Evening star., 1938-09-25
AUSTRIA SEEN IN DAYS OF chaos
Vienna Tale Original Treatment and Offers Understanding
Ways That Destroyed Morae-Novel for Cynics Written
With Gentle Pity-Washington in Autobiography

the young oncer Is very handsome.
So trouble arrives.
With the stage so set, the general
comes home. He learns of his wife's
treachery and kills himself. Nemesis
sets the scene 50 that the suicide looks
like murder, and the generals lady
and her lover are arrested. At the
trial, the lady, seeing that things are
going badly for the defense, takes the
guilt on herself, and thereby saves her
young man. She Is hanged by a grim
New England sheriff while crowd of
early New England types" looks on
and utters appreciative howk.
The drama Of the thing is In the
character OF the lady-shallow, vain,
and cruel, but still superior In her
pride to those among whom she lives
II is well-executed conception, but
rather obviously synthesis The lady
does not really live. Considering the
harshness Of her fate. that may be ali
the better.
REMEMBERING. BY Nathalie seds.
WICK Colby. Boston: Little Brown
q Co.
HIS is Mrs. Colby's autobiogra phy,
And. since some of the most in.
teresting years of her life were spent
IN washington, she should find ap-
preclatlVe readers in this city. Her
residence mere was during the Wilson
administration, when her former hus-
band. cambridge Colby, was Secretary
OF State, and later during the Coolidge
administration. Several chapters of
her present book are devoted to her
experiences in the Capital: these have
already been published in Harper's
Magazine.
The book goes into family back
ground great deal Mrs. Colby is
a member Of the Sedgwick family
descendant Of Theodore Sedgwick,
slgner of the Declaration of indie
pendence, grandniece of Catherine
Sedgwick. the novelist, and daughter
OF Katy" Sedgwick Valerie, also a
novelist She devotes considerable
space to describing the characters of
her forebears. She herself had a vari-
colored childhood, living sometimes at
the Sedgwick home in Stockbridge and
sometimes abroad. Her parents were
separated and her mother for a while
strove to support herself by giving
Shakespeare readings. Poverty was
sometimes her environment. but
always poverty lightened by dis
tinguished presences and distinguished
wit.
She returned to Stockbridge to live
after her mothers death and spent
a New England girlhood among her
relatives, surrounded by tradition and
the customary taboos of the period; of
this time she gives a lively though
brief account. In the COS she married
MIR. Colby, then a promising young
lawyer. Her narrative from that point
on deals with her life as wife, mother
and hostess. A procession of brilliant
names moves through it. In 1928 she
and Mr.. Colby separated and she de-
cided to write. She has since made
q substantial success In the profession
which she chose.
The book Is told in a somewhat
brittle fashion. There Is a great use
Of epigram in it, but its wit crackles,
rather than CLEANS. Since it is the
story of woman who was occupied
as wife and mother for the great
part Of her life, there is much in it
Of an intimate nature. and toward
this Mrs. Colby is entirely frank. The
pain she felt over her separation from
her husband, her efforts to remake
her life-she goes into these matters