and Continuously a best seller for the last fifteen months. NAPOLEON THE MAN OF DESTINY By Emil Ludwig 732 pages, large octavo. Illustrated, $3.00. At all booksellers. BONI & LIVERIGHT, N. Y. GOOD BLACK The Life of Henry Christophe, King of Haiti A GREAT BIOGRAPHY $2.50 HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK rope. "This is not the place to discuss relative values," he says in contrasting the drama of revolt in America with that in the Old World, "but it must be recognized that, great as the power of Ibsen and Strindberg may be, they present those facts of life which men must forget if life is to be noble or even endurable." This, certainly, is not the place to take exception to Dr. Quinn's philosophy or to wonder at so categorical a denial of the present trend in psychology, which, if it has achieved anything of value, it is the reaffirmation of the truth that "facing facts" is a fundamental necessity of health and sanity. Dr. Quinn's instinctive dislike of what he terms Scandinavian pessimism inevitably colors his judgment of plays and playwrights, but an even more important factor to be borne in mind in reading his book is his championship of the drama as the major ingredient in that indivisible whole which we know as the theatre. "After all," says Dr. Quinn, "the main function of the theatre in America should be the encouragement of the American playwright, for the theatre is transitory, the drama permanent." In making this statement Dr. Quinn enunciates the credo of the "historian of the drama" and makes clear the foundation upon which his evaluations of things theatrical is based. To him, in the words of another writer on the drama, "the primary magic of the theatre is the magic of the spoken (or, more specifically, the written) word," and in common with many critics and dramatists, he forgets the extraordinary resilience of the theatre which has survived long periods of time when the drama itself was practically non-existent. In this age of specialization the drama muşt, perhaps, be taken from its setting and treated as a separate study, but undoubtedly something vital is lost by this sectional analysis of what is, after all, a complete, if composite whole. Dr. Quinn's history gives little or no impression of the renaissance in the theatre which, originating in Europe, has had its reanimating effect on the American stage. Stimulated by the prophetic fervor of Appia and Craig, and moved by the productions of Antoine, Copeau, and the Moscow Art Theatre, to mention only the most obvious influences, the artists of the theatre in America have perfected an instrument of flexible beauty that now and again has flashed into amazing life. Dr. Quinn deliberately ignores this whole aspect of the theatre, confining himself throughout to his study of plays and playwrights, and merely indicating that a change has come over the complexion of our theatre, but giving little or no indication of its sources or its IMPORTANT TO SUBSCRIBERS THORNTON WILDER the horizon whose future I would bet on with so much enthusiasm. He is almost alone in his eminence. At the age of thirty he has achieved the astonishing feat of writing a classic." -BURTON RASCOE. At all bookstores, $2.50 Albert & Charles Boni 66 Fifth Ave., N. Y. meaning. To supplement Dr. Quinn's Dr. Quinn's history. Two new books, T Midwinter Fiction HERE will be evenings, as the spring comes on, when storms have made the movies hard to reach, have put the radio out of commission, and have discouraged the neighbors from coming in to play bridge. They are evenings which demand fiction. To supply that demand there are plenty of new novels in the book-stalls. "Wintersmoon," by Hugh Walpole (Doubleday, Doran & Co.), will find its readers without looking. His books are like Chesterfield cigarettes; they satisfy. The present one deals with a section of English aristocracy. There are dukes and duchesses about. Among them move the appealing figures of two sisters, beautiful Rosalind and Janet "the treasure." The story is of Janet's marriage of convenience, which becomes. through grief and pity a spiritual marriage, and of Rosalind's marriage of passion, which ends in tragedy. The characterizations are brilliant, the dialogue sparkling. The book is a small but substantial world. Romantic fundamentally, touched lightly but sharply with satire, Hugh Walpole's comedies of manners follow the solid, comforting tradition, and follow it well. "The Way Things Are," by E. M. Delafield (Harper & Brothers), might have been a heavy-footed problem novel had not the author's deft touch, amused sympathy with fallible humanity, and nice taste in satire made it instead excellent light reading. It is the story of so many ladies. Laura Temple, agree ably but not profoundly married, well supplied with children, house, and servants, envies the freedom of the younger generation and seeks to copy its outward forms. But in trying to find in a lover the romantic outlet which she feels entitled to she discovers that it is the decision of character and the detachment of spirit in the modern girl which makes her what she is, and capa ble of carrying on what (or as, if you like) she does. One might wonder if the decision may not be a hard heart and the detachment cold blood, E. M. Delafield appears not to wonder about that. And it never needs occur to her heroine, for she allows things as they are, events, to shape her course of action, and is thereby saved, as most people are, from the necessity of making a drastic decision. People who want their fiction short and to the sharp point, whether light or solid, may not enjoy "The Wayward Man," by St. John Ervine (the Macmillan Company). But to those who like a long book, with plenty of incident, to be sure, but still more filled with that detail which makes the characters real, makes one dislike or cherish them, and compels one to follow their careers with concern to those readers we recommend "The Wayward Man." Lovers of Dickens should enjoy it. It is the story of a boy who would not stay at home and amount to something; of his mother, who intended that he should; of his adventures, his returns and forth-farings, his marriage, his attempt to settle down and keep store and his complete failure to do so. There are fights and shipwrecks; and family scenes, funny and dreadful. And always there is the wayward Robert trying to run away from the women and things that mean to have and hold him. From his beginnings, where he precipitates the conversion of a recalcitrant drunk by falling through the roof of the revival hut, to his final appearance, sailing out of the Irish harbor under the eyes of mother, wife, sweetheart, Robert is an engaging and touching figure. But his kind is a bother when it gets out from between book covers. In "Shaken by the Wind" (the Macmillan Company) Ray Strachey has used material of great fictional value, which would have provided in abler hands the stuff for a powerful book. It is the story of one of the ecstatic cults which flourished in the more isolated communities of America in the midnineteenth century, and of the havod that it plays with a family. The plot is conventional. From the entrance of The Outlook foundly y dren, house reedom of eks to c in try aracter a in the mic, hat she what might MOTHERSILLE SEASICK REMEDY The Name Samuel French Means the largest and choicest assortment of plays in the world. Send for our new 352-page catalogue IT IS FREE Brother Rufus Hollins, the spellbinding prophet, one knows that the thick streams of his eloquence will readily convert father Sonning to his hysterical doctrine; that he will debauch the adopted Sonning daughter under the guise of spiritual freedom and mystical unity, nearly ruin the son, who loves her, and finally anathematize the Sonning mother, whose remaining shreds of sense do at last save the family. The book fails in characterization; but its facts, founded on papers in the author's possession, are strong. Ray Strachey manages to tell a melodramatic story with poise, and she foregoes the joys of satire. Reading the book, it is possible to question whether we are not yet, even in our supposedly sophisticated communities, a nation of joiners, ripe for any cult. We may not be shaken by such wind as blew upon the Sonnings, but it does not take a very heavy breeze to make us quiver like aspen leaves. "The Bonney Family," by Ruth Suckow (A. A. Knopf), is the work of a writer whose prose style, intelligence, and sympathy make a claim for serious attention. In the sense of the new "realism," with which Ruth Suckow's name is carelessly associated, the Bonney family is hardly a typical one. The Bonneys would be notable people in any small town, and for that reason they take on an interest that some of our current fictional families lack. Ruth Suckow's books follow a running pattern rather than a scheme of introduction, mounting action, crisis, and fall. This gives them a very "lifelike" effect. Her interest is in people and things as they are, and not as they appear. The adolescents of the Bonney family are not types, nor are they funny, except when they are. The parents are neither stupid nor brutal. Wilfred and his pet animals; the overgrown Sarah, bluff and hearty and uninterested in girlish pleasures; Warren, who may turn out to be a genius, but in the meantime is having a bad time with his hair and his collars; his intelligent mother-these people are good to read about. "The Bonney Family" would be excellent for reading aloud-if parents still read and children still listen. Nelson Antrim Crawford in "A Man of Learning" (Little, Brown & Co.) writes the biography of a fictitious American university president. He plays the part of admiring biographer and friend. His subject, Arthur Patrick (Ould Sod Pat, when he is speaking in Irish communities) Redfield, Ph.D., LL.D., rotary wheel in buttonhole, Elk's tooth and Phi Beta Kappa key on watch-chain, is American opportunism personified. How typical he is this reviewer, inexperienced in universities, does not know. But as student, doctor, dean, president, and finally writer on "Service," Redfield represents a "trend" certainly, and an awful trend at that. "A Man of Learning" may be classed as fiction. Its author is a follower of the Sinclair Lewis school, a journalist pamphleteer. As such, his book is naturally a story with a purpose. It bears about the same relation to satire as current farce does to Restoration comedy. But its tiresome lack of subtlety does no harm if, as this reviewer believes, it has been written in order to shock into alert attention a great many careless or complacent people, and not in order to entertain a few already watchful ones. Like Sinclair Lewis's books, "A Man of Learning" will prompt plenty of readers to thank God they are not as other men are, and to think that So-and-So and Soand-So ought to have their noses held until they have swallowed it. Two special recommendations which this reviewer would like to make have been saved for the last, partly because the books are not likely to be so generally known, and partly because they will appeal only to a special taste. Sigrid Undset's epic trilogy "Kristin Lavrandsdatter," published here by A. A. Knopf, established her literary reputation, but scarcely won her the public which her work deserves. The new book, "The The new book, "The Axe" (translated by A. C. Chater, A. A. Knopf, publisher), would delight many more people than are likely to read it unless it is brought particularly to their attention. It is a story of thirteenthcentury Norway, cold, dark, brooding as the northern winter, briefly and fiercely passionate as its hot, sudden summers. In plot it follows a familiar romantic plan; Olaf, foster son of Steinfinn, betrothed in childhood to Ingunn, Steinfinn's daughter, outlawed for killing a kinsman, returns after years to find Ingunn the mother of a child by a wandering and despised Icelander, and takes her away with him into a future already clouded with tragedy. Out of this unoriginal material a fine book has been made, deeply moving in content, icy in detachment, fiery in emotional quality. In interesting contrast to the contemporary novel, where character is built by the exposition of the inward sources of conduct and feeling, Sigrid Undset's work shows the development of character through the action of the story. She deals, whatever her setting, with the eternal conflicts and problems of humanity. As well try with a clumsy hand to detach a cobweb intact from the green stalks that hold it as to set down a comprehensible résumé of the story of "The Door Unlatched," by Marie Cher (Minton, Balch & Co.).. The theme is one which will be either cherished or scorned. Possessed by a strong sense of the past, intimately attached to the old quarters of Paris where the sad ghosts of the Revolution walk, steeped in that period of history, its physical aspect and its people, Marie Cher has woven upon this frame a poignant story of a man, a child, and a woman, the child's mother. The door which is unlatched is the door to a formerly lived life. The psychic state induced, presumably, by opium opens it and admits into the body of Roger, in whose mind past and present are always interwoven, the personality of Raoul, an innocent bystander of the days of the French Terror. The woman whom Raoul loves and loses to the guillotine is inextricably confused with Evelyn, the modern woman whom Roger does not love. The living child, Fan, Roger's dear and brilliant pupil, is interchangeable with the spirit Lucie, the child of Adrienne, Raoul's beloved. When Roger emerges from his final possession by Raoul, of whose last agonies he has been the harrowed participant, he carries over into his own emotional life Raoul's frustrated passion for Adrienne, and it becomes transferred to the living Evelyn. A tortured love episode, through which Roger moves in the elusive mental state that is between reality and dream, is broken by the complete disappearance of the lingering Raoul influence, and the full reassertion of Roger's own personality with its mere cool friendliness for Evelyn and its primary interest in her child. For Roger there is nothing left but an overdose of his drug. The door will open again, will let him pass through, and will close behind him. This story, distorted in this telling inevitably but most regretfully, is told with sympathy, imagination, and skill. Marie Cher writes with real distinction of style. Her prose is jeweled; the artistry of her use of sound and cadence is deliberate, but never precious. Of the incidental pleasures which she offers to her readers, the greatest, perhaps, is in her picture of Paris, full of atmosphere, very moving to a lover of that lovely city. But the book is more than that. Like the cobweb, the delicacy of its appearance belies the strength of the material from which it is made. It is a book which disturbs, as sweet and troubling dreams disturb the first moments of awakening. F. C. L. R. Student Tours from $275 Select Summer Tours from $775 (High Grade Hotels) PRIVATE MOTOR TOURS Steamship tickets to all parts of the world. Cruises; Mediterranean, West Indies, Bermuda STRATFORD TOURS 452 Fifth Ave., New York AUTO TOURS IN EUROPE Dorland Travel Service provides tours Outlook Travel Bureau, New York, or Where to Buy or Sell Where to Travel-How to Travel Use this Section to Fill Your Wants Hotels and Resorts New York City Hotel Wentworth 59 West 46th St., New York City The hotel you have been looking for which offers rest, comfortable appointments, thoughtful cuisine. In the heart of theatre and shopping center, just off Fifth Ave. Moderate. Further details, rates, booklets, direct, or Outlook Travel Bureau. New York HURRICANE LODGE Cottages HEART OF THE ADIRONDACKS Hurricane, Essex Co., R. T. Secluded and accessible. Altitude 1,800 feet. Unsurpassed view of fifty miles Sentinel Range, Whiteface to Marcy. Golf links, saddle horses, swimming pool, tennis. Fresh vegetables, fine dairy. Furnished cottages. Separate suites and single rooms. Open June 14 to Oct. 1. Special rates in June and September. S. 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