Evening star., 1933-10-22

ping shell that have picked up on the shore!
In 1t world is weeping. A world is dying But
in it, likewise, hear already the crying of the
child There is little relation between M. RoI-
lands earlier masterpiece, Jean Chrstophe,"
the biography of philosopher musician, and
this biography of a woman, who faces the world
indepe endently except in relation to her son.
M ROLAND, probably Frances foremost novelist
tthough some might put forward the claim of
Marcel Proust, is a romantic a believer in the
freedom of the human spirit, and a sad pro-
testant against all that hampers that freeoom
THREE CITIES. A Triology BY Sholam
Asch. Translated by Villa and Edwin
Muir New York: G. p. Putnam's Sons
CT. PETERSBURG, Warsaw. Moscow-al,
- three cities have their personalities. as did
Zolas Rome" Paris" "Lourdes" And the
naturalism of Sholam Asch is not unlike that
OF zola. st. Petersburg, capital of the Car.
is city into which the riches Of the whole
Worio stream warsaw is city into which,
at dawn, the carts of peasants from the sur
rounding country and villages pour, bringing
MIX eggs fowls, potatoes cabbages and fruit
MOSCOW is the city of revolution into which
revolutionaries crowd and from which i'm
poverished exiles flee. Like Tolstois War and
Feace Three Cities" is a gigantic epic of an
era Two Jewish patrician families. the Mir
kins and the Halperins, carry along the mar
rative which involves the social history Of
Russia and Poland from the zenith-days of
Nicholas II through the Bolshevik Revolution
Both material and method, in the mass of
detail and the repetition, are typically Russian
and often suggest the work of Dostoievski
The Mirkin- -T1alperin triology is too extern
slve to be susceptible of easy summary
Gabriel Mirkin, timber king of Russia, is proud
to call himself Russian and has practically
divorced himself from Judaism. His son, Zach
firo1 -roo
his father for every reason. As child he
resents the death of his mother alone at
Davos, and resents it the more when he later
learns of his fathers mistress the opera singer
Helena. He Identifies himself with the cause
of the unprivileged Jews of the Pale and de-
mands financial assistance for them from his
father, which Gabriel refuses. Zachary is
driven into revolutionary activities through his
horror at the sufferings of his coregionists.
There is also a complicated relation with the
Haiper1n family, when the daughter of Hal
perrin prominent Jewish lawyer, becomes the
hancee of Zachary. and Zachary breaks off
the engagement because he loves Nina's mother
more GABRIEL, giving up his mistress. finally
marries Nina. In the third part of the tri-
ology, the Revolution brings sudden and shock
ing change to the Mirkins and Halperins as
to all the rest of Russia. There are some
terrible scenes, probably no more terrible than
reality, of human torment, mental and physi-
cal, and of human courage and human disin-
tegration. This is not propaganda novel;
There is in it little of politics, though there
is much of race conflict. 1t is however pri-
marily story of human lives caught in the
1nescapable grip of circumstances.
CRY HAVOC! BY Beverley Nichols Garden
City: Doubleday, Doran & Co.
WHAT WOULD BE THE CHARACTER OF A
NEW WAR? BY Sir Norman Angel and
Others. Enquiry Organized by the Inter-
Parliamentary Union, Geneva. New York:
Harrison Smith g. Robert Haas
INTELLIGENT fear is behind both of these
i thoughtful books. Psychologists warn against
fear as the most destructive of human emotions,
but fear Is originally protective instinct and
among intelligent people is more often than
not based on logical reasoning Beverley Nichols
and all the 18 writer's Of the second book listed
have in their minds reasoning fear of another
World War. Beverley Nichols, who is hardly
recognizable in this intense protest against fur
ther war as the author of the delightful book
about gardens, Down the Garden PATH" ad-
dresses himself to the men who will be called
upon to fight in the next war; which he fears
is imminent. His first chapter is a letter to
H. g. Wells, whose fears and whose views to a
great extent coincide with his own His last
recently at Oxford voted for the famous Union
resolution THAT this house will in no circum-
stances fight for King and Country" Mr..
Nichols encourages the young man in this SUI
preme pacifist attitude and says that "the hour
has struck in the worlds history when
every man who wishes to serve his country must
realize that patriotism is the worst service he
can offer it." Mr.. Nichols book has caused
considerable stir in London, where it has been
answered by Maj Francis Brown, who
declared that pacifism is an insidious poison"
which promises peace but brings the opposite
Mr.. Nichols writes with SO much feeling and