For the second time in its twenty-five yenrs" history, the Nobel prize for literature has been awarded to woman. It la an Italian writer who has just won the coveted honor—Grazia Deledda, a native! of Sardinia, whose greatest book, in the opinion'of many critics, is "The Mother," (La Made), published in America in. translation by" The Macmillan Company.
Madame Deleda is admittedly cone of the foremost women novelists of Italy. She is Sardinian by Birth and parentage, and in the Jitele inland town of Nuoro she spent liber childhood among'. shepherds, peasants, and small" landholders Such as'she has portrayed in her} Various stories of Sardinian " life. After her marriage to a Lombard, she left Sardinia and went to live {in Rome, where she has been writing:
about thirty years.
The scene of her novel, "The Mother," (upon which the Nobel prize award is. generally considered be base), is laid in the remote and primitive island village of Ant, fand the action takes place within the short space of two days. The events of the story are so dramatic, the: mental conflict it described. is 0 Intense, and the outcome {inevitable as to croute an untorgettable impression. 'The tale has its lighter' side, however, in the picturesque presentation of the people of that isolated mountain Fegion—the old hunter who has turned solitary, the domineering keeper and his dog, the delightful Boy" sncristan' and his friends. There fa a touch of the supernatural {in the story, and a touch of humor here and there, but. the. interest eantero in the confiet in the heart! the son and the sacrificial devo: tion of the mother.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.