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Books and the Book World of The Sun, January 11, 1920. Dunsany's Latest Is Endorsed as Magic THERE was never a magician like Dunsany. Fdr surely never before has the heart of a man found the power 'to .keep alive into mature years the wonder magic of a child. Not the magic of fairyland, for there even the most imaginative spirit knows that it is only make-believ- e. This is a magic deeper far. He may call them Tales of Three Hemisphere. They are' tales, in trutbf of our own strange souls. \Here w.o have fettered and manacled Time, who would otherwise slay the gods.\ And \when the gods idie men may dream no more.\ But lie waves his wand and our dulled eyes arc cleared and wc see that we may still dream on. What a delight to turn with him into that Shop in Go-B- y street through whose old dark back door wc sud- denly find ourselves far away, away from \the little though many snares that hind qur feet in the fields we know,\ away into a world that 8 \free of tho dulness of the science of man\! Strange yet satisfying world, for in it the spirit moves with a sense of detachment from futile relation- ships, a rich, vividly colored delight in its own existence, alone yet never lonely. There, p;rhnps, is the distilled essence of these tales of wonder that gives theni their unique fragrance, like nothing else in literature. The world they paint is like nothing on earth yet as familiar as our own hearts. For in these Lands of Dream there is somehow a sweep of Time and Space, the lure of an enchantment that is truer than truth. So, through all their apparent fantasy, there, breathes an air of release and reality. 'Tor beyond the world we know there roars a hurricane of cmturies whose echo only troubles though sorcily our fields ; while elsewhere there is calm.\ And the magic is a powerful one, strik- ing its roots far down in the imagination, for it holds its sway in the face of an at- tempt to analyze its elements. There is a Scriptural starkness of phrase, the Eng- lish of tho splendor of Elizabeth; and then strange, erotic, musical groups of words that fill the spaces of fancy with glow and perfume; there is the potent spell' of names that could only belong to the back of beyond, \the goldsmith of Sir-dp- o, the ritual incantations of the con- jurer Amargrarn, the fame of fair Bcl-zoo- and the cities of Durl and Duz.\ But most wonderful of all arc the star- tling, satisfying and characteristically Dunsane not to say Dunsinnnian! ways of tl.ese gods of dream in avenging littlest things with great dooms. Yet one tiling in theybook strikes a pang t6 the heart. Not in these great dooms, nor irithc felt, though unseen presence of terrific gods, do we tremble. But when the magician fays, \for my fancy is weake- ning as the years slip by and I go ever more seldom into the Lands of Dream,\ a shad- ow of swooping de'solation hovers over the imaginative spirit. \Who then will open for us the gates of these great spaces of wonder through which wc glimpse a world behind the East, real as only dreams can be? M. P. A. TALES OF TIIREE HEMISPHERES. Br Loan Dunsant. Boston: John W. Luco & Co. Officers Were a Bad Lot in Some Novels LIVINGSTON II ILL, who GRACE with Commander Evangeline Booth in writing The War Romance of the Salvation Army, has writ- ten another war romance, unofflcial'this time, eallcd The Search, in which the Sal- vation Army both at home and abroad is largely featured; so that the reader will find everything in the book, including tho romance, inclining toward the Army's religious t;oncept. 'The Search takes John Cameron through an American training camp to a hospital in France, with Ruth JIacDonald, a child- hood friend, close at his heels and Wain- wright, the villain, following. Wainwright should 1m recognized by the practised reader as the Lieutenant who takes ad- vantage of his rank to heckle his enemy a drafted man in his company, and in- cidentally our hero. The scene in camp and army discipline in general are repre- sented in a manner it is kindest to call careless. For a long time we have been noticing the increasing number , of books in which officers in the army are made to do tho unlovely bidding of-th- eir own personal malevolence. Here is a bit of description of affairs on board the troopship: bear in mind that Wainwright is the Lieutenant, Wbrtz the Captain and Cameron tjie en- listed man. \Wainwright had thing3 in his own hands for this voyage. Wurtz was bis devoted slave. For Wainwright had money and used it freely with his Captain and Wainwright well knew how to think up tortures. Thefirst night on the waer was one of unspeakable horror to Cam- eron. They had scarcely begun to feel the roll of the waves before CapL Wurtz manifested his true nature. At 6 o'clock and broatf-daylig- ht; he ordered the men below, had them locked in and all the portholes closed!\ Now there may have been transports where things went this way, but on well behaved ones the portholes were locked at the command of the Captain of the ship after dark, not at the whim of company commanders who were taking advantage of the nice little nest that they had feath- ered for themselves by sleeping on the floor outside of the compartment in, which their men slept this in case of submarine attack. It is not well to allow yourself to bo exercised over these fictional misrepre- sentations of army life, but this part of The Search has done our equanimity more harm than the rest has done good. C. M. G. THE SEABCII. By Grace Livingston . Hill (Lutz). Philadelphia: J. B. lip-pineo- tt Company. ? The Big Mid-Wint- er Novel $1.90 net at all bookstores Further Acquaintance of Red Pepper Burns IT is sad to think that goodness, even wholesome goodness, can -- be a, little tedious, but such is the painful truth. All the greater tribute then to Miss Richmond that the almost unvarying manliness, womanliness and the universal optimistic rightness of every one in Bed and Black are only now and then indigestibly oppres- -. sive. But there is scarcely enough human frailty to spice the mix- ture. Certainly not enough to stir theK pulse. For the end is inevitable and crystal clear from the beginning. Robert ilc-Phers- on Black will of course marry Jane Bay, and the obstacle of her agnosticism will be levelled all in due time. And of \rourso Fanny Fitch, whose frank and fetching recognition of her own charms and power over men is very, enlivening and not at all alarming; os the author evidently means it to be, will marry Caiy Ray. Every one will do his duty in the war, and every one but one trill come home safe we know it to \the proper happy ending, with all fear and error dis- solving on the horizon. While as for the Could Kyou take up another man's life, and successfully impersonate him to his wife, his family and his friends Read what happened in THE BEST STORY OPPENHEIM EVER WROTE Hundred Thousand THE GREAT IMPERSONATION PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM LEAVING England under suspicion as Everard Dominey, after ten years of wandering, turns up in German East Africa and is rescued from in the jungle by the German Com- mandant, Baron von Ragastein, former fellow-stude- nt at Oxford. Realizing thattheremafkableresemblance which existed betweenthem during college days still persists, von Ragastein, who has Booksellers LITTLE, BROWN CO., Publishers, BOSTON MAUD DIVER'S STRONG HOURS of the very few modern English novels that can xe-spe- ct, and at the same time read With interest.\ Neio York chief motive of the book, the growth oi the great between Red Pepper Bum3 and Robert Black, there is certainly no obstacle to that except the element of time for acquaintanceship to ripen, and there is all the rime in the book for that. Red Pepper Burns is already well known as one of the' most delightful doc- tors in fiction. And. he is well matched by Robert McPherson Black, virile, wholesome parson of that highest type of churchman who is militant against every sort of wrong. It is indeed the most obvious of 'the obvious, this pleasant story. But Miss Richmond has fluent, ready conduct of conversation and skill in painting lovable, healthy, uncomplicated human beings. Untouched by the swarming questions of more complex world, they live their charming, orderly suburban lives. It is as if each like each house in model, duly restricted American suburb, were set apart in its acre or two of well grounds, its sloping lying placidly open to the public gaxe.. Curfew docs not now ring there, perhaps, but one is sure that there is healthily early bedtime. And refreshed and more or less charmed we wo probably take the next train into town. M. P. A. BED AND BLACK. Br Grjjce 8. BtCH-HON'- Doubleday, Page Co. ? , A Book of the Class By E. a death a been ordered to London by the WUheImT strasse,decides to send Dominey to certain death in thejungle, assume his identity,and enter London in guise of Sir Everard Dominey. Then-follow- s love story of charm appeal, revelation of the German espion- age system that thrills wmaxes, and mystery that the reader not solve until the end of the story. $1.75 net. At & Read the reviews \One one Sun. ft, friendship a thoroughly a a soul, a kept lawns a well, & the a and a and a will All Five Printings Already Ordered The book is absorbingly inter esting, and its characters are drawn with subtlety and skill.\ , New York Times. \Mrs. Diver has written a story which is at once a splendid manifesta- tion of her own mind and power, and -- a grateful, fresh demonstration of the strength of English language when well employed. To\ the list of the major novels of the year we add gladly 'The. Strong Hours'.\ New York World. - \One of the best novels of many\\ \A delight to one who, page by years- - absorbing, wholesome, page, tastes and retastes the mel-an- d satisfying in all respects.\ lowed artistry of this writer.\ Brooklyn Eagle. Washington Star. Read the book HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY Boston and .New York
