Calhoun School - Ink Pot Yearbook (New York, NY)

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Q 1936 INK POT ' The Picture of Dorian Gray By Oscmt Wirns Dorian Gray is a young man who is so extremely handsome that he might be called beautiful. He is the subject of a portrait being painted by Basil Hallward. The third important character is Lord Henry Wotton, ultra-sophisticated, witty, the type that Wilde was so fond of in his plays. Lord Henry's conversation is composed mainly of clever remarks that, when analyzed, mean practically nothing. Such as: I can believe anything, provided that it is quite incredible. Conscience and cowardice are really the same things, UI choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good character, and my enemies for their good intellects. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Wilde is again ridiculing the idle dandy of English society during the nineteenth century. The reader grows to despise Lord Henry, and his remarks become a trifle too scintillating. He is fascinating, though, in his langourous, sensual way, and one can understand the strange hold he has on Dorian. Basil Hallward sees in Dorian all that art ever meant to him. He wished to keep this youth unspotted and away from the meaningless, shallow English society. He perceives that Lord Henry would turn the boy's head and would spoil his eager, candid, spontaneous nature. Dorian is introduced into the story with a soul as beautiful as his face. Lord Henry im- presses upon him the fact that he possesses great beauty, and when Dorian sees the portrait he wishes fervently for the picture to grow old and for him to remain eternally young. He said, I would give my soul for that. From this point Wilde traces the sinister, insidious influence Lord Henry has on Dorian. Wilde's descriptions are remarkable in that they convey perfectly the languid, dreamy, sensuous mood of the story. He appeals to our senses of smell and touch, and his descriptive sentences are long, giving a continuity that hold the whole theme together. Here is an illustration: The studio was Filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn. The book is fantastic, almost weird. There is not one character that is lovable or wholly human. Yet Wilde's style is fascinating, and the mood and atmosphere seep into the reader's mind. IRENE FRANK, '36 I Write As I Please By WAl.TER DURANTY Walter Duranty, Moscow correspondent of the New York Times since 1920, says that he first heard of Russia at the age of four when his nurse took him to a Russian comedy. But he patiently waited for some thirty years before he really saw the country. If I do get back I shall do as I please and write as I please, without fear or favor, is the resolution Mr. Duranty made while lying in a French hospital suffering from the agony of a gangrenous foot. Hence, we have an unusual title from an unusual statement. Mr. Duranty has given to the readers the substance of his interviews with Stalin and other outstanding Russian leaders. He tells the story of the New Economic Policy, the Five Year Plan and the man-made famine of 1933, into all of which he weaves bits of personal adventure and of humor. This book is part autobiography and part history, and with its humorous touches it ought to appeal to any reader interested in Russia, to whom pure history books are a bore. MURIEL HELLER, '37 Anna Karenina By Leo ToLsTox Tolstoi possesses a dramatic, powerful, and sweeping style which is very intense. This, together with his sympathetic understanding of people, power of analysis, and descriptive ability makes this novel of Russian life before the Russian Revolution well worth reading. Juoxrn FRANK, '36 Fifty-one

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0 1936 INK POT ' M6 f , IDur-.haf tue,-twnof Paths of Glory By IIIIMPIIRICX Com: Very few books have made such an impression upon me as did Palflx of Glory. I'ntil I read the hook I felt that although war was horrible it was an honor to tight and die for one's country. But there is no such glory, no such honor, and Mr. Cobb seems to believe that there never will be. The book opens with the conversation of two soldiers. The younger is an idealistic recruit who notices with wonder the many medals worn by the other, Langlois. Langlois tells him that winning them is like winning a lottery-luck. The division to which they belong is ordered, by Division Commander Assoland, to take The Pimple , a German fortification situated at the top of zi hill. The task is an impossibility. Machine-gun tire is so steady that those who do leave their trenches are killed. The others are stunned by the bullet riddled bodies which are blown backwards into the trenches. General Afxsli ' . 4 V 11 11' '., ' w' . ' seo ind, furious because the attack is a failure, decides to court martial one man from each company, as an example to the others. The court martial is a gruesome farce. The men are convicted and shot. I.anglois is one of them, In front of the tiring squad he flings his medals to the ground. Ile didn't need them, for he felt that his country's tiring squad was reward for his bravery. Humphrey Cobb knows soldiers, for he enlisted with the Canadian forces in 1914. Ile understands their superstitious and their fears. For this reason the book is a living revelation of what goes on behind the lines, and of those who set out on the Paths of Ulorvf' M ,xoimai rv is -I icons, '36 Fifty

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Q 1936 INK POT Q Once A Grand Duke By GRAND DUKE ALEXANDER or RUSSIA French Socialists were alarmed at having so many RomanofIs in Paris, but in reality there were only seventeen Russians of the Imperial Family who had had the good fortune to escape the Bolshevik purge. Among these seventeen were the Dowager Empress Marie, her two daughters, Cirand Eucchesses Olga and Xenia, and the latter's husband, Grand Duke Alexander, the author o this oo . The Russian Revolution, one of the longest in history, was begun in the reign of Nicholas I in 1812, and was successfully concluded in 1918. I do not mean to suggest that there was fighting during these hundred and more years. On the contrary, there was hardly any fighting of conse- quence until their last decade. The long revolution took place in the form of assassinating the different members of the Imperial Family, of throwing bombs at palaces, and of attempted uprisings which were always suppressed, although sometimes a good deal of blood was shed. Grand Duke Alexander has written an extremely impressive book. He gives us a fine picture of the Royal Family, and a clear notion of the political situation with all its corruption and graft. In the Foreword he says that the purpose of the book is not to give facts but to record a grand duke's progress and the personal life of the members of the Imperial Family with which he was in close contact. Mn,oREn SCHWARZ, '37. The Death of a World By M. RoMAiN ROLLAND Jean Christophe, a novel by Rolland, published over twenty years ago, is still in great demand. In The Death of a World, M. Rolland presents a study of a woman comparable to that of the man in Jean Christophe. This powerful novel deals with those post-war years which seem more and more to mark the death of a world. Annette Riviere, warm-hearted, courageous, independent, is one of his great conceptions, her advance into middle age, and the growth of her son, Marc, to manhood furnish the basic theme in this story of a disillusioned era. Annette's personal development is complicated because she has to gain a livelihood in a world of greedy financiers, Marc, violent and bitter toward the youth of the period, acquires a new attitude toward life and sex. The delightful love story of Marc and the young Russian, Assia, brings the novel to a close on a note of hope. This book, The Death of a World, will be of special interest to those who feel that the civi- lization of today, although far advanced in material ways, is still primitive and barbaric. Moments of dark despair, illuminating hope, and conflicting emotion are masterfully combined in this book, to make it interesting, instructive, and sincere. JOAN AMBERG, '38. Up from Slavery By Booxsn T. WAsHiNcrroN This is an interesting autobiography of the founder of Tuskegee Institute for Negroes. A negro himself, Mr. Washington, through education, succeeded in raising the standards of negro life. His own life exemplifies what a negro may accomplish. JUDITH FRANK, '36 Benjamin Franlelinlv Autobiography I can sav for this book that it is one of the finest I've read. I commend its frankness and utter simplicity, the unbiased and honest account of Franklin's life, the logical thinking and excellent ways of living it teaches. I was chiefly interested in the usefulness and fineness of the author's life. SHIRLEY fiKEENE, '36 Fifty-two