Faksimile

Text

out having sensed the implications.
1
Under cover of art, literature, busi¬
ness, society, religion, everybody was 1
continually all sexed-up!!!“ he tells!;
his readers so that Provincetonn
and old Greenwich Village may be
seen in their true colors. Of course,
he's not writing of Provincetown 1
nor of the Village in this novel; he's
1
writing of Cape-End, but Cape-End
is so similar to Provincetown and
the people who summer on Cape
:
Cod are so identical with those who
used to live on MacDougall street
that confusion is unavoidable.
Its a pity, tco. that Kemp’s auto¬
bielogical yearnings need intrude
into his novel, for the search for
identifying originals interferes unduly
with the appreciation of the really
first-clase writing in his book.
Kemp's sensitive appreciation leads
him co write superb descriptive pas¬
sages upon the colors, outlines, forms
and contrasts in sea and sand
dunes, to offer delightful comment
upon the true salt Cape Cod“born¬
ers“ and to reveal the sharp con¬
trasts in psychology between the
yearning artists of the Cape and the
supposedly more phlegmatic, more
elemental fisherfolk to whom art
might seem an exotic, alien growth.
Kemp’s belief, of course, is that
the art of Portuguese fishermen liv¬
ing in their honest Latin gayety is
more true to life than is the hectic
artificiality of summer visitors. With
his deep interest in the psychopathic
and his uncanny ability to worm
confession and confidence from those
whom he intends, to use as fictional
characters, Kemp reveals rich psy¬
chological truths, though at the cost
of sacrificing factual precision. With
his extraordinary insight he can
penetrate beneath surface intensity
to see what lies beneath the eccen¬
triclties and extravagant behavior
of his unusual group of characters.
He understands both the skyward
idealism drawing artists upward and
the earthly passions which bind
them to the ground. His elemental
candor, his disdain of reticence, at
times bring to his writing the care¬
freo manner and enthusiasm with
which Kemp seasons his own living.
All of which makes for an en¬
thralling novel, but not a great one,
and not a novel that most readers
will find charming. For Kemp, in
his impassioned love for truth, some¬
times violates convention. Poor
Stephen Groton, shuttling back and
forth between the ideal of a mo¬
nastic life devoted to poetry and a
desire for the poetic life devoted to
women, is coarsely grained at times.
His end is compromise between the
love of poetry and love of sense.
There is befuddlement and tedious¬
ness, padding and a nervous strain.
That’s life, of course, and, as a
novel of realistic type, Harry Kemp
has done his task with an abundant
talent. But there is such a pitfall
as too-close realism, a too-photo¬
graphic exactness, a too-sedulous
copying, and into this danger Kemi##
has fallen. A novel that is both
psychologic and historic, both in¬
dividualistic and social, both fanci¬
ful and accurate ends by being
neither fletion nor sound biography.
The chief interest of“Love Among
the Cape-Enders’ will consist in its
service as illustrative footnotes to
ihe Hanau-Deutsch, The Province¬
town.“ Its revelation as to the
impact of Bohemian life of mad
theory, esthetic adventure, whirl¬
wind love and dark scandal upon
the less highly tensioned Philistines.
and, to swinging rhythms, bold
imagery and technical innovations
mark a novel of unusual interest
for the seeker after sensation.
lucht
d
Finsternis
box 6/3
36 in u nn
Sun
Balvimore ld
Cet 31-31
Schnitzler’s Last
Fuichr Inro Dankyess, br Ar¬
thur Schnitzler. Translated by Wil¬
liam A. Drake. Simon & Schuster,
82.
THE aptness of the title of this book,
coming so shortly after the author’s
Nevs
death, is a little bit unnerving. However,
Nevark N J
the “hero“’ of the brief tale is not the
Cet 31-31
author, but a man who watches himself
go insane by degrees, first discovering a
slight defect in his psychological get-up,
·FLIGHT INTO DARKNESS,' b
and then observing it as it grows. Schnitz¬
Arthur Schnitzler. Translated from
ler’s favorite theme, that of the Casa¬
the German by William A. Drake.
nova who grows old but not gracefully,
152 pages. Simon & Schuster.
has its obvious points of resemblance
tothis one, and again he displays that
MHIS new novel is the only new
clinical sureness and that conciseness
1 work withln the past two years
which is characteristic of his style.
from the pen of the famous Vien¬
nese writer, who died only a few days
Though it is a story of insanity, there is
ago. Like many of his earlier produc¬
nothing crazy about the way it is told.
tions, in fiction or drama, it recalls the
And when the author has finisbed, he has
fact that he came of a medical family
finished. Compactness is one of the chief
and himself practised medicine until
he was for
charms of Schnitzler. The translation is
several
physiclans,
well done. Ineidentally, the publishers
hat
shows intl
have done a novel piece of bookmaking,
medical
venturing to use gray paper instead of
The
white, an experiment which has been
more
given recent academic approval.
is do
mas
char
ob
left
The
Sym
tha
litt
with
been
of pols
their n
as peop
Press
concluc
Bristol Conn
although
Many ye
Cet 31-31
brother, a
saw that insa
England’s Restoration
him. he must
England of the Restoration 18
he began to su
presented in Arthur Bryant’s King
such a conditlo
Charles the Second.“
reluctantly agreed
Kobe
Charles in the tempestuous days
obsession is that his
rother
intends
jof exile, Charles as king, maintain¬
to carry out the pact.
ing a delicate balance of contrel
Nothing that either his brother or
over the country, forms the core of
another physiclan or his friends can
do suffices to stay the course of the
the book, around which Bryant
dread mental disease, which runs on
builds the details of the restora¬
to an inevitable tragedy.
tion period.
The narrative is fascinating in its
Throughout the story are found
horror and in its polgnant description
evidences of Pepy’s notations.
of fears that not even completely sane
An important book of the week
persons are likely altogether to avold.
is Arthur Schnitzler’s" Flight Into
Schnitzler again has plumbed the hu¬
Darkness. Schnitzler writes graph¬
man mind and without neglecting the
ically of a man’s descent into mad¬
outward ineident and the objective
ness. The book is psychologically
fact, has found in mental history sus¬
clear, and tells a story that holds
pense and excltement. Flight Into
one with morbid fascination.
Darkness“ was indeed a characteristic
Also published this week are
work with which to conclude his dis¬
Galsworthy's new play,“The
tingulshed career.
Roof;" “Roosevelt in the Rough.“
by Jack Willis; and Entexpriße,“
by( Harold S. Vanderbilt.