Chapter 85

(Eng ed 20–4268)

Human destinies rather than events form the interest of this South African story. Of the three men and three women that figure in it, John Oliver and René van Reede bungle their lives through defects in character. George Buckle possesses the substantial social virtues that make good in this workaday world and even enable him to take his rebuff in love philosophically. The three women, sisters, untouched by feminism, are more passive instruments in the hands of fate and are reduced to watchful waiting for the right man. Alma’s marriage to George is frustrated through the untimely interference of the flighty René, who goes off and forgets. Hester, feeling youth slipping away from her, marries the regenerate John, to her sorrow. Ruth, the youngest, eventually becomes the happy wife of George, although Alma’s shadow occasionally flits by.

“To read ‘The dark river’ is, after so much wind and brass, to listen to a solo for the viola. Running through the book there is, as it were, a low, troubled throbbing note which never is stilled. Perhaps a novel is never the novel it might have been, but there are certain books which do seem to contain the vision, more or less blurred or more or less clear, of their second selves, of what the author saw before he grasped the difficult pen. ‘The dark river’ is one of these.” K. M.

“So well does the writer of this story know her South Africa, and more particularly the diggings, that she has not attempted to add the glamour usually found in tales of these regions. In fact, so clearly defined has been her purpose to tell ‘the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth’ that the story would be rather depressing in its sombreness and worse than drab details were it not enlivened by bits of real humor and by a delightful background of local color.”

“‘The dark river’ is well written, in a clear and vigorous style, it is interesting, it gives that sense of reality which makes us feel that we are actually observing the lives and fortunes of a group of living people. Moreover, it has the rare quality which distinguished Arnold Bennett’s ‘The old wives’ tale’—it gives an effect of the passing of time. ‘The dark river’ is a notable novel.”

“Outside of Hardy it would be difficult to find a setting which affords a more harmonious background for the characters whose sombre destiny is recorded in Sarah Gertrude Millin’s ‘The dark river.’” Joseph Mosher

“It is written not unpleasantly, but with a serious simplicity, and the characters introduced are well and distinctly drawn.”

MILLS, ENOS ABIJAH.Adventures of a nature guide. il *$3.50 (5½c) Doubleday 508

20–2049

“Storm, sunshine, night, desert, stream, and forest are crowded with waiting attractions and moving scenes. To have the most adventures and the greatest enjoyment in a given time, ramble the wilds alone and without a fishing-rod or a gun.” (Preface) This is the author’s advice to nature lovers. He calls the wilderness the safety zone of the world and declares its experiences less dangerous than staying at home; while the hunter, armed and killing, multiplies dangers and enjoys less variety and fewer adventures. The book gives a solitary and unarmed camper’s adventures in the wilds of the continent. Contents: Snow-blinded on the summit; Waiting in the wilderness; Winter mountaineering; Trees at timberline; Wind-rapids on the heights; The arctic zone of high mountains; Naturalist meets prospector; The white cyclone; Lightning and thunder; Landmarks; Children of my trail school; A day with a nature guide; Play and pranks of wild folk; Censored natural history news; Harriet—little mountain climber; Evolution of nature guiding; Development of a woman guide. The many beautiful illustrations are from photographs by the author.

“Boy scouts will like it.”

Reviewed by LeRoy Jeffers

“The humor with which he relieves a tense situation, and his keen observations on the habits of the wild life of the mountains add to the interest of the book. A number of remarkably good photographs.”

“It is altogether a fascinating book; and its best title to recognition is that it approaches nature study from new angles, and with an unflagging and ever new interest.” Phillip Tillinghast

MILLS, JOSEPH TRAVIS.[2]Great Britain and the United States. *$2.50 Oxford 327

20–9352

“An English scholar’s critical review of the historical relations between the two countries. The book is made up mainly of extracts from lectures that were delivered to various units of the American army of occupation in Germany in May and June, 1919. The author naturally takes the ground that in the family dispute of 1776 ‘Britain’s policy was logically defensible, however unwise her action.’ In other words, he contends that there really is a British ‘case.’”—R of Rs

“His audiences considered, Mr Travis Mills was outspoken indeed, and there must have been some shaking of wise young heads over the Kiplingesque patriotism of this Britisher. No harm is done, however, by a ‘straight talk,’ and the lecturer advanced a sound argument when he contended that want of understanding, rather than the intention to oppress, produced the rupture between the American colonies and Great Britain.”

“Much of it will probably be new to English readers, whose notions of the American revolution are derived from text-books with a strong Whiggish bias.”

MILN, LOUISE (JORDAN) (MRS GEORGE CRICHTON MILN).Invisible foe. *$1.25 (1½c) Stokes

20–11300

This story, adapted from a play by Walter Hackett, is based on the possibility of communication with the dead. Helen Bransby is loved by two brothers, Stephen and Hugh. Thwarted in his love by Hugh’s success with Helen and smarting under a business failure as well, Stephen commits a crime which he contrives so that Hugh is blamed for it. The only person to discover the true state of affairs is Helen’s father, and the shock of it proves too much for his weak heart and he dies before he can right the wrong. Helen is positive of Hugh’s innocence, and as time goes on she is made more confident by the impelling feeling that her father is trying to get some message thru to her from the other world. The crisis of the story comes when she actually receives the message, and the hiding place of the paper that clears Hugh is psychically revealed to her.

“‘The invisible foe’ could easily stand on its own merits as a crime story without the aid of the spooks.”

MILN, LOUISE JORDON (MRS GEORGE CRICHTON MILN).Mr Wu; based on the play “Mr Wu” by H. M. Vernon and Harold Owen. *$1.75 (2c) Stokes

20–7524

Wu Li Chang, one of the richest, most powerful of Chinese mandarins had had an English education and was an Oxford man. His daughter, Nang Ping, whose mother died when she was born, and who was reared in the utmost Chinese luxury, was betrayed by a young Englishman. How Wu, the father punished his daughter’s transgression in the time-honored Chinese way, by killing her, and how he took revenge on her seducer through the latter’s mother makes an impressive tale. It abounds in vivid descriptions of Chinese social customs and traditions and reflections on the habits of Englishmen in China, that are not much to the credit of our western civilization.

“It differs from most novelized plays in that the bones are not visible or even suggested. Mrs Miln must have put into it sufficient of her own personality to make the story quite her own. It is probable, moreover, that all three authors contributed something to the impression we have of being for the first time actually in the heart of China.” D. L. M.

“Though the vengeance of Wu Li Chang’s forms the climax of the book the best and most interesting part of it is the introductory portion, closing with the tragic fate of poor little Wu Nang Ping.”

“Poignant emotions and a portrayal of oriental manners and customs combine to make ‘Mr Wu’ of more compelling interest than the ordinary run of adventure fiction.”

MILNE, ALAN ALEXANDER.First plays. *$2 Knopf 822

(Eng ed 20–12856)

A volume of five plays, written during 1916 and 1917. They are not, the author says, “the work of a professional writer, but the recreation of a (temporary) professional soldier.” The first, “Wurzel-Flummery” is a one-act comedy in which two distinguished members of Parliament are offered an inheritance of fifty thousand pounds—on condition of accepting the name Wurzel-Flummery. A two-act version of the play was produced in London in 1917. “The lucky one” is a three-act play. “The boy comes home,” a comedy in one act, is the one war play in the volume. “Belinda” is a comedy in three acts that has been performed in London and in New York, where Ethel Barrymore played the title rôle. “The red feathers,” the final piece, is an operetta.

“The lightness and irresponsible gaiety of Mr Milne’s dialogue are equalled by his wit.”

“They are intelligently amusing and have all the quality of admitting a thousand technical imperfections and carrying them off with wit or the grace of nice human relations.” Gilbert Seldes

“Throughout all these ‘First plays’ of Mr Milne’s the word whimsical haunts us. It is the trademark of the school, the school of Barrie; and as in so many plays in the Barrie manner the form has taken the place of the substance. What these plays show is simply that no glamour of pictorialism, no colouring of language can atone for an indifference to the fundamental requirements of drama.” J. C. M.

“No young continental artist, discovering himself to be a playwright during the very years of the war, would have written with this sobriety, good humor, and straightforward realism. Such an artist would, no doubt, have written more profoundly and imaginatively, but also more obscurely and, in no low sense, less usefully. Mr Milne, to be sure, is capable of being both trivial and sentimental. But his dialogue is deft and natural, and his observation of human nature cool and sane. His best play, The lucky one, is an admirable piece of dramatic writing.” Ludwig Lewisohn

“Mr Milne’s plays belong to what might be termed the Barrie school of drama. It is the idea of whimsicality raised to terms of life. Situations that in the hands of another would be either broadly comic or broadly depressing are made by this school of dramatists into a fantastic realism. While these plays are extremely diverting to read, one will sometimes doubt their adaptability to the stage.” H. S. Gorman

“The others are excellent entertainments, they abound in high spirits and good nonsense, but ‘The lucky one’ cuts deeper. They are all excellent fun, superficial, naturally, but thoroughly sound and wholesome of its kind.”

“They are delightful parlour-games, all five. They do not affect, like the newest of Mr Shaw’s parlour-games, to be fantasies in the Russian manner. They are modestly and tactfully and good-humouredly in the English manner.”

“‘Wurzel-Flummery’ is what high comedy should be—satirical yet not bitter, amusing yet not farcical. The reader of a play is perhaps too apt to dwell upon its style; but, other qualities being equal, a play is really none the worse for being well written. And Mr Milne writes well.”

MILNE, ALAN ALEXANDER.Not that it matters. *$2.50 Dutton 814

20–13982

“Mr Milne, who was formerly assistant editor of ‘Punch,’ contributed to that weekly many verses and paragraphs about his experiences in the war. He has left ‘Punch,’ chiefly because he wearied of having to be ‘whimsical’ once a week. In this book he writes about a score of subjects,—games, books, thermometers, snobbery, and the seasons.”—Review

“One of the most gracious things about these essays is that Mr Milne knows when to begin and when to stop.” E. F. E.

“No better book for vacation reading has been published this summer than ‘Not that it matters.’”

“To all that he attempts Mr Milne brings a style of perfect suppleness, ease and grace, albeit possessing that almost excessive informality that Charles Lamb is charged by some with having introduced into English prose. But when he rambles on, struggling with a subject that doesn’t yield much fruit one wishes that Mr Milne would adopt a somewhat severer principle of selection when collecting his writings for the pages of a book.”

“There is the satisfaction of knowing that wherever you may dip into this book you will be amused. So much of modern literature is only rough hewn that a finely finished work—even on goldfish—is welcome. In that respect ‘it’ does ‘matter.’”

MINNIGERODE, MEADE.Laughing house. *$1.90 (3½c) Putnam

20–18258

Laughing house is another name for Shirley House, the ancestral home of the Shirley family in Shirley, Connecticut. It is packed with family lore and tradition, which Francis and Mary Elizabeth love and respect. There they have a happy childhood, whose joys are shared by Newell and Isabelle Rushmore and Billy Vane, who are almost as much at home at Shirley House as the Shirleys themselves. When the children grow up they are still the best of comrades. In fact, they know each other so well that all their future relations are taken for granted and it is tacitly understood that Mary Elizabeth is to marry Billy. But then a stranger comes into their midst, a nouveau-riche neighbor who tramples on their traditions and upsets all their calculations. But altho her methods are a trifle ruthless, she opens the eyes of several people to their real feelings toward various other people. Billy suffers most, but deservedly so. Mary Elizabeth does not marry him, but Newell, and Isabelle who had fancied herself in love with Billy, too, finds it is Francis after all.

“When Mr Minnigerode is dealing with this family he is altogether charming. Perhaps he cannot write of ugliness: when he brings in a member of the nouveau riche, and introduces us to a vulgar and ‘designing woman,’ his skill departs.” W: L. Phelps

“There is a pleasantness about the tale, and the reader will relish the quiet old Shirley homestead, the quiet of the village and surrounding hills, and the principal characters. The story is natural in its telling.”

“Slight both in matter and in length, and not free from preciosity.”

MIRZA, YOUEL BENJAMIN.When I was a boy in Persia. (Children of other lands) il *$1 (3c) Lothrop 915.5

20–7997

The author is a young man of Persian birth who served in the United States navy during the war. He begins his story with an account of his parents’ marriage, thus giving a glimpse of the Persian caste system as well as of marriage customs. Subjects covered in other chapters include: The birth and care of a child; Schooldays; Persian games, amusements and massalie (stories); Persian fasts and festivals; Persian rugs and rug-makers. The final chapter, Preparations for a far journey, tells of the departure for America.

“An unaffected sincerity and a ring of truth and intimate knowledge are the fascinating things in this story.”

“This is a delightful book.”

MISCELLANYof American poetry, 1920. *$2 Harcourt 811.08

20–16870

“This volume is as its name half implies, a miscellany of the most recent work of eleven American poets. These eleven form no particular group, illustrate no single influence, constitute no one ‘movement.’... Each poet has been his own editor. As such, he has selected and arranged his own contributions.... The poems that follow are all new. They are new not only in the sense that they have not been previously issued by their authors in book form but, with the exception of seven poems, none of them has ever appeared in print.” (Publisher’s foreword) The eleven poets are: Conrad Aiken; Robert Frost; John Gould Fletcher; Vachel Lindsay; Amy Lowell; James Oppenheim; Edwin Arlington Robinson; Carl Sandburg; Sara Teasdale; Jean Starr Untermeyer, and Louis Untermeyer.

“Some of the poems have come out in magazines; and, what is really important, most of them are below the author’s level. For a first number this volume might pass. But the next should be made to count by the contributors looking ahead and planning for it. Otherwise it is only a pleasant venture.” Stark Young

“An eminently sane and revealing experiment, and one which justifies itself in the results.” Lisle Bell

“Containing whatever it does, it vindicates with unusual accuracy the critical preferences which seem to prevail just now and so embarrasses the reviewer who would like to declare something newer than that John Gould Fletcher, Robert Frost, Vachel Lindsay, Amy Lowell, Edwin Arlington Robinson, and Carl Sandburg are better than other poets today.”

“The most interesting thing about this volume is the curiously stratified cross section which it offers of contemporary poetry in America.” J: L. Lowes

“Here are all fashions, from free verse to the most conservative lines, and all done with exceptional finish and comprehension of poetic values. The book suggests in its general scheme those excellent Georgian anthologies. But a difference must be noted between these books and this American miscellany. In the American book is a wider range, the dissimilitude of the poets included is far greater than that of the Georgian group.”

Reviewed by E. L. Pearson

MITCHELL, ROY.Shakespeare for community players. il *$2.50 Dutton 822.3

20–3019

“Mr Mitchell’s authority as director of the Hart House theater of the University of Toronto and former technical director of the Greenwich Village theater, New York, is unquestioned. Taking Shakespeare as his text, he teaches the fundamentals of stagecraft which are applicable to community production, starting with the choice of a play, and discussing organization, rehearsal, stage-setting, furniture, dresses, lighting, make-up, music and other important elements.”—Survey

“His advice is sufficiently detailed to permit a clear grasp of all that is required. His principles are sound and scholarly.”

“Many a professional man of the theatre could learn something from Mr Mitchell’s book. The ordinary amateur actor will find it full of ‘tips.’ To the community theatre it will be necessary.”

“Suggestions on acting and stage-directing, and full illustrations covering every phase of the text, round out the volume as one of the most helpful of the many recent contributions to what may be termed the practical literature of community drama.”

MIX, JENNIE IRENE.At fame’s gateway. *$1.75 (1½c) Holt

20–6128

Josephine Prescott was a musical prodigy in her little town of Parksburg and the admiration of her townspeople made it possible for her to continue her studies on the piano with a famous teacher in New York. There her personal charms secured her many friends among musical and literary people whose Bohemian life she shared. A great violin virtuoso chose her for his inspiration and she loved the man in him while the artist left her indifferent. Her teacher, the great Brandt, dubious about her artistic testing, tried her out; one year, two years. In the third year he tells her that, with all her talent, she will never be a great artist, for she lacks understanding. Despondent and with all her hopes shattered, she again hears the great violinist and suddenly awakes to the realization that she understands and thrills to his music, that she no longer loves the man but the artist. And outside of the hall on the sidewalk romance stands waiting for her.

“Although conventional, the well-sustained suspense and the pleasant characterization give it an interest that will appeal to women and girls.”

“The illuminating discussions of temperament, technique and the larger understanding necessary to genius, should prove valuable to many seeking a career in music, or indeed in any of the arts.”

“A moral tale but interesting, it has a lot of musical good sense and is highly to be recommended to the concert-stage struck girl.”

“The book lacks character development. The novel drags badly at times, but some of the scenes are well written. Brandt’s speeches are usually good, and as a whole it is a conscientious piece of work with an excellent moral.”

MOELLER, PHILIP.Sophie. *$1.75 Knopf 812

20–13983

Sophie Arnould, famous Parisian singer, actor and wit of the eighteenth century, is the heroine of this comedy in three acts for which Carl Van Vechten writes a prologue giving the historical background of the play with a brief sketch of the life of Sophie Arnould. Although it is based on history, says Mr Van Vechten, the historical facts of the play are negligible while the author has “lighted up the atmosphere and the period, and re-created character. Sophie lives in this comedy, lives as she must have lived at the height of her career.” We see her as a triumphant lover, get glimpses of her as the superb artist, as the kind-hearted woman, but chiefly as the resourceful wit who cleverly outflanks her enemies.

“Philip Moeller, the creator of ‘Madame Sand’ and of ‘Moliere,’ has developed in ‘Sophie’ more searchingly his gift of satire and sparkling repartee. The lines of his play are closely interwoven in thought, and their significance is often multiple. In the repartee and in the rapid interplay of ideas lies the individuality of Mr Moeller.”

“The play fails not because its plot is unreal, its ‘morality’ frankly unmoral, its characters exaggerated. All this is true of many of those great comedies ‘which are in the best traditions of the English stage.’ It fails because it is not good of its kind.”

MONASH, SIR JOHN.Australian victories in France in 1918. il *$8 Dutton 940.394

20–11507

“The part played by the Australian corps under Lieutenant General Monash in France during the closing months of the war is recorded in this volume. The corps commanded by Lieutenant General Monash was the largest on the western front, and while the body of his troops were Australians it contained some imperial divisions and the 27th and 30th American divisions. These troops went into action in the defence of Amiens when it was menaced by the great drive of the ‘Kaiser’s battle,’ and fought up to the taking of Montbrehain on Oct. 5.”—Boston Transcript

“Not only a valuable document but a human chronicle that adds distinctly to the literature of the war.” W. S. B.

MONEY, WALTER BAPTIST.Humours of a parish, and other quaintnesses. il *$2 Lane 827

20–16287

Mr Walter Herries Pollock in the introduction to this book of reminiscences pays tribute to the author as clergyman and cricketer. The book itself is a collection of anecdotes and stories, part of the accumulated store from thirty years of work as a parochial clergyman.

“Mr Money’s anecdotes are good, but one has the tantalizing feeling as one reads them that the printed version is only the palest reflection of the real thing.”

“Embedded in Mr Money’s book of anecdotes there are an extraordinarily large number of really delightful stories; but the book on the whole suffers, as do most books of good stories, in being too long.”

MONKHOUSE, ALLAN NOBLE.True love. *$2 (2c) Holt

20–13704

A psychological novel with special emphasis on the psychologic reactions of the war on its characters. Geoffrey Arden is an introspective journalist and playwright in love with Sibyl Drew, an actress. The war finds him on neutral ground and his comprehensive view leaves small room for narrow enthusiasm. Nevertheless the patriotic appeal wins out and he enlists. On proposing to Sibyl he finds that her stage name covers a German ancestry and that she is German to the core. They make a compact to be “chivalrous enemies” and lovers at the same time and in this lies the gist of the story: that to intellectually honest, well meaning people the war has presented two phases—the one the international human aspect, the other the national and patriotic.

“Mr Monkhouse is a professional novelist, quietly confident, carefully ironical, and choosing always, at a crisis, to underrate the seriousness of the situation rather than to stress it unduly. Admirable as this temper undoubtedly is, it nevertheless leaves the reader a great deal cooler than he would wish.” K. M.

“‘True love’ adheres to a course as conventional as its title, unrelieved by plot invention and unredeemed by emotional significance.”

“But those who like much fine and high feeling and good talk and whose interest in character study is strong will find it very satisfying. There is in it a great deal of clever, sometimes brilliant, and always interesting, conversation that covers a wide variety of subjects.”

“As fiction the book is not appealing, but it is keenly and sometimes brilliantly written.”

Reviewed by H. W. Boynton

“‘True love’ is an interesting and painfully engrossing story, in which the author practises a most artistic self-effacement.”

“His style is careful, neat and polished. His skill at play-writing has taught him how to make his novels dramatic, and the book advances in a good, orderly well-drilled fashion. Mr Monkhouse has given us a most readable novel.”

MONTAGUE, JAMES J.More truth than poetry. *$1.75 Doran 811

20–19075

A volume of reprinted newspaper verses, many of them for or about children. Irvin Cobb, who writes the introduction, confesses that his favorites are “Healthy” and “Thoughts on pie,” of the Doughboy ditties, and “The Sleepy-town express.” Other poems are: The evening suit; Around the corner; The pictures on the panes; Why the katydids sing; Peter Pan; The mine sweepers; The road to success; The farmer’s idle wife; In behalf of the movies.

MONTAGUE, MARGARET PRESCOTT.England to America. *$1 (14c) Doubleday

20–8625

A reprint of a short story that appeared in the Atlantic Monthly in September 1919. It is the story of an American soldier on leave who visits his English friend’s family in Devonshire. The strange reserve of his hosts puzzles him and he interprets it, as coldness towards himself or his country. On the last day the truth comes out and he learns that for his sake they have been concealing the tragic news that had just preceded his own arrival. John Drinkwater writes an appreciative introduction. The story was awarded the O. Henry memorial prize for the best American short story of 1919.

MONTAGUE, MARGARET PRESCOTT.Uncle Sam of Freedom Ridge. *$1 (11c) Doubleday

20–11895

A short story reprinted from the Atlantic Monthly. The old southern mountaineer known as Uncle Sam, for his likeness to that national figure, has carried the fervor of the Civil war patriotism all through his life. In that spirit he gives up his only son and receives the tidings of his death in France without flinching. After the war he is heart and soul for the treaty and at the news of its rejection by the Senate takes his own life in the mystic belief that he is offering atonement for his country’s failure. The story has been commended by President Wilson.

“The simple, homely, genuine appeal of the central figure of Miss Montague’s parable makes a much needed call to the better spirit of the country, the real spirit of the great masses of the people.”

“It is one of those rare, great little books that all patriotic people will read eagerly and pass on to their friends, just as sixty or seventy years ago people read and passed on ‘Uncle Tom’s cabin.’”

MOODY, JOHN.Masters of capital; a chronicle of Wall street. (Chronicles of America ser.) per ser of 50v *$250 Yale univ. press 332

19–19139

“In the course of the forty-first volume in the Chronicles of America series, Mr Moody discusses the necessity and value of capital as an accumulation of wealth, either money or substantial property, for use in the production of more wealth, and he outlines in a series of nine chapters the leading factors in its development. His starting point is the rise of the house of Morgan, and thereafter he chronicles briefly, in scarcely more than two hundred pages, the development of American railroads, the rise of the ironmasters and the Standard oil company, with successive chapters on The steel trust merger, Harriman and Hill. The apex of ‘high finance,’ The panic of 1907 and after, and Wall street and the world war.”—Boston Transcript

“Both books are written from the Wall Street standpoint. However, Mr Moody has given us two interesting, authoritative, and impartial narratives describing dramatic and not unimportant episodes in our economic history. And his firm biographies and stories of great financial deals—accompanied as they are by a constant flow of informing comment—enable an understanding reader to deduce more than he specifically tells.” V: S. Clark

“The entire story of the development of American capital and capitalists is picturesque in itself and especially romantic as told by Mr Moody.” E. F. E.

“One of the most fascinating volumes in the entire series.”

MOODY, JOHN.Railroad builders; a chronicle of the welding of the states. (Chronicles of America ser.) il per ser of 50v *$250 Yale univ. press 385

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