Chapter 75

20–9413

The author of this brief introduction to psycho-analysis is a member of the British psycho-analytical society, and Ernest Jones, president of the society, writes an introduction for the book. In part he says, “That the deductions made from psycho-analytical investigations are both novel and not easily acceptable, Miss Low makes plain in her book, and she has not adopted the easier way of concealing these attributes of them. She has chosen the loftier aim of attempting to present all aspects of the psycho-analytical theory fairly and straightforwardly, and yet to bring them within reach of those who have made no previous study of the subject.” The chapters take up: The scope and significance of psycho-analysis; Mental life—unconscious and conscious; Repressions; The rôle of the dream; Treatment by psycho-analysis; Probable social and educational results. A list of reference books is given in an appendix.

“The ‘popular’ style of this book defeats, to some extent, the author’s purpose. We should have liked the exposition to be more clear-cut and reserved. As it is, the reader will have some difficulty in grasping the root ideas of the Freudian theory, although, if he is patient, he will find a good deal of information in this book.”

“Worth while in defining the science, but too condensed for serious study.”

“About the first work on psycho-analysis that can be recommended for general reading is Barbara Low’s ‘Psycho-analysis.’ Of course, Miss Low exaggerates the field to which psycho-analysis is applicable, as she does its therapeutic value.”

LOW, BENJAMIN ROBBINS CURTIS.[2]Broken music. *$2 Dutton 811

20–20973

“From the four volumes of poems which he had published at intervals during the last ten years or so Mr Low has selected his best work to make this collection of his art. These four volumes, ‘The sailor who sailed,’ ‘A wand and strings,’ ‘The house that was’ and ‘The pursuit of happiness,’ have been much admired and praised by the most discerning critics here and abroad, in spite of which they have had a very moderate circulation.”—Boston Transcript

“There are many of us who would not willingly suppress or forget a good deal of the work in the four volumes of Mr Low’s that he has seen fit not to include in this representative collection, but what he has gathered here makes a very fine spiritual attraction that will win him an increasingly wide circle of new admirers. I think when you get at the core of Mr Low’s art you will find above everything else beautiful thought; and beautiful thought is scarcely to be found without a very intense and passionate emotional foundation.” W: S. Braithwaite

“After a careful reading we remain of our old opinion that the leading poem, ‘The vigil-at-arms,’ is Mr Low’s best effort. Elsewhere Mr Low’s work lacks freshness and individuality.”

LOWELL, JAMES RUSSELL.Function of the poet; and other essays. *$5 (10c) Houghton 814

20–26550

The essays and reviews in this volume have here for the first time been collected into book form and are edited with a preface by Albert Mordell. According to this preface they sustain Lowell’s reputation as one of our great American critics and are in nowise inferior in literary merit to the volumes collected by himself. The essays on poetry and belles-lettres in the volume are: The function of the poet; Humor, wit, fun, and satire; The five indispensable authors (Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Goethe, Shakespeare); The imagination: Critical fragments. Among the reviews of contemporary writers are: Henry James: James’s tales and sketches; Poetry and nationality; W. D. Howells: Venetian life; Edgar A. Poe; Thackeray; Roundabout papers; and the three last essays are: Forster’s life of Swift; Plutarch’s morals; A plea for freedom from speech and figures of speech-makers.

“Especially interesting will be his criticisms of contemporaries—Henry James, Longfellow, Whittier, Howells, Poe and Thackeray.”

“They are pleasant, scholarly, informal; they polish off literary subjects gracefully, even if not dazzlingly.”

“Mr Mordell has brought together a surprising number of uncollected essays and reviews by Lowell. What is even more surprising in a collection of this kind is that it reveals its author at his best. If Lowell has little to offer a generation which, like ours, expects from literature the very bread of life, he has virtues our contemporary criticism singularly lacks. He has the judgment we gladly dispense with and the verbal felicity we despise, for the lack of which the future will despise and dispense with most of us.”

“Throughout the book, as generally in Lowell, are paragraphs, sometimes pages, notable for their beauty, vision, wit, and eminently quotable.”

Reviewed by Brander Matthews

“Lowell’s abstract reasoning on literature is highly abstract and highly succinct, and its promises for the eye or the palate are not always redeemed in the intellectual stomach. The reviews of contemporaries are very urbane, very judicious, rather measured, rather distant, a little formal.”

“The mingled wisdom and humor of Lowell are apparent everywhere.”

LOWIE, ROBERT HARRY.Primitive society. *$3 Boni & Liveright 572

20–7731

“Beginning with the custom of marriage. Dr Lowie studies it through the practice of polygamy, with its side-shoots of polygyny, polyandry, sexual communism, to the family, with its various units, to the kinship usages. The Sib organization, with its history and ramifications, is analyzed and illustrated, the first half of the study of primitive society on its individual side ending at the stage of The position of woman. Then in turn such questions are studied as Property, Associations, Theory of associations, Rank, Government, and Justice.”—Boston Transcript

“The reviewer, a teacher of sociology, is one of a large group who are grateful to Dr Lowie for his service in writing this book.”

“Useful for its expansion of data commonly found only in briefer outlines.”

“‘Primitive society’ is a worth-while book. It is interestingly written and valuable and readable, even for an amateur anthropologist or sociologist. Its factual solidity makes it of permanent worth in any library.”

“Dr Lowie’s book may be recommended as the most informative, lucid, and keenly critical introduction to the study of primitive social organizations that the reviewer is aware of. It deserves the most careful study. Fortunately for the non-professional reader, ‘Primitive society’ is an eminently readable book. The style is crisp and rapid.” E: Sapir

“It would be indeed surprising if ‘Primitive society’ did not win for itself the position of an indispensable guide in a difficult domain.”

“All in all, Mr Lowie’s book will do much to render more life-like and substantial our current conceptions of a primitive community.” E: Sapir

“Principles or viewpoints are handled with equal skill, the didactic or dogmatic is avoided, indeed, let me say, with extraordinary skill. Dr Lowie is critical of old categories, but not, like many a critic, merely to make way for new, he never handicaps himself with classification. Obviously ‘Primitive society’ will be a welcome book—at least to those who want to know how things are before asking why they are.” E. C. Parsons

“He has produced a work that will serve as a comprehensive textbook for the student, and that is written in a manner interesting enough to engage the attention of the general reader. His material has been correlated and arranged with skill, and he cites his authorities with a marked care.”

“Dr Lowie reviews the rich material of social organization with a new insight: he discards simple solutions, too much dominated by the active social ties as we know them, and by the desire to read evolutionary conclusions into historical data.” Joseph Jastrow

LOWIS, CECIL CHAMPAIN.Four blind mice. *$1.75 (1½c) Lane

20–19509

The story is of two married couples in the English colony of Rangoon. Douglas Selbridge is an overworked official and Delia, consequently, a neglected and bored wife. Major Brattlethwaite and his wife are living apart and the latter is nothing but a rumor. The major seeks the company and solace of Delia until matters become strained between herself and her husband. When the absent Mrs Brattlethwaite suddenly appears upon the scene to vanish again immediately, at the same time that the body of a murdered woman is discovered in the jungle, a crisis is reached. A fortunate solution of the mystery not only saves an innocent man from the gallows, but straightens out the domestic relations of the two couples satisfactorily.

“From the point of the murder the story maintains a high level of interest, and reaches a satisfactory conclusion. The domestic and boarding-house scenes have engaging touches of novelty, which suggest a feminine hand.”

“The native scenes are more interesting than the troubles of the white folks, the descriptions of the rains, the heat, and native life being well above the average in vividness and picturesque quality.”

LOWNDES, MRS MARIE ADELAIDE (BELLOC).Lonely house. *$1.90 (1½c) Doran

20–10307

Lily Fairfield is a young English girl who has been ordered a change of scene for her health, and therefore has come to visit some distant connections by marriage at their home, “La Solitude,” near Monte Carlo. She finds “La Solitude” to be a lonely isolated house, and leads a rather quiet life, altho shortly it is enlivened by the return of Beppo, the son of the Count and Countess Polda, whose paying-guest she is. As she is something of an heiress, she soon realizes that it is the hope of Beppo’s parents that he will marry her. Indeed the desire for money seems to bulk very large in their lives. But a young Scotsman, Angus Stuart, has already filled the place in her heart that Beppo hopes to occupy, altho she is rather slow to realize the fact. “La Solitude” becomes even more unbearable to her than before after two robberies resulting in murder have been committed nearby, but it is not until an attack is made on Angus Stuart that the real criminals are discovered, and Lily realizes what danger she has been in and how she has escaped it.

“A melodramatic though not unconvincing mystery story.”

“The background and atmosphere of these players is wherein Mrs Lowndes has excelled herself. It is all too unfortunate that so able a writer should seek to satisfy shallow desire for excitement rather than to gratify literary taste: of the latter Mrs Lowndes would be very capable should she wish to produce, not a best-seller, dependent upon its author’s noteworthy name, but work of real merit.”

“It is an eery tale, with plenty of atmosphere, one that will keep its readers hanging on the turn of the pages.”

“The tale is well written and cleverly developed, incident following incident in a way which keeps the reader’s interest always on the alert, and makes convincing a plot which, though highly melodramatic, is by no means improbable.”

LUCAS, EDWARD VERRALL.Adventures and enthusiasms. il *$2 Doran 824

20–26998

The book contains a collection of short sketches on a variety of subjects such as episodes from life, reminiscences of people and places, reflections and whimsical thoughts. The style is leisurely and full of quiet humor. Some of the sketches are: The perfect guest; A morning call; Possessions; Drake and his game; Davy Jones; Thoughts at the ferry; Telephonics; Thackeray’s school fellow; The newness of the old; On finding things. Fourteen of the sketches bear the common heading: In and about London.

“Mr Lucas would be the first to admit that he challenges comparison with Lamb, and that the advantage is Lamb’s.” N. F. Gerould

“His work is invariably diverting, delicate, sparkling, adapted to the subtlest appreciations.” Margaret Ashmun

“The title under which Mr E. V. Lucas harnesses his latest collection of essays, ‘Adventures and enthusiasms,’ suggests an intensity which is seldom substantiated in the text. These sketches move at a jogging pace, guided by a slack rein, and rarely touched by the whip of fancy.” L. B.

“He writes of all sorts of ordinary, everyday things like aunts and telephones and punctuality, with pleasant leisureliness, with whimsicality and with deep enjoyment.”

“Both the adventures and the enthusiasms are mild. Mr Lucas’s taste is generally impeccable and sane.”

“Mr Lucas’s stories verge upon essays and his essays hover upon the edge of narrative, real or fictitious. They are not easy to classify—and that is another way of saying they make the pleasantest kind of book in the world.” E. L. Pearson

“‘Adventures and enthusiasms’ impresses you with its feeling of leisure, of the fullness of time, of the charm of idleness. Life runs full here but not in the impetuous desperate rush of spring, with the sounds of torrents and winds.” Hildegarde Hawthorne

“Of all his volumes of essays none is better than his latest.”

LUCAS, EDWARD VERRALL.Verena in the midst; a kind of story. *$1.90 Doran

20–17824

In this novel in letters, Verena, a maiden lady of some wealth, is the central figure. She has met with an accident to her spine and is obliged to be bed-ridden for months. All the letters are to, from and about her and they all are revealing as to the characters of the writers. The various relatives come to her for counsel and advice and make her the recipient of their confidences. The most frequent interchange of letters is between Verena and an old friend, Richard Haven, the friend that “never disappoints.” His daily message of good cheer, his ever ready counsel, and his daily contribution of poetry, for the sleepless invalid to memorize, are the best parts of the book.

“‘Verena in the midst’ is not to be taken seriously. With the exception of the nephew Roy, who is quite amazingly made known to us, there has been, on the part of the author, no serious attempt at revelation.” K. M.

“It implies no forgetfulness of Mr Lucas’s more solid achievements to say that he is perhaps the chief of those English writers who are doing the little things supremely well. And his fecundity in finding these little things to do is hardly less than his facility in treating them.” Stanley Went

“This book is full of humorous twists and surprises and odd bits and ideas and pleasant letters and anecdotes and—I am afraid I shall have to use the poor, over-worked word—whimsicalities.” E. L. Pearson

“Mr Lucas has surpassed himself. And yet, as is often the case, the idea is so simple that almost anyone might have thought of it.... Almost anyone could have thought of the idea, but is there anyone but Mr Lucas who could have carried it out with so near an approach to perfection?”

“Most of the characterization is very good. To accuse Mr Lucas of slightness of tenuity would be to invite the retort that that was the idea. It is after all a book with which from many writers we should be content.”

“Apart from the kindly humor which is their main ingredient, Mr E. V. Lucas’s little nibbles at the novel are in themselves amusing to the critic. The form of fiction appeals to him provided that he can use it on his own terms. He can think of the most delightful sets of people and give them appropriate names; he can write all their letters for them and, at a pinch, carry on their conversation; but always on the condition that they keep still and remain strictly true to type. Unfortunately, in real novels as in real life, it is difficult to keep people still.”

“In Mr Lucas’ familiar style. It is the sort of thing he does with great deftness.”

LUCKIESH, M.Artificial light: its influence upon civilization. (Century books of useful science) il *$2.50 (2½c) Century 628.9

20–11163

The aim of this book is “to show that artificial light has become intricately interwoven with human activities and that it has been a powerful influence upon the progress of civilization.” (Preface) The early chapters deal with primitive forms of lighting, covering such subjects as: The art of making fire; Primitive light-sources; The ceremonial use of light; Oil-lamps of the nineteenth century, and Early gas-lighting. Among the chapters devoted to modern lighting are: The science of light-production; Lighting the streets; Lighthouses; Artificial light in warfare; Signaling; Light and safety; Light and health; Spectacular lighting; Lighting the home; Lighting—a fine art? Reading references come at the close. The author, who is director of applied science, Neia Research laboratory, has written also “Color and its applications,” “The lighting art,” etc.

“Written in a simple yet finished style it gives the general reader a comprehensive and engaging account of illumination.”

“The story is told in a surprisingly interesting way. Altogether the book may be regarded as a model for such monographs.”

“An interesting treatment of a fascinating subject.”

LUCKIESH, M.Lighting the home, il *$2 Century 644.3

20–17579

The book considers the problem of artificial lighting both from a utilitarian and an aesthetic point of view. “Light,” says the author, “is the most powerful medium we have for creating or accentuating the mood of a room.... Attention to apparently insignificant details of lighting equipment does much toward converting a house into a home.” Among the contents are: Light as an expressive medium; Safeguarding vision; The functions of fixtures; Various rooms; Novelties in lighting; Colored light. There are illustrations and an index.

“Could be used in high school libraries.”

LUCY, SIR HENRY WILLIAM (TOBY, M. P., pseud.).[2]Diary of a journalist. $6 Dutton

“Politicians, statesmen, authors, actors, painters, princes, journalists, social leaders, and men and women in many other professional walks of life throng the pages of Sir Henry Lucy’s volume. It covers a long period of years from 1885 almost to the present day, and it is rich in the personality encountered by a newspaper writer and editor who has come into daily contact with the events and the people of his time. In his previous volume entitled ‘Sixty years in the wilderness,’ Sir Henry Lucy has told a consecutive story of his career, in this latest volume he supplements it with material which resulting from ‘the habit dominant through many years of daily noting interesting events coming within personal observation’ yields ‘a collection personally, politically and historically interesting.’”—Boston Transcript

“Except for a few jokes, we find very little of interest in this record. In his phrases we sometimes recognize the flavour of the official biography. In particular he has one trick very characteristic of those works. It is to make statements about his hero, with the air of suggesting an exceptional virtue, which hold good of practically everybody in the world.”

“An entertaining book of personal reminiscence.” E. F. Edgett

“‘Recollections of a journalist’ would perhaps be a more suitable title, and certainly Sir Henry Lucy’s recollections are singularly rich and varied.”

“The worst that one can say about Sir Henry Lucy’s diary is that no one would ever have suspected it of being a diary if the author had not so labelled it. It has obviously been revised in the light of subsequent events. Why has the book no index? It is just the sort of book that especially needs one.”

LUDENDORFF, ERICH VON.[2]General staff and its problems: the secret history of the relations between the High Command and the German Imperial government as revealed by official documents; tr. by F. Appleby Holt. 2v *$15 Dutton 940.343

20–22469

“The statements in Ludendorff’s first volume were so bold that there arose a demand for the source on which he based many of his sensational assertions. This demand the former Quartermaster-General of the German armies now seeks to meet in a second volume.” (N Y Times) “Among the documents included are the report of the conference between Bethmann-Hollweg, Hindenburg and Ludendorff at Pless, when the unrestricted submarine campaign was finally decided upon, and the violent letters exchanged between the chancellor, Hindenburg, Ludendorff, and the foreign office revealing the internal difficulties of Germany in 1916. The matter of American participation, as the German authorities viewed and discussed it, is gone into thoroughly.” (Springf’d Republican)

Reviewed by Simeon Strunsky

Reviewed by T. R. Ybarra

LUDENDORFF, ERICH VON.Ludendorff’s own story, August 1914–November 1918. il 2v *$7.50 (3c) Harper 940.343

20–4133

“The great war from the siege of Liege to the signing of the armistice as viewed from the grand headquarters of the German army.” (Subtitle) What the author calls the first commandment for a German “unselfish submission and the sinking of the ego in national discipline” characterizes this grim account of one who, with an eye single, was bent on the winning of the war. Volume 1 falls into two parts: the author’s career as chief of the general staff on the eastern front; and from his appointment as first quartermaster-general. Volume 2 begins with the entente offensive in the first half of 1917, the Russian revolution and America’s entry into the war and ends with the armistice and the end of Ludendorff’s military career. The books contain many maps and each has a loose map in a cover pocket. Volume 2 has an index.

“He gives a wealth of interesting comment and ex parte statement of motives, intentions, and expectations, which he does not prove. His treatment of the administrative and political sides of the war is the best part of the work. His accounts of battles are in many cases unsatisfactory. As a whole the translation is good.” J: Bigelow

“Of interest, not only for the record of military events by one of the most prominent military leaders, but also for the light it throws on the mental attitude and processes of the author.”

“The one great military book which the war has so far produced is the strange record of General Ludendorff.”

Reviewed by W. C. Abbott

Reviewed by M. F. Egan

Reviewed by M. H. Anderson

“Ludendorff may be read with profit by those interested in the handling of troops in contact with the enemy.... He exhibits the best and the worst qualities of the old-fashioned amongst regular soldiers. He knows his work as a handler of fighting men, but outside the realms of factors he is a simple and bewildered soul. And, let it be repeated, as a strategist, he is almost infinitely naive.”

“General Ludendorff has written a very able and interesting book on the war. It is not a good military history, though the summary accounts of the earlier Russian campaigns are instructive. The numerous plans and diagrams by the author are valuable also in their way. But the book throws a flood of light on the hopes and fears of the great general staff, and on the relations between the German army leaders and the politicians in Berlin. To an English reader, of course, this typical Prussian author must be unsympathetic.”

“Ludendorff’s war memoirs are the most solid contribution to the strategical history of the war that has yet appeared. To the military student the most valuable portion is that dealing with the Russian campaign of 1914 and 1915; but in spite of the great military eminence of the writer, this is a book for the plain citizen rather than the soldier, for quite half of it is politics.”

LUEHRMANN, ADELE.Triple mystery. *$1.75 Dodd

20–7518

“Here Adele Luehrmann has evolved a situation where three men of prominence of the same nationality and presumably of similar interests, all die with sudden and unexplained mystery within a few days of each other. The first effort seems to be to throw suspicion upon Olive Thrace, who has reason to be anxious to be rid of Zarady, the great concert master. The second death brings in the element of the girl with the squirrel cap. The actual solution of the triple mystery is a surprise.”—Boston Transcript

“The author has not succeeded at any point in really intriguing the reader. The characters are obviously puppets to string the story on: sheep fattened for slaughter. The dénouement is lacking in ingenuity.”

LUMHOLTZ, KARL SOFUS.Through central Borneo; an account of two years’ travel in the land of the head-hunters between the years 1913 and 1917. 2v il *$7.50 Scribner 919.11

20–16918

“Reaching the island which has been the object of his journey, Mr Lumholtz first gives us a comprehensive idea of its climate and the biological conditions which there exist, its natural resources, its population, history, government and racial problems. Presently he plunges into the jungle and shows us first its wonderful vegetation, and next its strange people. He takes us up the vast rivers, noting the habits of the people by the way. To his narrative the author adds a considerable number of folklore stories drawn directly from the natives, stories doubtless handed down orally for many generations. The author embellishes his volumes with profuse illustrations, many of them from photographs taken by himself.”—Boston Transcript

“A happy combination of scientific study with journalistic ease of style and choice of interesting material.”

“Because he went into such an unknown region his book has the atmosphere of Hakluyt or Purchas. The photographs which illustrate the book are excellent.” J. F. Gould

“The author’s style is one of extreme simplicity, and his material is presented in a form that should prove attractive to scientist and layman alike.” B. R. Redman

“Mr Lumholtz knows how to write entertainingly as well as how to observe with scientific accuracy.”

LUTHER, MARK LEE.Presenting Jane McRae. il *$1.75 (1½c) Little

20–10734

When Jane McRae is first presented she is acting as waitress in her step-father’s hotel in a small “up-state” New York town. Here she comes in contact with Stuart Pendleton, a young civil engineer, and with Arthur Gault, a movie singer. With Stuart she falls in love, but refuses to marry him when she learns of his previous entanglement with another woman. Leaving unbearable conditions at home, she goes to New York to support herself. At the end of her resources, she again meets Arthur Gault, who is now a moving picture director. He gets her a small part in his picture and finally persuades her to marry him. She becomes more and more successful as an actress, but is not happy. She realizes that her marriage to Arthur was a mistake, but does not see the way out. But when the war comes and frees her from him, the manner of his death leaves her still with an unanswerable question. “It did not occur to her that she was free.”

“To tell the truth all this business of Jane and the engineer, from beginning to end, is unreal and commonplace. Jane herself is least credible and desirable whenever that young man is brought on the scene. Except his good looks and his fine phrases, there is nothing or next to nothing ‘to him.’ What ‘makes’ the book is its study of Jane in relation to the movie man.” H. W. Boynton

“On the whole, it is a quick-moving and interesting tale.”

“Very long and not very interesting. Some of the motion-picture parts of the book are not unentertaining, while of the characters Arthur Gault is by all odds the best, at times becoming a real human being.”

“An agreeable little comedy of life not without serious import also.”

LUTZ, EDWIN GEORGE.Animated cartoons. il *$2.50 Scribner 778

20–3350

“E. G. Lutz answers many an unspoken question about the movies by telling very explicitly how an artist gets motion into his drawings. After two chapters of history upon their origin and development he goes into a description of the successive steps in the production of various kinds of screen pictures in action. It all seems very simple after being carefully explained in both text and illustrations.”—Springf’d Republican

“The book is interesting as catering to the universal desire to see the wheels go round.”

LUTZ, GRACE LIVINGSTON HILL (MRS FLAVIUS J. LUTZ).Cloudy Jewel. il *$1.90 (2c) Lippincott

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