The Icelandic Canadian - 01.10.1942, Page 29

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
25
The Book Page
By HELEN SIGURDSON
During the last year a number of
historical novels have appeared and
several of them have been quite out-
standing. It is not always easy to write
about the present where life is in flux,
but the past has solidified. We can see
things in their true perspective. Read-
ers enjoy historical novels because they
are a means of escape from today.
Moreover it is always interesting to
learn how people through the ages have
met problems often similar to ours and
solved them.
The Ivory Mischief, by Arthur Meeker,
Jr., is a historical novel about the two
loveliest women in the court of Louis
XIV. The author has worked as care-
fully and accurately as a Flemish paint-
er of the old school. The result is an
exact and exquisite picture of life as it
was lived by a select few in seventeenth
century France. What the sisters wore,
what they ate, the way their rooms were
furnished are all described in detail.
Cateau, the elder, was the fair one. She
was cool, calculating and self centred.
When she died she was one of the
richest women in France. Madelon was
the dark one. A naive, feckless creature,
she was always falling in love, always
acting on impulse, always living beyond
her income. They belonged to a class
of society and lived in an age when
people could be- individualists and get
BACHELOR OF DIVINITY
REV. VALDIMAR J. EYLANBS, B.D.,
minister of the First Icelandic Lutheran
Church, Winnipeg, who has been award-
ed the degree Bachelor of Divinity by
United College of Winnipeg for his book,
"Lutherans in Canada.”
ICELANDIC CANADIAN
SCIENTIST
JOSEPH BJORN SKAPTASON
A graduate of the University of Al-
berta, Dr. Skaptason this year received
a Ph.D. degree from Cornell University
for research in Plant Pathology.