ist Kowalski now comes to the little south Russian village and soon
Mery is in love with him. Mischa is much distressed and suffers
greatly. Kowalski leaves, promising to meet Mery at St. Petersburg.

The second part of the novel opens with Mischa and Mery in St.
Petersburg. The climate does not agree with Mery and Mischa arranges
that they go to a Finnish village. Here they grow very dear to each
other and Mischa is about to propose when Kowalski melodramatically
appears. Kowalski and Mery now give expression to their love. Mischa
returns to St. Petersburg but cannot pursue his studies because the
revolutionary disturbances have closed the university. Kowalski and
Mery return to St. Petersburg soon after and are admitted to the
bohemian life there. Kowalski meanwhile has become famous. The lovers
gradually grow apart and when the revolution breaks out Mery returns
to her home for safety, leaving Kowalski never to see him again.
Mischa has returned home also. After a massacre of the Jews in the
Grube in which Rahel, the sister of David, is outraged, he sees that
in marrying her lies his only means of becoming one of the Jews whom
he was so desirous of helping. So despite the fact that he still loves
Mery and she is now willing to be his wife, he marries Rahel. Mery
after a period of restlessness in the little town returns to St.
Petersburg to join the bohemian group there.

* * * * *

THE outstanding excellence of the novel lies in its characterization.
The characters live before us and we see the workings of their minds
and emotions with remarkable clarity. The mental struggles of Mischa
between his love for Mery and his desire to help the oppressed Jews,
always inhibited by inherited powerlessness to act; the carefree,
art-centered, egotistical Kowalski; the adolescent romanticism and
sympathetic insight of Mery; the cynically idealistic and
self-sacrificing Dr. Lazarus--these constitute the real substance and
artistic worth of the book. The pictures of contemporary Russian
Jewish life are of marked interest, especially to the western reader.
The following passages are descriptive of the Grube or ghetto and
characterize the condition of the poorer Jews in the towns throughout
Russia:

"The sun seldom shone into the valley. Old people lost
their vision early and the percentage of child
mortality was enormous. But even those who remained
alive under the