Evening star., 1936-10-17
By Mary Carter Roberts.

Sons.
m ERHAPs the most troublesome
- problem of all those connected
with the reviewing of books Is
L the neatness with which most
works in these days fall into types.
One supposes it has always been true
Of lesser works, books written de-
signedly for popular sale and directed
with intent toward whatever fashions
may at the moment be pleasing to the
generality. But it has not always been
true of the works OF greater merit.
Today, however, one finds. to an en-
barrassing degree. among the books of
our better writers an unmiStakable
tendency to conform to well.defined
patterns. One does not know whether
to put it down to sophisticated be-
lief in the essential paucity of human
possibilities or to diSenchanted lack
Of originality. One only sees that 1t
Is there.
To come upon completely original
manner of book. therefore. is almost a
bewildering experience and one which
erouses suspicion even as it moves to
delight. The reaction inevitably is.
There must be trick in it. Sooner
or later conventionality will appear.
Hollywood will rear its ugly head-or.
II not Hollywood, then the Book Of
the Month Club. This Is too good.
It cannot be true"
It is true, however, Of the book
now under review, The Door in the
Grimming," which comes to us from
Germany, from the pen of village
school mistress, the convent-trained
Paula Grogger, who, in the opinion
Of the reviewer, has taken her place
decisively among the great interna-
fional noveliSts, the LagerlofS, Und-
sets and Gathers, that magnificent fra
ternity Of genius.
Fraulein Grogger, to be sure, is well
known in Europe. 'The Door in the
Grimming" is the first Of her books
TO be translated, but, we are told, it
has already gone through 40 editions
in German and has been hailed by
German students in this country for
the masterpiece which 1t is She has
also written four other novels, which
have not been translated. 1t seems
unlikely that she will enjoy great
popularity in this country on the
basis of the present book, however, for
"The Door in the Grimming" is not
obvious. Inquiries at leading local
booksellers elicit the news that it is
selling only moderately we'll" 1t is
not best seller. 1t has now been on
the stands three weeks.
1t is a great peasant epic. The
scene is the village of Oblarn in
-Styria, the authors native land. The
time is the latter years Of the
,Napoleonic wars. There is a legend
In Oblarn of door" in the Grim
ming, the great peak which dominates
the village, behind which door lies
fabulous treasure. A wicked hunter
his soul burdened with deadly sin.
climbs to the door, finds the skull
which opens 1t and goes in. He is
not seen again but his curse fingers
over the village.
The book tells the story Of Mat
tllaus Stralz, son of rich peasant.
The evil hunter had loved Matthaus'
mother. Matthaus comes to believe
that he is the hunters son, leaves his
home and inheritance and becomes
rogue. Pursued and prescribed, he
goes at last to the Grimming door to
give his soul to the devil. His sweet
heart follows him and prays for him
and miracle occurs. One who seems
to be poor outcast peasant woman,
but who must be believed to be the
Mother of God, brings him only water
and enters the cavern. closing the
dreadful door behind her for all time
Matthaus dies uttering a prayer for
the hunter whom he had come to
curse.
Thus what, for lack Of q proper
word, may be called with horrible
insufficiency, the plot. But the book
is not a book with plot" 1t Is
the unfolding OF daily life century
ago, in a community Of earth
enchanted peasants.
1t is the life of the fields and the
soil, not as writer's of modern novels
of the soil" interpret it, but as 1t
belonged to men and women in whom
pagan blood still flowed and in whom
pagan superstition had left its in
delible brain patterns and to whom
the calendar of the Christian religion,
interviewer inextricably with pagan
memories, formed the year, seedtime
and harvest, May day and Advent,
saints days, holy days, while the older
gods moved behind the images and a
witch was called in to cure the COW
that had foundered herself. 1t Is the
life Of the beasts, in their lost intimate
and friendly relation to mankind. It
is life in time when legend and rite
cloaked all observances, and when hui
man nature nevertheless showed its
perennial changelessness In humor,
malice, cowardice, goodness-and
sometimes courtesy. What need Is
there for pilot" with such sweep Of
material?
Yet, with all its scope, "The Door in
the Grimming" does not go beyond
the legitimate artistic confines of the
village. Its people are villagers,
shaped by village existence. They are
not prototypes; they are. with the
utmost simplicity, themselves. Their
lives are conditioned by awe of the
Archduke, reverence for the priest and
q companionable fear of the great
dark inexplicable influences of nature.
Their interests are small, even tiny.
They live under q stone-the great
towering menace Of the Grimming.
They are humble" people, in an un-
eYcentionable sense
The book has universally in so
far as these characteristics stir recog-
milton in all peoples. But it is. too,
deeply German. Fraulein Grogger
herself makes use Of phrase which
hest describes the flavor of her work.
=. only and always" she writes.
sthe childlike German faith which at
twilight longs for its fairy-tale." Her
method of writing has the quaint de-
tachedness OF children innocently tell
ing a grim and dreadful legend. And