THE MICHIGAN DAILY Bridges tA t4 4 Books and Writers t$ tA 4 I Indolence IN REVIEW l Masterful Work Not Great PRISONER WHO SANG. Byl FIDELIA. By Edwin Balmer. Pub-t han Boger; uImdied by Century, lished by Rodd, Bead. $2.00. 1;. Reviewed by Murchison Mabie. viewed by Robert S. Mansfield Someone has said that there isn't a novel worthy of the name has at j very high fence separating the sub- appeared, and Bojer has more lime from the ridiculous. Reading fulfilled the promise of his "Fidelia," by Edwin Balmer, will con- er writings in the most powerful vince anyone that the fence is a low k of his career. "The Prisoner one indeed-one on which a book may Sang," is undoubtedly destined sit with a foot touching the ground on old a high place in the list of either side. For in "Fidelia" these emporary literature. All of the two elements are mingled to a sur- erful portrayal of character em- prising degree. Perhaps it is the ed in "The Last of The Vikings," author's deadly seriousness, and his all of the oneness of motive and astonishing lack of any feeling for the ne of "The Great Hunger" have ridiculous in certain situations, which 1 combined to make this latest has caused this continual stepping e great Norwegian a book worth from one side of the fence to the other. ful reading. Perhaps it is something else. The E i c . I c 1 t t 1 t 1 A CUARE OF SOULS. By May Sinclair. Published by Macmillan. $2.50. Reviewed by Priscilla Peabody. A complacent, selfish, indolent man, entirely sufficient unto himself. Such is Canon Chamberlain. the principal character in "A Cure of Souls," a new novel by May Sinclair. In spite of his indifference to the people of his parish. and his total disregard for their feelings and wel- fare, the Canon is several times ob- liged, much against his own wishes, to give spiritual advice to certain of them; to "Cure Souls." He turns out to be a miserable failure at this sort of thing, and his intluence proves to be completely disastrous to two lives. As a result of his exalted willfulness, and' his perpetual care for his own peace and comfort, there is a great deal of unhappiness among his paris- toners. May Sinclair has devoted the whole novel to the portrayal of CanonE Chamberlain. The portrait is clear cut and vivid, and the other charact- ers are cleverly introduced to set it off. The author's method of getting an effect through contrast of charact- ers has been .used to great advantage in drawing. Canon Chamberlain; herl work is skillful and well done. The minor characters are realistically drawn and are not smothered in a mass of detail. Miss Sinclair has the art of selecting only significant de- tails.f Especially good are the characterTE sketchesrof the pitful Agnes Lambert,. T EIO E Curate Jackman, so very earnest in his beliefs, and the delightful Kitty That America, after the hearty sup-' Hancock. iport which has been vouchsafed so! Like much of her work "Canon many of the British poets, should be Chamberlain" is a vehicle for the ex- as little acquainted with the present pounding of philosophical views. The laureate of the island empire as it story is one rather well adapted to the is, can be called little less than a' Introduction of the view that the Chri- blatant display of our national ten- tian idea of a god-made man should be changed to the idea of a man-mnoi- God. It is Jackman's belief that "God is not the great 'I am.' He is the great 'I shall be.' " There are also several passages devoted to her views on "mystic experience." Miss Sinclair has the knack of discussing philosophy. and religion in her work without re- ducing for a moment the interest in the story. Although the plot is not unusual, it is masterfully executed; and the subtle humor which runs through the whole story makes many of the situa-' tions most amusing. It is a novel de-{ cidedly worth reading, and, although, Eit may be rather depthless, it is some- thing exceedingly well (lone. Mon tross Again I HALF GODS. By Lynn Ionitross; published by Doran, $2.00. Reviewed by Hippias de Long. j Having written a book of episodes' of college life in "Town and Gown," Lynn Montross has attempted to dency toward the modern trend ofI literary work. Mr. Bridges is a poet9 of antiquity, he writes of older sub- jects, finding in them the truer and more thoughtful views of life, and' writes as one inspired of the old! Greek gods and the more primitivel and vastly more cultured days of the Golden Age. G Mr. Bridges' ascent to the position of poet laureate of England at death of Alfred Austin was a proof of his literary worth. Rudyard Kipling was his greatest rival, but while some have thought that the bard of the Eng- lish forces was better fitted for the; post, the depth and serenity of the older man won for him the coveted " " / 1 man and with a minister, of "the death LAUREATE of her ather, and of her decision to -marry one of the two men in ques- position. MIr. Bridges has written tion chiefly, as far as I can see, be- miasques in the Greek< manner and on'cause the other one has not made any Grecian subjects. He has written proposal of marriage. Mr. Montross Latin verse, and has published five has done one considerable thing in I writing "Half Gods."-he has avoided books of lyric poetry. Since the r~e-brnignscdaorptclry lease of these five books in 1894, he bringing in scandal or particularly has made two more. one, "'New immoral actions on the part of his Poems" in 1899. and "Later Poems"~ characters, and for that I would thank in 1914. The same style and manner him. Very few of the modern writers of writing is maintained throughout are capable of handling such sitna- all of the books, characterized by a tions in a way calculated to bring power to make clear and logical credit to themselves or to the con- statements of his philosophy. temporry novel, and Mr. Montross has - evidently had sufficient grace to rea- A wel-known critic says of him: lize that as yet he has not mastered "Mr. Bridges is a poet apart from all that art. current conception of the poet, and his defence, if it be adequate, muist I have discarded the book as un- take an unexepected direction. Per- worthy of a second reading. It con- haps the correct point of departure is tains nothing from which I can hope indicated by the following pronounce- saeefiran a seaittleor an o tere d ment: No trouble will ever be en-' save for a vain search for a plot and countered In liking the poems of Mr. p'irpose. Mr. Montross may have had Bridges, where there is any taste for a plot in mind when he wrote "Half the more artistic traditions of English Gods," but ht has failed to present poetry."1 t, Dealing almost entirely with one aracter, Bojer has made of him a' ing man, and a most unusual one. dreas Berget is a man with a lendid mind, too splendid, in fact, r his own well being, and his re- arkable power of mimicry coupled th his agile brain make of him a ange and interesting personality. Johan Bojer does not mince words. e makes his statements directly, al- >st bluntly, and unerringly to the pnt. The fact that his hero is an' egitimate child is brought out in one ie in. the first of the book, and is en'tioned only once thereafter in ssing. The fact is not played up at 1. All vulgarity is gracefully elimi- ted by the. masterful style of they thor. The background is Nor- egian, and the life of the people is scribed as only a Norwegian can scribe it. Bojer knows the people d the life they lead from first hand formation. He might be called the rd of the Norwegians, were he to rite in verse., The plot of "The Prisoner Whol ng" isnondescriptsas a whole. The taracter of Andreas IBerget consist- tly holds the center of the stage, ad Bojer builds what plot there is oundb him. The author has the gift making a little plot go a long way, d yet he has never lost sight of the iethod of condensing such meaningI .to few' words. Every paragraph in ie book deserves and demands care- .1 reading, as each one contains a" ought as applicable to all mankind s to the character dealt with in the ory. It would 'be futile for me to quote assages and refer to parts of the ory as representative of the power 'hich lies in the pages of "The Pris-I ner Who Sang." I feel that it ranks Lsily with the best books I have ever ad, and so far surpasses many of ir later works as to be in a class by self. A master of simplicity and rength, Bojer shows the rugged pow-' r and keen insight, coupled with an idomitable optimism, of the great ®rthern race., fact remains that many fine passages are reduced to bathos by the treat- ment which he gives them. convinced, failed in the attempt, "Half cods" is a story of several members F of a suburban city, and particularly of a girl who returns to the city after a' year's absence. The plot is obscure, and neither incidents nor characters are capable of carrying the reader's interest.. Just what purpose MIr. Montross The first dozen chapters are dis- couraging. One feels that this is the' sort of story that Max Beerbohm wanted to parody when he wrote' Zulcika Dobson. With Fidelia the' in- comparable, who comes to North- western university and succeeds, in. winning every male heart in the place, and with Dave, the very personification of manly virtue-"tall, straight, with brown hair, seriously attentive to' the ilecture"-it is hard to foresee any other than that tragic end which the redoubtable Zuleika forced on the whole University of Oxford. One ful- ly expects the entire male student body of Northwestern to march dolor- ously down to Lake Michigan, and drown itself en masse. Perhaps the fault lies in the fact that the author has made the import- ant characters just as important to the whole student body as they are to himself. Everybody knows that Alice and David are engaged; and every-- body gloats over the.fact. Then 'when F'idelia come's, evnerybod~y knows about it. And when Fidelia meets David everybody, by some strange mass intuition, becomes ex- cited and' worried. And when David breaks his engagement with Oie everybody takes sides on the ques- tion. Oh, it's all very much over one. But when the story finally gets out of this artificial college atmosphere, the whole character of the bpook changes. One begins to see, through? the mass' of petty, annoying detail$ which the author seemns to. love sao well, that there is a living, vital story to be told. One begin to see that he unbelievable Fidelia and Dave-and the much more consistently drawn Alice,-are real people after all, and t that their troubles are painfully real. It is, of course, impossible to call this a great book: it has too many- and all too obvious-faults. But it is a good book; and once the prelimin- ary I chapters are left behind, it be- comes very well worth reading. forth the faults of a town such as he THE PITIFUL WIFE. By Storm Jame- vaguely desci ibes, but he merelyI son; publshed by Alfred A. Knopf, paints a very mediocre picture of or- T 194,' $2.0x dinary life. The only incidents which The Pitiful Wife is a queer mixture have the slightest possibility of prov- j of mediaeval romance and modern re- ing interesting are spoiled by the un- ality. The characters are overdrain fortunate wording of the description, to some extent, ' and'the reader is bored with the lengthy descriptions. The plot, such as it, deals with the The plot is good, and the author. return of Frances Leeper- to Willow while she shows the wrongdoing of Ridge, a' suburb of Chicago, of her the husband,, keeps him consistently subsequent love affairs with a young in the good graces of the reader. branch out into novels of the world and social conditions, and has, I am t planned for the novel is a mystery to me. It may be that he wanted to set NO N.. .y * lA4 f i 1 q hil ( ~ , q ' ' . t l _ , M -_. 1 .e.... :...,...,,. .... , , 4. i a ,. . r .... t. 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