Good Books

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

THE EAGLE'S SHADOW -- James Branch Cabell -- McBride ($2.00). Mr. Cabell's first novel, long out of print, now republished in a new, revised edition with an introduction by Edwin Bjorkman. A light, urbane comedy, concerned with three wills, the power of money, a beautiful and vituperative heroine with numberless suitors, the disadvantages of proposing by mistake. The scene is laid in Virginia in the remote and fantastis days of Roosevelt's Presidency. A neat satiric trifle that hardly shows its age and is of interest to others than collectors of Cabelliana.

THE ABLE MCLAUGHLINS--Margaret Wilson--Harper ($2.00). No less than three Prize Novels of various sorts adorn the Autumn publishing list, but this is far and away the best. In fact, this novel of a family of Scotch Covenanters, pioneering in Iowa in the sixties and after, is a most striking, capable and original piece of work. The story of Wully McLaughlin and his Chirstie, whose sad betrayal by ne'er-do-well Peter Keith is the tragic impulse of the book, is full of power and sincerity. The whole pawky community of McLaughlins, McNairs, Mcllhineys, Stevensons is finely and thriftily characterized with touches of humor tart as crab apples. A first novel that well deserves the prize it won from hundreds of competitors.

THE LENGTHENED SHADOW--W. J. Locke--Dodd Mead ($2.00). Beautiful Suzanne Chastel was heiress to the Grabbiter fortune under strange conditions. Till her 25th birthday she must pass six months of each year with Mr. Peter Moordius--six months with Mr. Timothy Swayne--nor could she marry without the written consent of both guardians, nor either guardian without the written consent of the other. Peter Moordius was a fascinating rake, possessed with the seven devils of gambling; Timothy Swayne, a typical Locke hero, whimsical and lame. Peter's daughter Valerie knew strange secrets--the four lives knotted together in an astounding coil--over all flung the ominous shadow that grim old Joseph Grabbiter cast from his grave. In the end sleek villainy was chastened with poisoned darts, lame virtue rewarded, though unexpectedly. Mr. Locke's 28th volume displays all the characteristic literary traits that have won him so large an audience. It ranks just below the best of his output.