BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 95, 15 January 1921, Page 11

BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

(By

Liber.)

Give a man a pipe he can smoke, Give a man a book he can read; And his home is bright with a calm delight Though the room be poor indeed. , • —James Thomson.

THREE BOOKS ON BOLSHEVISM. “Through Bolshevik Russia.” Mrs. Philip Snowden’s “Through Bolshevik Russia” (Cassell and Co.) deserves to be carefully read by all who desire to gather a correct impression, of the doubtful blessings and undoubted drawbacks of existence under a Bolshevik Government. Mrs. Snowden, who is well known in New Zealand, is the wife of a -prominent British (Socialist, and visited Russia in April and May last as a member of the delegation chosen by the Executive Committee of the British Labour Party and of the Trades Union Congress, in fulfilment 1 of a resolution passed by a special trade union congress held on December 10, 1919, which demanded of the British Government “the right to an independent and impartial inquiry into the industrial, economic, and political conditions of Russia.” Mrs. Snowden’s personal sympathies, before she visited Russia, undoubtedly favoured She Bolsheviks, but she returned from Russia- a much wiser woman. It is true she recognises, and gives credit to certain of the Bolshevik leaders for their well-meaning idealism. But/ it is equally clear that she returned to England convinced that the particular form of extreme democracy which obtains in Russia under the Lenin-Trotsky regime is an arrant failure; indeed, she does not hesitate lb declare that it is not true democracy at all. “There is,” she says, “not an ounce of democratic control in the politics of Russia. . ... The elections are not free. If free, in my judgment! there would not be a majority for the Communists.” The truth is that the illusion cherished by so many ignorant people in Great . Britain. America, and, alas, here in New Zealand, that the Russian people are now masters of their own house, is diametrically opposed to the actual facts of the case. So far from the Russian people having any direct say in the government of their counftry, they are living existing would be a more correct ex-pression-under a tyranny greater by far than that from which they suffered under the Romanoffs. When the AllRussian Soviet meet's, which is very rarely, it merely gives a formal ratifica- . tion to the dictates of an inner circle autocracy, headed by Lenin and Trotsky. Elsewhere Mrs. Snowden records her conviction that “the Red Terror is a terrible reality”—"the marked despotism and cruelty of file men in power at Petrograd became noticeable to us before we left.” The Bolshevik officials are atheists. “God." says Mrs. Snowden, "is regarded as coun-ter-revolutionary and banished, officially, as a traitor to mankind,” and, again, "for the Inquisition, with its thumbscrews and its flaming faggots, the Extraordinary Commission supplies an adequate substitute." One, and one only, redeeming feature could Mrs. Snowden find in Bolshevism, and that is the real and apparently sincere effort which is made to provide for the welfare of children. But of political freedom Mrs. Snqwden could find no trace in Bolshevik Russia. Of corruption, maladministration, of gross official incompetence, of tyranny and cruelty almost inconceivable, she quotes numerous instances. Of the Extraordinary Commission and its secret police, she says “it has executed thousands of persons without trial.” Exactly what course-this Extraordinary Commission has adapted with regard to certain unfortunate Russians who, gave information to the British Labour Delegation as to the true condition of affairs in their country will probably never bo known, but it is notorious that some of the Menshevlste—anti-Bolshevists-r-who were permitted to address the visitors were arrested after the delegates bad left Russia Mrs. Snowden may not consider that the Russian policy of the Allies has been well advised. On the contrary, she criticises that policy very severely, and would • fain have it immediately and totally revised. But against Bolshevism she brings a perfectly damning mdictmen A 9 being the very negation of true democracy, and this, m view of the fact that she went to Russia with a predisposition, in favour of Soviet rue, renders her condemnation of that rule all the more significant. Bertrand Russell on “Bolshevism.” In his preface to his book. “The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism (George Allen and Unwin), the Hon. Bertrand Russell avows himself a communist. 1 believe," he says, "that Communism is necessary to the. world. Communism as he, in common with Mis. Philip Snowden and other members of the now-famous Labour Delegation believed it to exist in Bolshevik Russia, Mr. Russell entered Russia on May 11, last year, and left that country on June 16. It is quite clear from what Mr. Russell says that the delegates were ■ most carefully "shepherded" by the Bob shevik authorities, and that they only saw and heard what Messrs. Lenin, Trotsky and Co. wanted them to see add hear. Nevertheless, Mr. Russell, who, despite the eccentricity of certain of his political views and actions,, is a very shrewd as well as a very learned gentle-, man, saw a good deal "through the , lines" as It were. He fully recognised . that “the utmost possible use was made of us for Bolshevik propaganda,” but the conclusions to which even his .short and neeessi-rily very incomplete vision of ' Bolshevik Russia contributed can scarcely make very agreeable reading for some of his hosts. For Mr. Russel coincides in Mrs. Snowden's opinion that the Bolshevik brand of Communism "democracy" need not be mentioned in this connection—ia a sham. Bolshevism is now, whatever it was in its inception, a military autocracy. “When,” says Mr. Rusnell, "a Russian Communist speaks of dictatorship he means the word literally, but when he speaks of the proletariat he means the word in a Pickwickian •enee." The proletariat, as the British worker understands the word, has practically no say whatever in the government of the country. The Soviet system is to-day practically dead. No independence. no liberty of opinion is allowed. The one’hundred and twenty millions of Russians are to-day under the thraldom of the Bolshevik Communist Party, not much more than half a million strong. Mr. Russell claims I that Bolshevism was an "heroic conception,” but no one who reads his book can fail to see that the author is .bitterly disappointed with Bolshevism in practice. Even the much vaunted regard of the Bolsheviks for the education of the children is a sham, for the author tells us that in practice Bolshevik education consists very largely of "emotional and fanatical teaching," the aim and end of which is to sever tho tie which binds the child’ to its parents, and to substitute for the latter the Bolshevik State. As to the Bolshevik system of dealing with industrial questions, it' is only necessary to say that the more widely this hook—by, always be it remembered, a publicist of, at one time at lease, pronounced pro-Bobihevik sympathies—is read by the Intelligent British or overseas British working man, the less inclined the latter will be to swallow the Bolshevik faith as it is preached by the Moscow Third International and its followers in other lands. (New Zealand price, 7a. 6dJ “Terrorism and Communism.” ''Terrorism and Communism: A Contribution to the Natural History of Revolution” (George' Allen and Unwin), ia a

translation by IV. H. Kerridge of a book which has had a widespread circulation on the Continent'. The author, Karl Kautsky, traces the origins of Bolshevism as they are to be found in the story of the French Revolution, and of the Commune of Paris in 1871. He deals at length with fho doctrines and practical working of the French Communists, and then, after an examination of the general effects of violence and terrorism upon the progress of democratic and socialistic ideas, proceeds to investigate and criticise the general rpolicy and detailed methods of the Russian Communists of to-day. The present-day prospects of modern international Socialism, he confesses, are “far from cheering. “We see,” he says, “a world sinking under economic murder and fratricidal ruin.” Like Mr. Bertrand Russell, although writing from a somewhat different standpoint, Kautsky brings a formidable indictment against Bolshevik methods. The author must certainly be given credit for his frankness. He evidently has grasped the fact that to paralyse industry is not the best way of getting rid of the capitalist. He says, for instance:

Nothing is easier than to expropriate a capitalist. That ia a mere question of force and not necessarily to be connected with any social theory. . . . But it is not so easy to organise as it is to expropriate. A capitalist . concern is a complex organisation which finds its intelligence in the capitalist himself, or ini his representative. If it is desired to abolioli capitalism, some form of organisation must bo cheated, which should be possible of functioning as well, H not better, without the capitalist head., . . • It demands a proletariat which is conscious of its duties not only towards its own neighbours and comrades, but towards society as a whole —a proletariat, moreover, which has become accustomed to voluntary discipline and self-adminis-tration through long years of mass organisation; and which, finally, is intelligent enough to distinguish the possible from the impossible, and the scientifically educated leader with character from an ignorant demagogue without a conscience. Wherever these conditions are not present, capitalism cannot, with any' success, be permanently dissolved by Socialism. For a revolutionist Kautsky is, as may be seen by t'he above extract from his book, quite singularly sane. (New Zealand prise, 7s- 6d.) LIBfcR’S note book To Correspondents. E.F. (Hira, Nelson): Thanks, but the information requested was given by several other correspondents and printed in The Dominion some time ago. J.C.W. (Wanganui): “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”— a nice little pocket edition is published by Longmans at 4s. 6d. (N.Z. price). S.S. (Eastbourne): Sorry, but no space for original verso. Stray Leaves. The prices at which many relatively unimportant English books are published nowadays are quite preposterously high. For instance, Sir. Fisher Unwin charges fifteen shillings for a book entitled “Art and Letters,” which contains a dozen or so essays—some of them reviews of new books —which have appeared in the "Daily News” and various magazines. The author, Robert Lynd, is a sound literary critic and an agreeable writer, but even granting that his scattered essays were worth reprinting at all, fifteen shillings is altogether too high a price to ask for them. If I can buy a volume of reprinted essays by Mr. G. K. Chesterton for six shillings (7s. 6d. here), I ought surely, did I hunger after Mr. Lynd’s republished articles —whieh I do not—to be able to buy them for a similar price. i Knut Hamsen, the Norwegian novelist who, in October last, was awarded tho Nobel Prize for literature, is mainly known to English readers by the translation of his novel, “The Growth of the Soil," published last year. Surprise has been expressed in England that the veteran novelist, Thomas Hardy, was passed over on this occasion, but, as the "Athenaeum” points out, Hardy’s work is not very well known on the Continent, whereas Hamsen has a European reputation. Apropos of Hardy, I notice that a firm of French publishers announce translations of some of the Wessex novels, including "The Mayor of Casterbridge,” “Tess of the d’Urbervilles,” and “Jude tho Obscure.” Some of Rarely’s novels are also to appear in Spanish and Swedish translations. Talking, or rather writing of French translations of English novels, I see Mr. H. G. Wells’s once niuc?P?iecussed "Mr. Britling Sees It Through” appeared in its French title as “M. Britling commence a voir clair.” As the “Athenaeum” remarks, "this is a rendering which shows a misunderstanding of English idiom serious enough to make us very sceptical of tho text of the translation.” It is a good many years now since the English-speaking world—more particularly the literary section thereof—was startled, and not a little puzzled, by that-remarkable book, “The Story of a South African Farm." The author, Miss Olive Schreiner, an Afrikander by birth, afterwards married Mr. Cronwright, a prominent South African politician, and had of late years written principally on feminist questions. Her second book, “Dreams,”' was less successful, and a much later production, “Trooper Peter Halkett,” was severely.criticised because of the introduction in the story of the Saviour of mankind. The yarn used to be told, with regard to her first story, that the book was very frequently ordered by people who imagined it described agriculture in South Africa. Tho same sort of story was once current about a little tract by Ruskin, entitled “On the Construction of Sheep-folds/' Tho worthy farmers who ordered this production were sorely disappointed when they found it was, in reality, a treatise on social economicsSOME RECENT FICTION "A Star in the Window." Miss Olive Higgins Prouty’s "The Star in tho Window” (William Collins, Sons, and Co.), is a novel which possesses a literary quality not so frequently to be discovered in present-day American fiction as it well might be. It is the story of tho revolt of a girl, or rather a young woman, for the heroine is twenty-five when the story commences, who is quite justifiably weary of tho humdrum life she leads in a small industrial town with a mother who is a confirmed and whining invalid, two socially correct but hopelessly narrow-minded aunts, and a weak and spiritless father. The atmosphere of Ridgefield becomes intolerable, and Rebecca a-t last musters up courage to rebel. She clears out of her soul-crush-ing environment and takes up her home in a city institution, seemingly an American variant of the Y.W.C.A. Then, through a trick, she is induced to return home, but before doing so, in order to secure personal liberty, she marries a rough-mannered, but warmhearted, young sailor and parts from him at the church door. She finds Ridgefield even more unendurable than before, returns to the city and l narrowly escapes disaster through a flirtation with a married man. Meanwhile the seaman husband has not gone back to sea, but, imbued with new-born ambition to be worthv of the woman to whom he has «riven his name, has become a student and develops into a well-mannered gentleman. The war, a gal-

lantry on the field, a commission, and a return to the woman he loves and who now, recognising his fine qualities and the depth of his love, is only too willing to make their marriage a reality. Towards tho close of the story the author- may seem to pander to that craze for excessive sentiment which spoils so many American novels, but the story is full of clever character sketches and) is certainly very readable. “The Sea Bride.” “The Sea Bride,” by Ben Ames Williams (Mills and Boon, per Whitcombe and Tombs), is a powerfully written story of life on board an American whaler. The heroine, Faith Wing, is married to a whaling captain, much her senior, and sails for the southern ocean on her wedding night. On board also are her brother and a rejected lover, Dan Tobey. After two or three months the skipper husband takes to drinking and horrifies his young wife by an .act of gross brutality. On a South Sea island a young man, ex-mate of a whaling vessel, is picked up, and between, this maiwmd Tobey there is soon a bitter lend. More than one tragic occurrence takes place before the Sally Sims gets back home again, minus her unfortunate captain, who goes mad and jumps overboard, the brave and little wife, with the help of the rescued castaway, whom she has learned to love, displaying great courage and determination in dealing with a mutinous crew. Quite apart from the human drama played out on the Sally Sims, the .story gives one of the best and most interesting descriptions of the whaling industry that I have ever read. In this respect "The Sea Bride” is well worthy of a place on the same shelf which contains those two admitted whaling classics, Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick” and Frank Bullen’s "Cruise of the Cachelot.” “The Head of the House.”

“The Head of the House” (Ward, Lock aricl Co.; per Whitcombe and Tombs) is the latest production of that everindnstrions nnd versatile novelist/ Mi. Harold Bindloss. The story opens m Canada, where a young engineer meets and befriends the daughter of a Liverpool shipowner. Later on the scene shifts to West Africa, whither proceeds the hero to carry out some difficult and dangerous salvage operations for the shipowner. George Lister, the hero, is a fine young Englishman, in whom a natnrral love "of adventure is tempered by great coTnmprcial shrewdness, and the pluck and ability he displays in his West African enterprise, fully entitle him to the rich reward, financial and sentimental. which is the result. A very readable yarn. “The Green Lady.”

The heroine, perhaps a better term would be the leading female figure, tn Violet Tweed ale’s "The Green Lady,” Is n very mysterious lady, whose astral body has an unpleasant knack of appearing before the visitors to the ghosthaunted Ralston Abbey. She is a beautiful woman, who, as quite a girl had married a wealthy middle-aged roue and eccentric, and, en seconds noces, would have found happiness with a handsome husband of her own age but for the fact that she is obsessed by the. belief that she had murdered her highly objectionable first spouse. The story deals largely with this obsession, nnd Is invested generally with a psychical interest, which on the whole the author contrives to make fairly convincing. The lifting of the heroine’s obsession is accomplished by hypnotism, this particular scene being very cleverly managed. Apart from the occult side of the story there is a subsidiary love interest whieh will appeal to lovers of the sentimental.

“Tho Churstons.”

Mr. Paul Trent seems to specialise In his more recent novels in wedding commerce and romance. -In "The Thurstons” (Ward, Lock, and Co., per vt hitcombo nnd Tombs) he introduces us to a strong-minded young lady who, after the death of her father, carries on, with considerable enterprise, and, for a time, fair success, some extensive aeroplane engineering works. Business rivalry and competition, and an interesting sentlmontal motif, provided by her fathers epe-manager nnd another industrialist, each of whom is in love with the heroine, provide Mr. Trent with material tor some cleverly-devised situations, the result being an interesting and very readable story. “A Prince of Intrigue.

"A Prince of Intrigue,” by May AA ynne (Jarrold's, Limited), is a. vigorously-writ-ten, stirring romntjee by the author of “The Helmet of Navarre” and other historical novels. The leading character in the story is the famous Cossack leader Ivan Mazeppa. Byron made Mazeppa the subject of a poem,’ and in mid-A ietorian days an equestrian drama, founded on the Mazeppa story, achieved immense success in London, tho hero being impersonated by a Jewish-American actress. Adah Isaacs Menken, who wrote a volume of rather striking verse, and was at one time reputed to have been the original of Swinburne’s “Dolores. Miss Wynne’s story is packed full of dramatic and exciting incidents, and its historical colour is specially interesting now that Poland and the Ukraine are so much in evidence in European politics "A Gallant of Spain,”

A “full length copyright novel for half-a-crown" is the engaging inscription on the cover of Miss May Wynne’s "A Gallant of Spain” (Stanley Paul and Co.). The scene is laid for the most part! in Spain, the Spain of Cardinal Alberonie’s time, the Spain of the Inquisition, the hero being a Scottish gentleman adventurer, Jock M'Byrnc. Political plotting, passionate love-making, desperate adventures, in which Spanish gallants, villainous bravoes, and cunare engaged, make up a medley of dramatic and romantic incident, which provides generous entertainment for the reader.

Reprints. From Stanley Paul and Co. comes a cheaper edition of one of Miss Norma Lorimer’s earlier novels, “Mirry Ann.” ’The scene of the story, which was first published n’qw nearly twenty years ago, is laid cn the Isle of Man, and although the author is less sparing of local colour than «i/».Sir William Hall-Caine in. nis many’-novels of Manx life, her story contains many picturesque touches illustrative of Manxland customs. The novel was well worth reprinting. From Cassell and Co., Melbourne, comes a half-crown reprint of Mr. G..K Chesterton’s clever detective stories, which bear the collective title of “The Innocence of Father Brown.” In its new and cheaper form flhis well-establish-ed favourite with lovers of detective fiction should enjoy a greatly extended popularity.