Wednesday, March 6, 1963 University Daily Kansan
Page 9
Glasgow, Melville, Wharton, Dana-All Available
THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS, by James Fenimore Cooper (Signet Classics, 50 cents).
Many of us are glad that Cooper is finally getting some recognition in American letters. The generation that went to college 20 years ago was brainwashed into believing Cooper was at the very bottom of the literary ladder. The new generation is learning that this man contributed solidly to our fiction and our legends.
"The Last of the Mohicans" belongs, chronologically, in second place among the Leatherstocking tales. It is the best known of the five books, and it has the stereotypes that helped to harm the Cooper reputation. It has dash and daring, vivid description, great heroism, preposterous contrivance, and a smashing depiction of the bloody battle of Fort William Henry.
THE ROMANTIC COMEDIANS, by Ellen Glasgow (Doubleday Dolphin, 95 cents).
More benign and cheerful in mood than her other novels is this 1926 book by Ellen Glasgow. It is the story of an old man who marries a young girl, and, not unpredictably, it also is the story of the South in transition, that familiar theme of Miss Glasgow.
We have here the tale of Judge Honeywell, a man of the olden days, who weds Annabel, a girl] of 23. Miss Glasgow says herself that she wrote the book in reaction to the grim "Barren Ground," that she sought to provide "delicate laughter with ironic echoes."
OMOO, by Herman Melville (Doubleday Dolphin, 95 cents).
Not so well known as either "Moby Dick" or "Typee", this novel of 1847 deserves consideration as another attempt by Melville to show his reaction to 19th century civilization and his preference for the relatively untouched societies of the South Seas.
Most of "Omoo" take place in
Tahiti, where the narrator and his shipmates are held by the English consul after a mutiny. After release, a kind of odyssey takes place in the islands of Polynesia. Melville's general purpose in writing the book was to show how the natives were much better off before the encroachment of civilization—especially missionary civilization.
THE CUSTOM OF THE COUNTRY, by Edith Wharton (Scribner Library, $1.95).
Edith Wharton in this long, absorbing novel gave us one of the most powerful of all commentaries on American values. It is the story of a beautiful American girl who rushes through four marriages, viciously and unthinkingly demanding and taking whatever she wants.
Material values are the only values important to Undine Spragg. Two of her husbands are representatives of old and worthy cultures, one that of the New York aristocracy, the other the French nobility. Her first (and fourth) husband is a Midwestern savage who becomes a financial titan in the early years of this century.
There is only one quibble about this excellent chronicle of our society. Miss Wharton almost consistently seems to suggest that dignity and virtue are values belonging chiefly to the eastern seaboard. When she wants a crass, cheap type she goes to the hinterlands. Not one of her Midwestern people has delicate sensibilities. Not even Sinclair Lewis suggested that Babbitts and Main Street were restricted to the land west of the Hudson.
SHORT STORIES, by Sherwood Anderson, edited by Maxwell Geismar (American Century, $1.95).
Those who wrote off Sherwood Anderson for his failure to write a good novel after "Winesburg" should refresh themselves with this collection. Surely this man deserves recognition as one of the great names in American fiction, for his short stories alone.
It's a varied and fascinating collection, ranging from writings of the early twenties to the late thirties. Each cannot be summarized, but some of the better stories should be mentioned. "I Want to Know Why," for example, a fine tale about the race tracks. Or "The Egg," a reminiscent story from boyhood.
There are stories of small town life, and men in desperate circumstances, of people on the burn, of the grimness of life in the backwoods country which Anderson came to know in his years in the South, stories like "Death in the Woods," "The Sad Horn Blowers," and the startling "These Mountaineers." There's the brutal story called "Nobody Laughed," about Pinhead Perry and his wife Hallie, and the townsfolk who terrorize them. Each story in this volume is a memorable addition to our fiction.
TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST, by Richard Henry Dana (Doubleday Dolphin, 95 cents).
We regard this book fondly as a great adventure story, but it is of course more than that. It also is a disturbing look at the life lived by a common sailor in the days of American greatness on the sea.
Dana, who in later days was not well disposed toward social comment, had much to comment on here. He enlisted in the merchant service in 1834 and spent two years going from Cape Horn to California. What Dana took from his voyaging was a realistic view of life at sea, of hardships, of brutality. Scarcely a boy's tale, it is an important chronicle of the growing period of America.
THIS SIDE OF PARADISE, by F. Scott Fitzgerald (Scribner Library, $1.45).
The lost generation got its start in this book, and so did F. Scott FITZgerald. Lame as it seems today, artificial as it is in parts, immature as it is in style and approach, the book still is an American landmark.
generation in "This Side of Paradise." Amory Blaine is a boy, like Fitzgerald himself, from the upper Midwest. Like Fitzgerald he is transplanted to Princeton, and like Fitzgerald he is caught up in the pleasures and dubious pursuits of the World War I generation and the twenties.
The young Fitzgerald first captured the mood of his time and his
Weak alongside the polished "Gatsby" or "Tender Is the Night," this novel still has charm, and is likely to be read for years to come.
TOGETHER, by Robert Herrick (Fawcett Premier, 75 cents); THE DAMNATION OF THERON WARE, by Harold Frederic (Fawcett Premier, 60 cents).
Realism or naturalism, these are two little-known American works that deserve a reading. Harold Frederic's excellent story of a minister who cannot accommodate himself to the demands of small town ministerial life has appeared elsewhere in paperback; this is an attractive new volume. "Together" has not been in paperback.
Van Wyck Brooks provides introductions for both volumes. "To gether" is a story of capitalism in Chicago in the early 1900s. It is long and complex and deserves a place alongside Dreiser's Cowperwood novels.
THE THURBER CARNIVAL, by James-Thurber (Dell. 75 cents).
Here is a real buy. The book contains some of the best of Thurber, from several collections, as well as his marvelous cartoons and "Fables for Our Time."
Here's a quick look: it contains "The Catbird Seat," Walter Mitty, "The Macbeth Murder Mystery," Grant at Appomattox, "The Night the Bed Fell," "University Days," "Barbara Friedie."
And many more. One can't extract from such a rich treasure.
MAIN-TRAVELED ROADS, by Hamlin Garland (Signet Classic, 60 cents)—This paperback reprint of favorite stories by American literature's Son of the Middle Border contains a provocative afterword by Mark Schorer.
Winning Books On Shelves In Bookstores
A number of Pulitzer prize-winners of recent years are available in paperback. These include:
"The Edge of Sadness." by Edwin O'Connor, story of a Catholic priest.
"To Kill a Mockingbird," by Harper Lee, reminiscent tale of childhood in the South.
"Advise and Consent," by Allen Drury, sensational tale of national politics.
"The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters," by Robert Lewis Taylor, adventures of a boy in the old West.
"A Death in the Family," by James Agee, compassionate and retrospective tale.
"Andersonville," by MacKinlay Kantor, violent story of a Confederate prison.
"The Caine Mutiny," by Herman Wouk, story of life on a minesweeper.
"J.B." by Archibald MacLeish, famous play based on the story of Job.
"Roosevelt and Hopkins," by Robert E. Sherwood, both history and biography.
"Profiles in Courage," by John F. Kennedy, series of stories of public figures who defied public opinion and pressures.
THE CELESTIAL RAIL ROAD AND OTHER STORIES, by Nathaniel Hawthorne (Signet Classics, 60 cents).
Here, to add to the four great novels, are some of the finest of Hawthorne's short stories. There are 18 stories here, and the afterword is by R. P. Blackmur of Princeton University.
Included here are titles many will remember from literature courses—"The Gray Champion," "The Ambitious Guest," "Young Goodman Brown," "The Maypole of Merry Mount," "The Snow Image," "Rappacini's Daughter," and the title story itself.
Cliff's Notes ONLY $100 each
NOTES ON SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS
ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA
AS YOU LIKE IT
CORIOLANUS
HAMLET
JULIUS CAESAR
KING LEAR
KING HENRY IV - PART I
KING HENRY V
MACBETH
MERCHANT OF VENICE
MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
OTHELLO
RICHARD II
RICHARD III
ROMEO AND JULIET
TEMPEST
TWELFTH NIGHT
NOTES ON OTHER CLASSICS
ARMS AND THE MAN
CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA
DAVID COPPERFIELD
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE
MOBY DICK
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
PYGMALION
RETURN OF THE NATIVE
SCARLET LETTER
SILAS MARNER
TALE OF TWO CITIES
VICAR OF WAKEFIELD
WUTHERING HEIGHTS
NEW TITLES AVAILABLE
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS ILIAD
INTERMEDIATE ALGEBRA IVANHOE LORD JIM
MEASURE FOR MEASURE MY ANTONIA