Evening star., 1938-03-27

small space. He has made of it. as
said. fine thing. It is utterly worth
reading
The first white men to invade the
grove were, of course, the French
priests, soldiers, governors and ex-
plorers. They found the Indians there
and game, and the miraculous prairie
verdure. Observing the adequacy OF
the savages' life, and wanting only to
establish outposts to French empire
they did not interfere with the Gus
toms of their fellow men. They talked
of God. to be sure. but the indians
understood them in their own way
and talk of God in Heaven did little to
alter the life of men on earth. 1t was
not until the American settlers came
that change reached the ancient sane
tuary. And that is the story which
Mr. Peattie tells.
He writes at times with SURPRISING
beauty and clarity. At other times his
thought is so much within his own
green world that it shows obscurely to
the reader. Notwithstanding these oc-
casional cloudy passages, however, the
book conveys profoundly the authors
feeling for his subject and together
with that feeling the reader will Ger
tainly receive strong perception of
the substantial body of knowledge out
Of which the feeling grows. There
are few writer's more interesting than
the scientist-humanist, and of that
group Donald Culross Peattie is a dis
tlnguished member.
CELIA. BY E. H. Young New York:
Harcourt Brace g. Co.
THIS novel has been for some weeks
now appearing on the best-seller
lists. The reviewer approached It,
therefore, with feeling Of guilt. Ger
tainly, she thought, since it is so pop
ular. I should be giving my readers
the benefit Of notice of it. May it
not be an important work? Alas, it Is
no more important than most best
sellers. 1t seems indeed to be just an
other novel on domesticity and the
reviewer can only explain its popular
ity by the theory that the thousands
of women who read such fare in ladies'
me gaines are for the moment nour-
ishing their minds here instead. For
1t is ladies' mag stuff, pure and Oh,
how desperately simple!
1t is the story of middle-aged wife
who is still pretty and romantic and
who dreams a great deal Of what her
life might have been had she done
other than marry the particular man
on whom her choice lit. By-and-by,
after interminable wandering para
graphs about the mystery of it all,
she suspects her husband of having a
love affair. Then, after more verbi-
age. he informs her that he loves her
and as q token of his love offers her
her freedom; she can 60, he tells her,
to the man about whom she has been
dreaming for so long But she does
not go. She decides that she will lust
stay on after all. And there you are.
Profound? Why there are ten mil
lion women who will weep over the no
doubt truth and beauty of so mag
niflcent a theme.
But the reviewer has never been able
to see how difficulties between married
pairs made writer's material unless
at least one of the pair was a signifi-
cant individual in himself. No doubt
there are hundreds upon thousands of
pretty little women incoming around in
the manner of the precious Celia. and
no doubt, too, there are an equal num-
Der of chickens clucking for food in
the worlds poultry runs. One OF
either group would seem to be about
as important as one Of the other
So, as the vulgar have it, what? The
reviewer can think of nothing except
it be at least as indecorous as a yawn
GREAT ARGUMENT. BY Philip
Gibbs. New York: Doubleday
Doran & Co.
THIS novel is essentially fictional
statement of the matter which, in
non-iction form, was contained in Sir
Philips recent Ordeal in England "
In that book the amiable and op-
timistic journalist confessed that he
could not but view the worlds future
with trepidation. He saw too much
preoccupation everywhere with war;
he was altogether distrustful of the