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LE1VIS'rON S

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ANURBY 21 , 1930

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Books ·and Autliors l

NOVEL OF EARLY MAINE ".Arundel" by Kenneth. Roberts, (Doubleday, Doran & Co.) is a bril· l!ant novel ot early Maine o:f thu time of the Revolutionary period, of the famous march of Arnold up the State.and the attack on Quebec. Roberts is well qualified to write this stlnlng story. He ls a lover of l\lalne and has a summer homo in Kennebunkpor-t. At the nresent time he Is In Italy. • The story is ot a boy, Steve .1 ason, of ArundeJ who5? father runs a11 i tun. When Steve 1s a boy a Frenchman by the name of Guerlac comes to the inn, makes trouble, leads unfriendly Indians against the inn, kills one of the settlers and eaca~s to Quebec with a young gh'l who 16 Steve's sweetheart. Of course Steve ls unable to follow her as one would today, so when Arnold comes along wiLh the ~xpedltlon planned, Steve joins, goes with them to Quebeo and , there finds his boyhood sweetheart but not the girl that he drc:i,med of. He found that he loved an ideal not that girl. There is however a glrl who followed him to Canadu. and returned with his heart. But the strong part or the book ls the understa.ndlng of early Maine. Condi.tlons in Maine are described IJ'\lnutell', th13 good ah<i the bad people, the foods, the manner of pre,Darlng them, the clothing, dwelllngs, furnishings, how they earned living, how the soil was tilled and how hunting and fishing was done. And an Intimate know!edge of the Maine Indians. But the greatest pa1·t of Robert'.e &tory is the ill-fate journey of Aruold's me11 throug 1a.lne. Rober Beith in the P and Telegr

c vi:slons, carrying bate ux an upplies around the falls mid rapids finally reaching the Dead Rivet· in bad condition. Provisions had been !-Ost and spoiled. The bad weather of the fall had taken its toll of sick. Clothes were worn and the men tired. ··Then co.me a terrible rain storm which brought floods and destroyed more supplies. Colonel Enos and bi!\: troops tl~en deserted and Steve was lrnld responsible. The army moved slowly up Dead Rivel' to the Ch;tin of Ponds, sun:erlng from exposure, hardships. labor and lack of food. 'tevo and his Indian friends, whom he enllsted in the ex.peditlon unknown , to Arnold who believed them friendly to the English, served as i;uides and hunters and saved t11e Jives of stra,gglers and tho slclt who fell behind.

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"'inter snows added to the m!s-

1ery. The men were barefooted wlth-

out food. They alo their garments, dled of <;?xposure. n, · ., Most of them Jmd colds, pneumonia, , rheumatism. .Yet they continued on• ward .:!ragging at bateaux that wero not d~stroyed, clutching their muskete. They crossed tho Height of Land ::ind reached Lake l\legantlc. '!'bey passed down the Cha.udiere and finally arrived before Quebec, a ragged, half-starved army ot scarcely more than GOO sickly, unclothed men. It was mid-winter and sevei-.ely cold. "'Tbei·e they waited for the arrival of General Montgomery and bis army, 1·ecoverlng their strength and health. But new sickness, small-pox and pneumonia dev,elor>ed. :Montgomery arrived and clothed tho army in the British uniforms which ho captured at Montreul. The attack was planned and the two Amerlc,an armies waited a favorable opportunity. l•'in<illy the assault was made on the night or Dec. :n, 1775. ·'A driving snow Cell and ti10 troops crept uP the heights to the fo1·tlflcatlons. 'l'hey carried scaling lacL, er,i aJ1d wero confidei1t thtlt thev WOi'.l!<l wrest the cltyt from the English, But they were met with a terrible fire of canuon :J.nd rifles. Their own power was dampened by the sno1v and they l could sh oot but little. They were cut down like grain, their bodies burled In the ever mounting snow, to JhJ there until spring . Those brave men on, engaging the enemy ln and to and fighting. But the odds were aga st them. TI1e British were behind solid fortifications. 'l'hc,Ji· uns would not shoot. Their lea.de ere gone, Montgomery klUc<l and old woundeu. Their c.-<>mrades w dead and wounded In tlH darkness. lans went wrong. Many were take prisoner in tile eonruslon and the ltack failed. '£heir heroic marcl as in va.ln. " long ns this review i • 1t does es not mention many of the Inter, esllng featur s of 'Arundel.' It tells you nothing of the ro,:igh and reaciy C aptai n Huff, of Phoebe l\Iarvln, the game and 1tccompllsbed miss whoj followed the army to Quebec and retm·ned with l:itevo's heart; the Rev. Mr. Hook. whose treachery helped lo ruin thl' exp,:,ditlon; Natamls, Paul lligglns. .Tacataqua. Ho'bomok and other Indian friends of Steve and scores of others. It negl ects to mentlon that Roberts presents an Intercstlng picture of old Portland and of other places in l\~alne. It tails to ~peak of hundreds of excitln;r little incidents that cr;iwd thA book. Mr. Beith concludes by saying that hls rovlew of the book in wbolely ino.dequate and to half appreciate the bool,. one must re:id "Arundel" !or them selves.

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