Evening star., 1938-05-08

Riding and Of the more recent VOL
ume, Letters to Friend" She was
a young Englishwoman who lived to
see war service in canteen behind the
lines, to write several volumes of fic-
ton, some poetry, satire and sociology
and died at the age Of 80. She Is now
being highly acclaimed by a group OF
critics on both sides of the water.
The reviewer has never been able to
see the genius of Miss Holtby's work
1t is sound craftsmanship; she writes
smooth polished prose. But her think
ing is unsettled, being either feverishly
idealistic or artificially cynical. One
misses genuineness in her, and senses
behind her words a nice, well-bred
young woman, talented but essentially
unoriginal
The present group Of stories would
seem to bear this opinion out. They
are competent, they are we'll planned
They are sincere, too; that Is the
really hard thing to say-that writer
can be perfectly sincere and yet not
be genuine, having, in the last analysis,
nothing to be genuine about. no matter
how guileless. These stories, then, are
not what their editors claim for them
brilliant, significant piece of work
They are ade-to-order concepts. The
best of the lot are the informal essays,
which partake of the rambling variety
Miss Holtby seems to have a real talent
for this. The rest is merely neat and
readable.
THE ELEVENTH COMMANDMENT.
BY George H. Cless. jr New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons
THIS book belongs to a growing clas-
sification. 1t is a vigorous ex-
hortation to the citizens of this coun-
try to keep out Of foreign entangle-
ments and to turn their energies to
making America self sufficient. Its
title comes from sermon which the
author heard delivered by Dr. Henry
Darlington. rector Of the Protestant
Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest
of New York City, in which that
divine said, THE Eleventh Command
ment, in my opinion. is Mind Your
Own Business and seek first to put
your own house in order"
This will give the reader an ade-
quate conception of the works pur-
pose 1t deals chiefly with the cult OF
interna tionalism, and, while conceding
the beauty of the dream, takes up
one after another. the reasons why
the dream is unlikely to be realized
These reasons can be summed up
largely as one-that the United States
stands to lose by any international
agreement which European powers
will abide by. We will lose in trade
we will lose in financial transactions
keep at home to mend our fences. So
says Mr.. Cless, why should we go into
such an arrangement?
The book does not have much to
say that similar recent works have
not said already: The frequency OF
such arguments, however, may be
taken as symptom that they are
finding response in peoples minds
PITY FOR WOMEN. BY Henry de
Montherlant. New York: Alfred
A. Knopf.
IT HAS been said that Henry de
Montherlant is weakened by his
one tender emotion about women
pity. And certainly this writer. called
the outstanding French novelist OF
the moment" has won four of his
country's greatest literary awards de-
scribing women in relation to himself
This latest work of his. recently
translated into English, PITY for
Women" arouses in us the greatest
Of pity for NJ Montherlant. Some
men seem to manage to make love
to quite few women in the course
of a lifetime and tolerate the in
sistence of those who adore them
without growing petulant about it.
M. Monterlant on the other hand (to
introduce fine, sturdy phrase into
his merciless revelations about three
different women) seems to be trying
to make something Of it.
Two of them enter the life of the
hero, Pierre Costals, through letters
Pity, the author would have you be-
lieve. makes Costals pay some mino
to the tragic missives- of two thwarted
defeated women. 1t couldn't be that
he finds f1attery, even by the defeated
flattering? Ask any sophomore.
Although by his title the author
seems to intend to generalize upon
the subject of women making a nui-
sance of themselves, it is only as a
story of one man pursued by two
women and pursuing another that il
Is convincing
We cannot feel that the Costals
who arranges to have an illegitimate
son so that the child may be reared
without the influence of a mother
can be taken seriously on the subject
of women as woman. He is, however
a fascinating case history and his
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