The Temptress*

Ibanez Tells Again of the Argentine --A Mellow Apple

The Story. Fair Elena, Marquise de Torre Bianca, had tawny eyes, a face quite capable of launching several thousand ships, and an insatiable taste for living de luxe. Nobody seemed to know just where she came from, but all her women friends were quite certain of her ultimate destination. So when the Marquis and she, financially ruined and forced to leave Paris on account of the collapse of a wildcat series of projects in which the Marquis had been a dummy director, arrived in the wilds of the Argentine, under the protection of engineer Robledo, a friend of the Marquis' youth, you can imagine what a mellow apple of discord Elena proved.

Pirovani, the Italian, presented the titled couple with his own house, and Elena with a magnificent assortment of soap and perfumes. Canterac, the Frenchman, built an artificial park just to give a garden party for her. Even Richard Watson, the leading juvenile, fell under her spell and forgot all about his interest in little Celinda, the flower of the Rio Negro, who used to lasso him jokingly in the most affectionate manner. But things went too far when Pirovani and Canterac staged a fistfight and then a pistol-duel about her. Pirovani was killed, Canterac fled from justice, the Marquis began to feel that there was something a little excessive about Elena's charm, so he went and committed suicide--and Watson was quite disillusioned when he discovered that Elena had put Manos Duras, the bandit, up to kidnapping little Celinda. So, with even her own servants turned against her, Elena fled back to Paris with the one eligible, wealthy male remaining, Moreno, and life on the Rio Negro resumed its former calm.

Richard Watson very properly married Celinda. Twelve years later the happy couple, their four children, the engineer, Robledo--all now extremely rich--returned to Paris on a visit. The visit brought up memories of Elena. Robledo wondered what could have become of her--and found her by accident, on the streets of Montmartre, a mere rag of a woman, with everything gone but a taste for good whiskey. So that was the end of Elena, and a very suitable one it was.

The Significance. A picturesque, rapid narrative, superbly adapted for spectacular filming, especially as regards the Argentinian episodes, where Ibanez, with his flair for local color, is rather better than when attempting to describe high society in the Ouida vein. A well constructed novel, whose catchy title should lure a large public--not one-tenth-of-one-percent. of durability in its fabric, but very saleable goods for the Autumn trade.

The Critics. The New York Times: " This new novel has no character to stand beside the old Centaur of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. . . . The people, like the novel itself, are on a much smaller scale. . . ."

New York Tribune: "The laborers and half-caste Indians are authentic. But the Marquesa Elena is put together by formula. . . ."

New York Evening Post: "A characteristic dish of Blasco Ibanez's extra-special chili con carne"

The Author. Vicente Blasco Ibanez was extremely popular as a novelist in Spain some ten or fifteen years ago. It is said, however, that since that time, his reputation in Spain-- especially in the Spanish literary world--has increased in inverse ratio to his increasing popularity abroad. (Translations of some of his novels have been published in France, Italy, Germany, Russia, Portugal, Denmark, England, the U. S.)

It was the sensational success of the cinema version of his The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse that "made" Rodolfo Guglielmo (stage name Rodolfo Valentino), cinema star. Some of his other novels; Blood and Sand, La Bodega, Mare Nostrum, The Shadow of the Cathedral.

* THE TEMPTRESS--Vicente Blasco Ibanez-- Dutton ($2.00).