Evening star., 1937-03-06

magic powers, and his nephew and
heir, Gwydion, who inherited Maths
magic
Into the story is woven the change
in the marital life OF the Anglo
Saxon peoples on the British Isles. In
Gwynedd the PictiSh custom OF mother
right still prevailed. A man seldom,
if ever. was able TO identify his father
The rights of the mother were SUI
preme. She could change men as she
wished. The Celtic invaders brought
marriage with them into the isles, and
circumstances over which Gwydion
had no control gradually contributed
to bringing the marriage custom into
GWynedd.
The magic that Gwydion learned
from his uncle brought war to Gwyn-
edd. when Gwydion used his powers
to secure from Pryderi, King of Owed,
some of the first pigs that had been
brought to the British Isles. The war
ended when Gwydion killed the famous
king in battle. Thus pigs were brought
to Gwynedd.
The story is filled with the adven-
lures and vicissitudes of Gwydion,
his brother, Gilvaethwy; their sister,
Arianhrod: LEV, the son whom
Gwydion created, and Blodeuwedd,
Llew's wife. who was made for him
by GWydion and Math because Of
Arianhrod's curse upon Llew-that he
could never have mortal woman for
his wife
Except for some aW-breaking
names, for which the Welsh Ian
guage is famous, The Virgin and the
Swine" gets off to a good start with
the loves of GilvaethWy. whose desire
for Maths virgin footholder leads him
and Gwydion astray. AS for the novel
itself, we recommend it. R. A. E.
THE SISTERS. Myron BRING. Farrar
and Rinehart, Inc. New York.
HERE We have a book that is genu-
inc, a book that is sincere and
true to life in both character and
scene, yet, unlike many books that
have these undoubted virtues, is read
able and swift enough in action to
hold the readers attention TO the
very end. Like books of lighter fic-
ton that depend entirely on plot. it
calls one to finish it for the sake
of finding out what next.
The three sisters, Louise, Grace and
Helen, daughters of a mining town
druggist, are individuals who reflect
clearly in thought and action their
blending of heredity and the op-
posing forces of their environment,
the conventional, middle class. honest
home, and the unruly, wide-open, racy
life of Silver Bow, Mont, in the early
years of the century.
Louise is the eldest, the most beau
tiful, and has the most character.
Life brings to her an elopement with
a newspaper man of insufficient
strength to conquer himself, life in
San Francisco during the height of
that city's growth and glory. desertion,
new love and unwed life with
Jewish merchant, together with many
more and exciting vicissitudes.
Grace is the sister who stayed home.
In her, too, one can forecast the
woman from the girl Less beautiful
than either of her sisters. more prac-
tical than Louise, less mercenary than
Helen, she finds life as intense for
her kind of personality in Silver Bow
as her sisters do in San Francisco
and New York. respectively. Helen
is the flashy beauty, whose body IS
a snare for men. In another era
and another environment. she might
have been a courtesan. In her own
age, she becomes the wife of a mil
lionaire 80 years older than herself,
brings color and youth and gaiety
into his life, and without giving him
faithfulness, which he probably does
not know, enriches his last few years.
Having started a second liaison even
before her husbands death, after his
death, she goes from one to another,
sometimes married and sometimes
not. but always. gaily. successfully
and with an air.
As a record Of a period and a place,
"The Sisters" might almost be con-
sidered historically valuable. The de-
scriptions Of the cities, especially Sill
yer Bow, of the homes, of the women's
clothes, are photographically correct.
Nor is there the covert sneering at
the furnishings Of the recent past