davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1947-07-27
Lovers Compelled
7oCompromiseWith
Society and Law
PORTRAIT OF CAROLINE
BY Elizabeth Carfrae. (Pnt-
man; $2.75.)
Reviewed by
NINA PEMBERTON.

Reviewed by
NINA PEMBERTON.
AS the old saying goes, you can't
have your cake and eat it." Some
times the cake is sandwiched in with
a layer of compromise. The cake
which Caroline Mason and Charles
Adamson had to eat, was the kind
with layer of compromise.
Caroline was the daughter of the
Adamsons' coachman and had been
in love with their son, Charles, ever
since she could remember. 1t was
Lady Adamson who took the girl out
of her domestic environment, gave
her a good education and launched
her into success. Caroline became a
great actress, enjoyed the attentions
of admiring and devoted suitors.
Charles, 10 years Caroline's senior,
married the beautiful Lady Meriel.
His marriage was marked down for
failure from the beginning. Caro-
line, in final attempt at shutting
Charles out of her life for good,
married Peter Mallory. Peter was in
the Navy and died shortly after their
marriage while he was in China.
Now for the layer of compromise.
Charles and Caroline suddenly real
ize that they can live together with
out the sanction of the church or
the law by leaving England, their
friends and connections, and settling
down in the West Indies. This they
do. Years later, Lady Meriel dies
suddenly and Charles and Caroline
return to England and as the fairy
books say, live happily ever after"
A light and pleasingly romantic
novel spun over the period between
World War I and World War II. g.
Evening star., 1947-07-27

many unrepentant Nazis. Most OF
his subjects had no inkling OF the
determination camps, or believe now
they cid not. Many did not care
for Hitler, but could not oppose
their country at war.
In short, his factual findings are
about what we have read in many
press dispatches. But Mr.. Whites
remarkable arrangement of a social
evening has not been heretofore
revealed. Invited out by German
baroness and her daughter, he for
got the engagement and requested q
Russian colonel and aide to be his
guests at the American press camp
the samesevening.
This contretemps, however, was
repaired: it was Mr.. Whites happy
thought to combine the parties,
bringing the Germans to join the
Russians at his table. The results
could be better recorded by Sinclair
Lewis or John P. Marquand than by
Mr.. White, but the latters good in
tents and manful efforts shine
through, and at the end, he says,
they drove off toward their world,
and 1 walked back toward mine,
feeling that at least I had tried"
He attaches no special significance
to his parting gift to the Russian
colonel: copy of "The Late George
Apley."
All Mr.. Whites efforts add up at
last to a conclusion that we must
permit free and democratic Ger
many to emerge from the present
chaos, in which this industrious and
talented people may work and enjoy
the fruits of their labors on an
equal basis with other nations" He
neglects to say how. One gathers
that, having cut the broad pattern
with sharp insight. the author ex-
poets us to work out the inconse-
quential details for ourselves. What
ever the worth of his report on the
Germans, his revelations have COM
pelling fascination as a Report on
Mr.. White.
Evening star., 1947-07-27

BY Monica Dickens. IL. B. Lip
pincott Co.; $2.75J
Reviewed by
MARGARET CHILD.
Fortunately for the good of author
Monica Dickens entertaining chron-
icle of an invalided soldier, her hero
Is not half so saint-like as the title
implies. No man accustomed to a
life of action could happily reconcile
himself to spending the rest of his
days in enforced quietude; even so,
Oliver North does resign himself to
new ways a deal more cheerfully
than most.
Permanently invalided by the war
with leg amputation and shrapnel-
splintered heart, the British Army
major found that his formerly large
private world had shrunk to the
size of a double bed. Enthroned
therein like king reviewing pri-
vate command performance, he
watched his personal cast of play
ers-mother, sisters, brothers-in-law
and friends-acting out the joys and
problems of their lives against bed
room backdrop for his sole diversion.
There were times when Oliver was
moody and bitter, but there were
also times when he found 1t increas-
ingly possible to lose himself in
fictional adventure or in philosophic
contemplation for hours on end. The
new Oliver North also found him
self, somewhat amused at the role,
the father -confessor of every one
from his former mistress to his oddly
matched sisters. His only failure was
with Elizabeth, the lovely, unap-
proachable nurse who came down
from London to care for the Shrop-
shire invalid And with whom the
invalid promptly fell in love.
The Happy Prisoner" is as
leisurely as the pace Of Oliver
North's new life, and filled with the
same measure of quick laughs and
passing heartaches. It's a human
story in the fullest sense of that
overworked word, rich in excellently-
drawn characterizations of nice-to-
know everyday people; pleasant
book that anyone with the time for
its over-3oo pages will like, from its
quietly despairing beginning to its
quietly happy ending.
Evening star., 1947-07-27
The laps Tell How
Their Navy Died

THE JAPANESE AT
LEYTE GULF
BY James A. Field. Princeton;
$780,
Reviewed by
EDWARD A. GREENE.
The japanese navy tells Of its own
death.
Here is the japanese side of what
was the greatest sea battle of all
times and what may prove to be the
last where massed fleets engage.
This four-day battle, which was
fought over a wide ocean area, was
actually a group of scattered and
-ordinated actions in the air,
on the surface and under the sea.
Termed the "sho operation" by
the Japanese high command, this
plan to conquer, if successful, would
have seen the American beachhead
at Leyte wiped out and once more
the defensive chain around Japan
intact. If this had been successful
the war could have turned in favor
of the Japs, and in this book we see
just how close the enemy came to
victory.
Toward the end of the battle
when the Japs saw victory slipping
through their fingers, they still
chose to fight, for they had COM
n1itted themselves to battle and were
resigned to its result-win or lose.
Filled with detailed events, crucial
dispatches and battle reports taken
from japanese records, this book
should be easy reading for students
of naval warfare and most laymen
alike, though at times the center
line of action seems to be clouded
by formally worded communicates.
This book will help you to see the
enemy's side of the battle picture of
Leyte Gulf.
Evening star., 1947-07-27
Miss Estes Weoves
"A Troubled Plot
Around Marriage
so JOINED
BY Harlow Estes. (Rinehart &
Co., Inc; $500
Reviewed DV
PEGGY LU THOMSON.

PEGGY LU IHOMSON.
Rhoda Westley is lovely creature
who is ruled by her desire to be
needed and admired and who, con-
sequently, possesses a rather un-
fortunate penchant for trying to
arrange the lives of others. She has
already tailored her own life to meet
her rather alarming standards by
divorcing Tom Youngsmith, with
whom she has not been happy, and
marrying Howard Westley, whom
she has caused to get a divorce.
Now she very nearly breaks up the
marriage of Jessie and Andrew
Blithe, her friends, by deciding that
Jessie, tied as she is to an aging and
ill husband, should leave him and
marry Elliot Youngsrnith, Tom s
brother, of whom Rhoda is genu-
inely fond.
Rhoda has SO infected young
Abigail Blithe with her own ideas
of romantic love that the girl
elopes with young man she hardly
knows. Fortunately, this little esca-
pade turns out quite well.
Not so all the episodes, however.
In view of Rhoda's good intentions,
it does seem rather pity that How
ards divorced wife has to get can
GER. Rhoda encourages Howard to
take an apartment near the hos
pital so that he can visit Evelyn
each day. 1t is a shock to Rhoda,
then, when Howard's grown son and
daughter denounce her foI breaking
up their home.
In her giddy way, Rhoda really
loves Howard. 1t is to keep him
that she finally drops her generous,
if trif1e warped, instincts and be-
gins to fight the Vaccinations of
Howard's embittered daughter, who
hopes to break up their marriage.
Potential readers of the book,
called in the jacket blurb bril-
liant novel of marriage and life in
contemporary New England" may
have already read the story. 1t has,
OF course, appeared previously in
somewhat shorter version in one of
the popular women;s magazines.
Evening star., 1947-07-27
Work of French
Author Given
Fine Translation
FARM IN PROVENCE
BY Henri Bosco. Translated by
Mervyn Savill. Doubleday G.
Co.; $3.)
Reviewed by
ZANNE BINGHAM.

The winner of the Theophraste
Renaudot Award in France, Farm in
Provence" is the first of Henri
Bosco's works to be translated into
English.
Pascal, botanist-farmer, lives in
solitude at Theotime, his country
home in Southern France, until
Genevieve, his beautiful cousin, joins
him. Pascal, the sincere, calm, more
than a little stubborn gentleman
farmer; Genevieve, just as sincere
but unable to control her emotions
wild at times as the mountain haven,
Milcolombe, which became retreat
for both of them.
Though mutually attracted, the
two cousins do not find peace
through understanding. Apparently
in fear of losing identity of per-
sonality, the two lead separate lives,
each within himself, united only in
their desire to be together, and in
their affection for Theotime.
Bosco further develops this theme
OF Wllled restraint in the feud be-
tween Pascal and another cousin,
Clodius. Only separation brings sur
render.
In Albert, who farms for Pascal,
American readers will see one of
their own down East" farmers.
They'll love him for what he
doesn't say.
Description is so much a part of
the narrative that the reader may
be unaware that he is being given a
word picture of Theotime. He is
simply there. He arrived with Pas
cal, with Genevieve, and explored
with them.
Most French novels, when trans
lated, become. in the process, either
crude or ineffective. Farm in Prov
ence is neither. We can not call
Savill merely translator; for every
phrase exemplifies his ability as a
writer. We must be grateful to him
for the perfection of expression he
has achieved in bringing Bosco to
the English-reading public.
Evening star., 1947-07-27
Mr.. McMuNen
Off to
'A.Good Start
AWAKE TO DARKNESS
BY Richard McMullen. (Farrar
StrauS & Co.; $2.75.)
Reviewed by
ROBERT K. WALSH.

ItcVlEWcu ny
ROBERT K. WALSH.
A certain amount of sympathy
that this Young writer shows for
characters saves his first novel from
being a monotonous case history of
misfortune. A workmanlike, often
dramatic style of writing helps to
offset an otherwise tiresome series
of sordid, brutal incidents.
Jud Gilmer had plenty of trouble.
The Tobacco Road environment of
his boyhood in North Georgia did
its share. But he was the kind
who had a literally fatal knack of
making the worst of everything that
came his way or stood in his way.
Fresh from a cutting scrape at
country school, Jud driftedAfrom
job to job and earned little except
a good for nothing reputation. He
married Fortuna, decent daughter
of a sadistic deputy sheriff, but
could no more make a go of that
than he did later with the big-pay
war boom occupations and preoccu-
pations for which he deserted her.
., A Tough Finish.
Finally the draft board caught up
with him in a Baltimore shipyard.
Jud, who didn't like being asked
questions or told what to do, didn't
have a chance to put those dislikes
into. uniform. His finish was too
melodramatic, even for him, but it
seemed logical enough.
Even his best friend-who in this
instance was his tarnished sister,
Hope-couldn't honestly have said
Jud never had a chance to be what
a lot of fiction characters never are
"a chance to stand out as per-
son for whom the reader can feel
compassion while thoroughly dis
liking him. Mr.. McMullen has
achieved the same measure of sue
cess with Hope, Fortuna and several
other more or less worthy char
acters.
Mr.. McMullen's style, usually in
terest = bearing and comparatively
restrained, has a tendancy to be-
come too "folksy" in spots. The
episodes are unnecessarily repeti-
tious in their roughness. Still, the
book, while no profound social
study, should give Mr.. McMullen an
effective start as novelist.
Evening star., 1947-07-27
THE SUNDAY STAR, Washington, D. C.
SUNDAY, ~,
TwIight Zone
BY the Edge
Of the Road
THE EAGLE ON THE PLAIN
BY Victor Wolfson. (Simon &
SchuSter; $275.)
Reviewed by
EDWIN TRIBBLE.

AA~ w AAN AAsAA&~AAS'
The people of Plutarchus lived in
twilight zone created by the motor
age. The village, only short dis
tance north of New York City, was
an average town until a great new
highway was built, not through 1t.
but eight miles to the east. The
hardy of Plutarchus moved over to.
catch the truck trade and called.
their settlement New Plutarchus.'
They left behind a mere collection
of houses and an old collection of
people who felt abandoned and gen.:
erallly hopeless. Unwilling to face,
the reality of making a living on
the fringe of the big road, they re-
manned, neither metropolitan nor
rural, in tightly hemmed-in back
wash.
In a mysterious way, Plutarchus
came to accept an 18-year-old boy as
its symbol. He had yearnings for
the outside world. He exhibited
them pathetically in mail order
courses in ventriloquism and air.
plane plotting. If he could break
away there might be hope for the
others, young and old. This. novel
tells what happened when the youth
did try to escape. 1t is sad story
despondent and curiously muted by
the technique Mr.. Wolfson has used
in telling it
1t is first person narrative by the
comnalnity's school teacher. 1t is
presented as an occurrence, rather
than a situation, and it does have
some dramatic values. But the
essential theme is the old and
familiar one of the individual in
revolt against his world. The drama
in this Is implied rather than de-
veloped, because the central char
acter is seen only through the eyes
of casual acquaintance.
In spite of the grim event which
is the center of the novel, there is q
broad dash of comedy in it. 1t will
remind many readers of The Play
boy of the Western World
Evening star., 1947-07-27

from lTf5 10 ABOUT 1850 C1le
Virginia to the Bluegrass country
for travellers to the West, and it h
for historians. Dr. Kincaid notes Il
exclusively concerned with the roat
major place. However, the principa
was the Cumberland Gap in the
Appalachian Highlands through
which it passed and. under its mod
ern guise as u. S. Is, still passes.
DR.. Kincaid is vice president of
Lincoln Memorial University at Har-
rogate, Tenn, just south of the gap.
He has had the thought of combin-
ing the history of the road with
the subsequent history of Cumber-
land Gap and its vicinity, and SO
presents fresh material in the final
two-f -fifths of his book.
He narrates at length the role Of
the gap in the Civil War. and the
speculative boom of the late '80s, set
going by a Scottish promoter, Alex
ander A. Arthur, which produced a
mushroom growth of railroads, min
ing enterprises and luxurious resorts
only to collapse like a punctured
balloon as the decade came to an
end.
AS kind of epilogue to the boom
came the founding of Lincoln Me-
mortal University, chartered in 1897,
by the Rev. A. A. Myers, rowing
evangelist and mountain missionary
with the assistance of Gen. Oliver
Otis Howard, whose name has been
given to a different university, but
who insisted that this one should
be memorial to the President who
had once urged him to "do some
thing for those mountain people
who have been shut out of the
world all these years"
In the earlier portion of the book
DR.. Kincaid strives to turn the IA
miliar procession of Indians, ex-
Evening star., 1947-07-27
Fifteen Tales
Story Teller
CREATURES OF
CIRCUMSTANCE
BY w. Somerset Vaughan. (Dou-
bleday & Co.; $2.75)
Reviewed by
7. WILLIAM HILL.

w. Somerset Vaughan observes
life like no other writer and hege
are Is tales to demonstrate the fact
There are sophisticated stories,
urbane stories, shocking stories and
ironic stories, all told with simple,
direct clarity. Perhaps their urban
ity is what makes them so sur
prising. It's as though man is
breaking the news of bloody mur-
der without raising either voice or
eyebrow.
Many critics have speculated on
what It Is about Maughans writing
that has made him the highest paid
short story writer. They usually end
up by confessing they can only
credit his craftsmanship. This book
of tales, all written for magazines
during the past IL years, gives the
reader an excellent opportunity to
observe of what that craftsmanship
consists.
Knows His Characters.
The characters are persons any
writer might choose as subject mat
ter. The Vaughan touch seems to
lie in the way he sees the good in
the bad and the bad in the good.
He knows more about his characters
than other writer's. ,As a conse-
quence, the reader finds the charac-
ter plausibly doing things no other
writer would have imagined. To IL
lustrate, here are three situations.
You might guess what the average
writer would do with them.
A British colonel finds his wife
has written book of poetry based
on passionate love of which he
knows he could not have been the
object.
A middle-aged French senator dis
covers his 19-year-old mistress has
a lover who is young.
The officers of a freighter decide
their one woman passenger talks too
much and too boringly and deter
mine to do something about it.
~ Vaughan makes all three situa-
tions somehow humorous while
letting his characters proceed in
deadly earnest. At the age of 73,
Maugham's touch is as deft and
characteristic as ever. AS always,
however, he has written book
neither for escapiSts nor romanti-
cists. It's for those who like Maui
passant or Balzac but wish the
Frenchmen had a lighter touch.
Evening star., 1947-07-27
WITH LOVE FROM MOTHER, bv
Reviewed by
MARGARET CHILD.

WITH LOFE + NUM- WO1 HEN, Uy
Sister Maureen Flynn, o. P. Chris
topher Publishing House,. A story
of conditions and events in Il
linois when it was still a pioneer
State.
NORTH STAR SHINING, by
Hildegard Hoyt Swift. CWilliam
Morrow g. Coz An illustrated his
tory of the Negru's progress from
slave days to the present, with
emphasis on his heroic achieve
ments.
Evening star., 1947-07-27

more. The re-
suit he has put
down as a series
of case histories.
topped them off
with precocious
"reminiscences Of
v e r S a i lies in
1919, and out OF
this material
found tn e an
swer to the Ger
man problem.
His reports on
j n d vi d u a ! S
make S m 90 t h
reading, as per-
sonalized ex
Evening star., 1947-07-27


plorers, pioneers and immigrants
into an absorbing narrative, but
with only moderate success. A roads
history is necessarily episode, and
calls for greater powers of exposi-
tion and mastery of style than are
here in evidence. The book will
attract those who find
the subject matter inherently fasci-
mating, as indeed it is.
"The wilderness Road" initiates
the American Trails Series under
the editorship of Jay Monaghan of
the Illinois State Library. Subse-
quent volumes should be provided
with much better maps than are to
be found in this one.
Evening star., 1947-07-27

Mr.. White made brief trip to
Berlin last year and interviewed
several Germans. He hired three
German investigators to talk with
Evening star., 1947-07-27
Smoke From He'll

FIVE CH1MNEYS: THE STORY
OF AUSCHWITZ
BY Olga Lengyel. (Zif-DaUts;'
'$3)
The authors gruesome tale, more
factual and detailed and less imagi-
native, too, than Rousset's, is equally
tragic. She alone of her family sur
vived the unspeakable horrors of
the modern Babylonian captivity;
her husband, a leading surgeon in
Cluj, Pennsylvania, was shot, and
her parents and two sons vanished.
w. G. r.
Evening star., 1947-07-27
W.. L. White Draws Up a Fine Case History
Of Germany, but Leaves the Cure to Us
REPORT ON THE GERMANS

REPORT ON The JERMaNo
BY w. L. White (Harcourt, Brace; s3J
Reviewed by FLETCHER F. ISBELL.
Evening star., 1947-07-27


Fellotu in American History, Library OF Congress-
Wilderness from the Valley OF
Virginia Bluegrass Kentucky wel-Worn trail
travellers the West and it has since become w-worn theme
his photography three older works
others which
ma place However principal the exist
Evening star., 1947-07-27

perience ever is. He could not find
Evening star., 1947-07-27
An Invalid Soldier
Looks at Life

THE HAPPY PRISONER
BY Monica Dickens. IL. B. Lip.
pincott Co..; $2.75J
Evening star., 1947-07-27
Robert Kincoid Throws a Faint Beam
Of New Liqht on the Wilderness Road
THE WILDERNESS ROAD

BY Robert l.. Kincaid (Bobbs- Merrill Co.; $375J
Reviewed by DONALD H. MUGRDGE
Evening star., 1947-07-27

The Sunday Star has arranged Bith some OF
the leading booksellers OF Washington and
suburban areas to report each Ueek the books
Which sell best as guide to ,Dlat Washington
Is reading. A title must be named BY at least
four stores to appear on this chart.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1947-12-15
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