LITERARY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 225, 22 September 1928, Page 2 (Supplement)

LITERARY.

With lan Hay Mr. Wodehouse has written a new play called "A Damsel in Distress." Presumably this is a version of what many people consider Air. Wodehouse's funniest • book.

I can easily envisage the possibility that, in a world full of perfected, readymade amusements, a too incessantly entertained humanity might actually die of sheer boredom.—Mr. Aldous Huxley.

A collection of long "short stories," under the title of "Shanghai Jim," by F. L. Packard, is issued by Hodder and Stoughton. It is a collection, too, of murder and other horrors, which Mr. Packard's readers enjoy.

The peculiar mentality of those whose humour drifts invariably in the direction of beer and petticoats is well catered for in "Men—and Other Sins," by John Barr (Aussie Magazine, Panama Street, Wellington, by New Century Press). It is free and rowdy, but harmless.

Stanley Weyman's will has* been proved for £99,408—the largest fortune ever left by an English novelist. Charles Dickens left £80,000, Charles Garvice £71,000, and Anthony Trollope £70,000. Statements like this, however, are misleading. What had he before he started writing, and how much of his fortune "Was the result of judicious investment!

"The Tide of Empire" is a Californian gold-finding story by Peter B. J£yne (Hodder and Stoughton), whose "masterful man" productions are so well known. Girls are still supposed to prefer the human brute to all other types of men, in romances such as this, but two big fists do not necessarily make a good husband.

William «Patterson White in "Cloudy in the West" (Hodder and Stoughton) rather strains the credulity of his readers. His hero is/ the late famous Guy Livingstone—concentrated manhood to the nth power—gone wild in surroundings offering exceptional scope for double-handed dominance. The dear girl, the mortgage, the dishonest lawyer, and the "bunch of crooks" (including the legal authorities) are all here raised to heights of tragedy Verging upon burlesque. To shoot men and turn th«m over idly with a careless foot is really ' not done" by any kind of hero. " •"

Mr. Alec Waugh's novel, based upon the legal and social aspects of divorce, is not a pleasing comment upon modern sexual relationships,, if indeed It represents the author's views. The story "Nor Many Waters" (Chapman and Hall, through Dymock's) is too temperate in considering the common breach of a most solemn contract and makes too much allowance for the erring. Jf as many facilities were offered for the reconciliation of those who have disagreed in marriage as are offered to those who demand ,an escape from a doubly and trebly binding contract there would be fewer wrecked homes and deserted children.

«"-E he ,« an^ 8 ' P f ,Desire," by Wallace Q. Keid (R. Hayes .and Co.), reads like a collection of extracts from all the notable South Sea Island stories of the last ten years. There is no incident we can find which seems to us original, and the author, in selecting Ceylon from which to make his hero swim and float or drift, by aid of a lifebelt, to his island, makes us think Mr. Reid has not ,visited the Pacific or the Indian Ocean. To-day is the day of realism, and the least an author can do is to make his "local colour" sufliciently real to pass muster with others beside nontravelled, unquestioning young women. The coloured wrapper should have its promise fulfilled.

FROM GLASGOW TO GIPPSLAND.

NOTABLE ANGLO-AUSTEALIAN STORY. Take a young, well educated Englishman of the middle class;, infect him with Communism, but not fatally; leave him something of the superior social feeling of his kind, and "send him off to Australia, third-class, as an emigrant—and you have the makings of an interesting novel. "The Emigrant" by Frederick Howard (Longmans, Green and Co.) has an admirable opening in a picture of the Labour movement in Glasgow and the deportation of the hero. Excellent, too, is the meeting of this rising young Communist, Edgar Eraser, with the poverty-stricken ex-officer and Etonian, John Arthurs; the men are in a sense opposites, yet Fraßer can appreciate the virtues-of the aristocratic caste. Arthurs is one of the victims of the war; indeed, Mr. Howard is much occupied with describing the effects of the war on various types, some of whose comments are extremely frank. There is a detailed description of life in the emigrant section of a liner, rather too realistic occasionally, but always interesting. On board Edgar meets the most vivid in the book, an Australian wanderer. It is incredible that so typical an Australian' as "Stalky" should have allowed his services to be commandeered by the Turks during the war in opposition to his own countrymen, out it can easily be believed that this chapter of the past has unpleasant consequences for him when he returns to Melbourne. The description of his casual return, with Edgar as guest, to the little home of a retired plumber, with its easy, informal and warm hospitality — so different from the set English ways to which Edgar had been accustomed —is described with real feeling and numour. Edgar finds manual work in Melbourne—after being told that all "Pommies" are "quitters"—joins the Labqur movement. and is thrown out of it violently for unorthodox opinions, and ultimately finds salvation in country life in Gippsland. There are charming passages about Melbourne and the 'Victorian countryside, though the rural portion of the book includes poignant chapters on the attempt of a war-gassed English immigrant and his wife to become Australian "selectors,'* and a description of a terrible bush fire. The greatest merit of the book in its bearing on Anglo-Australian relations is the shrewdness and fairness of its portrayal of Australian conditions and character. The publisher tells us that the book is based on. the experiences of the author and "of many '. immigrant friends and i chance acquaintances.' We gather that Mr. Howard is an Englishman who has been to Australia, or perhaps lives there still, though it is possible that he is an Australian who has visited England. At any rate he likes the Australian, and depicts with sympathy and insight the national traits of courage, independence jand with a new idealism underlying them. The book is I naive and rather crude' in places, but it contains much shrewd observation ""L^t®* 8 * 6 writ « l & and will be £?££!? KAnsftalia and Stew Zealand •s well mm in nwinndi r —' ". ■ ' ii—H»" i i _

If Shakespeare lived to-day his works would not be included in our literature.—Lord Gorell.

Grim, strange, but attractive are the •New England people in Mr. C. B. Kelland's romance, "Knuckles" (Hodder and Stoughton). Prank, unaffected, honest, religious, and revengeful as the old people were, the newer generation, without much alteration in style or habits, have added further qualities less obvious and open, and these, contrasted with the most modern New Yorkers imported for business reasons into a distant milling centre, give rise to the situations, humorous and tragic, so deftly handled by the author. There is more than- one indication that he favours the fatalistic argument, as opposed to free will, and this may account for the apparently irresistible sequence of events in "Knuckles."

There is a glamour, a shy and much scorned thing, surviving in this southern continent. It. is, perhaps, the spirit of those early days of the earth's loneliness; an echo of that virginal laughter whose note cannot be heard amid our progress. Whatever its source, and whatever it is, it reveals itself to a .privileged few. Something of this magic came_ to Edgar, touching the humdrum of his life. Walking home on some breathless January evening, he would sense this glamour hovering near him, a splendid intangibility. Old Australia, the mighty, sinister, alluring Land of Silences, stretched out a hand to him, brushing aside the trivial modern fringe • which encircled her, and drew him flito. the very heart of her. He was aware, on these occasions, of dim revelations, half understood, which parsed from him like thistledown when he reached out to grasp them. When he tried to account for the exhilaration, the surge of optimism, which always followed, he was unable to; his thoughts wero inchoate, flurried, and fascinated by the vision.— "The Emigrant," by Frederick Howard.

There is money in books collected judiciously. Sotheby's sale of the first part of the library of the late Sir! Edmund Gosee brought: a total of* £9676 for 182 lots. The selection was almost entirely of modern authors, though one of the highest prices of the afternoon— paid for the Westmorland MS.' of the fPbems" -of Dr. John Donne. .The outstanding general interest of the sale centred in the Thomas Hardy section, 30 lots, fetching nearly one-half of the day's total. The series began with the rough draft of the MS. of "Wesscx Folk," presented to the late owner, with a letter to him from Hardy dated Max Gate; July 18, 1913. This lot fell at £740, and £340 was given for the autograph MS., of the poem "God's Funeral." Remarkable prices were paid for the first. editions of Hardy. A selection from the library at The Down House, Blandford, Dorset, the property of Sir William John I Smith-Marriott, also sold at Sotheby's, was chiefly notable as including a very good copy of Edward Orme's "Collection Of British Field Sports," 18J07, illustrated in 20 beautifully-coloured engravings from designs by S. Howitt, in contemporary binding. This fetched £1080. The collection is one of the finest and rarest of coloured sporting 'prints ever published. .

FASHIONABLE NOVELS.

In comparing past with present in literature there is a disposition to think of the output of past periods as consisting wholly of good books, whereas the fact is that every period has its rubbish. * This rubbish is swept away and the good work remains. An observer, looking at his own age, can see the rubbish plainly. We are led to make these remarks by the following paragraph in a recent "Times":, From the "Fashionable Novels" of 100 years ago we have progressed to the "Best Sellers" of to-day. Whether our lot is improved may be judged from the fallowing extract under the above title from "The Times" of July, 1828:— Here is a specimen of the Blip-slop witn which so many thousand reams of paper have lately been spoiled. '"Tea was announced, and the ladies adjourned to /the saloon; Lady Harriet and Lady Charlotte discussing, as they went in together, the difficult question whether it was or was not an improvement in modern arrangements to hare tea en-buffet. One of ,tts advantages tbe ladies were perfectly aware of —namely, that it afforded a point de reunir, for both beaux and belles, which Is always so much wanted before the music begins; and, calculating on this important circumstance, Lady Charlotte possessed herself of the chair which was the most accessible of the whole group. Miss Mortimer, with equal foresight, station.*! herself at the fire:—'Good generalship,' whispered Lady Hauteville to the Duchess, as the two experienced matrons communicated together sur les petites ruses, which the actors fancied were unpereeived," etc. This is an actual quotation, and by no means an unfair one, from one of the most popular novels of the day. Strange that such trash should find readers: stranger still that young noblemen should, for a few paltry pounds, write and put their names to such degrading absurdities.

EMPIRE GOVERNMENT.

No empire has ever provided such complex problems for solution as the British. The, Roman Empire, .though extensive and inhabited by different races, was all governed in the same way. Moreover, the development of its system of government was just the opposite of the British. Rome started as a democratic republic, and ended as an absolute monarchy. The early English Kings were* often virtually despots, but George V. is a constitutional Kin». "Empire Government," by Manfred Nathan (George Allen and Unwin) is a masterly treatment of the system of government, or rather governments existing in our Empire to-day, written in a style easily read and understood. It begins with a short historical sketch, and then proceeds to outline the constitution of Britain, and those of the self-governing Dominions. Then follows one of the most interesting parts, of the book. It deals with what is perhaps the most vexed and important question in the Empire to-day—the status of the self-governing Dominions those young nations which have grown Up during the last half century. The story of this growth is dealt with more fully, and there follows an admirable summary of the report of inter-Imperial relations presented to the Imperial Conference of 1926. This is too long to be summarised easily, but deserves careful study. In turn India, the Crown Colonies, Protectorates, and Mandated Territories receive attention, the peculiar difficulties inseparable from each being set forth. The second part of jthe book is devoted to the division and exercise of governmental powers, the Crown, Parliament, executive, judiciary and electorate having each,a chapter. The outstanding feature of -this part is the author's insistence in the growing,importance of the Crown in our' present..'system. Allegiance to the King is the one' thing common to all parts of the Empire, and the influence and prestige of the Sovereign is enhanced iby the latest developments. Also the power of the executive has increased at the expense of the Imperial Parliament. Taken altogether* the book is a most valuable addition to the literature of th*> British Constitution. ~,... amm .. *