“Designed primarily for the young executive, the book brings a wealth of ideas before him, which only await application that they may yield him a goodly return in economies of time, energy, and money.”
+ Am Econ R 9:829 D ’19 130w Booklist 16:192 Mr ’20 + Pittsburgh 24:456 O ’19 30w
GRAÇA ARANHA, JOSÉ PEREIRA DA. Canaan. *$2 (3c) Four seas co.
20–4216
Graça Aranha is a cultured Brazilian, prominent in the affairs of his country, and a writer of many books, of which, says Guglielmo Ferrero in his appreciative introduction: “‘Canaan’ is the most beautiful.” The hero of the story is Milkau, a German colonist who, disillusioned by the hypocrisies, hidden immoralities, and social and legal injustices of the civilizations of Europe, imagines that here, in a new country where the soil is virgin, unbroken, and the natives of childlike simplicity, exists a golden state of human happiness, of joy and work ideally blended, and little evil. For months his illusion remains intact. Then, a wronged and persecuted young woman’s misfortunes unveil for him the malicious injustices, cruelty, and cupidity lurking here in the ideal country of his dreams. The close of the story is vague—we do not know just what happens to Milkau and Mary, but the scenes evoked in the last chapter are especially powerful, ending in Milkau’s fervent dream and hope of a promised land of justice and beauty yet to come through toil and faith. The novel is translated from the Portuguese by Mariano J. Lorente.
“There is a distinctly noble flavor to the work, and certainly a large humanity that marks it as something more than exclusively Brazilian in significance. Indeed, for the thinking American of the north, between Canada and the Rio Grande, the theme is of primary importance. Millions have sought their ‘Canaan’ here and have been no more successful than Milkau. And for similar reasons.” I: Goldberg
+ − Bookm 51:232 Ap ’20 560w
“‘The great American novel,’ Anatole France is said to have called this book, which comes to us from Brazil. Whoever reads the first hundred pages will be inclined to agree with him. Thereafter, it must be confessed, the spell relaxes. Nevertheless, ‘Canaan’ leaves behind it a powerful, memorable, beautiful impression. It is a book for both the Americas.”
+ − Freeman 1:261 My 26 ’20 1050w