Chapter 100

20–21966

In the days of chivalry and when the church had decreed a “truce of God,” from Thursday of every week until Monday morning, during which time all fighting must cease, a young French overlord had put away his wife because she had borne him no son and because, heirless, upon his death his estates would fall to his cousin and arch enemy, Philip of the Black Beard. That the lady took refuge with this same Philip, enraged Charles still more. But it came to pass on a Christmas day that the truce of God entered the heart of Charles when he came to the castle of Philip in search of his runaway little daughter, Clotilde. As he goes to the bedside of his wife to ask her forgiveness he finds that a son has indeed this day been born to him.

“The story is told interestingly and with effective simplicity, and successfully reproduces the mediæval atmosphere; but the author leaves the impression of having put an undue strain upon plausibility in order to reach a desired conclusion.”

RIPLEY, GEORGE SHERMAN.Games for boys. il *$1.60 Holt 790

20–21483

A collection of games for players of the adolescent and post adolescent age. The compiler says: “Properly played games develop courage, initiative, generosity, cooperation, cheerfulness, loyalty, obedience, alertness and sense of honor,” and in selecting the games he has based his choice on these qualities. Contents: Circle games; Opposed line games; Tag games; Quiet games; Miscellaneous games; Relay and other races; Stalking and scouting games; Camp stunts and water sports; Mimetic setting-up exercises; Contest and exhibition events; Camping notes.

RISING, LAWRENCE.She who was Helena Cass. *$1.90 (2c) Doran

20–17649

Jay Sefton, a rising young novelist, acted a novel when he constituted himself a secret detective to find Helena Cass, dead or alive. Three years previous, her mysterious disappearance had set two continents agog with rumors and surmises. Jay Sefton had once met her socially, been greatly impressed by her personality and now the fever of the search had entered his blood. In disconnected accounts the story pieces itself together, and clue follows upon clue, revealing the rich possibilities of an undisciplined impulsive young girl; her tragic side-step from the conventional path; her all but murder in a Spanish inn; her refuge in a convent; temporary return to a world that had known her; her second escape to the convent; her motherhood and her final discovery in a secluded rural retreat in Spain by Jay Sefton and his wooing of her.

“It’s well told, too, with a slightly French touch and an intriguing style.” S. M. R.

“From the standpoint of style the book is decidedly jerky. It possesses many faults, many inconsistencies, but we are obliged to remember that the author has subordinated everything to the weaving and unraveling of his mystery. The first is ably done, and the second is accomplished with commendable ingenuity.” D. L. M.

“The novel is full of Latin color, some of the descriptive bits being powerfully photographic. All the characters are real and intensely individualized. The development of Helena Cass from a self-centred, selfish girl to a fine, broad, lovable character is a fine bit of psychological analysis.”

“The book is full of Spanish color, and some of the descriptive passages are striking.”

“The story is original, but its literary quality is not particularly good.”

Reviewed by L. M. Robinson

RITCHIE, ANNE ISABELLA (THACKERAY) lady (MRS RICHMOND RITCHIE).From friend to friend. *$2.50 Dutton

(Eng ed 20–8889)

“‘From friend to friend,’ a little volume of recollections by Thackeray’s daughter, Lady Ritchie, edited by her sister-in-law, Emily Ritchie, has just been published. Lady Ritchie met many of the most interesting people in England in the course of her long life, which covered the period from 1838 to 1919, and in this little book she has ranged far back into the past and given glimpses of her father, of Tennyson and his wife, of Mr and Mrs Browning, of Adelaide Kemble and many others. There are anecdotes of Thackeray in his younger days, when he was beginning to write and wishing rather to paint, and later on when he was in the full tide of literary production.”—Springf’d Republican

“If at times, in spite of its delicate artistry, the narrative grows a little prim, there is usually a twinkle of humour to light it up again before many lines are past. Our old-world hostess is too skilful to let us get dull.”

“This little volume is slight but pleasing.”

“It is more enjoyable than many books of reminiscence. Lady Ritchie abounds in good-humor.”

“Lady Ritchie interests and amuses us without falling either into the distortions of malice, or the sentimentally which dwells on the ‘dear old days,’ and leaves us as cold as if we were listening to a canting preacher.”

“Charming little book.”

“Lady Ritchie knew what was interesting and what was not; she lived intensely in her memories, and she can take her readers to live in them with her.”

RITCHIE, ROBERT WELLES.Trails to Two Moons. il *$1.75 (3½c) Little

20–17007

The story is of the Wyoming cattle country at the time when the struggle for existence was on between the cattle rangers and the sheep-raising homesteaders. Little by little the latter were encroaching upon the former’s grazing lands. Three figures stand out in the tale, Zang Whistler, the cattle-thieving outlaw, Original Bill Blunt, inspector for the Stockman’s alliance, and Hilma Ring, a sheepherder’s daughter, a dazzling but heartless beauty. A lonely life of hardship and struggle had cut her off from all femininity and hardened her heart. It is the taming of this shrew that tempts both Zang and Original. Amid killings and rough horse-play, during which Hilma has her fill of terror, loneliness and despair, nursing her hatred for Original, the latter’s character and power finally subdue and awaken the woman in her. Even Zang, whose wild career is but an offshoot of his inherent integrity, receives Hilma’s recognition of his loyalty and devotion.

“The story possesses a sort of crude strength besides exciting incidents; its characters are fairly well individualized; its descriptions are vivid, and its fights colorful. However, we cannot say that the conversion of the heroine’s hate for the hero to love for him is convincing. The strings that pull the character hither and thither at this point of the story are altogether too evident.”

“The story is ultra-romantic and the characters not essentially of flesh and blood—mere types and caricatures. But the setting in which the story occurs is painted so very vividly that it lends the air of reality to ‘Trails to Two Moons’ which the characters themselves and their vigorous actions lack.”

ROBBINS, CLARENCE AARON (TOD ROBBINS).Silent, white and beautiful; and other stories. *$1.90 (3c) Boni & Liveright

Short stories by an author who makes a specialty of the gruesome. Contents: Silent, white and beautiful; Who wants a green bottle? Wild Wullie, the waster; For art’s sake. There is a preface by Robert H. Davis.

“If these grotesque and morbid tales were just a bit better, they might even be great! But failing of greatness, they are so horrible as to be occasionally funny.”

“The horror of the truth in daily life is greater than the horror Mr Robbins seeks in his imaginative and improbable wanderings among murderers and spirits.” R. D. W.

“Genuine horror requires a certain inner logic, a subtle plausibility not discoverable in these stories.” L. B.

“There is no doubt that he has an eerie fancy, great fertility of invention, and not a little psychological insight. But he is unequal to the point of eccentricity. Two of his four narratives, ‘Wild Wullie, the waster,’ and ‘Who wants a green bottle,’ are simply inept. ‘Silent, white and beautiful,’ on the other hand, has an original and strangely vivid central idea.”

“Frankly tales of terror, built upon most improbable foundations, they would be revolting in the hands of a lesser artist.”

“The author has dipped his pen in blood while steeping his literary ego in diablerie, and the outcome is a feast of melodrama and morbidity that leads logically to nightmare.”

ROBERTS, CECIL EDRIC MORNINGTON.Poems. *$1.50 Stokes 821

20–1006

This collection of poems falls into three parts: Poems; The dark years; and Other poems. John Masefield writes a preface to the collection and says of the author: “When I think of the poems, I feel that he must be young; not young enough perhaps to have been carried away, or destroyed, by the recent great events, but young enough to see them clearly, to respond to them, and to realize that the tragedy of them has been the tragedy of the young, the blasting of the young, for the benefit and at the bidding of the old.... That, in the main, is the tragedy of Mr Roberts’ latest and best poems, in the volume here printed.” In another place he says of the poet: “He has a quick eye for characters, a lively sense of rhythm, and a fondness for people, which should make his future work as remarkable as his present promise.”

“Will be liked by those who enjoy conventional poetry touching on a note of sadness.”

“These labored verses move us not at all. The book is full of echoes and infelicitous imitations. The book, in short, is full of clichés of thought and phrase.” H: A. Lappin

“The experience which has made Mr Roberts ‘old’ to his friends, has by a curious paradox kept him gloriously young in his dreams and visions. These poems, even embedding such grim interludes as is represented by the ‘Charing cross’ poems, are the poems of youth; but of a youth who has been trebly stored with the ancient wisdom and ways of the world.” W. S. B.

“Delightful poems chiefly on Arcadian themes.”

+ |Clevelandp52 My ’20 60w

Reviewed by Mark Van Doren

“It is not enough to be high-spirited, and warm-hearted, and quick-witted, and brave and sensitive—and this poet is all these. To feel splendidly is one thing, to shape the feeling another. Mr Roberts at present is apt to throw off his feeling into rhyme without due concentration, as though assuring us of his exuberance and bidding us be content with that.” J: Drinkwater

“The many lyric poems are a flower-garden in which the reader can spend a long time, and to which he will want to return. Mr Roberts writes gracefully and melodiously, and is never elaborate or artificial.”

ROBERTS, RICHARD.Unfinished program of democracy. *$2 Huebsch 321.8

(Eng ed 20–6572)

“‘The unfinished programme of democracy.’ by Dr Richard Roberts, readily divides itself into two parts: the first three chapters in which the author sets forth what he considers to be the causes of the present crisis in democracy, and the rest of the book in which he specifies in detail and supports with argument the measures and changes that would, in his view, fulfil the democratic ideal.” (Freeman). “The main lines of practical doctrine on which the discussion is conducted are—a national minimum and a secure standard of life universally enforced and provided for; the limitation of profits; the elimination of the ‘social parasite’; the economic independence of women; the abandonment of the dogma of ‘State sovereignty’ and the recognition in the organization of government of the geographical and the vocational unit; the growth of the spirit and practice of social fellowship; a democratic world knit by a federation of democratic nations.” (The Times [London] Lit Sup)

“Mr Roberts’s work is one to be read and inwardly digested.”

“It is only the first part of the book, in which Dr Roberts states his social theory, that in the view of the writer of this note exposes itself to criticism.” T. M. Ave-Lallemant

“The book is both refreshing and heartening and deserves a wide reading, not only for the soundness of its ideas but for the distinction and charm of its temper, and the vividness of its style.”

“He writes with force and charm; and he gives evidence of wide reading and of serious reflection. But when he comes to chapter VII, ‘The organization of government,’ his hand fails him.” W. J. Ghent

“It is a scholarly book by a man of vision.” A. J. Lien

“One of the ablest of the ministers of the English Presbyterian church here discusses the social problem in a comprehensive and practical way, with a full appreciation of new conditions and new trends of thought.”

ROBEY, GEORGE.My rest cure. il *$1.40 (4c) Stokes 827

19–13978

The author informs his readers that he is tired of being funny, that he has had a collapse and needs a complete rest, and he is going to tell about his holiday in the country in his natural serious and solemn manner. By the skin of his teeth he succeeds in escaping from home without his wife and the entire family. His haven of rest is the Sunrise Arms of Little Slocum. The dream and the reality of Little Slocum are not quite the same. He almost succumbs to the ministrations of the sewing-bee of Little Slocum mothers, but after a ten mile flight in pajamas and mackintosh and rubber boots he catches a train that takes him back to the city. The illustrations by John Hassall add to the solemnity of the book.

“It may be that Mr Robey converses too much about nothing in particular, it may be that his humor is not that of America; but various episodes in his book are excruciatingly funny.”

“We cannot say that we have been vastly exhilarated by ‘My rest cure.’”

ROBINSON, ALBERT GARDNER.Old New England houses. il *$5 Scribner 728

20–16280

“‘Old New England houses’ has about one hundred sumptuously printed views, mostly of the type of plain, unpretentious small country houses of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which we roughly classify as ‘colonial,’ though quite a few of the more pretentious mansion type of house, such as were built by the wealthier merchants and shipmasters in the larger coast towns, are included. The subjects are selected from an artistic rather than an architectural or antiquarian viewpoint. The first few pages are given to an untechnical talk on the varied types and styles of houses and where one may hunt for them with reasonable chance of success, but the greater part of the book is devoted to the pictures of the houses themselves, an entire page being usually given to each print.”—Boston Transcript

“The text of this book is slight, not wholly unsuggestive perhaps, but disappointing. The illustrations, however, are of positive interest.”

Reviewed by W. B. Chase

Reviewed by E. L. Pearson

“Like most books of the sort, ‘Old New England houses’ is more to be valued for its pictures than for its text. Here the text, however, is entirely adequate as a brief introduction to upward of a hundred photographs.”

“‘Old New England houses’ will be interesting and useful.”

ROBINSON, EDWIN ARLINGTON.Lancelot. *$1.75 Seltzer 811

20–12049

“In ‘Lancelot’ Mr Robinson has continued the study of Camelot which he began three years ago in ‘Merlin.’” (Nation) “We open at the period in the Arthurian triangle when Lancelot, who has seen the grail, has determined to leave Camelot and Guinevere forever, and follow the lonely marsh-light that the knights hailed as the true gleam. Guinevere tempts him out of this. Arthur and his knights return, and find what the purblind king has shut his eyes to so long. Lancelot flees, and Guinevere is to be burnt at the stake. The greatest of the knights returns and rescues her, taking her to his castle of Joyous Gard; from which he later surrenders her. But the poison of the situation has raised up enemies in the king’s own household, especially his illegitimate son, Modred, and Lancelot, persuaded too late to go to the king’s aid, arrives after the battle in the north, in which king and bastard alike receive their death-wounds. He pays one final visit to Guinevere, habited as a nun, but still enough of her own self to listen to Lancelot’s belated plea that she rejoin him, and now enough of her new self to refuse it. Then the passion-wrecked knight rides away after that will-o-the-wisp whose presence men still vainly seek without themselves.” (N Y Call)

“Any modern treatment of the Arthur material challenges comparison at once with some of the illustrious names in English literature: Tennyson, Swinburne, Arnold, and Morris, to mention only the best known. Mr Robinson’s ‘Lancelot’ is no misbegotten changeling in this notable company. The analysis is subtle, unsentimental, and contagiously sympathetic.” R. M. Weaver

“In this narrative Mr Robinson not only proves by reason of thought and substance his position as the greatest of all living American poets, but also by the supreme consciousness and evocation of beauty.” W. S. B.

“The verse moves with dignity and attains at times even a detachable beauty, and yet the memorable lines are comparatively few—for this author.”

“It has no pictorial exuberance. Scarcely a line could be quoted for self-sufficient imagery. For the rest, the beauty of the poem is a low-keyed, intense but quiet beauty of cadence and rhythm. Its matter speaks with restraint and with completion. Its power lies in the immanence of its people and their struggle with their fate.” C. M. Rourke

“The verse of ‘Lancelot’ is as athletic and spare as an Indian runner, though it walks not runs. At the same time, he varies his verse in admirable accord with situation and character. Since Browning there has been no finer dramatic dialogue in verse than that spoken by Lancelot and Guinevere and no apter characterization than the ironical talk of Gawaine. One must go out of verse, to George Meredith and Henry James, to find its match. But Mr Robinson has the advantage of verse.” C. V. D.

“Edwin Arlington Robinson can say more in two lines than most poets can in several verses. His vision is somber; it is marked by an uncompromising consistency in the handling of eternal values.” H. S. Gorman

“‘Lancelot’ is life, albeit a gray and grim vision of it. It is a great tale, greatly told. American poetry is richer for the aching disillusionment of Mr Robinson’s art.” Clement Wood

“It has been well thought out, well felt and well made. This is not to say that it is a great poem, however, or that no important criticism can be brought against it. When he draws personality the lines are firm and flawless. But can he show us the color and texture of life, and make us feel the heat of it in those old days of myth and magic?” Marguerite Wilkinson

“Its supreme beauty lies in its analysis of character and motive.”

“Mr Robinson’s ‘Lancelot’ is a finer achievement than his ‘Merlin.’ Splendidly imagined and unerringly wrought, this book reaffirms the conviction that Mr Robinson is today the most significant figure in American verse.” E: B. Reed

ROBINSON, EDWIN ARLINGTON.Three taverns. *$1.50 Macmillan 811

20–15484

“Edwin Arlington Robinson’s new volume of miscellaneous poems, ‘The three taverns’ is likely to earn him—if he has not already earned—a reputation as the Henry James among poets. His fondness for portraying the complex facets of character in an oblique light and by means of inscrutable hints and sinuous innuendoes has led him to further workings of the vein of dramatic lyric opened four years ago by his famous ‘Ben Johnson entertains a man from Stratford.’ The present collection contains seven long poems of this sort, revealing in monolog or dialog a moment in the life of St Paul, Lazarus, Brown of Harper’s ferry, Hamilton, and real or imagined people of lesser note.”—Springf’d Republican

“‘The man against the sky’ indicated very clearly the place of the poet, it was very high—how high we had not the standards by which to measure. ‘The three taverns’ brings us much nearer to him, closer within the embrace of his sympathies, and, by the same law, lifts him much farther above us.” S: Roth

“The substance of the longer poems in this book is more profoundly grounded in Mr Robinson’s philosophy of human nature and experience than in any of his other poems. Even in the shorter poems we find this power distilled until almost achingly the meanings break through a speech that is simplified to a bareness of figure or illusion. Take the poem ‘The mill’ and say if a tragedy could be so mercilessly told with the economy of speech by any other living poet.” W. S. B.

“Here is a great virtue that belongs peculiarly to Mr Robinson among American poets. His work is always packed with thought. ‘The three taverns’ is a big book and it grows with each reading. It is the work of lonely hours, of unfailing meditation, and of authentic genius, if such a thing may be admitted to exist in these troublous times.” H. S. Gorman

“It is a sombre book, ‘The three taverns,’ sombre and polished to a high dark sheen, and the bitter tang of it remains in the memory after reading.” C. F. G.

“Separate enough in themselves, they yet stand with respect to each other in a sort of pattern, like the monoliths of a Druid circle.... What holds them in the pattern is that tone of mingled wisdom and irony, that color of dignity touched with colloquial flexibility, that clear, hard, tender blank verse and those unforgettable eight-line stanzas and dramatic sonnets which go to make up one of the most scrupulous and valuable of living poets.” C. V. D.

“‘The three taverns’ is a finished product. It is a book such as only a master, touched with the authentic fire of genius, could make possible. Within its 120 pages is crystallized the best of modern American poetry. No European could find better introduction to American achievement in letters than through the poems that are contained in ‘Three taverns.’” H. S. Gorman

“Little of his old magic of intonation and rhythm is lacking from ‘The three taverns,’ even though the intellectual appeal overmasters at times the poetic.”

“Mr Robinson’s verse, as always, flows with limpid purity, but his quaintly compounded vocabulary and his intellectual penetration compel the closest attention to his pages. Readers who have the patience or the agility to follow Mr Robinson are not meanly rewarded.”

ROBINSON, EDWIN MEADE (TED ROBINSON, pseud.).Piping and panning. *$1.75 Harcourt 811

20–16520

The author conducts a column in the Cleveland Plain Dealer and this is a volume of his humorous newspaper verse. Among the titles are: To a lady; The lecture; The story of Ug; Things I despise; Things I like; Some Anglicisms; The drawbacks of humor; Love lyrics; We Olympians; The critic’s apology; In various keys; The typewriter’s song; Rural delights; Butter and eggs; The average man.

“Of its kind, Edwin Meade Robinson’s ‘Piping and panning’ is of a pleasant quality. No man may trifle with the muse day after day with impunity, but Mr Robinson has been able to command her support in a fair average of instances. His book discloses a nimble fancy, a facile dominion of vocabulary and verse forms, and a ready wit.” L. B.

“Many of the verses, it is true, are occasional and uninspired; but the book is a wholly satisfactory one for the good things it has in abundance.” Clement Wood

ROBINSON, ELIOT HARLOW.Maid of Mirabelle. il *$1.75 (2c) Page

20–12599

A story of the last days of the war and the period immediately following. The scene is laid in a village of Lorraine. Here Daniel Steele, an American Friend who has come to France to do relief and reconstruction work, falls under the spell of Joan le Jeune, the maid of Mirabelle. When Daniel had left home he had taken with him the promise of his foster-sister Faith to be his wife on his return. But for a little time Joan makes him forget Faith, and Joan, to whom he brings the romance of strange lands, almost forgets her own soldier lover Jean. But when Jean is under suspicion she turns to him, and Daniel, too, recovering from a wound, finds his thoughts bound up in Faith and is ready to return to his own country leaving Joan to her happiness.

“Somewhat too sentimental in execution, but simple and pretty.”

ROCHE, ARTHUR SOMERS.Uneasy street. il *$1.75 (2c) Cosmopolitan bk. corporation

20–2645

He was an impecunious clerk before the war, but won a commission and was swept into New York gilt-edged society by his millionaire chum after their discharge. He goes the pace and one night of it finds him in debt and in love and temptation staring him in the face in the form of a trunkful of money under his hotel bed. He falls for it, takes what he needs with intentions to refund, but is found out before that happy event can take place. Then his manhood reasserts itself, he returns the stolen money and makes a clean confession of his guilt to his employer, his chum’s father. He is forgiven and is reinstated in the good graces of his fiancée, his chum and gilt-edged society.

“In construction the present story is by far the best he has written.”

“That the story is devoid of all plausibility will not detract from its interest to such readers as enjoy this sort of a book.”

Reviewed by Joseph Mosher

ROCHECHOUART, LOUIS VICTOR LÉON, comte de.[2]Memoirs of the Count de Rochechouart; auth. tr. by Frances Jackson. *$5 Dutton

20–17881

“These memoirs are a first-class historical document of the period before and after the Napoleonic wars. The Count de Rochechouart was only a lad when the revolution broke out, and practically without money he made his way across Europe and took service with the Emperor of Russia, whom he served until 1814, when he was appointed to a military post under the restored Bourbons in Paris, and took a prominent part in the refounding of royalist France.”—Sat R

“His narrative is of absorbing interest, in itself: material enough for a dozen historical romances, told with vivacity, a wealth of illuminative anecdote. The version is faithful and admirably written, a valuable contribution to French and European history in our language.”

“The Rochechouart memoirs become thin and unsatisfactory after the peace, and give few details of the new French society which Balzac was afterwards to describe so brilliantly; and with the count’s retirement into the country in 1822, they practically cease. But as they stand, they are a valuable contribution to a period of which we can never have too much information.”

ROE, A. S.Chance and change in China. il *$3 (3c) Doran 915.1

20–11512

A book devoted not to political affairs but to the little alterations in custom that indicate social change and the influence of the outside world. Among the chapters are: The seductive city; The city of the river orchid; The black smoke [opium]; The dragon house; The gem-hill city; The serpent month; On the “river of broad sincerity”; The city of western peace; The pepper month; The contemptible one [woman]; A painted cake. The title given to this last chapter signifies “a thing that has come to nothing,” and refers to the republic, altho the author says, “Though to many the republic has become a ‘painted cake,’ some at least of the seeds scattered here and there in the days of its first youth have taken root.” There are many illustrations and an index.

“The accounts of travel and life in New China are fascinating, and Miss Roe’s book both promises and provides some rare hours of entertainment.”

“A varied and entertaining account of modern life in the Far East. It is by no means a serious book. Rather it appears to be a collection of more or less coherent reminiscences carried away by the author after traveling through parts of the country.”

“Her book does not lend itself to continuous reading, for it is both discursive and disjointed. Too retiring to weave a connecting thread out of the accidents that befell herself, too logical to put forward a reconciliation of contradictions that defy it, too honest to suggest a whole where she had seen but a small part, she leaves on the mind an idea of confusion—and that, perhaps, is the truest impression she could give of China at this period of chance and change.”

ROGET, FRANÇOIS ROGET.Altitude and health. (Chadwick lib.) *$5 Dutton 612.27

(Eng ed SG20–68)

“Professor Roget, of Geneva, was invited by the Chadwick trustees to form one of their panel of lectures. The subject which he treats in the three lectures which he delivered for the Trust in 1914, and which are contained in this volume, has become, since the development of aviation, one of increasing importance; but the professor, though he does not ignore aviation, explores with great care and fullness the effect of altitude upon health and physique mainly from the point of view of the Alpine pedestrian climber and resident.”—The Times [London] Lit Sup

“The information contained in this book regarding climate appears on the whole to be accurate and reasonably complete. So much cannot be said regarding matters physiological. Whether on account of war prejudice or other cause a large mass of valuable German work is passed over almost in silence and even in the selections from English and American investigators the most important modern contribution is merely mentioned.” Yandell Henderson

“If, as undoubtedly is the case, there are still many people who dread the effects of unmitigated fresh air, and especially that of mountain resorts, these lectures should help to convert them to saner views.”

ROHMER, SAX, pseud. (ARTHUR SARSFIELD WARD).Golden scorpion. *$1.75 (2c) McBride

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