Books: Black Oxen*

Society, Sophisticates, and a Highly Modernized Fountain of Youth

THE STORY.—The stir caused by Countess Zattiany's mysterious appearance in New York was not due wholly to her phenomenal beauty. It was also because no one seemed to know anything about who she was, aside from the fact that she was probably not who she said she was. Above all, it was due to her resemblance to beautiful Mary Ogden, also a Countess Zattiany, who must now be at least old enough to be this woman's mother.

About half way through, the cat climbs out of the bag. The woman of mystery is Mary Ogden herself, miraculously rejuvenated by Steinach, medical genius of Vienna.

Thus Lee Clavering, brilliant young columnist, finds himself in the irritating predicament of being devoted to a woman with a lurid past and over half a century of it. They decide to wipe out the past conclusively, and Mary Zattiany feels herself on the brink of recommencing life, experiencing the unaccustomed emotions of young love. But the past will not be killed, and at last Mary realizes that the time for love has gone and that her work in the world is to use in the political salons of Europe the weapon of her old mind sheathed in a young body. What she thought was love of Lee Clavering was only an attachment to the idea of the romance she had never had, amongst all the polished intrigues of her career. She was too old for love.

The minor characters are broadly marked: Dinwiddie, cynical and gouty, representative of a past generation; Jane Oglethorpe, powerful, clear-thinking old dowager; Gora Dwight, successful novelist; Hohenhauer, Austrian diplomat.

THE SIGNIFICANCE. — Black Oxen deals with Society and Sophisticates. That is a way of Mrs. Atherton's— capitalizing categories. She sees in terms of classification. One of the less happy results is that her characters are often types and not at all individuals.

But Black Oxen is not to be read as a dissection of humanity. It is valuable as an examination of social strata and their relationship. For example, there is the relationship between the generations—three of them —among the elite of New York: frozen dowagers of the Age of Innocence; spiteful younger women; crude little flappers of the jazz age. Equally important is the relationship of the aristocracy of money and birth to that of brains—the "Sophisticates", intellectual dictators of the city (columnists, playwrights, editors, novelists). Finally, the relationship of all these other groups to the subtle, intriguing, hypercivilized society of Europe.

THE CRITICS.—The scientific probability of Mary Zattiany's rejuvenation has caused considerable discussion. Such cures have been affirmed. Whether they are sufficiently established to warrant Mrs. Atherton's use of the idea is another matter. In general, the book has been well received. Says Dr. Henry Seidel Canby, Editor of The Literary Review: "It is as a social description, done with a power that beats into shape a turgid style, that one must praise Black Oxen."