AMERICAN CIVIL WAR NOVEL

Evening Star, Issue 20346, 30 November 1929, Page 25

AMERICAN CIVIL WAR NOVEL

‘The Wave’ is the title of a G2u-pagc novel written by Evelyn Scott about the American Civil War. This work must undoubtedly have entailed a vast amount of research work by the writer, whoso detail, however, becomes at times somewhat tedious. At the same t.imo, the story is well told in a scries of dramatic incidents, in which the leaders of tho various factions play prominent parts. There are pen pictures of such important persons as President Abraham Lincoln, General Grant, and General Lee, and negroes and other_ interesting characters are worked skilfully into tlio story. The author of this novel is regarded in literary circles in America as one of the most distinguished of the younger group of American novelists. Her first novel, ‘The Narrow House,’ appeared about six years ago, and was praised by novelists and critics, particularly by Mr Sinclair Lewis, and the publishers claim that in ‘The Wave’ her talent has. “widened and deepened.”. The American Civil Wav covered a period of four and a-half years, and its story

must necessarily require some length, but Miss Scott’s effort would certainly be much improved by the elimination of a great deal of unnecessary detail. The . publishers are Messrs Jonathan Cape, London, the hovel having been printed in America this year;