Evening star., 1937-02-20
By Mary-Carfer Roberts.

the Hebrew by l. M Lask. Gar
den City: Doubleday, Doran q
s< Co.
STHs profoundly good novel Is
a translation from the modern
Hebrew literature. That is to
6 Il say, 1t Is written in language
gused only by handful Of scholars
to-day. For, according to the trans
s1ator's own preface in the present
work, knowledge Of Hebrew is rare
5 among mode n Jews, and. when exist
tent. is generally used only for the pur-
poses of religion. A very small group
sof modern writers, however. has turned
20 the ancient tongue for the produc-
s8ion of a new literature. and from the
sMork of this group the present novel
has been translated.
= It is q book which can be heartily
sfecommended t. two manners Of read
er-to the student OF literature and to
Sfhe-one fears much less numerous
simple, unspoiled, credulous lover Of
storytelling. In an earlier day. OF
course, the latter type would have
Youtnumbered the former thousand
Fold. But today one feels that there
ARE few Of our citizens, indeed, whose
earthly delight in telling old tales
beneath a tree" has not been cor
xupted by the spurious sophistication
gef screen, magazine and radio. There
fore, The Bridal Canopy" good as
il is, and far from being fundamen-
tally a scholars book, seems likely to
appeal to genuine Sophisticates only.
And that group is no larger today
than it has ever been.
F '"The Bridal Canopy is the story
snf the travels Of Reb Yudel, pious
Sew who lived in Galicia in the early
enineteenth century, who had three
sneautiful daughters Of marriageable
cage and no money for marriage por-
stions. Advised by his rabbi, he under
took to raise the needed funds by a
4pilgrimage through the province, in
atte course Of which he was to visit
san Jewish settlements, explain his
@predicament there and throw himself
lon the generosity of his fellows.
. Furnished for the journey with good
@clothes, wagon and driver, he set
out. And he followed a wandering
course up and down the land, wherein
every encounter with man or beast
served as stimulus to story telling.
He told tales to Nuta, the WAGNER,
10 tighten the way, and Nuta replied
by telling tales to him. OF evenings
they stopped at inns or homes and
spent the time exchanging stories
With their hosts. Sometimes they
employed the Arabian Nights device
of having characters in the stories
tell still other stories. Sometimes even
the animals take their turn at SPIN
L ming yarns; the mouse and the COCK
at one place join in the pastime, and
Nuta's two horses (felcitously named
Ivory and Peacock) also exchange ex-
periences. Reb Yudel, learned in the
wisdom of the Torah and profoundly
pious, is, in his unworldliness, some
thing of q Quixote, while Nuta, the
practical but unlettered man, cor
responds noticeably to Sancho. The
book has all the classic devices OF the
tale-telling chronicle. The authors
perspicacity and skill in handling
them has made his work one TO be
added to the list Of great books OF the
kind.
LIS stories, Of course, are deeply |
dyed with the lore, the history, |
the wisdom and the hunor OF his race. |
References TO the Holy Script abound
on almost every page. The characters, |
meeting on the road, in the markets, |
inns and fairs exchange gossip In a
style of talk that is richly endowed |
with race quality. The humor is racial, |
the references are made from the racial |
. viewpoint as well as from that Of the |
time and place. A tremendous schol- |
arship has obviously been used here. |
Yet no non-Jewish reader will find |
himself puzzled or on strange ground |
in the book. It Is human tale first |
Of all. Reb Yudel under his jewish
ness, is every good simple man, and
his adventures and comic misad-
ventures have their counterpart in |
every mans consciousness. The vast
array of men and women with whom
he meets on his journey - saints, |
rogues, shrews, nlisers, fakirs, traders, |
preachers and many more-they, too, |
are familiar in their humanity under |
their racial exterior. And the authors |
thumor-earthy, robust and skilfully |
aive-seeming-is pitched to a uni |
versal understanding. despite its spe-
officially racial character.
When a book has so much OF the |
people In it, 1t is saddening to think |
that one cannot recommend 1t to the |
people. Yet one feels sure that the |
average American reader will find it |
,unsuited to his taste. But perhaps |
"the people" only exist today as a
secholarly tradition. /
GOLDEN FLEECE. BY Bertha Hard |
ing. indianapolis: Bobbs-M Merrill |
Co.
The trend of our authors at the |
moment to produce works Of read |
able history Is carried forward this |
week by the present work, the story |
of the reign Of Franz Joseph and Elisa
beth of Austria. It is an absorbingly |
interesting tale, done in the current |
manner of stressing human qualities |
rather than political details.
The author, to be sure, has mani |
Tested greater interest in her heroine |
than she has in her hero. The book |
is the Empress story. 1t begins with |
the episode of her betrothal and, not
withstanding the fact that Franz JOS !
eph lived and ruled 18 years a wild |
over, it ends with her death But |
in the period which Mrs. Harding has |
covered she has given a colorful and |
. fascinating picture of the whole Haps-
burg scene, sketching in not only the |
imperial family, but members of the |
related branches.
HER preoccupation with the per-
= sonality of the Empress serves, in
deed to point her theme, for in
Elisabeth she evidently sees the de-