BOOK OF THE WEEK

Taranaki Daily News, 23 February 1935, Page 13 (Supplement)

BOOK OF THE WEEK

GYPSY GIRL’S ROMANCE

“Tzigane,” by Lady Eleanor Smith, Hutchinson & Co. (Publishers) Ltd., London. A. J. Fyfe Ltd., New Plymouth.

Lady Eleanor Smith retains the gift of swift analysis in all her literary work. It was the faculty for which her father, the late Earl of Birkenhead, was renowned, and his daughter follows him also in the use of sharp but pithy sentences which clarify the picture and make a character or a scene vivid and interesting.

“Tzigane” is the story of a gypsy girl. Born in Roumania, Hassina Stamboul had wandered with her family along the roads of Europe and Asia from Spain to Syria. As strolling acrobats they could wander very much as they pleased, and when Hassina was 15 years old they were eking out a miserable existence in Tangier. It was there that Hassina first saw “Brazil,” animal trainer to a circus, for whom she felt an instinctive attraction. Her acquaintance with him was renewed two years later at an annual festival of the gypsy people. Hassina was rescued from a stampede of “Laeshi, those shy, savage Roumanian Romanies whose ways are unknown even to their own race.” Brazil and Hassina found their passion was mutual. Hassina implored him to marry her at once but Brazil insisted upon a delay of six months so that he might become a lion trainer and earn enough to give his wife everything she should have.

Hassina’s prediction that the delay would bring tragedy proved correct. Before the six months were over her father was in prison and Hassina in a convent. She escaped and was dancing in a low cabaret at Triana, near Seville, when she was seen by an Englishman and his American producer on the lookout for novelties for an “International Revue” it was proposed to stage in London.

The cabaret was “a low, whitewashed hall with a floor of trampled mud beaten harder than any stone. There was a small stage and proscenuim at one end. On the walls, tattered posters of longforgotten bull fights. A few dirty tables clustered round the floor. Glaring, unshaded lights. An orchestra of blind guitar players. Women who are frankly “majas,” men who are cut-throats and robbers and pimps. An array of people straight from the pages of Francois Villon, warm with sun and wine and music, dark from the shadow of many jails, bloodthirsty, remote, sardonic, lustful." In such company, among other artists with whom she fought like a wild cat, Hassina held an assured position as a gypsy dancer. She had come thither after escaping from the convent, and to the other five artists of the establishment was an insolent, indifferent, mocking and sulky devil But of the charm of her dancing there could be no question. On the evening when the foreigners were present “as the music increased in vivacity so did her dancing increase in passion. Now she was gypsy, pure gypsy, as she flashed and whirled in the glare of the sordid room, fingers clicking, mouth smiling, hair tumbling in wild elf-locks over her eyes. Her dancing was diabolical; at last the music surged into a climax, and she bounded into the air, to fall so suddenly that it was as though she was swooning!” Hassina accepted the ’London' offer, taking with her a brave spirit, her gift of dancing and an abiding hatred of all who were not of Romany blood. The story of her journey to London and her experiences there make interesting and amusing reading, but through all her success she had ever the heartache for the lover who failed to keep his tryst and whose place in her heart none other can fill. The revue failed, though Hassina’s dancing was approved and she obtained an engagement to dance nightly at a London hotel. There she met Alan Brook, a middle-aged ex-diplomat. “He was tall, inclined to stoutness and scrupulously attired in full evening dress. He was not good-looking, but his face was honest and healthy, with an intelligent brow, eyes that beamed behind his spectacles, and a smile that was both shy and pleasant.” 1 The friendship was a strange one, but gradually Hassina came to trust Alan Brook, and when he wanted to marry her she told him of her love for Brazil, so much part of her that she could think of no other than the animal-trainer as a husband.

Seeing the distress she was causing her good friend she agreed to marry him if it were proved that Brazil were dead. Alan asked his half-brother Victor to visit Berlin and make the necessary inquiries about Brazil. Victor who had other fish to fry, made inquiry from a restaurant keeper in Munich. “Brazil” said the Italian, “his name is connected vaguely in my mind with some awful tragedy of the arena. I think I remem- 1 ber reading that he died after being attacked.by his lions. You see,(Signor, what is a trainer to do? If he employs animals bred in captivity, they are quiet (although they are really more treacherous than the others) and then ignorant people say they are doped. But if he employs forest-bred lions, they are untamed and must always remain untamed, and then some Signor Brazil must in the end suffer and be killed.” The accident, Victor learned, had occurred about a year earlier, and he had no hesitation in advising Alan that Brazil was dead. The shock to Hassina was terrible but she kept her promise and six weeks later she and Alan were married. The marriage was successful though there were many clashes between gypsy and English beliefs and conduct. Alan’s affection for his wife made him plastic in the hands of a woman of her harsh experiences, although his patience and understanding were often sorely tried. Hassina’s accommodation to English country life, the enmity between herself and Alan’s half-brother Victor, her gradual reaction to her husband’s really fine nature, the discovery that Brazil was actually performing in a London circus and her return to him are the materials Lady Eleanor has used in the construction of an original and extremely interesting situation. Those who know her former novels will be assured that the material is handled with skill, humour and the touches of pathos and tragedy that give zest to any story. Complete revised edition of Pear's Encyclopaedia, price 4s 6d, postage 6d. Contains 31 pages of maps, sections devoted to wireless, photography, poultry, domestic pets, medical, cookery, gardening, baby’s first year, sports. Also a complete up to date dictionary and ready reckoner. A most useful book for home, school or office use. A. J. Fyfe Ltd., “The Book People,” Phone 1397, New Plymouth.*

As a nation the British people each drink every day, on the average, six cups of tea, of which the country imported 505,000,0001 b in 1933. Of this total 432,000,0001 b were produced in Empire countries.