Evening star., 1936-01-19
Bv Mary.Carfev Roberts.


rHE practiced reader need pro-
ceed no further than the first
sentence of NJ. de Monther-
- lands present novel to know
that he is dealing with Book. That
sentence reads as follows:
about o'clock on a cold evening
lps February. 1924, man who. with
al: untrimmed beard of doubtful gray,
appeared to be we'll past so years Of
age, stood leaning on one leg outside
q shop in the Rue de la Glaciere, not
far from the corner Of the Boulevard
Arago. reading a newspaper by the
light from the shop front with the
help Of a rectangular magnifying glass
Of the kind used by stamp collectors.
Now here. obviously, is the begin
ming of a story. No one ought to find
1t necessary to read past the beard
to see that.
The present reviewer knew it per-
lectly by that point, and experienced,
moreover, a consuming curiosity to
know what was going to happen to
the old man who stood on one leg
in the cold. She mentally predicted
q macaber tale, one possibly ending
In particularly horrid crime.
She was right, but with qualiflca-
tions. It is a macaber tale that M. de
Montherlant has written, just as she
expected. But its macaber nature
derives from the minds of its charac-
ters, rather than from their actions.
III so far, indeed, as the story is played
oyt in their minds, it partakes OF the
quality of a violent spiritual farce
wherein the author has set his trayed
ard grotesque puppets up for his own
derision and then knocked them over
with a force far exceeding their ne
cessities to the accompaniment OF ms
own harsh and purposely exaggerated
laughter. In so far as it is played out
id action, it is a gray little story OF
perfectly ordinary selfishness that
nowhere reaches above the emotional
level of mild pathos.
The mental action, however, pre-
dominates. It is the tale OF his mems
minds (the novel was originally pub
lished under the title of Les Cell-
bataires') that M. de Montherlant
has concerned himself to write. And
he has made of that an exciting and
original narrative.
'" He relates the end of the life OF an
Impoverished and eccentric count who
finds himself obliged to assume control
of his affairs after 20 years OF COM
plete retirement from the world. HIS
mental processes, as he deals with
lawyers, debts, applications for jobs.
and so on, are the plot. M. de Mon
therlant relates them with an engag-
ing and genial savagery. His test IN
his writer's task is clearly boundless.
And that is the style.
1t is all done with such polish ana
mastery that one hesitates to launch
even a slight adverse criticism. There
a, however, one disappointing thing
about the book-its authors occasional
esno,lsal of his tragi-comic hero S
cause in q vein Of seriousness. When
the prevailing mood of a book Is
pitched on the level OF farce as
ia the case with this, it Is dlscon-
certine to come upon such lapseS INTO
earnestness. l..
On the whole, however, Perish IN
Their Pride is a brilliant and mas
aterfully executed work. 1t brougnt
its author two distinguished awards
-the Grand Prize of the French Acad-
remy and the Heinemann Prize. IL Is
too good to enjoy a great popular sue
cess, but it ought to be read py Inc
capable.
THE LORENZO BUNCH. BY Booth
harrington. Garden City: Double
day, Doran Il Co.
DOoTH HARRINGTON tells in this
- his latest novel, story OF vulgar
lives. That is permissible. vulgar
lives, handled with significance-ex-
hibited, as it were-have furnished the
world with certain masterpieces OF ht-
,erature. Regretably. Mr.. Harrington
has omitted to exhibit. He has failed
to endow his insectivorous characters
with the indispensable blazon which
is significance. He has. instead, re-
lated earnestly, humorlessly. at times
almost tearfully, how life was lived
within the ant heap. For some aston
ishing reason he seems to care. But
he fails utterly to infect his reader
with any like concern. The author OF
1.-THE Magnificent Ambersons" has
here done book which Faith Bald
win probably could have done better.
It is shocking.
He enters a semi-shabby city apart
ment house-the Lorenzo-and spreads
before us the lives of group of its
Inhabitants, four young married cou-
plies, who call themselves the Lorenzo
bunch. One has described them when
one says that the women addressed
each other as hon" and the men
called the city the burg" Yet Mr..
Harrington spreads an elaborate tale
of their fears, hopes and would-be sins
before US and asks us to react to it
seriously. He asks too much.
That is to say, he asks too much for
any literate person. But precisely be-
cause the book is what it is-a story
OF vulgar lives told with a great deal
of familiar detail-one predicts popu-
larity for it. Faith Baldwin might
have done it better, as one has said.
But the people who will read 1.-THE
Lorenzo Bunch" at all will not be
critical. Booth Harrington will do as
well as she. Lord, how the mighty
are fallenl
REALISM AND NATIONALISM,
1s52-1871. BY Roperu g., Binkley,
New York: Harper & Bros.
HARPER q BROS. have recently
= = undertaken to publish q 20-vol-
tide historical series to be called "The
Rise Of Modern Europe" william
Lanker Of Harvard University is to be
editor. The period covered will COM
prise the years between 1850 and 1919.
Each volume Is to be written by dif-
ferent author. The present work. by
Robert Binkley, professor Of history
at Western Reserve University, is de-
signed to be one Of the series. How
ever, like the other volumes which are
projected, ~