BOOKS AND AUTHORS

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 42, 13 November 1926, Page 27

BOOKS AND AUTHORS

(By

“CHERSWUD.")

Give a man a pipe he can smoke. Give a man a book he can reads And his home is bright with a calm delight Though the room be poor indeed. —JAMBS THOIBOS.

BOOKS OF THE DAY.

An Artist's Note Books. “The Farington Diary,” by Joseph Farington, R.A., Vol. VI, lfilO-1811 (Hutchinson, London; per Whitcombe and Tombs). Literary men generally, and historians particularly, have looked for long upon Samuel Pepys as the' greatest of British diarists, and not only the greatest, but the very greatest, in the sense that the next to rank with him left a great gap between. That gap by later discoveries has been appreciably lessened. One of the chief challengers of Pepys’ pre-eminence is Joseph Farington, whose diary Messrs. Hutchinson are now publishing in eight volumes, of which that under review is the sixth. The period covered by the present volume is from January 13, 1810, to June 9,181 L Farington was one of those industrious gatherers np of trifles, among whose writings historians love to browse, and by the aid of whose statements and comments they are enabled to qualify or amplify current records concerning contemporary events. Being an artist, much of Farington’s writings deal with artists and the proceedings . of the Royal Academy, and much may be found recorded there anent of great value and interest to the student and historian of British art at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The average reader, while not neglecting this portion of the book, will be interested no doubt chiefly in the diarist’s opinions and impressions of everyday events. Had Farington been alive todav he would have been, in all probabilitv, a great journalist, for these records prove that he had what journalists call “a grand nose for news.” His interest in men and women and in public and private events never flags. He tells of the great opposition to the .purchase of the famous Flgin Marbles, now in the British Museum, a transaction, it will be remembered, that Byron scathingly satirised. (What language would the bard use were he alive concerning somewhat similar purchases to-dav on behalf of wealthv citizens of the United States?), The times were alarming. Napoleon was still a menace, men like William Cobbett and Sir Francis Burdett were, what .is termed these days, stirring np strife by preaching class war, the “bloodv banner of sedition was unfurled,” and scandals in high places were rife. There is, however. a pleasanter side to this ancient gossiper’s garrulity. There ar? many capital stories of celebrated actors, singers, painters, poets and politicians, of Robert Burns, Samuel Rogers, Wordsworth, Bvron, Coleridge, Walter Scott, Lord Melville, and many others almost equally eminent. Often the reader has the feeling that he is listening to a contemporary talking. Take the following note on Robert Burns:

Stvthnrd and I wept to in the evening, and had tea. Lawren.ee there. We saw the sketches made by fjtotliard in Scotland the last summer. He was absent from London nearly three months. Many of the sketches were views of places from which engravings are to be made to accompany an edition of Burns’s poems. He made a drawing of the Ho.use in which Burns was born: the room in which He wrote: with the desk at which He wrote, and the chair on which He sat. So far Is this kind of enthusiastic admiration now carried.

How very modern,! And here is a contemporary opinion of Scott as a poet, spoken in a company of which Samuel Rogers, author of “The Pleasures of .Memory,” was one:

Poetry was touched upon, and Walter Scott being mentioned, Fuseli said he would allow "that Walter Scott without being a poet was nearer being one than nny other author of the present period.’’ Here the diarist comments: “This was rather bearing upon Rogers 1” But lest readers who hail from ’yont the Tweed feel aggrieved at the slap, thus early administered,- to Burns worshippers, and the depreciatory opinion of Scott, let them salve their sores with the following about Wordsworth. Lord Chesterfield had been induced to order a copy of Wordsworth’s poems and the diarist states that Lysons called and told him he had been on a visit to Lord Chesterfield, who had a copy of Wordsworth’s poems. Chesterfield had told Lysons that when he asked for it the bookseller was surprised, said he had it not, but if His Lordship was in earnest to purchase it he would get it for him. Then Lord Chesterfield loquax:

I gave seven shillings and sixpence for it, and anybody can have it for the odd sixpence.

'Near the close of the volume he who had written down so many comments about others and others’ comments on their fellows, gives us some half-dozen lines of another’s opinion, of himself. Middiman, engraver, whom he had known for sixty years, called upon him:

He complimented me on the appearance I formerly bore, saying I was the handsomest man Tie had seen, and my person corresponded in good form with my countenanoe. Thus did he speak of the living oM man as he would have done of a deceased person, and I listened to his speaking as of one who was past and gone. , To this does age bring us.

The book is illustrated with excellent reproductions of portraits of famous men by famous painters, though it is a bit of an anachronism to include in a volume dealing with 1810-1811 a portrait of the. Duke of Wellington on his charger Copenhagen in the costume worn at Waterloo 1 (Price 255.) MISCELLANEOUS Love Me, Love My Dog. “A Dog Book,” by Katharine Tynan (Hutchinson, London; per Ferguson and Osborn). This well known Irish author herein gives many reminiscences of the dogs she has owned from her girlhood onward. All lovers of dogs will delight in this little book. (Price 55.) Polite Business-Letter Writer. "The Business Letter-Writer’s Manual,” by C. E. Buck, 8.8. A. (Hurst and Blackett, London; per Ferguson and Osborn); A book for students ana others in business who seek a convenient, practical, and useful reference book when desirous of creating better business letters. There are numerous samples and examples of what not to sav, as well as of what to say. (Price 17s. Gd.) A Peep at Old People and Old Places. ‘‘English Life in the Middle Ages,” by L. F. Salzman (Oxford University Press; per Whitrombe and Tombs). This is an excellently-printed and beautifully illustrated volume. The book shows us that the people of those old days were not unlike their descendants to-dav, in their ways and characters. Edward I, “the hammer of the Scots.” may have been a fine figure of a King, but he was none the less truly kingly as we see him here buying toys for his children and paying forfeit to' the ladies of the Court if they can

catch him in bed on Easter morning. A most readable and instructive volume. (Price 10s.) Another “Wayfarer” Volume.

“A Wayfarer on the Loire,” by E. I. Robson (Methuen, London; per WUitcombe and Tombs). The author tells us that this book is a record of actual wayfarings, and, as this is the third volume of the “Wayfarer” senes written by him, he is no ’prentice hand at the job. The pages are packed with interesting facts concerning the historical and other spots visited. Even if one has never a hope of visiting the places described, it is interesting to read something of the history, the scenery and the modes of living in other lands than those with which one is familiar. But why, in his note anent Ludovic Sforza, does the author quote the words of Tennyson and attribute them to Dante, with never a mention of the former? Dante, true, like many another poet before and since, expressed the same sentiment, but the words quoted are Tennyson’s. (Price 10s.)

Imperial Questions. “The Round Table: A Quarterly Review of the Politics of the British Commonwealth” (MacMillan, London). “The Round Table”, policy is openly and honestly Imperialistic. There is nothing wrong in that, if one could be certain that it would continue to be so only and always in the better sense of the term. The chief articles in the latest issue present several aspects of the relationship of the self-governing States of the Empire one toward the other in dealing with international affairs, and the more acute constitutional questions now being dealt with by the Imperial Conference. These can now be read and compared with the cable reports of the opinions expressed at the conference by the overseas delegates, the Home Government representatives, and with the decisions arrived

at. The closing article deals with the political situation in New Zealand, under the heads “Current Politics,” “The Export Control System,” and “Public Finance," and the relative ’ importance of these in their writer’s eyes may be judged by the space allotted to each: politics two pages, finance four pages, export control eleven pages. The tenor of the article may be judged from the following sentence, near the end: Our present Premier has acquired a reputation for getting things done, but, translated into financial terms, this means spending money with a lavish hand and leaving the consequences to the future. Verily, the Jeremiahs are always with us! LATEST FICTION From" Messrs. Jonathan Cape, London. Six volumes, per Whitcombe and Tombs. “Free Air” and “Mantrap,” both by Sinclair-Lewis. The former is a tale of a motor mechanic, who goes off in a ricketty little car in pursuit of a girl in a Rolls-Royce. The latter is the story of Prescott, a super-culti-vated, ultra-conventional New York lawyer, who is threatened with a nervous breakdown. He goes for a holiday with a friend who is the reverse of refined and a most unsuitable companion for one whose nerves arc “ragged.” When things are getting electrical, Joe Easter, trapper and trader, haps along. Easter is a man’s man, and Prescott and he “hit it.” Glad of the chance, Prescott leaves his companion, and goes with Easter to his wild Canadian home at Mantrap. Joe’s wife, vain of her beauty and her conquests, lays siege to Prescott’s heart. He is only a man, an impressionable man at that. What finally happens the book tells, but it is not what you think. “The Enemies’ Gatfcs,” by R. B. Barrett. The story of a wealthy Jewish family and their associates at Palm Beach. Characterdrawing unique, remorseless, and strikingly individual, even the animals in the story have character. A forceful creation. “Great Waters,” by Vere Hutchinson, and “Rough Hewn,”

by Dorothy Caufield, are reissues of books, both of which have already been favourably reviewed in these columns. “The Grey Coast,” by Neil M. Gunn. Many Scots stories are of the sugar to sugar type and, therefore, “nae kichen.”This lias little trace of sugar, “pink” or other. A story ot the crofters’ hard fight to wring a living from the grudging soil; of a Highland. lass who lived with her old decrepit uncle, a successful bachelor farmer who helped the old man by 'doing a bit of ploughing for him as an obligement, but with an eve on the “lass” as likely to make a sonsie and eident farm-wife. Maggie, iinglamoured by the farmer’s wealth, felt her heart beat faster at the sound of the footfall of Ivor Cormack, the young fisherman, approaching the shieling. This is the best and most distinctive Scots story I have read for a long time. If Neil Gunn can give them more of this standard his brother Scots will be delighted. If he can improve on it his work will be classified not as fiction only, but as literature. From Messrs. Cassell and Co., London. The books in the bundle sent by this well known firm per Ferguson and Osborn) can say with Wordsworth’s cottage girl, “We ire Seven.” “Lola of the Isles,” by D. W. MacArthur. A story of the South Seas, vividly pictured and dramatically told, holding the reader to the passionate close. “The Red Gods Call,” by C. E. Scoggings, has Mexico and revolution for its background. The hero, a native of that one-horse MiddleWestern town, Milo, Indiana, doesn’t need to tell where he belongs. Gee, how he can talk 1 But the story ? The story’s there all right, but it doesn’t matter, it’s the telling of it that gets you -‘One Little Man,” by C. Ward. A story of a good man and a bad woman—of course there was another man of the same type as the woman. “Andrew Beconnoc’s Will,” by Joseph Hocking. Frankly a religious propaganda novel, hut the story' is well told and maintains its interest to the end. “Marazap,” by Nevil Shute. An airman who came through the war with honour goes to the dogs. He comes a crash and has his life saved by an escaped convict. Together they set out to counter a gang of “dope” smugglers —then things happen with a rush. “The Letter ‘E’: A Mystery,” by W. Le Queux. A strange, exciting; tale that holds the reader captive to the last line. “Passing the Love of Women,” by Giusseppe Bianco. The foreign-looking name is clearlv a pen-name.of one familiar with the higher social life of Britain. Written with a confident pen ; the English perfect, often bordering on the brilliant. An entrancing and instructive psychological study. From Messrs. Sampson Low, London. “The Brains of the Family;” by A. J. Rath (per Whitcombe and Tombs). It is a relief to take up a book like this, after a series of mystery and murder, society and sex.. The family—an .American family of four—who get so mixed and complicated, are an. amusing lot. A widower, who has a grown-up daughter, marries a widow, who has a grown-up son. The fun soon becomes fast and furious, and at last the expected does happen, for the widower’s daughter and the' widow’s son determine to do what their parents had done. The story has one laugh—from the first page to the last. “The High Adventure,” by Jeffery Farnol (per Ferguson and Osborn). Who that read “The Broad Highway” can ever miss a new novel by tlie same author? Familiarity with some writers, as with other people and things, breeds contempt; but Farnol is never of that class. For those who like a good ding-dong story, “The High Adventure” was specially written. A complicated plot, a double-dyed-in-the-wool villain', a charming heroine, a sorely beset hero, and several superior supers—all woven with wonderful skill into a telling romance.