Viewing page 13 of 50

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

WINGS December

in every human being and which, in the story, finds its strongest expression in Virginia McGarron - passionate, intense, possessed of an indomitable will-who,, having tried to murder her lover Van Brinen, follows him to England to find him engaged to the lovely and serene Mrs. Astlie. The ensuing struggle of the three characters-of Virginia MCGarron to get her lover back, of Mrs. Astlie to hold him, of Van Brinen to follow his own desires-is a contest of wills, recounted by an outsider drawn into the complex tangle of their relationships and emotions by his friendship for Van Brinen. The story is told with a mounting crescendo, a dramatic force and compelling drive and impact not easy to forget. H. C.

ELIZABETH. By Frank Swinnerton. $2.50
Mr. Swinnerton's novel has for its theme the rise of an English seaside town in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Against this background he tells a closely-knit story of drama and jealousy and intrigue involving many of Seahampton's inhabitants. There is Eliza, thwarted, unhappy, down trodden, the daughter of a drunken ne'er-do-well, who knows a taste of happiness only to be flung back once again into desperation; there is Beth, beautiful, charming, fortunate; there is the evil Mr. Lott, responsible for Seahampton's rise to prosperity; there are his rivals, James Root, the builder, and his son Tom; there is Julian Bradley, the young doctor, who makes a bad mistake and is enabled to right it by an ingenious coincidence-these are some of the characters whose tangled lives Mr. Swinnerton has woven together into one strand and brought to a final untangling. H. C.

FLORIAN. By Felix Salten. $2.50
This is a remarkable novel about the Austrian court told form the point of view of the Emperor's stallion. Florian comes from one of the Hapsburg farms to be lead-horse for the Emperor's coach and the pride of the Spanish Riding School. The book is at once a biography of Florian and an account of much that goes on amount the human members of his society, at least as their affairs have any bearing upon his life. It is an original scheme for giving a novel an unusual point of view. Many novels have been written from the point of view of children or servants in households, letting adult events appear through the eyes of children, or complicated events through the eyes of simple servants. To reduce the circumstances of an entire court, however, to something like the

1934 WINGS

Comprehension of a horse in a stable is a novelty. Florian might of course have been made highly sentimental, but this has not been done. The story moves naturally without any attempt to endow the animal with human reason. It is an animal story of genuine interest to human readers. J. T.

A TIME TO KEEP. By Halliday Sutherland. $3.00
Dr. Sutherland's second book has not the form and continuity of his Arches of the Years. It is a series of random and delightful incidents and impressions from an extremely full and varied life, told with charm, humor, and an enthusiasm that is catching. Its tone is casual and friendly and digressive; it is completely without literary self-consciousness, full of stories and anecdotes about people and places, ranging from Scotland and England to Italy, France, and Spain. Among the more memorable are the story of the mysterious Dr. Walland; of a near-drowning (the author's own); of a Scottish trial for murder. They include an account of the author's conversion to Catholicism, an absorbing discussion of the grotto of Lourdes and the authenticity of its miracles; a comparison of the merits and function of psychoanalysis and the Confessional. It is, in short, a rich, varied, lively, personal book, as satisfying as it is stimulating. H. C.

NOT I, BUT THE WIND. By Frieda Lawrence. $2.75
The wife of D. H. Lawrence has already published this book in a private edition at a high price. She has now, however, permitted the publication of a trade edition through the usual channels. Her book contains almost a hundred letters written by Lawrence to his wife, her sister, and her mother. It begins with the first meeting of the two in 1912, tells of their sudden love and elopement, their marriage, their travels throughout the world, down to Lawrence's death on the Riviera four years ago. Of all the biographies of Lawrence this is naturally the most intimate. Mrs. Lawrence has waited to let others speak about the genius whom she married, reserving for herself the right to say the last word. Read against the background of previous biographies, this simple story is very revealing. It may, however be read for itself as the best introduction to a knowledge of Lawrence and his private character. K. M.

THE CURATE"S WIFE. By E. H. Young. $2.50
The taste of E. H. Young is growing. Once caviar to a few knowing readers her novels are