Evening star., 1934-06-24
D4 SARAH BOWERMAN
The Story Of the Tragic King KNIT Ham,
SIMS Novel, ''7he Road Leads On.
Other June Fiction.
.Knut utHam-

disappointment and pity. drawn a terrible pic
ture of a great nation in chaos, with its citi-
sens motivated by hatred and despair. Many
truths about revolution may be realized from
this story of a mixed group of Germans living
in O border town at the time of the rice of Hit
Ter to power. In revolution moderates never
succeed at first; the swing is always to one ex-
txeme the other before sanity Is reached.
In q revolution some heroism Develops but
more meanness and brutality. Revolution never
brings Utopia, perfect society; 1t simply
brings about an adjustment Of humanity to
new stage In its evolution.
The one figure who towers above all others
in Miss Wylie's narrative. in moral and physical
courage, in entire lack of fear, is the physi-
clan, Roth. At his house congregate q mis-
cellane0us group OF men for free discussion and
because there only In the town can they find
something resembling a secure home such as
they all formerly had. His daughter Franzle
serves to them coffee and coffee-cake from her
scanty store But the secure home totters and
falls because Dr. Roth is liberal and, though
no propagandist refuses to bow before Hitler
ard shout the Hell" demand. Because he
knows no fear and scorns anything that may
be done to him and because Franzle, through
experiences which should have been alien to
youth. has also conquered fear. he is able to
retain his equanimity through the loss Of his
home Imprisonment and even the suffering OF
his daughter. He willingly gives his services
In q typhoid epidemic at the NaA prison camp
and gives orders to the officers in charge, whom
he looks upon tolerantly as merely terrified
boys who have never really become adults
Immaturity and fear of life have brutalized
them but. like sick children, they turn help
lessly to the strong, tronic physician. The
tragic love of Franzle and Wolf Won Selteneck,
member of a Nazi group which raids houses
and shops in search Of food, and for brle1
time "Fuhrer" of the Naz camp, brings little
ha to hacauea Of its inevitable
conflicts and its ending is left enigmatic when
the story closes. Miss Wyle's power Of char
acterization and fexibility of style make her
novel much more moving in its effect than any
deliberate propa ganda literature.
THE HOUSE IN THE HILLS. By Simonne
Ratel Translated from the French by Eric
Sutton. New York: The Macmillan Co.
IF MENTAL superiority and superlative train
ing were sufficient to insure just and gra-
cious human relations, Amedee Durras, distin-
guished geologist, and his wife Isabelle should
have been perfectly adjusted to happiness in
their home at Les Bories, "the house in the
hills" Near enough to Paris for convenience.
their retreat among the mountains and old
forests was perfect for Amedees scientific ex-
ploration and writing, perfect also for the
wholesome upbringing of their two children,
Laurent and Iise and their adopted child,
Anne Marie But intelligence did not rule
the relations of Amedee and Isabelle to each
other or to the children the emotional factor
was In control; so irrita atoms, resentments and
violence took the place OF what might nave
been at least contentment Amedee could never
understand what became of the gentle silent
girl with the Latin profile, whom he married
in her parents country home She dlsap-
,artlv Ter thpiF m a
place was an inscrutable ironic woman, who,
at the birth of their first child, became all
mother and a very foolish mother at that ac-
cording to his opinion, who spoiled the cnl-
dren and taught them nothing but baoylsn
nonsense and to dislike him. That his own
complete egotism and violent temper olo more
to produce the dislike than any influence OF
IsabeIe's occurred to him only dimly and In
rare moments of self-realization
Such Is the situation upon which Mile. Ra-
tel. winner of the Prix Interallie for 1882, has
constructed this story which has had wide
popularity in France. 1t is story full OF melo-
drama and we should say of improbabifties. ex-
cept that nothing is emotionally improbable.
The lack of control on the part OF both Ame-
dee and Isabelle is sometimes at least sur
prising. Especially does the violent scene De
tween them in the nursing home, where sne Is
recovering from an operation with 1ts snrleked
recriminations, furious threats, nysterlcai
laughter and brandished fists, cause US to ques-
ton the sanity of both. Yet inherently the Two
characters are real enough-Amedee the m
tellectual sensualist, chahng under the re-
straints of family life, jealous even OF his chill
dren; isabelle the obsessed mother. turning all
the current of her life toward her children, ma
ternal in her attitude even toward Carlisle
phane the man who would have been her lover.
The three children subtly delineated-Lau-
rent, violent yet warm-hearted. hating himself
because he realizes his likeness to his father;
Lise, gay and rrepressible too satiric for child
hood; Anne Marie, Little Crow" in the depths
Of whose child mind dark enigmas are pondered
and solved in uncanny ways. The climax OF