Evening star., 1937-07-10
BOOK ON WASHINGTON is OUT
Frances Parkinson Reyes Tells Story of Four Administrations.
Essex Had No Real Enemy Elizabeths Court Except
His Good Looks and Pride, Harrison Contends.

~SN--N>
f1neness lies in just the circumstance
that when this Tomlinson writes a
plot is not necessary. More than that,
plot is actually in the way. It
does not belong with the kind of
mind-stuff which he possesses. That
does not need formal ordering, nor
does it find improvement in being
made harmonious with the uses of ro-
nance. 1t is world in itself, and
when Mr.. Tomlinson ties it to realities
he is trying to weight the thistledoWn,
to anchor the rainbow, to show us
gravely the printed text of the song
the sirens sang. And none of these
undertakings are necessary. More than
that, they are impossible
For Mr.. Tomlinson's genius seems to
lie In his ability to put his visual i'm
pressions Of land and sea into words
in such a manner that his reader be-
comes tremendously aware of the
mood which, in nature, lies lurking be-
meath the scene described. He does not
merely make us see what he has
seen. He makes us feel the emotion
which he experienced when he was
seeing. And. with Greek austerity, he
deals only In the great emotions-the
terror. the foreboding, the grief and
the rapture consequent in beholding
nature in her various aspects This
genius and this economy are rare. in
deed. Their combination lifts Tomlin-
son far above those categories to which
ne IS SO often relegated-the categories
OF the travel writer" or the writer
OF sea stories True, he writes from
places scattered widely over the world
True, he uses the ocean for his favorite
material. But the world and ocean
Which he set down in his shining
paragraphs exist first of all in his own
mind, mind infected with a great
wonder and aware of a great strange
ness and shadoWed by treasured awe.
A mind, indeed, that is not unakin to
the mind OF Poe, had that writer been
dazzled by a torrent of light rather
than by torrent of darkness Travel
writer" indeed Sea stories!' What
arrant critical balderdash!
Here, in his present book, Mr.. Tom
linson has given us his familiar but
never less than aWesome scenes of
tropic island, English harbors and
Winter tempests, but he has at
tempted to bind them together by the
story of ship. 1t is a ship which has
an i'll name; bad luck accompanies
her on all her voyages. We meet her
first off the coast of Celebes, where,
as part of the seeming curse, her mas
ter has died. A new man arrives. one
who is not unaware of the implica-
tions of his command, but who, with
Olympian calm, takes all such mat
ters simply in his stride. He offends
his owners by too literal zeal for
obeying their orders, and they penal
ize him by refusing to make repairs
and sending him, on the unfit vessel,
across the North Atlantic in Winter.
A hurricane overtakes the old vessel
and she is about to founder. The liner
which is carrying the guilty owner
attempts rescue but fails. The ILL
fated treighter seems to be lost. The
oNAASA 40 ASAb w liLo SOlASSlCllSS, dllu las
few bad moments. Then, suddenly
the freighter turns up again. She has
not foundered after all. Her olympian
captain has pulled her through. We
leave him shaking hands with the
owner, who apparently is going to re-
form, while the handsome young Sec
ond officer is completing a romance
with lovely passenger.
1t is a childish sort of plot when
told thus BADLY, and most of Mr..
Tomlinson's have the same defect.
But that is unimportant. The little
men who jump about on his paper at
his ordering are not the essence of his
book. That lies in the great seas of
the Wintery Atlantic, in the shining
waters of the tropics and in this
authors peculiar capacity for making
the visible manifestations of nature
seem but the masking of vast catas-
trophic forces. His book would be just
as we'll if he omitted his men alto
gether. They are all Tomlinsons any,
way. He never creates any character
but himself. The reviewer will keep
Pipe All Hands" but will put it on
secondary shelf "Tidemarks" now,
and The Sea and Jungle'-they will
remain on the first. That about ex-
presses the distinction.
ANATOLE FRANCE. BY Edwin Pres
ton Dargan. New York: Oxford
University Press.
THIS book, by the professor of
French literature at the University
of Chicago, is considerably more than
a biography. 1t would seem to be,
instead of mere life history or work
of criticism, an attempt to assemble in
one volume all of what the author feels
to be the salient points in the career
of the great Frenchman, as these
points have been brought out by the
various works written about him, not
excluding Frances own autobigraph-
ical pieces. For while Mr. Dargan does
express his own viewpoint throughou.
his Work, he also includes those of
other authorities. His book would
seem to be compendium of opinion,
therefore, in which the assembled mass
of evidence is intended to be of as great
weight to the reader as the conclusions
which the author modestly draws from
it. In the authors own words, it is
pioneering synthesis"
1t is scholarly, detailed and SEEM
ingly impartial. 1t is somewhat pedes-
trian in style in places, but eminently
readable in others. A certain cropping
quality is responsible for the occasional
dullness and of this Mr.. Dargan says
frankly that there is a considerable
amount of disagreement and that al
ready the legend has often displaced
reality" He expects this to be cleared
up in time but while waiting" he
says, 1--WE do what we can"
The present volume covers the
years OF Frances life up to 1896. 1t is
divided into periods as follows: From
1874 to 1862, the years of childhood
and adolescence; from 1862 to 1885,
the years of early productivity and the
6eVelpmppf of tho Aro+oliap foctoc