Evening star., 1933-10-04
NEW. BOOKS
AT RANDOM
Margaret Cermond.
THE MASTER OF JALNA. BY Mazo
de Ia Roche. Boston: Little, Brown

THE MASTER OF JALNA. BY Mazo
de Ia Roche. Boston: Little, Brown
& Co.
The grandchildren Of Adeline White
oak carry on. Kenny Whiteoak is now
the master Of Jalna, and gathered un-
der the roof Of the old house are more
brothers, nteces, nephews, uncles, aunts
and in-laws than the housewife Of any
one establishment should be called upon
to endure. But 1t Is the tradition of
Jalna that those born within its walls
shall consider no other place as home
1t literally defies the members of the
family which it has sheltered for more
than three generations to live elsewhere
and md happiness. And so the White
oaks have multiplied and waxed strong
amid the stalwart oaks and birches and
the farm lands which are the perpetual
pride Of the estate.
Next to the eternal miracle Of Mother
Nature herself, there Is nothing in the
universe so interesting as her groups Of
human children, which civilization has
segregated into families. For every fam
lily Is peculiarly distinctive. Through
all OF the innumerable varieties of So
ciety, no two families are alike, no mat
ter how closely they may resemble all
other such groups in their daily life. Yet
the same family through generation
after generation may possess the same
characteristics and maintain unfalter-
ingly an almost perfect identicalness.
The closest tie in all human rela-
tionships is that Of the family bond.
Its strength is immeasurable. Yet there
Is frequently cause to wonder why.
There are both parents and children
whose brutal practices and evil deeds
render them hopelessly unqualified to
receive respect from any quarter. The
past decade has witnessed considera-
BILE breaking away from the old stand
ard of fidelity which demanded, at
least in public, pretense Of devotion
to ones own, regardless of the moral
and spiritual depths to which they
may have fallen. A wider freedom of
thought and action has strengthened
the tendency toward individualism in
all social relationships. But in the
main there still exists that intangible
element in the soul of mankind which
YIELDS and unif1es into a tenacious FAM
lily loyalty individuals who could not
possibly find in their hearts the faint
est spark Of affection for each other.
1t is this indefinable intensity of
family kinship which Miss de la Roche
has built upon in her Jalna books.
Why should the Whiteoaks so des-
perately cling together when no two
Of them can ever agree on anything
except that Jalna belongs to them?
They quarrel among themselves and
their respective wives and husbands and
children are constantly at war. They
love each other fiercely and hate each
other violently. Life at Jalna is
marked by incessant turmoil. Above
the confusion and din of clashing
temperaments, however, one note of
triumph is always clear and distinct
The spirit Of old Adeline is still domi-
nant. Even Boney, the ancient parrot
gives evidence that the influence Of his
long dead mistress, who for three-quar-
ters OF century played cards. wran-
gled, supped tea and gossiped. is as
strong factor in the lives of her de-
scendants as it was when she was her
self the dictator of Jalna.
Kenny has become master Of Jalna
by right OF succession as the eldest
grandson Of Adeline. He is forty-five, and
married to Alayne, the former wife of
his brother Eden. The lean months
of the present economic stress are
upon him, and the story Is generally
concerned with his gallant, If somewhat
doubtful, efforts to preserve the estate
which he loves more deeply than any
thing else on earth. His charity is
boundless. though financially his back
is to the wall In every other member
of the large household selflshness is the
outstanding characteristic. but Renny's
one streak of this unpleasant attribute
Is confined to his obsession for Jalna
nd hi lot rty,a fn boz In
tact at all costs. He possesses an ir-
resistible fascination for women, and
as his brothers are also ardent wooers
of feminine affections there are a va
riety of love affairs continuously in
progress
This is the fourth volume in the
Whiteoak saga, and it is as rich in
character and as compelling in its por-
trayal of intensified family kinship as
was the first novel in the series. Only
a true artist could carry forward with
such mastery triumph the story of q
family through three generations and
bring up with the children Of the
fourth in circumstances that give hope
that there will be later narratives about
this remarkable and dominant line of
descendants Of old Adeline Whiteoak
No other writer has SO consistently
maintained the high degree of con-
vincing reality which distinguishes this
quartet Of novels. The first one was
deemed worthy of large prize when it
made its appearance few years ago.
Its successors have superseded each
other in strength of purpose. in quality.
and in the development Of the most
subject under the sun
the family circle.
X X \
MURDER IN THE BATH. BY Roger
Francis Didelot. Translated from
the French by Elisabeth Abbott
Philadelphia: j. B. Lppincott Co.
A pretty young American woman reg
istered in Paris hotel as Betty Smith
son is found dead in her bath, and
brief examination shows that she has
been strangled with rope. The crime
Is discovered when a young man en-
deavors to deliver to the girl valuable
necklace of pearls which she had pur-
chased the day before and ordered to be
handed to her in person at a specified
hour.
That murder has been done is evident
from the fact that though ravelings
from the rope are found in the dark
wound encircling her neck, the rope it
self is missing. Careful search of the
apartment reveals a complete absence
of clues, and nothing can be found
among the personal possessions of the
dead girl to indicate the motive behind
the Staying.
Inspector Dominique Lecain, the envy
of his co-workers in the criminal in
vestigation department of police head
quarters, because he seems to get all
the breaks, is called in by Commits
sioner Santelli and the difficult task of
learning why Miss Smithson came to
her tragc end and who murdered her
is begun. The trail leads by circuitous
routes through half of France, into
prisons and on board ocean liners to
America. then back again to France.
When finally the motive and the cir
of the crime are revealed