Evening star., 1935-04-21

AND SOME RULERS
OF These Books Are Made and They Join the Spring Deuge
ofPrnted Words-An Interesting Life of Roscoe
Conkling Of New York.

she damaged him irreparably by CIV
ing him the reputation Of cruel and
bloody tyrant. She supplied him with
forged evidence which induced him
to put to death many innocent per-
sons, including some of his own rela-
tives. Finally he had her executed
and then married the worst surviving
woman in Rome, his own niece,
Agrippinilla, whose vicious son, Nero,
he made his heir. When Claudius
died, poisoned, in AID. 54, Nero be-
came the Emperor whose name has
ever since been q byword for in
genious atrocities. Mr.. Graves has
done SO well with his two Claudius
novels that he might acceptably give
us novels about Caligula and Nero.
THE EMPRESS FREDERICK. BY
Princess Catherine Radziwill. New
York: Henry Holt g. Co.
PRINCESS RADZIWILL is the
niece by marriage of that Elisa
Radziwill who was the early love of
Emperor William I of Germany and
the one bright spot in his troubled
and unhappy life" The connection
with the Empress Frederick, eldest
daughter of Queen Victoria. wife of
the briefly ruling Emperor Frederick
and mother of Kaiser William II, is
represented as being psychologically
important. Because of his own thwart-
ed love. when his father compelled him
to give up Elisa and marry Princess
Augusta of Saxe-Weimar, William
never forgave his son and daughter
in-law for loving each other and being
happy and was hostile to Victoria
Adelaide -Mary-LouiSa, princess royal
of England, from her arrival at the
age of l8 as the bride of his son and
heir apparent. This explanation may
or may not have validity. but it is we'll
known history that the life of the En-
press Frederick at the German court.
in spite Of the close companionship
between herself and her husband, was
unhappy, tragic.
With military methods, Emperor
William, Empress Augusta, Bismarck
and finally her own son, the late
Kaiser, all tried to break her spirit
| and deprive her of the dignity which
should have been hers. One reason
for this attitude was probably simply
that she was English; more serious
one was her participation in public
affairs and her expression OF political
opinions, contrary to .Prussian tradi-
tion for princesses. Dictation In her
personal life was carried so far while
she was crown princess as to prohibit
visits to her English home except with
the consent of the Emperor. She was
Empress only three months, as Fred
erick was dying man when he be-.
came Emperor. She survived her
husband over 10 years, years Of humil-
iation because of the treatment she
suffered from her son and Bismarck.
Princess Radziwill was the personal
friend of the Empress Frederick and
has had access to much Of her corre-
spondence She also has intimate
knowledge Of the German court. Her
book can hardly be called partisan
i in Interpretation. but is based on
many established facts.
ELIZABETH, EMPRESS OF AUS
TRIA. BY Maureen Fleming. New
York: Kendall & Sharp.
ONLY the gossipy, story type Of
~ biography would be. suitable for
Elizabeth of Austria. and Maureen
Fleming has employed the type in its
ultimate form. She follows history
for the basic facts. but the details are
doubtless highly fictionized. Elizabeth
of Austria, Empress of Franz Joseph,
was from childhood to her death. at
the age of 81. beauty, a lover OF
pleasure, a wild spirit, intolerant OF
all restraint either social or ethical.
"She would be humanitarian before
! her time She would become a great
beauty, an asthete, another Magda-
lene rebel angel of mercy, a beloved
prophecies, more psychic, more accu-
rate than any of the second-sighted
gypsies." She was wholly the child of
her father, the lawless Duke Max OF
Bavaria; not at all the child of her
mother, the conventional Ludoveca,
daughter of King Maximilian Joseph
I of Bavaria. On both sides OF her
parentage she belonged to the mad
Wittelsbachs of Bavaria. That prob
ably explains a great deal. When
Elizabeth was %, she had a strange
friendship with her cousin, the mad
King Ludwig of Bavaria, and, dressed
as Leda and Lohengrin. they talked of
philosophy. music and love in his cas-
tie on the Isle of Roses in the Lake
of Starnberg. Her lovers were many.
love of her life" Elizabeth f1oated on
clouds with her lovers. If they fell
off the cloud-they fell out Of her life
forever. Her children brought her no
satisfaction, for they were removed
from her Immediately to be brought
up according to court etiquette. The
tragedy of the violent death of her
son Rudolf, the heir, was shock from
which she never recovered in the nine
years which intervened before her own
violent death at the hands of an as
sassin on the lake promenade at
Geneva.
THE MYSTERY OF KHUFU'S TOMB.
BY Talbot Mundy.
THEY CALLED HIM DEATH. BY
David Hume.
BETWEEN MURDERS. BY Sherry
King
THE MURDER OF MISS BETTY
SLOAN. BY Sidney Williams.
MURDER AT MARSTON MANOR
BY Robin Forsythe. All in the
Tired Business Mans Library of
Detective and Mystery Novels. New
York, D. Appleton Century Co.
TALBOT MUNDY introduces his
popular Jimgrim, or James IS
Schuyler Grim, in Egypt among a
| tho,ISo nd O croc NJ co nd ahoi1t An miles