BRIEFER MENTION
Tales of My Native Town, by Gabriele D'Annunzio, translated by Rafael Mantellini (12mo, 287 pages; Doubleday, Page), is a collection of twelve melodramas by an Italian Zola. Here writing is done with the big stick. They are tales of the noisier passions, executed with meticulous consideration for the formidable detail, since D'Annunzio writes with all the heat and strength of pulse that is supposed to belong to the Southern temperament. Also, he knows where to close a story to give it solidity. . . . The translation, with the possible exception of parts of the conversation, is very smoothly done. As introduction there is a plea by Joseph Hergesheimer, an attempt at coercing the American public into the A B C's of criticism.
Celia and Her Friends, by Ethel Brunner (12mo, 152 pages; Macmillan), is a novel conforming to the coat pocket in bulk and to the dinner jacket in mood. It displays both the informal and the superficial attributes commonly associated with that garment, and resembles it also in that it is seen to best advantage under artificial light. The cut is modern, the tailoring bad.
Miss Lulu Bett, by Zona Gale (12mo, 264 pages; Appleton), adds another distinct figure to the growing gallery of Middle Western types from Miss Gale's pen. One is conscious that the materials of the story have undergone a considerable warping in order to fit them into the tragic mould; there is less of the hopeless, inevitable sweep of things than we have found in other of the author's recent studies.
The Island of Sheep, by Cadmus and Harmonia (12mo, 170 pages; Houghton Mifflin), rolls the present world unrest up into a cheerful and conservative package, with the strings tied a bit too neatly. Behind the pseudonym is said to lurk a widely known English writer and man of action. He has put his thoughts on politics and labour into a fictional symposium, but their driving power is diffused amid conversational mists.
