Evening star., 1937-11-13
EX-KING TOPIC is. POPULAR
Although Whole Truth of Edwards Abdcaton May Not Be
Known Until British Archives Are Opened, "Why Edward
Went Is Coherent Account of the Event.

tude toward love and that of the par
ticular Anglo-Saxons of the time Of
King Edward VII. The young English
woman, we are informed, had a degree
from Oxford and was generally known
to be very well educated. Nonetheless
her notions about what are called "the
facts of life," at the age of %, were
extremely sketchy. 1t seems little
queer, but there is no need to quarrel
with that. Edwardian daughters had
Victorian parents. 1t may have been
possible for an Edwardian blue stock
ing to get clear through her college
days without speculation that might
add to her worldly wisdom. We can
only take Miss Ann Bridges word
for it that she did.
Well, thus equipped. Miss Bridges
young woman comes to serve as gov
erness in large tribal Italian family
which numbers among its members q
handsome count. He falls in love with
her. At the same time the countess,
who has employed her, falls in love
with him. Result: Countess fires gov
erness. Next result: Governess unfor-
tunately goes to counts house to ask
for assistance. Then what might have
been a disaster is averted by the inter-
vention of two strong-minded and
benevolent old ladies of the aforesaid
tribe. Miss Bridge plainly puts great
reliance on strong minded old ladies
as means of getting her plot to
proceed. Her book simply bristles with
them.
The happy ending is that the sadder
and wiser young Englshwoman loses
her count but gains his cousin, much
finer fellow anyway. And everybody
is simply wreathed in smiles.
The reviewer has no hesitancy in
predicting best seller status for this
book. 1t is the stuff OF which all really
good best sellers are made.
THE PIECES OF A FAN. BY Vincent
Sheean. Garden City: Doubleday,
Doran g. Co.
THE publishers announcement on
the jacket of this book declares
that the reader will find within "a
distinguished volume of short stories
which places the author of Personal
History among the masters of this
medium" The reviewer does not agree.
Mr.. Vincent Sheean has already
shown that his talent does not lie in
the field of fiction, but rather in his
ability to invest actual events with the
unreality and glamour of fiction. He
writes competent short stories because
he is most competent writer. But
they sound very like the short stories
of a dozen other competent writers.
They are far from being the products
of master of the medium"
The IA stories included in the pres
ent collection have the quality of the
fiction commonly published in what
are called our better magazines :"
That is, they are slightly portentous
without making clear what they are
being portentous about; they are
marked with an awareness in the au-
thor of the commercial value of some
thing called "futility," they are per-
fectly predictable and they are dark
ly wordy. None Of them have any
depth, none of them could conceivably
stir the emotions. Indeed, the fact
that they are better magazine" stuff
would preclude that. Our better"
organs seem to consider it indecorous
to use anything not conventionalized
into the soporific.
So the reviewer cannot concede that
the publishers estimate of Mr..
Sheean's amazing literary talent" is
justified. She herself was not amazed
at any point. She was simply able to
read patiently. There is nothing Of
fensive. of course, in THE Pieces of
Fan" There is nothing lively enough
in it for that.
EIGHT DECADES. BY Agnes Rep
piled. Boston: Houghton- Mifflin Co.
IT IS a little hard for a reviewer
reviewing in 1887, to know to whom
this volume should be commended
1t is a collection of essays, mostly
iSiihlAAoSCllly Will lllC lCilillllSIcllCcS
given over chiefly to literary matters.
Who, in 1887, will share Miss Rep
pliers pleasures, remembered from
1867, in Retzsch's Outlines of Faust?
Who today has read Paul and Vir-
ginia" and "Sandford and Merton?
Whose childhood memories include
the dark thrills of "Undine"? Well,
the reviewers do. Not dating from
1867, to be sure, but from voluntary
excursions into the long
library of her own family at about
the year 1914.
Somehow the reviewer has always
regarded these forays into "grown-up"
volumes (even then their pages were
yellowed and their bindings crumbly)
as an experience peculiar to herself.
Yet, if it also happened to Miss Rep
'plier in 1857, it might be that it
happens to every bookish child. And
so 1t may be again that there are
men and women in these 30s who will
know what the veteran essayist is
talking about when she writes of pom
derous illustrated volumes" reposing
on center tables and of childs
wonder before such mysterious works.
Where are these men and women?
Grubbing in ofices-raising families OF
their own-filling great places? Where
ever they are. they should take up
this book Of Miss Repplier's. To them
it can be commended. But to others?
The reviewer fears that they would
find no vibrating chord in the COL
lection.
The scope of the subjects is wide,
to be sure. It is not solely occupied
with literary memories. In the first
piece in the book Miss Repplier d.
vides her life as her title indicates.
She writes of being 10, Of being 20
and so on. She grades her unquestion-
ably vivid life in terms Of men and
women as well as of books and authors.
Yet it is when she writes of writing
that her spirit comes out into her
words. She is more eloquent remem-