PAr. i1, THE MICHIGAN DAILY SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 17,, 192 SUNDAE', FEBRUARY 17, 1924 THE MICHIGAN DAILY BOOkS A READABLE FIRST NOVEL WIFE OF THE CENTAUR. Hume. George 'H. Doran 1923. A. first novel is all well e its author-by a happy accid published and there's timee worry when the second one process of making. But fo viewer a first novel is Witter -young first novel (like thi almost certain to be bad; a it's not utter rot, there must thing good about it. The of winnowing the sheepf goats is what grays a critic Cyril Hume is (or was young man, and is still trem most colorful Shaw's "Saint Joan," ask a dozen intelligentsia, every one the most maddening, but "The Mir- of them will tell you the same tale acle" s the most stupendous and of "Sons and Lovers" and then add gorgeous.ra string about sex, sensuality, and de- 'ADVERTISEMENT-._ _adenceabout literature.. That's Law- It seems that the Players aregonlgrence's penalty for being Lawrence. novel the book is pretty autobiograph- to produce A. A. Milne's "The Dver As a matter of fact, the author of cal. Thomas Caldecott Chubb, a Yale ,Road," next Wednesday (the 17th) "The Captain's Doll" by no means poet, figures in the latter partas and that Henderson is indisosed to confines himself to sex-for evidence intimate friend o the hero ;.Stephen adthtHeersnis hloedt t.write an account of it for his column. his peans to the -solar plexus, and By Cyril Benet is brought in for a moment n Hhis hell-fire and" brimstone. hunt for Company. a thin disguise, and there is another He doesn't like to write advertising,h who I houd pobalyrecgnie h sas.the IT .that- is underrfniting--'American whre I famuldrwth e e So he told me that it was charming, literature. .I don't know whether Law- noghf re aiirwt New Haven an- Sohtldmtatiwscarng rence ever reached the consciousness ent it go gelology. But the book is not simply witty, an evening of ooesome fun ofthe plexus, and I'm nigh certain he transliterated autobiography; what for young and old, und so weiter, and; ne met enough tonermt up with IT, but the fact biography there is undergoes the al- asked us if we would be so good as top is in the remains that he tried. And in Kan- rs the retering magic of art and becomes genu- write an advance notice for him. roo h h tif. deserted )r the re- garoo he . has still- further deserted r beer. A ine literature. The cast will., he says, be brilliant, the mysteries of male and female, s one) is I believe that, admitting all its many The settings will be executed by the choosing instead the political and so- nd yet, I faults, it is the richest - handsomest, Players theynselves in their little clal welter of Australia. The change be some- most substantial "young" first novel Playshop that used to be a Fire House is a good one . . . not perfect, business of its kind we have yet had, when the Tappan School was still a perhaps, but vastly more satisfying from the -Jno: Panurge. school. than poetic excursions into anatomy 's hair. Oh yes, A. A. Milne is a clever young' . . ) a Yale PLAYS AND THE STAGE Englishman. And we won't tell you 1 "Kangaroo" sounds like a symbol;- nbling be- (Continued from Page Two) any more about it because we might instead it is the nickname of one of ANCIENT UMIVERSITIES tradition whch belongs to all our (Contiued from Page One) !institutions of higher learning, the institutions themselves are, as the; as in the twentieth century, while the which all college and university men author remarks, the forerunners of should know and cherish." the present day institutions. "Theykd are the rock w ence we were hewn, the pit whence we were digged. The' I so often wonder about you as to fundamental organization is the same, whether inside the big high-colored,: the historic continuity is unbroken. squinting, solemn husk is living a very; They created the university tradition wise person or a very unmitigated" of the modern world, that common fool. -"Figures of Earth,": GcOgby EGIScOga In these days I am forbiddingly calm. I have not, of la tCose burning-lava-like depths of moroseness; nor have I pl1 out and glided swallow-like through blue ecstasy. Artzibashef's, "Breaking-Point." w w %0 w Security. May be found for your valuable docu- ments by using our Safety Deposit Vault. The service will please you. Farmers & Mechanics Bank ;i tween poet and novelist. That is the cause for the irritating, aggravating, worthless, and valuable part of his book. His poetry is at once the best part of his stuff and the cause of the worst. Anybody at all might know that in order to be a good novelist, a writer must have something of a poet in his make-up. Hume has, but often as not his centaur goes thun- dering off into poetry instead of step-' ping sedately through the steadier paces of prose. The story is a case of the eternal toss-up between the ideal and the ac- tual (and hence he practicable) moti- vated by that equally eternal human- fraility called love and all done in terms of the golden youth that more or less inhabits our colleges. Shall Jeffry Dwyer, the campus poet, the Yale BMOC, the budding novelist, marry Inez the ideally lovely, the cruel coquette; or shall he chose Joan, the sweet, charming, sympathet- ic creature? Both girls have their in- nings, he marries Joan, Inez returns, Joan almost loses; but, in the cen- taur, man triumphs over beast and his passion, sublimated, turns to po- etry. "I've never written anything like it in my life before! It's poetry. it's great poetry! . ." "Poor dear,' she thought. "There are blue rings under his eyes." So peace came again to Eden. Because Mr. Hume is a poet he writes well and easily. But for the same reason and because he is yet young he sometimes sloshes around in words. Most people, when they catch a symbol in a title, are satisfied' to, let, it remain there. Not so Mr. Hume. He expounds his symbol in _pages of the beautiful italic -type 'Mr. Doran hasbeen so kind as to allow him at the ends of chapters. The various books are set off with quoted poems and an occasional book is sep- arately dedicated. A lot of decora- tion. All these are the stigmata of youth. The real business of the book itself is satisfying in spite ofthe disconnected, episodic ramble of the narrative. He can't forget the campus because that was life and still is life for him. But- accepting this limitation-and is it not the limitation of all the very young writers?-accepting this, one must admit that he does catch the stuff- of life and make it live again in his own way.' Falling in a class with the firstj novels : of Stephen Benet and Scott Fitzgerald, it seems a more satisfac- tory production than either of these.l It is better than the first by being less collegy and less amorphous; it is not so intellectual as Fitzgerald's, there is not that keen and acrid humor that: makes Fitzgerald's youngness less ob- jectionable than it might be. Instead; of humor, Mr. Hume substitutes a sort of high sentimentality which values and .recounts. certain scenes which' give thea ppearance :of- having. been- well considering her complete lack of previous experience, but it .is Lady, Manners who presents the most per- feet characterization of the produc-1 tion. She is at once wistful and tragic and compassionate-a beautiful sermon in dignity. It is quite impos-, sible to imagine a more fitting and reverent interpretation. The German actor, Werner Kraus., portrays the puzzling and much dis- cussed part of the Piper. It is he who i contrives the many tribulations thrust, upon the distracted Nun, yet it is also1 he who saves her in every crisis. To, a certain degree, he seems to be a kind of sainted Satin. His crimes both torment and delight him. He is al masculine Kundry, whose terrible1 punishment is that he cannot resisti "the terrible life slipping through his veins." He is, in short, Man the in- carnate human, who wants to do rights and always does wrong. Finally, there is the remarkable in- fluence of Reinhardt himself. 'He has brought to the theatre, in his past pro- ductions realism, color, movement, and1 vivid life, and now in "The Miracle" he is giving us the mystery and super-I stition and exageration of the Middle Ages. His production is highly dis- torted and frankly grotesque, yet thesef is a verve and profound truth about it that supercedes. any, production, I be- lieve, presented in this country before. It is a revelation in stage technique, a! veritable miracle in mass action... . So to repeat, "The Swan," by Ferenc Molnar, is ,the most perfect play inr New. York, "Cyrano de Bergerac," thet your fun. And that never do... . MR. LAWRENCE IN NEW FIELDS KANGAROO By D. H. Lawrence Thomas Seltzer, $2.00 If you ask any odd dozen people who D. H. Lawrence is, the chances are that not one of them will know; that's his penalty for being a good writer. If you ask a dozen school- marms, probably at least one of the crowd will- hazard a guess that he wrote a book called "Sons and Lov- ers," that was not published serially in the Atlantic Monthly. That's his- penalty for doing good work. If you the book's leading characters. He is a high-minded fellow,- leader among the social intelligentsia of Australia- or at least, the part of Australia with which Mr. Lawrence is concerned- and along with two or three other peo- ple, each representing a different branch of social thought, forms the background for the mental gropings of the hero, an idealistic Englishman dumped into the antipodes. The Eng- lishman, being an idealist, is deter- mined to find something at least akin to justice in the civilization of the new land . . . and there rests the story.' You will notice that in the fore- going paragraph, I've used the word 'social' twice and hinted at it an- other time. This indicates the tem- per of the book. In it Mr. Lawrence is after ideas, social ideas, and has 101-105 SOUTH MAIN 330 SOUTH STATE "A strange and terrible catastrophe had for long bee " the uniformity of everyday life, in the busy emptiness of minable routine of existence. Even a few months before going on as usual, and none imagined that anything soul which was not a mere repitition of yesterday." A-sallow discontent with my work, with the town and in it, slowly rises about me. I am not suited to my work a' ahead e, me. The smudge of a machine shop suffocates me. of production-record problems entangle me in their strin cooly write out application for, another job. At night I am lonesome. I sit before a coal fire and listen to common sense arguments and go home filled wit) to overcome my imaginary unfitness. I cooly tear up the another job. And yet . . Artzibashef's "Breaking-Point." "If he had been asked, he would probably answered ur that was not the most important thing, and that one could But something oppressed him, crept between him and the a grey -cavity in the place of the future, and awoke in hi nervous excitement which envenomed all his surroundings. And in this calm, almost lethargic state I find great sadness and moroseness of this of Artzibashef's. It is but have of pitying myself. But Russian novels all tend to grow monotonous to me at aside to dream-maybe of Cyrano. Slowly letting the few rex fall against my knife I think of his retort to a friend who c for throwing his purse to a distraught manager whose show "Ah, but-what a gesture!" Or lonesome and wondering where are my friends or i any, I reread; Le Bret: But why stand against the world? What devil has possessed you now, to go Everywhere making yourself enemies? Cyrano: c ~W~.%W.Wd f f i 1 THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK ORGANIZED 1863 You will find Oa r service courteous and pleasing in every way OLDEST BANK IN ANN ARBOR MAIN.S[TREET AT- HURON Dinner Every Evening, Orders Should be in Before Three O'clock Afternoon Tea Daily We Serve Fudge Cake We Take Orders for Pies, Cakes and Nut Bread PHONE 951-W POLLY LITTLE TEA SHOPPE On Thayer, Just Back of Hill Auditorium ""g 411111111t1ltitlll llii~ll lllll3if~l1111H UI H fH f1111ill t ili llill~l;I t I il mi lt1"N i itH ~ifli - r- - Our --''-- - w - Chocol- - -Scotch Sunas _ALC ware delici Ous!.. P - .:MiV ~ ~ $ T ' rywue .aMlted M ilks ' ______15c, Watching you other people make friends Everywhere-as a dog makes friends! I mark The manner of these canine courtesies And think, "My friends are of a cleaner breed; Here comes-thank God!-another enemy!" And then I will read of his fantastic trip-to the moon he might have gotten there, especially enjoying his second p1 I might construct a rocket, in the form Of a huge locust, driven by impulses Of villanous saltpetre from the rear, Upward by leaps and bounds." Ha! Or I take refuge in Cabell. In The High Place I Ilk ially, a murder which will seldom be mentioned, in comps its circumstance. ". . . Then they drank, but not of the same win Duchess of Puysange. And the boy, Gian Paolo, died withou " 'It is better so,' said Florian, 'Time would have spoil life, Gian Paolo, and would have shaken your fond belief tl slave in everything. Time lay in wait to travesty this velv harsh beard, to awaken harsh doubtings in the merry heart your lovely perversities with harsh repentance. For time you escape him, Gian Paolo, unmarred'." But these dreams and this leafing through my books, re delectable morsels, does not shut out as it used the sombi I feel an intenseddesire to go to church but the thought c sermon is forbidding while the nearest Catholic church is t, which distance on Sunday morning is also forbidding. And distinct and persistent. In the confession of John Cowper Po in a volume, The Confessions of Two Brothers, I find as prec: as I know concerning just such an attitude towards church: " --I love to 'dally' as I call it, with the more gi of religion. Innately I regard religion-the Catholic Church as a noble and beautiful work of art, constructed anonymous for its own satisfaction, and offering a lovely and romantic e. banalities of existence. "I am not in the least troubled by its inconsistencies or If it were not superbly impossible, if it did not come fla outside the closed circle, it would not he worthy of the A rational religion is a contradiction in terms; and only tho people are interested in suchr an anomaly. The value t wonderful impossible invention having appeared at all upor the fact that its appearance makes one consider once more, likely it is that the real truth of the universe is somethi absolutely different from anything that anyone has dared t ligion at any rate must always have this value, that it pre satisfied men of science from closing the door to staggerin "As the supreme work of art of our race, I have the utr for religion; and as a protest against barring out incredibi I regard it with admiration. When however, it becomes possessing 'faith', or having what is called the 'religious f confess to a cold and complete indifference." ". .,.a lovely and romantic escape from the banalitie, Such banalities as Cabell in Beyond Life calls the 'intermi our grave-faced antics'. Cabell says ". . I meet So-at inquire simultaneously, 'How do you do?" without either 01 expecting an answer. We shake hands, for the perhaps inat that several centuries ago people did this to show that ne was carrying a knife." And,". . . and indeed the majorit i to get through life quite comfortably without thlnking at all. Electric heating pads, 6 give real comfort Every person needs one, for they afford immediate relief from many pains. Ideal bed warmers, tot. Attach to any socket. Perfectly safe to use. Others to $10. The better ones have three-temperature switches. The Detroit Edison Company A I 1 I .... Main at Wilklam Telephone 2300 .;