Evening Star Newspaper, April 23, 1933, Page 77

A THE HOUSE OF EXILE. By Nora Waln. Bos- ton: Little, Brown & Co. Atlantic Monthly Press Books. ORA WALN comes from a Quaker family in the hills of Pennsylvania. This seems a long distance, phys- ically and spiritually, from China. But there is a cornection. For a century and a half her family had traded with the Lin family of Hopei and Can- ton. So she knew much about China even as a child, but she first saw real Chinese people (quite different from the ones in books, she found) when she was a student in Swarthmore College. A husband and wif> of the Lin fam- ily. on a world tour, came to Philadelphia and hunted her up to make her acquaintance. As a result of this meeting she went to Hopei and became a guest and finally an adopted daughter in the Lin household, the first foreigner to enter the “To and From the World Gate” into the inner sanctum of their home. Twelve years she has spent in China, during almost con- tinuous civil war. Her knowledge is extensive and her story is a personal one, and most in- terestingly told. When the Atlantic Monthly asked her to write this book she was first obliged to secure permission from the Lin fam- ily. owners of the House of Exile for 36 gen- erations. After solenfh conclave, the verdict was for permission, though the book was con- sidered to be of no importance. “It s an achievement for a talkative woman to have writien so many pages,” was the judgment of & lcading member of the familv. So the book was written, from material as authentic as material may be. “The House of Exile” describes the life of a Chinese family of very different social status from the Wang family in Pearl Buck's “The Good Earth.” Life in the family of wealthy merchants has all the luxuries lacking in peas- ant families, and all the amenities lacking even in peasant families which have grown richs The plan of the Lin house, the meals. the recrea- tions, especially the many feast days. the occu- pations of the women, the business of the men, the gardens, the visits to town are all de- scribed and through the descriptions are re- vealed numerous Chinese customs which differ from those of western countries. Others, if considered a moment, show much similarity. A number of marriages took place in the Lin family and the ceremonies in connection with them form the subject of a long chapter. The author herself married an Englich official sta- tioned in China, with the approval of the Chi-. nese and Americans who were her friends, which “made everything much more pleasant.” Nan- king became her home after marriage and she saw something of the political and military in- trigues and dangers in China. From Canton she and her child were hurried to Hongkong in an ambulance, while ill with fever, because fighting between citizens and the Kuomintang was making Canton dangerous. All of her later experiences have been dangerous but enthrall- ing and she has consistently refused to yield to her husband’s urgency that she leave China. ‘The book ends with a peaceful scene. She is back at the House of Exile for a visit. “It was the season of making pickles and preserves. Tientsin is so near that in my five vears of residence here I have formed the annual habit of going ‘home’ to fill my jars in the House of Exile kitchens when the family jars are filled. Each morning I pickled and preserved in the homestead kitchens with the other women.” Almost the last paragraph of the book is the recipe for honey ginger of 96-vear-old Kuei-tzu, ot the Lin family. POND HALL'S PROGRESS. By H. W. Freeman. New York: Henry Holt & Co. MR, FREEMAN first won a good-sized and appreciative public by his chronicle of Suffolk farming folk, “Joseph and His Breth- ren,” and held it by his succeeding stories, of the same type, though not quite so impressive, “Down in the Valley” and “Fathers of Their People.” Mr. Freeman’s work is not idyllic; it is suggestive of the French realistic tradition, of Balzac’s provincial tales. for example. His personages are not pastoral shepherds and shep- herdesses; they are dirty, sweaty, hard workers on the soil. Their love affairs are not highly romantic. accompanied by garlands and music; they are primitive processes of nature. At the end of “Fathers of Their People.” Dick Brun- dish was off for the Great War, while his father, Adam Brundish, chief of the “Fathers.” was trying to maintain the prosperity of his large farm of Pond Hall and to reap a few war profits. At the beginning of “Pond Hall's Prog- ress.” Dick is convalescing at a camp at Faenza in Italy, and the war is over. There. when he is almost ready for dismissal, to return to Pond Hall. he finds himself captured, with incredible rapidity married, by a beautiful. robust peas- ant girl, Teresa. Unreasoning physical attrac- tion has brought about the entanglement, for Dick has had no intention of marrying an Ital- ian and Teresa’s father has betrothed her to the old Sindaco, with his bald head and yellow tecth, who has agreed to settle five farms on her . The life at Pond Hall is both complicated and enriched by the presence of the Italian girl, who knows nothing of English customs and serves to her crabbed father-in-law for his din- ner a mass of stuff resembling “sheep’s innards” covered with “slimy red sauce like blood"— spaghetti, Dick has to explain. The old man is humiliated, also, by her working. barefoot, in the fields with Dick. But the coming of grand- children overcomes his hostility so that he ac- cepts the foreign woman as mistress of Pond Hall some time before she proudly declares: “I am Englishwoman now.” The daily life at Pond Hall, with its plowings and plantings, its harvestings and sheep-shearings. and the small family happenings within the house, compose the whole narrative, which never becomes dull. Hard times come to Pond Hall and Dick loses some of the land won by his grandfather and father. But in the end it is Tcreca who set- tles the fate of Pond Hall. “Pond Hall's Prog- PE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, APRIL 23, B e Among New and Interesting Spring Novels. A Wide Variety of Scenes and Plots for the Lover of Fiction. ress,” im s vigorous realism and character- ization, reaches the level of Mr. Freeman's first bock, “Joseph and His Brethren.” \ A MAN NAMED LUKE. By March Cost. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 'HEN messengers of Pope Gregory I came to bring Christianity to Saxon Northum- bria, a council was called by the king. One aged councilor arose and said: “O king, man's ife is like a bird, that, driven by the storm, flees from the darkness without and flying in by the open door flits for a few moments in the warmth and light of the dwelling, where the fire is glowing. and then hastily darts out again into the cold and darkness. Whence it comes, whither it goes. no one can tell. Such is the life of man. The soul for a few mo- ments takes up her warm abnde in this body, then quickly departs hence, but into what weal or woe no tongue has ever yet revealed to us.” This story is told in Bede's “Ecclesias- tical History.” Its prob'em is the same as that over which Mr. Vincent, London neuro-surgeon, in “A Man Named Luke ponders throughout his life and continues to explore after his death. As part of the problem, he wonders about the meaning of pain. The physiological cause, na- ture and purpose of pain he has known since his student days. but what of the moral, the humanly individual purpose? That he has never discovered. And is there anything to the “fantastic idea of re-birth upon earth?” He is convinced that there is not. Meanwhile, believing in the reality of neither the future nor the past., he continues to treat nervous patients who flock to him from all over the world. Among them come the American mil- llonaire, Mr. Hopkins. with his slangy flapper daughter, a nerve case, who, in spite of her vulgarity, has an awareness of the mystery of the past and future which draws Vincent to her in spite of himself. “I'll say it's mighty strange,” her father confides, “the things that sometimes she can see floating before her from the past.” She even thinks and talks about fourth dimension. ere are three parts to “A Man Named Luke.” The first, “Reverie,” is Mr. Vincent's retrospect of his acquaintance with Mr. Hop- kine and Phoebe-Ann. his unaccountable love for her, and the operation which he performed on her, then the seven years of desperate work in which he tried vainly to forget both him- self and her. The second part, “Dream,” takes Mr. Vincent through his exploration of the past and the future after his death. The third part, “Sleep.” is practical reality in the world, which goes™on after Mr. Vincent's death. His man-servant finds him slumped forward in his armchair, Dr. Jerome takes charge of everything, the servants gloomily speculate about future jobs. reporters and friends fill the house, at the hospitals doctors and nurses talk of nothing but his death and wongder why he never married—and life goes on as usual. The title of the books is of course suggested by St. Luke, the “beloved physician.” In the study of Mr. Vincent are some costly old paintings, which always remind him of the pictures which legend held that St. Luke had painted. The book is not a romance nor a realistic novel. but is something of the latter blended with mystictsm and occultism. It will not satisfy those in search of something light or of a rattling good story, but repays thought- ful reading. A WATCH IN THE NIGHT. By Helen C. White. New York: The Macmillan Co. ACOPONE DA TODI was an Italian reli- gious poet of the thirteenth century, born at Todi, in the duchy of Spoleto. After the death of his young wife, he became a Fran- ciscan monk and entered into the struggles of the Franciscans to retain their ancient spir- itual traditions. He was something of a fire- brand and was imprisoned for satirizing Pope Boniface VIII and siding with the Colonnas in their conflict with the Pope. After their defeat, disillusioned. he retired with his fol- lowers to their ascetic community. Then the plague broke out in Montefalco and Jacopone went to the doomed city .and cared for the sick and read prayers over the dead until he him- self was overtaken by the plague in a half- ruined cattle-byre, near Assisi, where, accord- ing to legend, St. Prancis was halted by a storm one Christmas eve when he was on his way to the Porziuncula. From the life of Jacopone .da Toci, Helen White, assistant pro- fessor of English™ at the University of Wis- consin, has created a romance rich in medie- val atmosphere and religious feeling. She has also achieved a style in perfect harmony with her Italian medieval material. Here is what Jacopone saw and felt as he approached Assisi: “But the sun was already dipping to the hori- zon when at-last he came out into the valley between Perugia and Assisi. Like a great mountain against the purple sky loomed the fortress-like end of the city, with the great basilica ri=ng sheer out of the living rock so that it was impossible to tell where the yellow precipice ended and the carved vaults of Elias’ dream began. His heart beat fast, for he was coming home to I Carcere. He was coming home to realize the dream of Francis, not in words nor in strife nor in intrigue, but in prayer and in love and in humble work as each day gave.” ON THE HILL. By Lewis Gibbs. New York: D. Appleton & Co. TENNING PARK is a London suburb, on a hill, but may be said to be rapidly sliding cown hill socially. It was once elegant, aristo- cratic, and at that time Samuel Hollidy bought the Park and its mansion, because he had so much money he did not khow how to enjoy it and imagined he would find satisfaction in being a landed proprietor after his retirement from the motor-manufacturing business. He soon found himself incapable of that particular kind of satisfaction and cut up the Park into small building lots, whereén sprung into being flimsy little villas, affairs of cardboard and tinsel, in which came to live people as un- substantial as the houses. “On the Hill" is the story of one day in the life of Samuel Holiidy and some of the other inhabitants of Stenning Park. Samuel’s wife, an ex-barmaid, has only two interests, her housckeeping and her son Stephen, a weakling who could arouse interest in no one except an undiscriminating,mother. Stephen has, nevertheless, to the surprise of his ,father (more discriminating than his mother) managed to marry a rather attractive girl, daughter of the former squire of Stenning. Perhaps Samuel’s money had something to do with it, for Anne's parents were reduced to something less than genteel poverty. Anne marries Stephen, but she loves Richard, Samuel’s adopted son, whom, “though you couldn't trust him a yard out of your sight, you couldn’t help liking.” Samuel finds Anne’s lack of responsi- bility and of what he has been accustomed to consider principles charming, and secretly wishes she might have been his wife instead of Stephen’s, but, of course, he remembers, Clem- entina is his wife and there is nothing to be done about that. The Hollidy family furnish the unified theme of the narrative. They are never absent from the scene for long. But, as minor themes, are a group of what, taken out of their setting, would be good short stories about the other dwellers in Stenning Park. There are the thrifty little clerk and his tall wife, who have decided that “they might afford a baby, just one”; the school mistress, who is tired of teaching French, nothing but French; Arthur and Phyllis, who have their troubles, which are cured by tragedy. Samuel Hollidy is also involved in the tragedy. The closing sections, describing the fierce gale which raged over Southern England, contain some vigorous writing. The style of the whole book is ad- mirable in its realism, its suppression of the unessential, its avoidance of false emotion even under circumstances which might tempt = writer to its use. Lewis Gibbs is & nom de plume of a writer who is said to have spent most of his life in London. ALL I SURVEY: A Book of Essays. By G. K. Chesterton. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co. EATED on the top of Parnassus, Chesterton surveys the world, and something of the flesh and the devil as well, for some of his essays bear the titles. “On Old Men Who Make Wars,” “On Negative Morality.” “On Suicide: North and South.,” “On Modern Paganism,” “On Monsters” and “On Love.” Of course, whatever he says on all the subjects of the 44 essays is Chestertonian, which is to say that he is nearly always paracoxical, single-minded, in that he sees only one point of view, and not at all averse to dogmatizing. He has certain fixed ideas, of which he never doubts the rightness. He does not descend to argument; he merely asserts and. presumably, feels sorry for those who differ. But his powers of satire and originality and his ability to write on almost any subject make him a good anticote for mental stagnation. In the essay “On a New Tax"” Ne suggests taxes on talking and on writing, especially when both are accompanied by ignorance. “For instance, suppoze everybody was instantly fined a small sum for mentioning the name of Einstein. The money would be refunded if he could afterward demonstrate to a committee of mathematicians and astrono- mers that he knew anything about Einstein.” Many of the essays involve Mr. Chesterton's views of other authors. In the essay “On Sense and Sound ” he says: “There are individuals, of course, like Mr. James Joyce or Miss Ger- trude Stein, whose prose may be said to be of doubtful sobriety. The prose writing of Mr. Osbert Sitwell is not especially Sitwellian, as the term is applied to his poetry.” In the essay “On Education” he admits his own inability to decide whether educators can be expected to put the school in order “before anybody has put the state in order” and adds: “But I will not discuss my own remedies here, which would involve indecent allusions to a third thing called the Family; now never mentioned in respectable circles.” PREFACE TO POETRY. By Theodore Maynard, M. A, Litt. D. New York: The Century Co. ERHAPS there is a definite loss to the world oday because so few people read poetry or are at all interested in it. More of the spirit which produces real poetry and appreciates it may be one of the things mest needed to ban- ish fear and encourage hope. The author of “Preface to Poetry,” himself a poet and head of the English Department at Georgetown Uni- versity, must believe this, for he says that “poetry is necessary to the human soirit.” His book, both scholarly and practical, is such a plece of analytfcal criticism as “L’Art Poetique™ of Boileau, which to a large extent determined the course of Frenth poetry after his time and had a great influence upon English poets of the eighteenth century. The resemblance 18 merely in type and scope, for Dr. Maynard’s book is not academic, but liberal and appreciss tive toward all poetic forms. The four divie sions of the discussion are: “The Nature of Poetry,” “The Patterns of Poetry,” “The Cone tent of Poetry,” and “The Kinds of Poetry® Illustrations, numbering over 5,000 lines of poetry, from Chaucer to Robert Frost, Edwin Arlington Robinson and John Masefield, are discussed in connection with the principles of poetic criticism which are developed. For the writer of poetry, the division on poetic forms or patterns, with illustrations of different mee ters, will be especially valuable, and for the student of poetry the whole book is equal to & university course on the subject. As Dr. May- nard is a college professor and a scholar, of course there is a good index. SWEEPING THE COBWEBS. By Lillien 3 Martin and Clare de Gruchy. New Yorkg The Macmillan Co. THESE two authors have previously offered encouragement to those in danger ¢f being summarily scrapped by arrogant youth in thely book “Salvaging Old Age.” So many inquiries came to them about specific methods of salvage that they have written “Sweeping the Cobe webs” as a supplement. Dr. Martin is here sell an example of the preacher who is able to practice. for she is a successful consulting psychologist at the age of 80. Mental housee cleaning, a thorough one to start and regulse ones thereafter, is recommended for sweeping old-age cobwebs from the places where they have been lurking. Rehabilitation exercises, physical exercise with a psychical purpose, res§ periods, nervousness (the ‘‘popular bugaboo”) emotions which should be expressed and which should be controlled. memory tion, medical directions, social attitudes social participation, recreations, employ: complexes to be uprooted. and “indivi tempo in relation 0 community tempo” are al} discussed in this very practical book. POLITICAL HANDBOOK OF THE WORLD. Parliaments, Parties and Press, as of Jams uary 1, 1933. New York: Harper & Bros., for Council on Foreign Relations, Ine. LL who are keenly interested in internam tional affairs, especially political affairs, should have this book at hand for referenee, An editor might probably turn to it at leas$ once a day while its information remains curs rent. The material is very compact and well organized and there is an alphabetical table of contents. The Political Handbook is to be a® sannual publication. in response to many ree quests from students of foreign questions. The sources of information, the editor tells us. are both official and private. “It is impossible %0 quote or refer to these sources. but in case the editor considers them reliable.” The countries covered are practically all those which have any independent or semi-independent government. Even the free city of Danzig and the new country of Iraq have brief space. I the case of the leading countries the outline followed is: Ruler (usually a President); eab= inet: Parliament (under different names)}§ pd¥ties, their programs and leaders: press, imw cluding the most important newspapers, theif policies, editors. and in the case of the U States, circulation. Books Received " NON-FICTION. NEW YORK UNIVERSITY: 1832-1932. By Theodore Francis Jones. New York: %Yhe New York University Press. FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT'S COLONIAR ANCESTORS. By Alvin Page Johnsof, Boston: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co. WHITE MAN, BROWN WOMAN. By L. 3 Richards with Stuart Gurr. New Yorl{ Dodd, Mead & Co. THE NEWBAYAT: A Madlay Jumble, By L. D. Langley. lishing Co. ADVANCING OUR CIVILIZATION. By Chrise tian J. Gerling. Boston: Meador Publishing Co STORIES OF SHAKESPEARE'S POPULAR COMEDIES. Told in Rhyme. By Jullq LaBarre. Portland, Oreg.: Metropolitan Press, FRIENDS OF MEN. Being a Second Series of Guides, : Philosophers and Friends. By Charles Franklin Thwing. New York: The Macmillan Co. MONEY POWER AND HUMAN LIFE. By Pred Henderson. New York: The John Day ©o, FICTION. ETTIE MAY: A Story of Civil War Days the Children. By Elizabeth Murch. Boix Meador Publishing Co. = THE PUPPY BOOK. (Juvenile.) By Wendy, Dodd. Boston: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Og, MARRIAGE BY CAPTURE. By Arthur Stringer. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merri) Co. BARRICADES IN BERLIN. By Klaus Neukw rantz. New York: International Publishers, STORM OVER THE RUHR. By Hans Marchm witza. Mew York: International Publishers, HELENE. Ry Vicki Baum. New York: Double-- day, Dordn & Oo. TIGER. N+ Sterling North. Reilly &.'ee Co. (Verse.), Boston: Meador Pubm Chicago: The +