Evening star., 1935-02-17
BY SARAH BOWERMAN

stories in the volume are brief sketches
of episodes, as THE Mordvinian Sara
f1n." study Of sex psychology; "The
Night Of Denial" an Oriental ale
CORY, and "Of Emelya, the Fool" Q
Russian peasants tale. A complete
estimate Of Bunin would require con-
sideration Of his poetry as well as his
prose, but little Of his poetry has been
translated. His prose style, as con-
veyed by what seems excellent trans
lation in this volume as in the others,
The Gentleman from San Francisco" 4"
THE Village" and The Well of Days" I"
is brilliant and aloof, introspective,
never consciously dramatic.
t+*%
DON SEGUNDO sOMBRA. Shadows
on the Pampas. BY Richard
Guiraldes. Translated from the
Spanish by Harriet de Onis. New
York: Farrar d. Rinehart.
TRANSLATIONS of the modern
classics Of South American lit
erature are one route for pan-Ameri-
can understanding. Don Segundo
Sombra" Is one Of the most popular
works Of fiction Of Argentina. Ricardo
Guiraldes was born in Buenos Aires,
in 1886. into the ranch-owning class
which, until recently, benevolently
ruled the country. He spent much
Of his life in travel to most of the
countries of the world except the
United States; was as much at home
in Paris as in Buenos Aires; learned
the art Of writing abroad and brought
it back to apply to the life Of his own
land. He always loved the pampas,
their ranches, and the gauchos, Of
whom he counted himself one. A Ger
tain gaucho of his fathers ranch,
whom he loved and admired from
childhood, he has immortalized under
the name of Don Segundo Sombra
Yet the story is centered not on Don
Segundo, but on the vagabond youth,
bastard son Of great landowner, who
ran away from his sour -visaged aunts
in the town of La Blanqueda, at the
age Of IA, and attached himself TO
Don Segundo. whose life he mad been
able to save few days before. Don
Segundo became his adopted father
and his hero. In the personality and
experiences on the pampas Of the
vagabond boy who at the end came
into an inheritance from the father
who had never acknowledged him. 1t
is not dificult to surmise much that
Is autobiographical; II not in all the
actual facts. at least in feeling and
general action. Guiraldes died in
Paris in 1927, year after the publ
cation of this book.
In his introduction to Don Segundo
Sombra" Waldo Frank compares it
with "Huckleberry Finn" and says that
both books are about frontiers rapidly
vanishing at the time when they were
written. The differences, he says, are
great. The gaucho has inherited the
culture of Spain, which tempers his
primitive life Huckleberry Finn Is at
sea in a barbarous world which has
lost the traditions Of old England.
The Argentinian boy Is alive TO the
nuances OF color and emotion and to
the poetry Of the pampas as well as
to physical adventure. Huckleberry
Finn is realist, Is impressed chiefly
by externals and moved only by sim
pie human emotions. We should add
that, though both boys are egotistic,
unafraid. completely self-asSured, the
gaucho is far more sophisticated in
the ways OF disreputable city life and
is far less of natural humorist than
Huck. Most Of the possible expert
ences Of the prairie hinterlands Of
Argentina are introduced into this
story of the boy gaucho and his foster
father-all the chores Of a ranch, the
frequent drinking Of mate and eating
Of chunks Of roast meat around an
open fire, brawls and drawn knives on
the slightest provocation, ambushes for
enemies, the breaking of wild colts,
cattle round-ups, drinking and dancing
at fiestas. The subject suggests some
of the work Of w. H. Hudson; the
style is more spirited, but far less
subtle and poetic than Hudson's style.
SILVER COLLAR BOY. BY Con-
stance Wright. Illustrated by Rex
Whistler. New York: z. P. Dut-
ton & Co.
IN THIS story Of a lady Of fashion
Of Queen Anne's reign and her
little blackamoor page, Constance
Wright has done a piece Of work as
delicate and elusive as Meredith's s
Tale Of Chloe" some Of Hardy's
tales in the collection "a Group Of
Noble Danes" or, more recently, David
Garnett's Lady Into Fox" About
the widowed Belliza Van Westervelt,
perhaps entirely because Of her luxuri-
ant charms, many rumors were circu-
lated connecting her name with vari-
GUS gentlemen notable in London So
ciety, last of all with the artist, Ma
thaniel Dee, who painted her portrait
as Diana, "negligently wrapped in
azure taffeta and holding in her hand
a silver bow" and attended by her
slave boy. Pompey, wearing about his
neck a silver collar inscribed my
name is Pompey; to Belliza I am
slave" The lady Belliza, living at
Twickenham- on Thames, owned plan
tations in the West Indies, managed
for her by her husbands cousin,
Thomas Van WeStervelt who also
guarded her reputation in England.
When rumor about the painter Dee
threatened to grow into scandal,
Thomas Van Westervelt became wor-
ried about knowledge the black
Cupid" might have obtained during
the painting Of the portrait. He hinted
his removal from the scene. Then In
a terrible thunderstorm, in the year
OF Queen Anne's death, Pompey was
killed by falling wall of a grotto
in the garden. Or was 1t the wall
that killed him? Was he dead at all?
Or was he sent to st. Kits, and did
he meet Belliza and Thomas Van
WeStervelt when they reached there
after their marriage? At any rate
Pompey's ghost appeared to members
OF the Van Westervelt family for two
centuries, whenever death was about
to occur. The craftsmanship of this
novelette,, suggestiveness and skill in
producing atmosphere, make 1t q tale
above the ordinary period romance.
X \ X
LIONS STARVE IN NAPLES. By
Johan Fabricius. Translated from
the German by Phyllis and Trevor