Evening star., 1936-05-02

by the novel of sophisticated disil-
lusion. For, while we have had many
workers in that thorny field since
Huxley set up his banner there. none
of them have in any permanent
manner carried the genre beyond his
development. He gave us an acid
SmartneSs and a determinedly rea-
Soned despair. SmartnesS (more or
less) We have had since then and
despair by the buShel measure, but
no one seems to have gone with conf
dence beyond. The next step in such
writing is, of course, an aimiable but
unlimited cynicism, a cynicism that
shall substitute worldly amusement
for angry bitterness. Christina Stead
seems to have mastered this genre.
Her The Beauties and Furies" is
delicately mocking comment on human
pretenSionS. She deserves admiration
for her service to the bogged-d down
novel form even as much as for her
undeniably brilliant execution. She
has done a delightful book.
1t is a novel in which that much
hankered-after quality. "sophistica-
tion," rests not on descriptions of
sophisticated (Which generally means
no more than expensive) backgrounds
(as, for example, in the latest work
of the admired Rebecca WesO but
on the writer's own capacity for
mocking her subjects, whether they
be ideas or persons, and for giving
her mockery with good humor rather
than with savagery. This Miss Stead
does with virtuosity. Her plot is ut
terly negligible-which is as it should
he. She simply assemblies group of
people and lets them talk themselves
out of any possible claim to respect.
They show themselves to be vari-
ously weak, untrustworthy, self-pity-
ing. Charitably she allows them to
remain charming. She emerges at
the end, reality, an ironical puller
of strings, while her characters droop
sadly, puppets beyond question. But.
as In any good puppet show they have
shown us something in their hour Of
action. And that is her aimiably con-
temptuous estimate of the futility of
most of our lives.
One must watch her work with in
terest. Having come so far, she may 60
even farther. But whether she does
or no, The Beauties and Furies" is
a book to be read by-one supposes
one dare say it?-the sophisticated
reader.
THE STORY OF CONGRESS. BY
Ernest Sutherland Bates. New
York: Harper & Brothers.
THIS clearly-written work is his
tory of Congress from its founding
up to, almost literally, the present day.
1t is as interesting as could be ex-
pected from its subject-one says it
with no humorous intent. For, while
biographies of individuals may be abb
sorbing, those of movements and bodies
seldom are. Mr.. Bates has done a
first-rate job, however, in presenting
to us the acts of our National Legis-
lature which he considers of chief
Importance.
He observes in his preface that his
book is not an adequate" history. "It
| is evident he says, that an adequate
| history of Congress would be a life
work. And when one had finished it.
he might have serious doubts whether
his life could not have been better
! spent.
''* the author of the present work
has aimed merely to present a modest
record Of the doings of Congress for
| the information of the general reader
** he has been obliged to confine
himself to those events which seemed
to him the most important and inter-
eSting."
| Few readers perhaps will peruse the
chapters which deal with the past as
interestedly as they will those which
cover our present administration. Mr.
Bates reveals himself here to be pro-
Rooseveltian, although only up to a
point. He says:
However inadequately Congress and
the President represented the mass OF
the people, they certainly more nearly
represented them than did the Su-
preme Court. Behind the latter, as in
the days of Hamilton, stood the plu-
tocracy. The fundamental issue was
the same that had confronted Ameri-
can democracy from the beginning
To Franklin Roosevelt and the Seventy
fourth Congress was given the choice
tHot In
clined, of locking horns with the Su-
preme Court in a final battle to de-
termine whether America in the last
analysis should be ruled by the judici-
ary or the Legislature, by the imme-
diate representatives of the plutocracy
or by the distant representatives OF
the people.
Little in the past of Franklin Roose-
velt or the Seventy-fourth Congress
justified the belief that they would
have either the will or the courage to
face such an issue. Trained in the
technique of compromise and them
selves half-trained in their opposition
to the plutocracy, it seemed more likely
that they would trust to the soldiers
bonus and other favors to special
pressure groups to secure the votes
necessary for their return to Office in
1886. If so, it would mean one more
defeat for democracy, and possibly
the last"
Not infrequently the book betrays
the authors own feelings, but these
never obtrude unreasonably. On the
contrary they impart a living quality
to what could be dry as dust. In so
far as our Congress can be made enter
tanning, Mr.. Bates has done it.
FIASCO IN ETHIOPIA. BY Wynant
Davis Hubbard. New York: Har-
per & Bros.
IN AUGUST. 1885, Wynant Hubbard
went out to Ethiopia to cover a war.
In January, 1886, he left the job, hav-
ing seen just one piece of warlike
action in the whole time. He was
disguised, and his present book is a
pungent expression of that disgust