette shift which is equally insincere and
equally inspired by political considerations The
newspapers, pamphlets and books of the Revo-
luton denounced her as everything traitorous
and vile, because in order to destroy the mon
archy the Queen as well as the King must be
destroyed. Later, in 1915, when Bourbon was
restored to temporary throne of France, writ
ers Of both prose and poetry created sacred
memory for the murdered Queen and I'VE seem
to sniff the incense as we read" Stefan Zweig
finds In Marie Antoinette, the Austrian trans
planted to France just in time to assist in pay
ing the penalty for the autocratic expressions
of Louis XIV and Louis XIV. neither the loose
woman Of Revolutionary propaganda nor the
martyred saint Of the Bourbon restoration. He
announces her in his title as an average
woman" but as he follows her life, which grew
ever more tragic, he discovers in her elements
of greatness developed by her tribulations, 50
that "just before the mortal, the transient
frame perished the immortal work of art was
perfected"
Among the writer's of the newer, or more
human biography, Stefan Zweig is one of the
most brilliant. His study of Napoleon's min
lister OF police and spy, Joseph Fouche: The
Portrait Of a Politician was an outstanding
biographical and historical event of the year
Of its publication. In his discerning analysis
and his Independent, dynamic method of writ
ing, he belongs with Lytton Strachey and
Gamaiel Bradford. In his Interpretation of
Marie Antoinette he is both sympathetic and
critical. He recognizes her incidence frivoity
and failure to comprehend the significance of
events taking place at the doors of her palaces,
but he finds excuses for her in her neglected
childhood, her early marriage, and the inef-
fectual character of her husband Louis XVI.
He is more charitable to the mother of Marie
Antoinette, Maria Theresa of Austria, than is