Evening star., 1935-07-24
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
Morgaref CsrmOsd.
NOT BUILT WITH HANDS. BY Helen
c. White. New York: The Macmil-

MI DULL Win 1ANbo. by Lictch
c. White. New York: The Macmil-
Ian Co.
Matilda OF Tuscany, warrior, eulturist
and religionist-who more than eight
ard q half centuries ago was perform
ing as q matter OF course feats Of lead
ership beside which modern feminist
crusaders assume q sickly hue-comes
forth from the pages of history in the
dress of an authentic novel to recount
in q fictionized narrative those stirring
events of the eleventh century to which
she dedicated her life and her fortune.
Tragedy and change had stamped
their indelible impressions upon the
child-mind of Matilda long before the
incident with which Miss White begins
her story. Boniface II, her father. had
been murdered when she had barely
reached the age Of six and the death
In prison Of her older brother and her
sister three years later had left ther sole
heiresS, at the age OF nine. to The accu-
mulated lands of her ancestors, the
richest estate in all Italy. She remem-
bered the unjust detention OF her
mother, the famous Beatrice of Bar, in
Germany, and she remembered. also. the
treachery OF Henry that had caused her
father to sever his allegiance to the
Emperor
Whether 1t was resentment or affection
that eharted the course OF Matilda's life,
who knows? Perhaps both entered into
the integration of the maturing mind.
She admired and adored her mother.
whose marriage TO Godfrey " of Lor-
raine had given her q stepfather TO
whose companionship. friendship and
affection she responded with sincere
devotion. And the fact that Godfrey
was the brother Of Pope Stephen TX also
counted strongly in favor Of the church.
Miss White commences her story with
Matilda riding toward Rome after q bat
tie at the Brook OF Aquino, where a
week before she had spurred her horse
TO the front at critical moment and,
surprising the enemy, won a victory for
her soldiers against an invading army
OF Normans. She is still flushed with
the pride of conquest over an ancient
foe and of having saved her lands and
her allies. She is twenty -One and Is
filled with q sense OF having justified
herself and her position before all men.
From that incident the Geographic and
historic account Of Matilda's career goes
forward in chronological order through
the years OF her struggle TO save
her lands and her people from conquest
and TO build q kingdom not made by
hands, but founded upon the Church OF
Rome. 1t Is the human side OF the story
of q womsn's participation in a contin-
uouS conflict waged against the Emperor
over inveStiture, and OF her undaunted
courage in support OF Gregory VII.
through fortune and misfortune, tragedy
and triumph.
Her marriage 10 Godfrey v, son OF her
stepfather and q hunchback is given q
touch Of romance In favor OF Matilda,
though history records that it was q
marriage Of policy, that he welded her
only when circumstances made it i'm
possible for him longer TO postpone the
event and that as q husband he proved
unworthy Of the noble margarine. The
story OF her second marriage, TO Seven-
teen-year- -old Wolf v of Bavaria also
an alliance OF convenience and even less
successful than her life with the finally
murdered hunchback. is not included
The plundering Of Matilda's lands, her
great losses and the eventual recovery
of all OF her possessions, the famous
scene at CanoSsa in 1917 of the PEN
nance of Henry w before Gregory. the
OI SulDCIL AtlO Ills uc-
prival OF the srchbiShopric of Ravenna
and the campaigns against the Normans
reach upward from the past and become
vivid realities in an artful and romantic
Interpretation of the life of the great
countess, who died at Bodeno eight hum
dred and twenty years ago today.
y
NEVER MIND THE LADY BY David
n@AI
a. Co.
It takes little in South America to
start q hght, a riot, q revolution or a
romance, and in the course of few
hours Terry Willett a -blooded young
giant from the upper half Of the hem
iSphere, successfully launches all four
In an effort to break through the bar
riers of political crookedneSs in the town
Of Propionoire and force the shipment
of equipment and supplies to an interior
engineering camp. Terry's father, whose
creative genius has dotted the globe with
engineering achievements, is again near
ing the completion OF a work believed
by his contemporaries to be impossible.
The project is that of harnessing the
ungovernable Palva River to make it
navigable and to permit direct access
W Vic ltSi SOhCC VI IIlS
interior Fever has stricken the camp.
and quinine as well as the long overdue
equipment is urgently needed If the dam
Is to be completed before the turbulent
waters undergo their seasonal change
into q raging, destructive fiood.
Terry calls upon the Ambassador from
the United States to make a last appeal
for action and, failing, undertakes the
single-handed job of forcing the crooks
In charge of the loading of ships to place
his goods on board the Para jaibo. The
Legation Club Polo Ball is in progress,
and 1t is to this scene of festivity that
Terry traces the United States repre-
sentative. He meets q dazzling young
woman, briefly acknowledges her ex-
istence and tramps Of to the docks
Allaire West, daughter Of q member
Of Congress, wealthy, beautiful and
temperamental, is not accustomed to
having handsome men ignore her. Terry
Willett has injured her pride and piqued
her Unsuitable thirst for adventure. She
follows him, overtakes him, and when
things begin to happen on the docks she
saves his life
The man-to-man fight turns into a
near riot with Allaire's quick handling
of a revolver. and revolution, already
simmering. begins to boil. Romance also
is launched upon q tortuous career, in
which Washington and New York So
ciety, airplanes, floods, blackmail, slow
ships, fever and the conQuering of the