Evening star., 1938-04-03
60 on uninterruptedly through the VOL
ume or not is another matter.

60 on uninterruptedly through the VOL
ume or not is another matter.
THE YEARLING. BY Marjorie Kin
nan Rawlings. New York: Charles
Scribner's Sons.
IN THIS novel Mrs. Rawlings recap
lures the beauty which marked
her first story Of the Florida ham
mock" country, South Moon Under" "
That earlier book was not merely
conventional tale set against exotic
scenery, as are so many local color
novels. In it Mrs Rawlings managed
to tell story which blended perfectly
with her setting. In it she achieved
that accomplishment which is so very
rare among our novelists-she Gre
ated rustic characters who were
neither carlcatures nor types. but
living men and women whose relation
to their peculiar environment was
credible and natural
Now she has done it again. It Is
too bad to have to remember that
between these two fine works there
was an inferior one, Golden Apples, t"
a novel in which scenery was offered
in lieu OF an acceptable tale of human
life. 1t seemed, indeed, when that
second book came out. that Mrs. Raw
lings had gone the way of the usual
portrayer. of country life-that, hav-
ing mastered the dialect and the
names Of the fauna and fora of
certain district, she was going to use
these properties exclusively thereafter,
setting before them no more arrest
ing bits of character or action than
are to be found in any magazine story.
But the conclusion was hasty. Mrs.
Rawlings seems to have repented and
here she places before us literary
fabric which is truly fine inter-
weaving of human existence and the
conditions which govern that exist
ence. 1t is good news in the pallid
conventionslity of the novel field.
The story here concerns the mental
growth of l2-year-old boy whose
lifelong environment has been the
hammock" and whose companions
are the hammock dwellers. 1t cul-
inmates in the love which the young
ster feels for a young fswn which he
undertakes to rear. When the favn
has grown to be ''yearing" it be-
comes too troublesome and has to be
shot. The boy goes through hell of
grief and rebellion, but finally read
Justs himself. His childhood is the
price OF the readjustment, however:
when it is over he too has grown up.
This Is no factory-made tale, as
said, hopefully trigged out in localism
in lieu Of life. 1t is a real piece of
life. Mrs. Rawlings deserves much
praise for it.
HELEN's TOWER. BY Harold Nicol-
son. New York: Harcourt, Brace
& Co.
THIS book. is noteworthy chiefly be-
cause of the biographical method
which its author employs. He has
written the history of the life of Lord
Du1erin, the Victorian diplomat and
vlceroy, but instead of setting down an
ordinary chronological account of his
subjects conspicuous career. he has
told the story In terms of his own
memory. Lord Dufferin, it should be
said, was his uncle, and association be-
tween the two dates back to Mr.. Nicol-
sons NTH year, his famous relative
being at that time British Ambassador
to France.
From this early period, when his
mind was first fascinated by his uncle's
complex personality. Mr.. Nicolson
carries his narrative on TO its close.
moving back and forth across the years
IN indirect and oblique fashion, be-
ginning again and again with some
childish association found in his own
memory and now seen to be connect
ed with his relatives career, and then
carrying the thin thread of recollection
on to its mature ramif1cations, max
ing, in sum, Proustian record. One
cannot say whether Lord Dufferin's
career would have yielded with greater
clarity to different kind of treat
ment, but one can be reasonably sure
that another method would hardly
have produced more fascinating
book. "Helen's Tower" in its leisure
ly zig-zagging across time, its frequent
personal disquisitions, its strongly in
innate flavor, is an exceptionally in
teresting work.
The name, it should be explained,
comes from the tower which Lord
Dufferin built on his Irish estate in
honor Of his mother, Helen Selma
Blackwood, granddaughter of Rich
ard Brinsley Sheridan. Between the
mother and son there was, the author
records. the closest tie, and the tower,
completed shortly before Lady Duff
ferin's death. seemed to cast an inf1u-
ence over the whole estate and later,
to his own childish imagination, to
dominate the place.
Lord Dufferin's career was a curious
one, involving many of the foremost
political issues Of the period AS an
Irish peer, the young men felt a nat
ural concern in the troubled Irish
politics. His youthful activity, how
ever, was of a dilettante variety. He
was attached to Victoria's court as a
lord in waiting, he played at being
Arctic explorer, with somewhat
bored manner of doing his duty he
accepted minor diplomatic missions.
He was in middle age when he finally
began to devote himself to a diplo-
matte career, in which ne was even
tually to win some Of the most coveted
honors which his government has to