THE WORLD OF BOOKS.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18219, 1 November 1924, Page 13

THE WORLD OF BOOKS.

HALF-HOURS IN A LIBRARY. (SPBCIALLf WmiTMX TOM "HI MUtSS."> By A. H. GBIKLIVU. LXXXV.—OX LADY COLVIN. The death of Joseph Conrad has temporarily overshadowed the, d ea -th. of Lady Colvin: friends and literary associates, both died on the same day, the one at Bishopsbonrne, Kent, the other in a little house off Palace Gardens terrace, Kensington. If Conrad be remembered as one of the masters of the English language, Lady Colvin's memory will be honoured, not only, for her own sake, but as the woman who stimulated R. L. Stevenson to write and spurred him on to success. In April, 1883, Stevenson wrote to Mrs Ritwell (afterwards Lady Colvin) from Hyeres: "As for me, if I am here and happy, I know to whom I owe it; I know ,who made my way for me in life, if that were all." This was ten years after their first acquaintance, the making of which is mentioned by Sir Sidney Golvin in his introduction to Stevenson's "Letters," now available in the five pocket volumes of the delightful "Tusitala" edition. Sir Sidney says:— • - '

Tlie year 1878 was a critical 'one in Stevenson's life. Late in July he went lor a second time •to pay a visit to Cookfield Rectory, the pleasant Suffolk home of' his cousin, Mrs Churchill Bahington, and her husband. Another guest at the same timp was Mrs Sitwell —my wife as she was later to be—an intimate friend and connexion,by marriage of the Listers. I vras shortly due to join the party, when Mrs Sitwell- wrote telling me of the "fine young gpirit" she had found under her friend's roof, and suggesting that I should hasten, my visit so as to make his acquaintance before ho, left. I came accordingly, and from : that ■ time on the fine young spirit became a leading interest both in hor life and mine. He had thrown himself on her sympathies, in that troubled hour of his youth, with entire dependence almost from tho first t and clunp to her devotedly for the next'two. years .as to an inspirer. consoler, and. guide.' JJhder her influence he began for the first time-to see his xfay in life, and to believe hopefully and manfully in his own powers and future. TV encourage such hopes ■ further, and to lend what hand one could. towards their fulfilment, became <juiokly one' of th'e first of cares and pleasures.

There is a mixture' of tragedy and; romance in Lady Golvin's life story, and the tragedy has striking resemblance to that experienced by another well-known woman, Mrs Annie .Besant. When Stevenson first met Lady Colviri, she was Frances Sitwell, a young : woman, unhappily mkfried to a. country clergyman. Realising the impossibility of the union, Mrs Sitwell ,at. length left the rectory at Thanet .and. went to Loii- : don to earn her own living, securing a position as secretary of a college for working men and women • in Queen square. Sharing ;a: flat with, several other women, she began ■ to. entertain her men and women friends, laying the foundations of that salon in London which came to be regarded as the Mecca of everyone with literary leanings. Thither came .' Ruskin, Bossetti, Burne-Jones, .Meredith, and, Browning, and ' in later yearst- —for Lady Colvin lived to ' the ripe old age of eighty—were :to be' seen - Henry James, Kipling, Hardy, Hugh Walpole, Conrad, E. V. Lucas, RupeEt Brooke, and Walter de la Mare. Ampng thein ; all Sir Sidney Colvin was her most devoted admirer, but not until twenty yeats ago, when ;they were; both' past sixty; was -Frances SitweJl ifree- to accept Sir Sidney's, hand..and. name... In Mr E. V..Lucas's charming anthology "Her Infinite Variety," there is a setetion headed ''Daughters-of Erili,' * and the last- entry in that, section -is> called "A Thorough-Bred,by ' /X.The portrait is that «f Lady ,Colvin, and. it may be shrewdly- surmised that the writer is Mr E. "V*. Lucas'himself. The. aketch should be read las a whole -by those who desire an insight. into Lady Colvin's peculiar charm; a • few sentences may serve as illustration:—

Sprung froiii a famous north-eountry-stock transplanted three centuries ago into Ireland,' she is pure-bred, through many, generations and shows it. A little- under the middle height, but perfectly shaped and; proportioned, she bears herself so beaotifully arid, if need be, so proudly, _ that showier women seem rustic or insignia* cant beside her. ... _ , , . V ! But life itself ,is most truly of all he* sphere. She has the genius hefcrt, and in her-own spirit a blend of ' ness and high honour and fortitude which makes of her a priceless counsellor. Comfort abounds . when, she is by; something bids all who are not ungentle, men, wdmen, and children, turn :to her and trust her. She cools and soothes your secret smart before ever you can name it; she divines and shares your .hidden .iqy, o»_ shames^ywar fretfulness with loving laughter; the unravels the perplexities of. your _■ efluoon, and finds out something better in you than you knew of; she -fills.you not only with generous resolution,but with powor to fiersist in what you have resolved. In the fearlessness of her parity _ she can afford the frankness of her affections, and shows- how eVery fascination of her sex may, in tho most open freedom, be the most honourably secure. • Yet m a-world of men and women, such an one not walk without kindling once and again a dangerous flame before she is aware. Ana in her nature there is.no room for vanity, she never foresees tlieae maseuline combustions, but has a wonderful » rt gentleness in allaying them, and tomed to convert the claims and cravings of passion into the life-long loyalty ©- grateful and contented friendship.

Frances Sitwell and Bobert Mollis Stevenson first met at a crittis in both their lives; slie was meditating leaving her husband, and he was at variance with his parents because of hjb revolt against the religious beliefs and social conventions of his home eirele. Rebels both, thev had sympathy with each other, and after the meeting, for the next two years, Stevenson wrote weekly, and often daily, to .Mrs Sitwell "egotistical letters, brilliant letters, hopeful letters, intimate letters." A careful selection of this correspondence, edited by Sir Sidney Colvin, is included.in. the published volumes, but there remain piles of unpublished Stevenson letters, bequeathed by Lady Colvin to her . hugband to be disposed of at his discrimination. ' 1 Lady Colvin herself," sayp Kathleen Woodward, "withheld theseintensely intimate and palpitating epistles from the light of day daring her own lifetime; and if ever they are published they will, more than anything else, establish this great woman's genius to the tforld at large." There eame a time wheu Stevenson was called upon to sympathise with Mrs Sitwell in a terrible trouble. In April, 1881, Stevenson was at Davos for his health, and thither came Mrs Sitwell with her sob, already in the last stages of a swift consumption. The hopeless illness of the- lad and his mother's sorrow and anxiety told on Stevenson's health. After the boy's death Stevenson composed • the tender little poem, beginning "Yet,-, O strieken hdart," now included in "Underwoods": — In Memoriaa: ? JLS. Yet, 0 stricken heart, remember,- O remember How of human days be lived the betterpart. April came to bloom and never dim December Breathed its killing chills upon the liead or heart. , , Doomed to know nor Winter, only Spring, a being Trod the flowery April blithely for 8 while. Took his fill of music, joy .of thought and s<*>in g, . Came and stayed and west, nor ever eeasen > to gtmiie.-

Came and (tared and went, and now when all _ is finished. Yon alone have crossed the melancholy stream. Tears the pang, hut his, O hi*, the undiminished, Undecaying gladness, nndeparted dream. All that life contains <of tertnre, toil and treason; Skamo, dishonour, death. 1o liim were but a nam?. Here a hoy. he dwelt through all the singing season. And are the da.y of sorrow departed at he came.

I cat*h myself wondering whether Lady Colvin was in any way related to the three eccentric "Sitwells—Edith, Osbert, and Sacheverell—pioneers of the newest of new poetry. I have devoted some time to a study of 4 'Bucolic Comedies" and "The Sleeping Beauty," l>y Edith Sitwell: "The Hundred and One Harlequins," by Sacheverell Sitwell: and ''Out of the Flame." by Osbert. Sitwell. I have even attempted .to commend ' them to my friend? liy reading choice extracts aloud, but the only effect has been to excite, amusement. In his introduction to "From Overseas." that admirable anthology of. contemporary dominion and colonial verse, Mr D. Fowl or Wright remark's: "The most, hostile critic, of Mr Osbert Sitwell must, admit, that he would be able to write good poetry, if he were so fortunate as to have any poetry to write." And Mr Harold Moiiro declares: "An impartial examination of Osbert Sitwell "s poetry reveals it as the .product of a mind charged With wholesome indignation against the hypocrisies and abuses of civilisation,but limitediu its expression through an insufficiency of patience and discipline." If Osbert Sitwell is no poet, at least he cuu write clever prose; indeed,'he rivals Mr Aldous Huxley as a master of. the short story, as witness that brilliant book "Triple Fugue."

Unlike the throe eccentric Nitwells, Lady 1 Cbl\ v in herself wrote nothing; self-effacing to a degree, she wis more than. content to .encourage the others. How excellently she succeeded, :i chorus of hor contemporaries only too truly tells. Her name henceforth is inextricably linked with that of 8.L.5.; she was his first grand passion. It is enrious to reflect .that the, two women who excited the greatest' influence ori Stevenson's literary life'were' both milrriod women separated from their husbands, and both the victims of too early marriages. Fanny Van dcr Grift Osbourne was nineteen when iirfet she married, and. she had, been living apart from her husband for seyen or eight years before obtaining a divorce.. Wh&t ,the result might: have been had ; Francjeß ,Sitwell been free when first she met Stevenson, it is idle to speculate, but it would possibly liave wrought some amazing change's.

To make the picture complete, it is essential to know something of the nature of the letters which Frances Sitwell, \?rote to Stevenson; it is doubtful, whether these have been preserved, aid if in existence -it- is still mofe : doubtful whether they will ever see the light. This .raises .the question-whether, it is morally justifiable to make public, after the.death of the'writer, letters intended for the intimate ; eye alone. Without entering upon the' controversy,'it is at leaßt permissible to publish the letter which, when he-knew ho was dying, Joseph -Conrad penned to Sir Sidney Colvin, and which the stricken husband read a few hours before the death-of his wife:-—" ' •

With all my heart and soul, *trith all the strength • of affection and admiration for, her who is shout to. leave this hard •world ■where all 1 the' happiness she could find was in your:: devotion, I am ■with yon every moment of those black hours it is yours to liire • through. ' ; ; . • Pray- ltisa her hand for. rae ; in reverence and love. I hope she will give blessine ttiongHts' to those who. are dear to me, ray ■wife and children, to whom she always was the' ettbodim'ent of all that is kind and gracious and lovable on -earth.- -. . ..

I had ended when there came to hand the September number of the London ' 'Mercury,'' with the statement that Lady Colvin was a friend, throughout his' writing career, • of Joseph Conrad. This set me'wondering to what extent Lady Colvin can bfe Beld responsible fpr the character, of the women in Conrad's novels". In Sj chapter headed ''Conrad's Women, " in his study of Joseph Conrad, 1 Mr Richard Curie writes: "To say, as. it;is sometimes said, that Conrad does not understand women,. is an observation revealing blindness. For, indeed, his women portraits • are the most finished, delicate, and poignant of all his portraits. But the reason of its being sa'id arises, probably, from the fact that Conrad does not make love the centre theme of all his stories, and from the fact that his finest women are good women." The note on Lady Colvin in the London ''Mercury'' went on to say:, "Men of .all generations felt a peculiar affection for her, and knew themselves to be deep in her debt. Which lends point to the idea that Lady Colvin was the type of woman Conrad loved to-portray. Mr Curie writes that Conrad required, above everything else, a. subtle femininity—not feminism—in his women; a' thought elaborated in a striking passage: — In Conrad'* eyes all the graces of intuition and pity in women tprtag from this subtle femininity. &if fin«st women, it ii true, are women of character and resoWe, but they bare the feminine temperament. Not only i» there no antagonism between the two, but they are in accord with one another. . . . And Conrad * women do not trade on their sex—their femininity i» unconscious. ... If a woman has a charming and compassionate nature it is ridienloua to say that that is a man's point of view—it is merely true. The truth is, surely, that certain types " "of men understand certain types of women better than members of their own its. do.

Victor Hugo's description of the octopus in "The Toilers of the Sen." ia scornfully treated, in aaexchange.by Mr Bassett Mgby, FJt.G.9.: 'The passages describing the exasperating behaviour, of octopuses in general and that octopus in particular deserve to rank among the inoet amazing inaocurraoies in literature. The brute, declares M. 'Hugo, *§lßß no muscular organisation . no blood, no flesh. . . . It is an .empty flask; a skin with nothing inside it. Its eight ten* tcicles may be turned inside out. like the fiqgers of a. glove., It has a single orifice, which is both vent and mouth. The same opening performs both functions. . . Figure to yourself a. sleeve, sewn up with a fist in it. His fist, whichis the head, poshes through tie water and advances " with an undulating movement.' All sheer rubbish. What he calls tie head, even, is the body! He could never nave examined «n dofcopus, living or dead. Had be poked his finger into the hole in the centre of the base of the arms his opinion of 'tie empty flask' would swiftly have been changed by a nip from a pair of horny parrot-beak mandibles habitually used for cracking lobster shells. 'Of what use are such creatures ? "What purpoae do tbey serve?' ©xciairoed M. Hugo-with rical bombast skilfully calculated cite his ill-informed- public of tjte JW- i sian boulevurds and the inland t brought up hi the traditeoo^«g ; entire brute an/1 vegetable mannfactured with a, ; sure of man. But e^f I l~^ liae i iglaridfcnown tJfe y^st ers and fisherfotk of France oetopus « » for the table. ' _ A. S- H- the forego his conto P exploring tho United States, -i® y,„ French Al<>B