The New York herald. [volume], April 02, 1922, SECTION EIGHT, Page 13, Image 113

About The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
New Fiction
Continued from Preceding Page.
purpose, but the vivid description is
all there and the book is full of very
fine phrases, but without any pre
tentiousness. There is also much
sound comedy, a subtle fruroor that
gives warmth and a glow to the nar
rative. It is too complex an affair
to admit of a brief summarizing, but
* bit of dialogue may serve to state
*t least part of its text:
"The modern girl," said Greg, "is
?elfish to cruelty. ..."
"Is the modern girl aay more self
ish than the modem man?" said Joy
quickly. . . . "i haven-'t noticed
it, if It's so."
"From my point of view the man
as he is to-day is the result of the
modern girl," said Greg. . .
"if she is selfish, so selfish that
she wishes to have everything while
giving nothing in return, so selfish
that she looks upon the world as her
debtor she musU mold men's atti
tude toward ^er. And men can no
longer regard' her with the chivalry
and reverencer'in which men held
women when women made the sacri
fices that made the name of woman
something to be worshipped."'
But we re sick of being wor
shiped!" cried Pelicie. . . .?
The book calls for the heartiest
commendation, and may be recom
mandtd to lovers of an interesting
tale, as a tale, as well as to those
who ask something more than
amusement in literature.
THE WROXG MR. RIGHT. By Bert*
Ruck. Dodd, Mead 4 Co.
AS one reads this story there is
a growing consciousness of
an oddly familiar flavor
where have we tasted this before?
It finally dawns on you that after
all it is precisely the good old story
that our grandmothers delighted in
and to which their mothers objected
as "wicked novel reading." The ob
jection of wickedness has paled to
day and the thing wears a strikingly
different dress, but It Is essentially
unaltered from the day when it
reached its strongest flavor with the
Brontes. Once upon a time it was a
poor governess; now it may be a
stenographer. Then it was a widower
with three small children; now it
may be any kind of employer. But
the theme is the same.
The modern version is sprightlier
and its action is not delayed by
pages of sentimental reflection. There
is nothing highfalutin about it, and
there is at least an appearance of
efficiency. It is as harmless as its
ancestor?and as harmful. The one
stirred up the uphappy governesses
and "superfluous" women; this stirs
up the stenographer. But have
women really changed not at all since
the early Victorian age, in spite of
the, vote and the more horrific mani
festations of feminism?
This specimen is cleverly done. It
is an affair of mildly innocent decep
tions that lead to complications; the
lady becomes an heiress, is engaged
to the wrong man, is relieved of her
mopey and marries the right one.
It is not without humor and is an
entertaining narrative.
THK IDOL. OP PARIS. By Sarah
Bernhardt. The Maeauley Company.
IjP any lesser name were given as
| that of the creator of this book
if may be suspected that it
would not attract any very wide at
tention, for, it must be confessed, the
dfe ine Sarah'' does not shine as a
stay teller with much of the bril
liancy of her kctual personality on
th? stage, or of the piquancy of the
abundant and more or less authentic
gossip about Jjer life away from the
footlights. An out and out autobiog
raphy, especially if it were frank,
might be quite another matter. Pos
sibly she will, ^ome day, oblige us
with that, and, in the meantime, we
are openly asked by the publishers
to accept this story as?possibly?
aiUobiographical. Viewed in that
ligf?t, it is not very convincing. It
hafc too much of the stiffness and
rigidity of a posed figure, aijd is, at
bc|t( no more than fairly well made
conventional romance.
J ??rhaps the Authorship leads one
to*expect too much. The story in
itself will do well enough as a pic
furesque but highly theatrical ac
count of stage life and "high society"
of a generation ago. The heroine of
the book, Esperance, is an unmiti
gated genius as an actress, who
gains her first success at the age of
16, being accepted by Victories Sar
dou as an authentic prodigy. There
after it is a matter of various love
afjairs, quarrels, a due] (fatal be
yond the standard of French duels,
according to the comic papers) and
a final emergence into happiness.
There are some excellent scenes, and
there ate a few really stately figures
araonj the aristocrats and a few vivd
ones among the theatrical folk.
Actual people, like Sardou, wander
in and out of the narrative, and are,
for the most part, good figures. One
gets a glimpse of Mounet-Sully, and
even of Mile. Mars and the great
Rachel, in the background. Ip fact,
the background and the mise en
scene of the whole thing are much
more convincing than any of the
personages who appear as- actors.
One feels, on the who!^, that Madame
is not at h?r greatest in the present
role.
THE HERITAGE OF THE HILT.S.
By Arthur Preston Hankins. Dodd,
Mead &. Co.
THE necessary modern knight
errant comes riding pleas
antly ' into the dreams of
Jessamy, the one really nice girl
among the very undesirable people
of the hills known as th^ "Poison
oakers." It is in the Sierras, where
so many queer things keep on Ijap
pening iH modern fiction. There is
plenty of fighting and an unusually
complete cleansing carnage at tho
end. There is also a secret, which
must not bo betrayed if the reader
is after mystery: it is really a very
good secret and Mr. Hankins works
it in nicely. Of course there is, or
was, a mine and a large assortment
of outlaws. It is a substantial
"thriller" with some individual frills
a little out of the common. The book
has a real feeling for the big out
doors, some pretty description and
a sufficiently plausible scenario.
TIDE RIPS. By James B. Connolly.
Charles Scribner'a Sons.
MR COXNOL-LY needs no in
troduction or explanatory
comment. His distinction
as a writer of short stories reaches
back to an era of production better
than that of to-day's average. It is
of good omen to find his work still
popular. This collection includes _
nine stories, all strongly salt, with :
the tang: of the sea winds or the
smell of the docks. To many read- j
ers the gem of the lot will be "The j
Rakish Brigantine," which Is a de
licious affair of pirates and a boy
and the days when there were "flyin' |
jibbooms pointin' in over South
street," a brigantine that was not
only rakish, but long and very low
and black. For less subtle readers
"What Price for Fish?" may lead in j
interest. They are all excellent.
Mr. Connolly is especially felici
tous in his careful stage setting in
all these yarns. The scenery is not
insisted upon too much and never
gets in the' way, but one sees it with
clarity and with a wealth of detail.
The book is unusually well printed
?such *ork deserves a good, lasting
dress?and is amply illustrated. The
frontispiece calls for especial note. |
as it enters so well into the spirit of j
the story, with its mixture of Xapo
Icon, Marie Antionette, the Rajah j
and the "dragon black as ink."
MASTERED MEN. By F. A. Robin
son. Oeorgp H. Doran Company.
AS the introduction to this col- ;
lection of short tales, pro
vided by the Rev: Charles j
W. Gordon (who is better known as
Ralph Connor), asserts, they have'
the merit of being "rescripts of i
events that* have happened in the'
author's personal experience." The !
author has been a missionary among
the comparatively wild men of the j
W^st, in Canada, and is here re
counting various episodes leading to I
the conversion and redemption of
certain pretty tough human speci-!
mens. It is a simply, sincerely pre- >
fsented story of "the triumph of the
Gospel In the souls of men," as the !
writer saw it. Some episodes are ;
little more than anecdotes, but
others have dramatic quality. It is !
a proof of its popular appeal that i
this is an enlargement, with new j
stories added, of a previous edition j
originally put out under the title
of ' Trial Tales of Western Canada." I
Prison Education
WALL SHADOWS: A STUDY IN
AMERICAN PRISONS. By Frank
Tannentaaum. George P. Putnam's
Sons.
MR TANNENBAUM has born
the target of a good deal of
I * hostile and not always very
intelligent criticism in the past, and
there has been a disposition shown
in some quarters to regard him as
an overexcited enthusiast, to use no
harsher term. "Whatever one may
think of some of his sociological
theory it is but just to realize that
he is entirely sincere, very much in
earnest and acting with the noblest
of motives in bis argument and rec
ommendations. Also, it should be re
membered that, in the case of this
book, he is speaking from first hand
knowledge. He is not imagining his
facts. Possibly his presentation of
some of them may?not unnaturally
?be a little highly colored, but tbey
i are essentially facts.
It needs no argument to show that
f our whole prison system is far from
j being a success, either as a punitive
; or reformatory Institution or as a
sufficiently effective deterrent of
I crime. It may well be that no prison
can have much effect in preventing
| or minimizing crime. That, more
over. is not the subject of this study.
Mr. Tannenbaum is here concerned
with the prisoner after he has been
convicted, with his treatment as a
prisoner, its effects upon him and
the after effects upon the commu
nity as a whole.
The earlier chapters of the book
are largely narrative and descrip
tive, although he starts with an ex
amination of the "psychology of
prison cruelty." As a picture of facts,
most of which are pretty well estab
lished, it may be commended espe
cially to any one who may think
that things are being managed pretty
well in most of our jails.
But of more importance than this
is Mr. Tannenbauna's advocacy of re
form measures. They may be boiled
down to two: the so-called "prison
democracy'' idee and education in a
broader sense. As to tihe first, the
ideal is that "the prison mast become
?a self-governing as well as a self
sustaining community in an eco
nomic sense." It Is at least a line of
hopeful endeavor that deserves
much more careful study and further
.experimentation.
Perhaps even more important is
the application of education, as such..
to the prisoner. The possibilities
here ar? obviously great, in spite of
equally obvious difficulties. But
where it *as been seriously tried, as
at San Quentin, Mr. Tannenbaum re- !
ports: "I found a genuine interest in j
education, and an ambition to at
tempt the experimeat of turning the
prison into an educational institu- ;
tion. . . . But the courses were
mostly cultural. . . . All, of course,
of value. But the men in prison
need something different, and some- i
thing new in educational work." He !
thinks the answer is to be fouad in ]
"turning the prison into a commii- !
nity?with manifold community
work." It is a well thought out,
highly suggestive book.
William Dana ORCUTT'S ,
first novel in setxn ycart?a vibrating story of today.
THE BALANCE
By the author of "The Spell" "The Moth," "The Bachelor?" etc.
An absorbing romance bound to provoke discus
sion on account of its unusual handling of the re
turned soldier's relation to society and industry;
and the striking situations effecting both em
ployer and employed.
"Mr. Oreutt don more than teQ a pood story treB. He deals
with a bio industrial problem in iuteUigetU and constructive
fashion t ' out detracting from the story's interest."?Boston
Herald. %IM
Publishers FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY New York
The Hands of Nara
By RICHARD WASHBURN CHILD
(United States Ambassador to Italy)
Author oi "The Vanishing Men," "The Velvet Black," etc.
The dominant figures in this interesting novel are two: a scien
tifically-trained modern young physician and a sensitively
organized, mystically-minded young Russian refugee. Her unde
niable success in bringing back to life some who were near to
death is their point of contact?and conflict. The story is told
with vigor and sweep, and the sharply debatable element in it
will make it a popular subject for discussion.
tz.oo. On sale at all bookstores; or, if not, can be bad from
E, P. DUTTON A CO., 681 Fifth Avenue, New York
The World-Wide Successful New Novel
IFWINTERCOMES
By A. S. M. HUTCHINSON
The most widely-read new novel throughout the
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IF WINTER COMES is the one new novel you really
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The Red House Mystery
By A. A. Milne
Author of "Mr. Pim Passes By," "The Dover
Road," "Not Thit It Matters," "If I May," etc
Antony Gillingham astute, observer of life, drops casually into
the fair serenity of a quiet English village to find himself faring a mystery
that requires all of his ingenuity, his trained ability, to conceal cross
examination under lively dialogue, and all of his bravery to unravel.
It is a detective story of an entertaining and stimulating sort.
S2.00. Any bookstore ran supply it or. if not, it cm ie hai from
E. P. DUTTON * COMPANY, 6S1 Fifth Ave., New York
SAINT TE RE SA
By Hemy Sydnor Harrison
Author of "Queed," "V. V.'s Eyes,"
"Angela's Business"
i A story of present day America
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