Evening star., 1938-08-28
to male infallibility. Its mockery Is
sheer perfection.

IN THE face of these conditions, she
asks, what should an Englishwoman
answer when an educated Englishman
invites her to make a suggestion for
| the prevention of war? Plainly, she
demonstrates, men have made the So
ciety which is now about to be engulfed
in war. They have made it to their
own model brooking no feminine inter-
| ference. How then should a woman
reply when asked to suggest methods
for the Societys salvation? 1t is at this
point that Mrs Woolf gives over her
purely feministic point Of view, and
joins with Mann and Huxley in ad-
vocating kind of pacif1sm which is
based on individual virtues rather than
on governmental action.
She finds these virtues to be such
as grow out of lives lived in poverty,
derision. chastity and freedom from
unreal loyalties," and she points out
eloquently that women have long lived
such lives in English society. Instead,
therefore, of demanding a greater de-
gree of equality for her sex, she urges
women to hold, as their treasures,
these hard conditions, striving only
for economic independence, since,
under these conditions they have ac-
quired the virtues which make for
peace. Let them throw themselves
into struggle to live as men. she
says, and they will be as men, bound
by unreal loyalties. warlike in spirit,
given to force, and committed to in
justice.
That Is her argument And though
it is ostensibly limited in its applica-
ton to women. 1t is paciflSt argu-
ment which all peace lovers should
take to heart. For she sees women
in England standing in relation to men
J very much as the citizens of dictator
ships stand in relation to their die
tators. Those who thrive in those lands
must need model themselves after the
dictator. Should women, she asks,
fall into so fatal an error? 1t is q
tremendous work The reviewer has
not read anything so good since Hux-
ley's Ends and Means"
DEATH ON THE INSTALLMENI
PLAN. BY Louis Ferdinand Celine
Translated from the French by
John H. p Marks. Boston: Little
Brown & Co.
THE sntfor Of tourney to the End
= Of Night" has given us here an
autobiographical novel. It is the
story Of Partisan childhood anc
youth spent in an extreme low middle
class environment. The father o.
the boy is a meagerly-paid clerk in
an insurance office, the mother run!
a tiny shop. Their lives are a des.
perate scramble against economic ex.
tinction and the attention which they
give their child is course in bour.
geoise maxims delivered in shrieks
and tears and emphasized with blow!
and imprecations. The boy is no.
sharp enough to develop a rat-lik.
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. the only virtue
one feels, which he would be ablt
to acquire in the environment. Instead
he has purely defensive spirit anc
spends his life lodging. The bool
carries him through a series of ghastly
adolescent adventures, and up to tn,
time when he enters upon military
service. 1t is to be supposed that {
second volume will follow.
And if you are one who can deligh,
in literary genius apart from subjec
matter, this supposition may well b'
a hope in your mind. For, judgee
as literary performance, Death or
the Installment Plan" is superb. TIL.
reviewer does not know of any novels
in recent years except the youni
Aldous Huxley who has brought sucl
violent and abounding life to hi
compositions. The book is a piece o
magnif1cently controlled fury agains
the stupidity of life, it is lighted with
a deep elemental humor, it is, indeed
a sort of hymn of hate delivered il
Rabelaisian tones. No true lover o.
the novel can escape admiration fo
the performance. But the warninl
should be delivered to those OF delicat1
stomachs that the book is anything
but nice. 1t is naturalism gone deliber