Evening star., 1948-12-26

Soldiers" and Hemingway's "A
Farewell to Arms" and Remarque's
"All Quiet on the Western Front.
Wonder how many dull novels
of Illustration, domestic strife ano
casual sex the publishers-ane
authors-inflict on us how
many books there'll be that quicker
your senses and stir your thoughts
that touch the beauty and mystery
at the heart of life, that make you
suddenly grateful for books.
There are, meanwhile, severa!
years end novels and nonhctior
books worth notice volumes that
escaped attention in the late fall
rush or Strayed into publication
during a week when publishers are
loath to place new volumes on the
booksellers shelves. This week the
business of new books is in q
festive lull. Next week 1949 starts
with q rush. Some 20 new books
novels, biographies, current affairs
will hit the market during the
first two weeks of January.
A GODDESS TO A GOD
BY John L. BalderSton and Sybll
Bolitho. Macmillan; s3J
The authors have written novel
In the form of q series OF letters
which Cleopatra is imagined to have
written Julius Caesar.
From these letters the Egyptian
Queen emerges wise, sharp-witted
and vet feminine enough to wonder
how much her renowned lover
missed her during their frequent ab-
sences. She is not painted as the
malicious witch and dissolute cour-
tesan Jealous Roman leaders OF
Caesars circle tried to make her
out. She could see that Caesar, with
his Roman superiority, disdained a
decadent Egypt, whose glory was
long dead. She wrote: "You have
seen only the worst of us and desplse
us If only I could show you
our wonders, spread Egypt like a
carpet before you, heap her treasures
in your lap!" And. though she could
remark bitterly, Even Romans, be-
cause they belong to the human
family, will have to be civilized one
day." she also could say in another
letter: Though you ran a spear
through me, I would still have to
love you"
There is one letter from Caesar,
written on the eve of his assasslna-
ton, when Cleopatra was in Rome.
Here he renounces Cleopatra and
her dream of a world state. The
middle-aged dictator tells the youth
full goddess" of the Egyptians that
his course is almost. run. Hs adds:
st can renounce you if I must; I
cannot renounce the core OF me
which is Rome" He speaks with a
certain pathos of their child, Cae-
sarion, and their hopes for him,
realizing he probably will never see
the son or the mother again. He
adds that Caesar no longer greatly
cares how he ends his days, but can
not end them the instrument OF a
woman,s terrible volition." But:
". and now, having put you away,
I desire more than all your touch,
your look, between us only silence"
Already Cleopatra had taken up
with Mark Antony, as Caesar knew.
1t is a more human picture OF Cleo
patra Mr.. Balderston and Miss
Bolitho paint than Shakespeare pof-
trayed, perhaps because the re-
search of historians has uncovered
many facts about the fascinating
Grecian Egyptian and her times
that were unknown in Shakespeare's
day. But the subject has interested
writers ever since Shakespeare and
long before. Earlier in the year
Thornton Wilder brought out his
novel "The Ides of March," but it
was mostly about Caesar and his
friends and enemies in Rome,
though there was one imaginary let
ter from Cleopatra in that book and
several accounts of the impression
she made on others.
Mr.. Balderston wrote the famous
play Berkeley Square" Miss Bo-
litho has published several books.
Il II n
HARLEM STORY
BY John Hewlett. Prentice
/. Hall; $2.50.J
Flute was girl of beauty and
charm. While she looked as white
as any 100 per cent Caucasian, she
had Negro blood. In Manhattan
she fell in love with a white man
from Georgia, she didn't tell. him
. that also was her home State, but
said she was born in Portugal. She
had moved out of Harlem after
trying to live with her race. She
and Jim we're married. When their
baby was about to be born, Flute
slipped away in terror to a bor-
derline hospital in Harlem, not
telling Jim where she had gone.
The baby might betray her mas
querade. And finally the moment
came when the nurse brought in
the infant, and the mother first
saw it.
Mr.. Hewlett has written around
this situation a novel with GER
tain amount of excitement and
suspense. He has a talent for ar
resting phrases. Unfortunately he
overworks this talent. His descrip-
tions often are like rooms stuffed
with furnishings-the narrative
can't move through them. A ro-
bust humor sometimes makes the
overwriting bearable. A sharp pic
ture of Harlem comes out.
SAINT ELIZABETH
BY Anne Seesholtz. fPhiloSoph-
tcal Library; $2.75J
The seal of Marburg, in the Ger
man province of Hesse, is the
figure Of woman wearing a gold
crown and carrying q model of q