LITERARY NOTES.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19144, 29 October 1927, Page 13

LITERARY NOTES.

(.TROU 0178 OWK COBBESPOXDEJw-.) LONDON, September 23. It is with diffidence that the reviewer approaches the "Letters of Gertrude Bell." [This is the Miss 801 l whose parents, a cable said, were the other itay "received" by King Feisal.J His task is difficult because the quality of the book itself is such that he himself can say so little that is worth while. He must either write long columns which will then remain inadequate, or he must say little and allow quotations to speak for themselves. In cither case the half will not be said. The volumo has justly been described as "the relation of a wonderful career and of a perfect relation," for Miss Bell with all her gifts had none greater than her gift as a daughter. The letters are wonderfully simple; the selection edited by Lady Bell consists almost exclusively of 'letters written to the father and mother at home. Inheriting great ability from her father and trained in an atmosphere of finished culture, Gertrude Bell began, at an early age, to found a career for herself. The geueral outline of her Eastern travels is well-known. She was the representative of England in the Arab countries and her busiest years were spent in Syria and Irak. The Arabs think nothing of women. There is an Arab proverb which says, "Seek the advice of women in order to do the contrary," but Gertrude Bell was the one exception in the estimation of the Arab. The sheiks sought her advice because it was good, anil she always kept the upper hand. There is a chaiwtcristv: picture of her rating certain malcontents:

"One by ono ail the loaders oi the rebellion are coming in to pay their respects. Ono canio on Tuesday and got a. line dressing down, iirst fuwa me, and then from bir Percy. iSir Pent) Cox, High Commissioner nt Irak.) However, he took it in good part and went awov saying he was delighted with Sir Percy! . . . This ■morning an opportunity 'presented itself in which I could both do the right Hung and tiio thing that pleased me a. rare combination. There camo in ono of the leaders of the revolt, a horrid, worthless man . . . and 1 was move icily ntdo So him than I've ever been lo atiyruin. 1 ;rave him first clearly to understand I hat Sir Percy could not receive him, and ho retired in disorder. It was a. threat satisfaction."

A -faithful description of Mis* Hell is that given by an American \vi>.n;in who visited her in Bagdad just two years before her death:

"At a desk piled high with documents that ■ had overflowed to the carpet sat a slender woman in a smart sports frock of knitted silk, pale lan in colour. As she. rose, her figure was still willowy and graceful. Her delicate oval face, with its firm mouth and chin and steel-blue eyes, with its aureole of soft grey hair, was the face of a 'grandc dame.' There wa3 nothing of (he weather-beaten, hardened explorer in her looks or bearing. 'Paris frock, ilayfair manners.' And this was the woman who had ma-do the Sheiks tremble at the thought of Angloz!"

Gertrude Bcli died quite peacefully in her sleep in the summer of 1026 at Bagdad, and she rests, as she would have wished, in Irak.

Apropos of the recently published "Life and Letters of Joseph Conrad" it is interesting to find that this distinguished novelist was ones challenged to fight a duel. This was not, however, because of anything he had himself written, but because his late uncle's memoirs had just been published in Poland, and Conrad, as the legal heir, was supposed to be responsible for their publication. This uncle, according to Mr Ford Madox Ford, had been "almost a Viceroy of Eussian Poland and guardian to half the sons and daughters 'of the Polish nobility in his province,'' and thus "he had unheard-of opportunities of learning all the matrimonial and family scandals of his neighbours. All these he had set down in his journal —and this journal had been published." The book caused a great sensation in Poland and "the son of one of the most horribly aspersed couples" challenged Conrad to a duel and was coming to Boulogne to fight him. Conrad, who was seriously distressed by the incident, was quite prepared to meet him. But the duel was never fought, for the challenger, whose mind must have been unhinged, shot himself on the journey to Boulogne. Mr E. V. Lucas's latest volume is all about dogs. Ho has ranged his own writings for all that is best in them about dogs, and he has found a title in the lines: "Tlio'more," said one, "of men I see, The more do dogs appeal to me." Apparently Mr Lucas has a particular liking for the Spaniel, because he says: "Of all the dogs that are so sweet. The spaniel is the most complete; Of all the spaniels, dearest far, The little loving Cockers are." But lie likes dogdom generally, even Fen Hon. "a homeopathic dose of a dog," and he knows how to write about that faithful kingdom.

Another milestone in a great undertaking has been passed with the appearance of the twelfth volume of Sir John Fortescue's encyclopaedic history of the British Army. This magnum opus was begun in 1899, when Sir John was forty, and it was his original intention to bring it down to 1870, but he had no idea at the time that he would accumulate such an enormous mass of material. The "History" already contains about 7500 pages and 250 maps. The latest volume deals with tho years 1839-1852, and covers the first Afghan War, the Sind, Sikh, Burmese, and Kaffir Wars, but, , although Sir John has_ only 18 years more to go before 1870, there will need to lie more than one volume, for the Crimea is a vast field. The first number of the "New Adelphi," to be published quarterly, appeared on September 18th. It includes a story, "On the Face of It," by Mr H. M. Tomlinson; and articles on Psychology and the Drama by F. M. Cornford, of Trinity, Cambridge; and on the Parables of Jesus, by Mr J. Middleton Murry, who is also the editor; as well as what claims to be the first critical account of the Gurdjieff Institute at Fontainebleu by Dr. J. Carruthers Young.