Evening star., 1938-02-06
By Mary.Carfer Roberts.

" HIS history of England's King
is just sad dough which did
not rise. 1t is subtitled "the
4 king nobody knows" and SO
may be taken as an attempt to clear
up the general ignorance, but it is
unlikely that any one who has read
1t will be in a greater state of en-
lightenment afterward than he was
before.
For most of the world knows, or is
willing to believe, that King George
is an honest man, conscientious,
modest, hard-working and unselfish.
Mr.. Bolitho tells no more than that
and he tells that, unfortunately, with
such repetitious adulation that the
effect of even the simple news-if it
can be said to have an effect anyway
is weakened. The reader. going on
through page after page of praise of
the monarch, is very likely to ask
himself why Mr.. Bolitho fills up so
much space with repeating the same
statement if he has any other state
ments to make And the conclusion
must be that the young King, although
as aforesaid an admirable character,
is not likely subject for biography
That he lacks color and individuality
has been suspected. Mr.. Bolitho now
confirms the suspicion and confirms
1t most obviously when he is trying to
convince his readers that the exact
opposite is true.
It would seem, therefore, that Mr.
Bolitho has not done his subject any
great service. Treacly adulation does
not help anybody's case; on the con-
trary, if it can be said that great
monarch is ever IN need of help, it
would seem that the best book for the
purpose in the present instance would
have been a plain straightforward
statement of facts, in which no adorn-
nnent of worshipful language was en-
ployed. Since Mr.. Bolitho has pro-
duced exactly the opposite kind Of
work here, it must be concluded that
the facts of King Georges career are
so routine and uneventful that they
alone would not make a readable
volume If. therefore, he was. before
the publication of this book "the king
nobody knows" he seems like to be
thought of by the books readers as
the king about whom there is nothing
to know. That colorful monarchs have
by no means always been the best
ones, that unglamorous kings have in
the long run probably done their
peoples greater service than the
popular heroes does not, unhappily,
enter into discussion of the book. OF
1t one can only say that, in its
fulsome praise, it seems an uniting
record of the life of a man whose
chief characteristic is his unassuming
modesty-and that it is lamentaoly
poor reading.
THE WILD GOOSE CHASE. BY Rex
Warner. New York: Alfred A.
Knopf.
OF THIS book the reviewer feels
" that she can say nothing better
than Read it." Its quality is such
as to require sampling for apprecia-
ton.
It is an allegory of our times. or OF
the times which. in the mind OF the
writer, ours will become if We do not
change their present trend. So many
books have been written on this theme
lately and so many of them are dreary.
repetitious things that the reviewer
dislikes the statement as an unpropi-
tious beginning Let it be said quickly,
then. that 1.-The Wild Goose Chase" is
brilliant piece of work and imbued
with unmistakab!e genius.
The story is of young man who
"crossed the frontier" of the present
into the future and saw there the life
of our civilization realized to the full
of it's present Implications His rea-
son for crossing was to seek the wild
goose which is taken as a symbol of
freedom.
The land Of the future, as described
by the author. is recognizably the
civilization of Europe and America, but
exaggerated and distorted in night
mare fashion. The population IS
sharply divided between countrymen
and townsmen: the countrymen lead
the hard, natural lives of peasants. but
are robbed of the products of their
farms by the government (situated in
the town. and are subject to con-
slant spying from police. In the town
there is still another division; the
middle class has apparently been
abolished and all urban people are
either laborers or members Of the gov
ernment. The laborers are slaves.
The members of the government (the
intellectually are hernia phrodites who
concern themselves with the arts and
with the practice of degenerate re-
search, the actual administration Of
the state being performed by a few
officials OF unknown identity through
the manipulation of machines. The
city is monstrosity, being rooted
from the sky by concrete and supplied
with artificial grass and plants which
are made in factories by the miserable
workers
In this ghastly land nobody has any
liberty except the hermaphroditic in
tellectuals and that is circumscribed
by their absolute support of the pre-
vailing regime. Yet here the wild
goose is worshipped and in the great
assembly house Of the town it is re-
ported to live. The young man of the
story goes eagerly thither in his hope
Of catching glimpse of the object
Of his quest. He finds the goose con-
tanned in golden basket and hung up
as an object of eneration-stuffed
The first part of the book tells how
this youth examined the workings of
the town government It is MASTER
piece Of horror writing.
The second part of the book tells
how the young man returned to the
country and raised a revolution
against the town government. Here,
too. the story has great power; the
capacity of this author for creating
an atmosphere Of sheer nightmare is
certainly unsurpassed among writers
today. The revolution is successful;
the town is overthrown, the peasants
assume power with the intention Of
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