5 NORMAN DOUGLAS South Wind 6 HENRIK IBSEN A Doll's House, Ghosts, An Enemy of the People 7 ANATOLE FRANCE The Red Lily 8 DE MAUPASSANT SEVEN to be added to the MODERN LIBRARY FEBRUARY 15th M MODERN LIBRARY 17 83 OSCAR WILDE Salome, The Importance of Being Earnest, and Lady Windermere's Fan 84 OSCAR WILDE An Ideal Husband, and A Woman of No Importance 85 ALPHONSE DAUDET Sapho ANTOINE FRANCOIS PRE Mademoiselle Fifi, etc. 9 NIETZSCHE Thus Spake Zarathustra 10 DOSTOYEVSKY Poor People - 12 SCHOPENHAUER Studies in Pessimism -13 SAMUEL BUTLER The Way of all Flesh 14 MEREDITH Diana of the Crossways - 15 GEORGE BERNARD SHAW An Unsocial Socialist - 16 GEORGE MOORE Confessions of a Young Man 17 HARDY The Mayor of Casterbridge 18 BEST RUSSIAN SHORT STORIES -19 OSCAR WILDE Poems 20 NIETZSCHE Beyond Good and Evil !! TURGENEV Fathers and Sons 12 ANATOLE FRANCE Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard -13 SWINBURNE Poems 15 JAMES BRANCH CABELL Beyond Life 6 w. S. GILBERT The Mikado and Other Plays 8 GUSTAVE FLAUBERT Madame Bovary 9 BEN HECHT Erik Dorn -O WILLIAM BEEBE Jungle Peace 1 ANTON CHEKHOV Rothschild's Fiddle, etc. 2 SCHNITZLER Anatol, and Other Plays 3 SUDERMANN Dame Care 4 DUNSANY A Dreamer's Tales 5 G. K. CHESTERTON The Man Who Was Thursday 6 HENRIK IBSEN Hedda Gabler, Pillars of Society, The Master Builder 3 FRANCIS THOMPSON Complete Poems BALZAC Short Stories 1 THE ART OF RODIN 64 Black and White Reproductions. Introduction by Louis Weinberg ✓ THE ART OF AUBREY FOUR of the latest Modern Library titles were never All Modern Library volumes are printed in good clear 3. AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BENVENUTO CELLINI. John Ad- 24. W. H. HUDSON. The Purple Land. Introduction by William McFee. 60. THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA. Selected from his chief 68. NIETZSCHE. Ecce Homo and the Birth of Tragedy. 93. NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. The Scarlet Letter. 126. JAMES BRANCH CABELL. The Cream of the Jest. 127. MODERN AMERICAN POETRY. Selected by Conrad Aiken. THE MODERN LIBRARY, INC., Dept. R-22 Please mail me MODERN LIBRARY book Nos.. I enclose $1.00 for each volume (95c for the book, 5c for postage) Name Address City State VOST Manon Lescaut 86 WALTER PATER 87 BEST AMERICAN HUMOR- 89 W. H. HUDSON Green Mansions 90 WALTER PATER Marius the Epicurean 91 WILLIAM BLAKE Poems 92 GUSTAVE FLAUBERT The Temptation of St Anthony 95 HAVELOCK ELLIS The New Spirit 97 WALT WHITMAN Poems 98 GABRIELE D'ANNUNZIO The Child of Pleasure 101 GUSTAV FRENSSEN Jörn Uhl 102 STEPHEN CRANE Men, Women and Boats 103 SAMUEL PEPYS' DIARY 104 SHERWOOD ANDERSON Winesburg, Ohio 105 HENDRIK WILLEM VAN LOON Ancient Man 106 EMILY BRONTE Wuthering Heights 107 HENRI FABRE The Life of the Caterpillar 109 D. H. LAWRENCE Sons and Lovers 110 ANATOLE FRANCE The Queen Pédauque 111 EUGENE O'NEILL The Moon of the Caribbees, and Six Other Plays of the Sea 112 GABRIELE D'ANNUNZIO The Triumph of Death 113 W. 8. GILBERT Pinafore and Other Plays, including Patience, Yeomen of the Guard and Ruddigore 114 WILLIAM JAMES The Philosophy of 115 SHERWOOD ANDERSON 116 MAX BEERBOHM Zuleika Dobson 117 OSCAR WILDE De Profundis 119 HERMAN MELVILLE 120 REMY DE GOURMONT A Night in the Luxembourg 121 THOMAS HARDY The Return of the 122 DANIEL DEFOE still an almost pathetic incompleteness, which appears in the constant reiteration of 'probably' and 'we may then imagine.' In this close study of the past even plain matter of fact so frequently eludes us. And when it comes to the portrayal of the soul, the complication is far greater. What makes the study of souls the most fascinating in the world is at once its difficulty and its necessity. We can never really know the souls of others, or even our own. Yet no knowledge is so absolutely essential to us, and we must pursue it unfailingly, so long as we think at all. Mr. Allen recognizes this difficulty and complexity to the full, appreciates the subtlety of the general problem, and above all the extreme remoteness and involved intricacy of the soul of Edgar Poe. 'All the evidence about Poe is like this, paradoxical, contradictory, and true.' Mr. Allen applies all his delicate skill of analysis, all the resources of modern psychology, all the sexual conjecture of the Freudians, which I for one could sometimes spare. And still the author of The Raven keeps skillfully, elusively, evasively out of reach. The utmost, inner secrets of the spirit are almost beyond our probing. But surely no one has yet supplied, or probably ever will supply, richer material for such research than Mr. Allen furnishes in this biography. GAMALIEL BRADFORD Dark of the Moon, by Sara Teasdale. New York: Maomillan Co. 1926. 12mo. xiv+78 pp. $1.50. Streets in the Moon, by Archibald MacLeish. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. 1926. 8vo. xiv+101 pp. $5.00. Dark of the Moon, by Sara Teasdale, and Streets in the Moon, by Archibald MacLeish, have little in common except the moon and a pervading sadness. Yet even in their resemblances there is a difference. Miss Teasdale is sad with autumn; Mr. MacLeish is sad with spring. And it is difficult to concede the moon to either of these poets. Dark of the Moon is too sentimental a title for a book which is decidedly not sentimental. 'So Be It,' a recurrent phrase in Miss Teasdale's latest volume, would more accurately express its philosophical mood. Streets in the Moon, on the other hand, is tonally pleasant and symbolically provocative - but what, exactly, does it mean? Sara Teasdale is done with spring. She accepts the dying year with her old gentleness and quietness and lyric simplicity, but she adds to these virtues a hard something which is surely cerebral. The serene singer has become also, after a passage of years, the firm thinker. It is a distinct advance. Dark of the Moon, although less concerned with eager lovers and therefore destined for less popularity, perhaps, than Rivers to the Sea and Flame and Shadow, is nevertheless Sara Teasdale's most considerable volume. She has lived longer. She has looked deeper. 'The Crystal Gazer' expresses not so much an intention as an achievement: I shall gather myself into myself again, one, Fusing them into a polished crystal ball Where I can see the moon and the flashing sun. I shall sit like a sibyl, hour after hour intent, Watching the future come and the present go, And the little shifting pictures of people rushing In restless self-importance to and fro. Not that Dark of the Moon has much range. Miss Teasdale plays sweetly and monotonously on her three or four notes. 'February Twilight,' 'Arcturus in Autumn,' 'Winter Night Song' these are typical titles. Falling leaves, the everlasting stars, the surety of love proven, the blessedness of memories held in the heart these are typical themes. Once in a while, not often, the subject matter seems too slight to warrant a separate poem. 'So This Was All' has been written a hundred times. 'Appraisal' lacks unity. 'The Fountain' uses images which fail to impress with great sharpness or great loveliness the dubious truth that Nothing escapes, nothing is free. But ninety per cent of the volume maintains the high level of excellence which Sara Teasdale has resolutely set for herself. American poetry is definitely enriched by poems like There will be stars over the place forever. and the fine 'Effigy of a Nun,' which begins, Infinite gentleness, infinite irony Are in this face with fast-sealed eyes.. and that noble statement of a woman's soul: Bear witness for me that I loved my life, All things that hurt me and all things that healed, And that I swore to it this day in March, Here at the edge of this new-broken field.... The ways of the heart are simple. The ways of the mind are devious. Streets in the Moon divides itself, technically, into three parts: experimental verse, unexperimental verse, and a fusion of the two types. The chaotic first group, in the fashion of T. S. Eliot and E. E. Cummings, is indifferently good or downright bad. The ordered second group is usually good. The 'fusions,' or third group, are tremendous and sure. There are, of course, sharp exceptions to these generalities. 'Corporate Entity,' although conglomerate and 'modern,' is electric in its effect. 'The End of the World,' although typographically conventional, juxtaposes its octave and sestet in such a way that its last line comes with the impact of a revelation. Γ DODD MEAD DODD MEAD "A fine novel,” says The Atlantic, voicing the opinion of readers in general regarding the new book by the author of "Wild Geese" The DARK DAWN By Martha Ostenso "Rarely in a day when loose construction seems so much the rule among novels does one hit upon a tale which displays the directness of purpose, the nice balancing of dramatic intensity with lighter fanciful relief, the careful building toward climax of 'The Dark Dawn'. Miss Ostenso is more than a craftsman, she is one of the few authentic creators of genre pictures in America." printing. 8 The Atlantic Monthly. Third large $2.00 The author of "That Royle PANAMA OF TODAY By A. Hyatt Verrill A completely revised edition of this standard WILD HONEY By Frederick Niven $2.00 An account, in narrative vein of the author's $2.00 SILVER CLOTHES By Angela Morgan A new book of excellent verse HAWAII-Past and By William R. Castle, Jr. With important and timely revisions. Illustrated. $2.50 19 Fourth Avenue, New York, DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY,215 Victoria Street, Toronto DODD MEAD DODD MEAD 'Ars Poetica' practically discards punctuation, but succeeds in being, majestically, what it insists all poems should be. A poem should be equal to: For all the history of grief An empty doorway and a maple leaf For love The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea A poem should not mean But be The full-statured poems in this book are innumerable: 'Eleven,' 'Memorial Rain,' 'The Too-Late Born,' 'Le Secret Humain.' They completely compensate for an occasional irritation like 'Hearts' and Flowers'.' But Archibald MacLeish is less interesting as an experimentalist in verse forms than as a mystic and metaphysician. The first three lines of his 'Prologue' say it all: — These alternate nights and days, these seasons In another poem, he breaks off, bewildered: No lamp has ever shown us where to look. He is forever searching out the fourth dimension of the spirit. The Why is forever on his lips. The unknown troubles him. The first and final mystery of existence will not let him be. He interrogates the stones: Do you think Death is an answer then? Ah, to the How, the When, Ah, to the hardest word. This absorption in metaphysics - or poetaphysics - surcharges much of his work with a meaning beyond the meaning. Not 'Einstein,' the longest and most ambitious metaphysical poem in Streets in the Moon. It is too abstract. Poetry is, and will always be, concrete. In conclusion. If there is another young American poet who writes more melodiously and profoundly than Archibald MacLeish, we are unacquainted with the name. What do we care if he is indebted to T. S. Eliot for tricks of manner and method? He is improving upon his master. VIRGINIA MOORE Constantinople Settings and Traits, by H. G. Dwight. New York: Harper & Bros. 1926. xxvi+553 pp. Illus. $4.00. AFTER eleven years, Mr. Dwight's Constantinople Old and New, which the flood of war and post-war books thrust into an undeserved backwash, comes, in its new and revised edition of Constantinople Settings and Traits, as a great joy to this reader. 'To have gone deliberately to Constantinople, not in 1707 or in 1807, but in 1907, with the notion of turning out something between Loti's Vers Ispahan and Howell's Venetian Life, was quite inexcusable. Nevertheless,' explains Mr. Dwight, 'it happened.' But, appearing in 1915 under a name which the author did not choose, 'it had a foreboding ring of irony then when the hurricane was already raging that was to sweep away the old Ottoman Empire.' Thus, afresh to interpret this hurricane which blew in the new Turkey, and to show that all that emerged from it did not suddenly materialize from a magician's hat, that the seeds and soul of it existed in the old régime, this was one of the two prime reasons for a revision of the book. The other reason and the principal one, according to the author having to do with the kind of book it happens to be: not a guidebook, a history, an archæological treatise, but a character sketch of a great and famous city, a city which holds still the same charm for foreigners that it held in 1907, 1807, 1707. One has only to dip into Mr. Dwight's book to be assured of this. Those who are familiar with his recent pieces in Harper's will find the same wit that shone forth in 'Impatience on a Monument' or 'Shoulder Straps' poking one's ribs with the pointed fact that the seven hills upon which Constantinople is said to have been built do not exist, that the so-called Turkish corner in the interiors of certain Occidental homes never originated anywhere but in the imagination of an upholsterer, that there is no such person as a Sultana, that the author does not like the minarets of Saint Sophia simply because they are ugly, and that in Turkey there is no Great Unwashed save among those who are not Turks. But it is the H. G. Dwight of Stamboul Nights who transports one into a world where seal cutters make one's name in brass almost as quickly as one can write it; where scribes sit under trees ready to write one's letters; where pedlars come and go selling beads, perfumes, fezzes, and sweets; where men smoke hubble-bubbles in tipsy little coffee houses above the Marmora or squat motionless on their brown, narrow heels; and where as strong as the laws of the Medes and Persians are the traditions that no man but one of Iran shall drive a house builder's donkey, that only a Mohammedan Albanian of the South shall lay a pavement, or a Southern Albanian who is a Christian and wears an orange girdle shall lay railroad ties, that none save a landlubber from the hinterland of the Black Sea may row a caïque, or them of Konia peddle yo'ourt. And it is not only to Constantinople alone that Mr. Dwight carries one, but also to Scutari, the City of Gold, to printing houses where hand wood-block printing has been carried on by the same family for over two hundred years; or to A group of ten delightful stories, each of which is a revelation of character, etched with the sure, deft strokes, keen humor and sympathetic insight for which this author's genius has been amply proved. Each speaks eloquently of the author's fine gift of observation, of her aliveness to the world about her, and of the wisdom which leaves to her characters the freedom to work out their own destinies. $2.00 By Frederic F. Van de Water. A mystery tale of a sinister jewel involving New York State police. $2.00 28 Humorous Stories By Twenty and Eight leading authors. Edited by Ernest Rhys and C. A. Dawson-Scott. Old Towpaths $2.50 By Alvin F. Harlow. The story of the American canal era. Fully illustrated. $5.00 Life of Eugene Field: the Poet of By Slason Thompson. The poet and the man revealed by an intimate friend. Illustrated. $5.00 Mental Growth and Decline By H. L. Hollingworth. A survey of mental development through the life span of the human being. The Origin of Birds $3.00 By Gerhard Heilmann. A scientific account of the evolutionary progress of the bird. Illustrated. $7.50 Ventilation and Health By Thomas D. Wood, M.D. and Ethel M. Hendricksen. How to get fresh air. Illustrated. $2.00 The Merry Merry Cuckoo By Jeannette Marks. Seven attractive short plays of Welsh life. $2.00 Little Theatre Organization and Management For Community, University and School. By Alexander Dean. $2.50 The Book of Play Production For Little Theatres, Schools, and Colleges. By Milton Smith. Illustrated. $3.00 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY THESE ARE APPLETON BOOKS 35 West 32d Street THESI APPLETON NEW YORK BOOKS |