Evening star., 1935-02-03
In the World of Books
BY SARAH BOWERMAN

Wallace. New York: The Mac
milan Co.
THE living of Barnham in the pos
L session of Austin Mapperly Is not
such well-ordered, conservative,
prosperous parish as those which Troll
lope and Archibald Marshall have
created. Economic depression has
reduced the tithes and Austin Map
perly is something of a Socialist, and
will not bring pressure to bear on the
farmers. So the dining room carpet
grows more and more threadbare and
the rectory meals more and more
scanty The fat and inefficient serv-
ant Margaret and the untidy found
ling home girl who serves as maid
may not be dismissed either IN the
interest Of economy or better service,
because their very defects will make
it difficult for them to find other
places. Austin Mapperly's two chill
dren are also reluctant to offer eco
nomic aid and stubbornly determined
tc live at the rectory and share pow
erty rather than find employment.
Thomas, slightly crippled from birth.
makes this disability his excuse and
passes his time in practicing on the
cottage piano. strolling in the garden
and playing the church organ on
Sundays. Audrey, expensively edu-
Gated at a good boarding school and
at Cambridge, insists on living at
home and acting as her fathers
curate, when he neither needs nor
desires one. Jerry. the poorly paid
gardener, is the only efficient person
at the rectory. and he so far forgetS
his lowly social station, ignorance of
everything except growing things and
uncultured speech as to fall in love
with Audrey.
About the love of Jerry for Audrey
and the love of the slovenly found
ling-home maid Emmie for Jerry the
whole plot of Miss Wallace's rather
forced tragedy turns. Audrey, abb
sorbed in her dreams of democracy
and the economic place of woman. is
entirely blind to Jerry's melancholy
devotion. The coroner'S jury, even
in their gossip exonerate her of hav-
ing encouraged him. The characters
of the story have verify, from the
unworldly Austin to the poorest but
most worldly of his pariShioners, who
will not come to church lectures un-
less tea and buns are served. Most
of the events of the narrative, which
ambles along slowly until near the
end, also seem close to reality-the
complete collapse of Audrey's lofty
superiority, the humorous love-mak-
ing tactics of Alan Wilmslow, Jerrys
sex psychology toward Emmie-but
the final catastrophe is melodramatic
and strains credence. All we can say
about 1t is what the country women
on Audrey's bazaar committee say
about any parish nisfortunes, that
1t is all for the best.
JOSHUA TODD. BY Fulton Oursler
New York: Farrar g. Rinehart.
A SMALL town, with a main street
on the Eastern Shore of Mary
land, full of mosquitoes and mildly
beautiful" was Joshua Todd's birth
place. There were four degrees in
the towns caste system Joshua Todd
was trash" His father, no asset to
| the family, had mot even a second
cousin on the whole peninsula, and
/ one day he went to Baltimore and
never returned. The law had wanted
him for bigamy. So Joshua had no
legal or social standing. At Is he
was obliged to become the support of
his mother, who had broken down
from hard work and worry, and he
became printers devil on the town
newspaper. DR.. Botsford, who had
brought him into the world and
saved his eyesight which had been in
the balance for four years, was his
friend and adviser.
From some source in his heredity
or from the driving force of his en-
vironment, which included his wife
Blanchey. Joshua had the power of
hard work and the urge to succeed.
Newspaper and magazine work
brought him finally to the editorship
OF a newspaper whose political in
nuence was recognized all over the
Eastern Shore. He also became q
popular writer of Sunday school
stories. He acquired a $4,000 home,
heavily mortgaged. of course, and was
| rapidly becoming one of Denmouth,s
first citizens. But he was discon-
tented, restless. nervous, resentful of
his wife's and mothers continual sug-
gestions and their occasional alliances
to influence him, though they funda-
mentally disliked each other.
| He was no more single-minded than
his father where women were con-
! cerned. Before his marriage he had
a love affair with Evangeline True
berry, wife of his boss; then he mar
ried delicate. childlike. but very de-
termined Blanchey Winters; finally
| when he met Louise Littlejohn, an
actress both charming and enterpris-
ing who wanted to open theater in
Denmouth, his marriage with
Blanchey was doomed. Louise wanted
him to write play for the theater.
He did so, and also bought new suit
of clothes. an act which could hardly
pass unnoticed in Denmouth. He
was plagued with nervous indigestion,
in spite of his secret vice acquired at
this time of having always with him
a certain brand of little black stomach
tablets. The end of this road in his
AACy q COOtly OiIC III uOi1dIo dAIO CC11Ic,
was a Mexican town where the
court house bore over two adjoining
doors the legends "Divorcidados" and
"Matrimonios. A few moments
after the marriage ceremony in a
musty old church, Louise remarked
that she supposed their marriage was
not legal in America, but was in
Europe, and suggested that they,
therefore, live IN Europe until
Blanchey should have completed her
legal arrangements in New York.
Joshua was aghast. He needed all
the money he had left to start over
again in New York. But he found
that he had exchanged one deter
mined wife for another and on the
last page of Joshua Todd's chronicle
he and Louise were sailing for Eu-
rope. Joshua Todd" is a full-sized,
full-blooded novel, much in the man
ner Of Sinclair Lewis.
X \
SOLD OUT TO THE FUTURE. BY
Roy Helton. New York: Harper &
Bros