Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1933-04-16
QUEER STREET BY Edward Shanks. Indian
apolis: The Bobbs- Merrill Co.

SOrg1n, MaSnOua OCtecC, ny bouS N1oAOAA6,
and "Our Street." by Compton Mackenzie.
Union Square," by Albert Halper is another
novel of the same type. Queer Street" has
much larger personnel than the Others 1t Is
made I'D of all the f-equenters of the Bran
Pie Night Club on "the most madly joyous
corner of Solo, and their families and friends.
1t is party to which come not only the invited
guests, but according to modern custom, the
guests and friends of the original guests as well.
The period is just after the World War, when
imitation is on. both economic and spiritual.
1.-The world, as the young people saw 1t, looked
good and they leapt on to the merry go-round
as it went by" Sergt Bray is the guardian OF
the responsibilities and privileges of the Bran
Pie Club and no one not member or the
certified and paid-for guest of member Is
allowed to pass the portal. His able assistant
is Mrs. Badger, the cloak room attendant.
The Cartarets and the Blabey5 occupy center
stage, as the habitues of the Bran Pie come and
Co. Mr.. Thomas Cartaret had married, against
his will and for reasons of honor, the daughter
of widow who ran lodging house in Addar-
dyce road, Cambridge, while he was an under
graduate there. He took her to live at 3
Tauton road, Highgate, which was socially less
desirable than the location of his parents
residence at q Carisbrooke Square, Regents
Park; but that made little difference, because
his parents had at his marriage removed him
from their list of acquaintance When the
story begins Thomas Cartaret is widower,
with two children Lucy, aged Is. very pene-
trating and disagreeable, and Euan aged IA,
absent minded about everything except his ex-
periments in mechanics. The sister OF his
deceased wife keeps house for Mr.. Cartaret He
has never had the slightest idea of marrying
her and she IS perfectly contented with her
comfortable. shabby home. her languid power
over the household, and the limited amount Of
poor cooking she is expected to perform. In
Hghgate also but in a much better section, in
q mansion on Honey lane, lives Mr.. Blabey,
afterward Sir Maurice Blabey, with his wife and
daughter Phyllis. chance meeting Of the
two men brings the two families together and
effects the dest:nies Of the young people. In
its large background, skill in Characterization
ana power of realism Queer Street" belongs to
the type Of j. B. Priestley's Good Companions"
and Angel Pavement" 1t leaves an impression
of chaotic, aimess London life, which might
be any metropolitan life in the postwar years.
an 'inconclusve muddle," one London critic
has called it,
HUMAN NATURE. BY Edith Wharton. New
York: D. Appleton & Co.
EXCEPT for the necessity Of originality Edith
l. Wharton might have chosen as her title for
this collection of four short stories and one
novelette, Thomas Hardys title of one of his
volumes of short stories-"Life's Little Ironies."
An ironical situation, subtle and bitter as aloes
Funeral begins with the sentence: His wife
had said: If you don't give her up I'll throw
myself from the roof He had not given her
up and his wife had thrown herself from the
roof" Then follows an inquiry into the COM
pick but very natural psychology of Ambrose
Trenham and Barbara Wake, as it appears
through the events of the day of the funeral
of Mrs. Trenham. "A Glimpse" is the story
of quarrel between Brand, famous cellist
and Margaret Aslar, famous pianist-a quarrel
compounded of love and artists jealousy. We
are left to decide for ourselves which predomi-
mates. 10Y in the House" tells of the return
OF prodigal wife, for whom the fatted calf is
presented in the form of fora! greeting which
spells Joy in the House" When all the facts
are known the greeting becomes consummate
irony Diagnosis" is perhaps the best of the
short stories. A mistaken idea about a doctors
diagnosis alters the plans of Paul Dorrence for
the remainder of his life, from 40 on, and re-
veals him in all his unrelieved egotism to the
woman he has loved. Her course, in the face of
her knowledge, raises a delicate ethical question.
There is no question about his deserts. The
novelette,, Her Son. concerns a racket prac-
ticed upon lonely and easily deceived widow
by pair of professional adventures. The story
is told by Norcutt, friend of the widowed
Catherine Glenn not an intimate friend, by his
own account, nor an old lover. Therein lies
some improbability to disturb the reader, for
the devotion shown by Norcutt to Mrs Glenn
and her devious affairs would be likely only as
a result of deep affection a strong sense of
duty. Neither is present in Norcutts case.
Pity and something of detectives curiosity
are his prevailing motives. Edith Wharton has
previously demonstrated her skill in the novel;
cite FORM in Ethan Frome," which will prob
ably be her most enduring work, and her four
novelties in the "Old New York" SERIES Any
thing which Mrs. Wharton writes is certain to
possess maturity and penetration of thought
and the utmost finish o! style
SUNSET SONG. By Lewis Grassic Gibbon.
New York: The Century Co.
CROFTER life in Scotland is over and this
~ is its passing song, song of great beauty