Good Books

The following estimates of books much in the public eye were made after careful consideration of the trend of critical opinion:

WITHIN THESE WALLS--Rupert Hughes--Harper ($2.00) Another stab at the Great American Novel. Another history of the adventures and misadventures of an American family from 1832, when New York was in the grip of the black cholera, to times fairly contemporaneous. But the RoBards had even more than the usual fictional American family's share of trouble. Jealousy, murder, seductions, secret marriages--they took a fling at them all, but always managed to keep up appearances pretty well, on the whole. There is much interesting information on the growth and development of New York City and its water-system--a highly melodramatic plot to sugar-coat the pill--and, as usual with Mr. Hughes, the pace of the narrative carries the reader along. The Great American Novel still remains un-written--but Within These Walls will undoubtedly make a lavish and spectacular film.

DUBLIN DAYS--L. A. G. Strong-- Boni and Liveright ($1.25). A small and pleasant posy of Irish herbs and flowers--poems lacking the conventional oh-so-damn-Gaelic concern with the Sidhe, the Bear without Bristles. Uncle White Seagull and the rest of the melancholy paraphernalia of minor Irish bards. It is evident that the author has read James Stephens, but he has his own individual way of speaking, clear, fresh and cool as the sound of a country brook. Poems for even a reviewer to keep and reread.

MOSTLY SALLY--P. G. Wodehouse --Doran ($2.00). An amusing piece of literary confectionery, constructed with Mr. Wodehouse's usual deftness but not quite so funny as some of his other comfits. Nevertheless, Mostly Sally should gently tickle away an hour or so of mild but genuine entertainment for almost any variety of reader.

THE HOUSE OP THE ENEMY--Ca-mille Mallarme--McBride ($2.00). Interesting but by no means extraordinary novel of Spanish life in town and country, the heroine, Candida, begins as a carefree goatherd on the plains of La Mancha and ends as a respectable but un-happy senora sunk in the stultifying pettiness of a small Spanish town.

ECHO--Margaret Rivers Larminie --Putnam ($2.00). Well written revamping of the same old triangle, and the problem as to whether a single miscue should ruin a woman's career. For some reason takes its place with the horde of "competent" novels of the present--neither good enough to shout about or bad enough to damn--capable workmanship in evidence throughout, but the product tastes lukewarm.