Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1938-11-06
WELLS IN NON>COSMIC MOOD
Queries Are Suggested Method by Which Henry Awards
/ Were Made-Recent Books Deal With Some Distinctive
Points of View-Norman Thomas on Socialism,
By Mary.Carter Roberts.

the French by Haakon M.
Chevalier. New York: Harcourt
Brace & Co.
The reviewer hesitates to call this
novel amusing. There is . patroniz-
ing quality in the word, Is 1t hap
pens, and she would not imply that
she has anything but respect for
N. Aragon's excellent work. Still.
that work Is amusing. 1t Is the Sec
0nd volume in q series which the
author proposes to call THE Real
World; it shows on its every page
& burning determination to be
realistic to the last bitter degree OF
truth. And it is as pure piece Of
romanticism as you will find outside
Victor Hugo. M. Aragon has an in
cllrably romantic spirit, and he has
taken up his grim quest for reality"
in q mood which would do credit to
Don Quixote. He has written an
accomplished and sometimes thrill
ing work. But, as result of a quest
for the real world, it still Is an
amusing thing.
Not that M. Aragon's romanticism
has led him to distort. He is
politically of the Communist faith
and he is imbued with fiery anger
against human injustice. 1t is here
one sees the root of the paradox OF
his performance, he has identified
human injustice with social in
Justice and he has looked to politi-
cal ends to correct the worlds Oldest
sin. His pictures of mans In
humanity to man are done in furious
and wonderful colors; one cannot
but respect alike the passion and the
skill which have produced them. But
when M. Aragon invokes political
methods as the potential remedies
Of these wrongs, then one must feel
that his reasoning is less accurate
than his emotion. For when has
political theory ever made men
better than they are? And when
has one ever made them worse?
If Justice lay in government we
would have had Utopia on earth
long ago.
Fortunately, this political curtain
lecturing makes up only small
part of the novel. 1t is, one feels,
the least of its authors preoccupa-
ton: he is essentially a humanist.
He divides his work into two parts.
One is set in q small provincial city
In the south of France, the other in
Paris. The action chiefly concerns
the search of young Armand
Barbentane for philosophy OF life.
Barbentane is the son of the mayor
OF the little town, a privileged youth.
He goes through a religious child
hood, rebelhous adolescence and
arrives, at the age of II, at the con-
clusion that his fate is bound up
with that of the workers. He makes
q clean break from his family and
offers himself to labor union. The
period of the novel Is that i'm
mediately preceding the World War.
The work is emphatically not one
Of those in which young mans
searching for his soul is made a
sort of autorical monologue. Armand
is the chief character, but both sec
tons of the book are crowded with
personalities and action. The
authors purpose has been to present
representatives of all the forces at
work in the life of the small town,
and to show the corresponding in
fluences in the capital. So we have
members of the bourgeoisie, we have
politicians, we have professional
men, we have country squires. we
have policemen, courtesans, mag
mates, gilded youth, laborers and the
whole array. The plots Of the
stories are elaborate and worked
out with . cunning that is almost
victorian-a most welcome change
from the wandering, incoherent sort
OF novel so much in fashion, the
authors of which, if their work
breathes forth any kind of social
message, seem to feel that their job
Is done and that the obligations Of
craftsmanship can be dispensed
with. M. Aragon tells story. above
all, and his social message by no
means suffers from it.
On the whole Residential Quar-
ter" is distinguished and memorable
work. It certainly stands high
among the novels of the year. It
deserves to have q public.
APRoPos OF DOLORES. BY H. G.
Wells. New York: Charles
6cribner's Sons.
This is Mr.. Wells in his non
eosmic mood. So If you prefer him
in the role of arbiter between the
stars then you had best not read
this. But if you remember his
sometimes good earthly humours
YOU will find an echo at least Of
the memory here. The book is not
the robust Wellsian novel Of the
earlier period, but it is completely
terrestrial work, cast in the present
Gay and dealing with men and wom-
en-. You will have to do your decid-
ing for yourself.
The story-but really there is no
story The novel, then, is pre-
sented as excerpts from the diary
of Q publisher, quiet, ironically
mindc>. nun who has most un-
quiet and ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS wife.
She provides her husband with
constant problem, and he writes of
his reactions to her vagaries in the
aforesaid journal. His observations,
considering his situation, are adj
mirably detached and humorous.
Dolores might have driven him
mad. But, it seems, she only pro-
vided him with . stimulus for
turning out excellent copy.
That is all there Is to 1t. In time
Dolores dies, and the publisher has
. sort of readjustment to living,
which reaches its climax In =
brief dream evoked by the passing
vision of q beautiful young woman:
He understands that the dream Is .
dream, however, and goes back to
his life as one let down, with some
relief, from q troubling heaven. The
book is really just running COM
~ hAh syiAv na,t a. a. Ar,a,R.