"GUEDALLAISMS"

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 138, 7 December 1929, Page 21

"GUEDALLAISMS"

PROSE USED AS A PENCIL

'The Missing Muse" ana Other Essays. By Philip Guedalla. London: Hodder and Stoughton.

"Nothing is too ephemeral for an essay," according to Mr. Guedalla, and ho supports that opinion in a witty preface to some thirty-odd random sketches (as ho calls them) made with prose as a pencil. His subjects are as varied as his similes, and his treatment of them is crisp and scholarly. His extremely wide range of reading is apparent in these essays, and he makes effective use of his literary allusions and references. His preface is modelled on the conversational lines sometimes adopted by George Moore, as admirers of that writer's work will perceive. If Philip Guedalla makes fun of his literary contemporaries and their work and of the modes and manner of our times; if he belabours, politicians or polities at all it is done with the bladder of the jester. His writing has the appearance of spontaneity that ho would like it to wear. It is by no means "dashed off," but rather is the result of careful thought, penetrating insight, and close observation of men and things. There is no trace of envy, hatred, or uncharitableness to be found in any of 'he essays or sketches, call them what one may. The modern novel, a great boxing match at the Royal Albert Hall, Bournville, the cinema, and tho "The Silly Season" are among the subjects drawn with astonishing economy iv line; and his lightning portrait sketches include prose pencillings of Lady Astor, Lord Haltlano, Mr. Winston Churchill, the late P. T. Barnum, and Hilairo Belloc. It is easy to succumb to quotation from Mr. Guedalla, entertaining himself, perhaps, as much .as his readers in these his essays. In doing so no apology is offered, and a few examples follow:— When his reader is set dreaming of the past, the historian has dono his work, if only the dreara bo true. For then temps perdu has become temps retrouve, and the quest is ended. Ao one foresees any more freely in politics than on a racecourse. Of Lord Haldano: Ode seems to sco him (Lord. Haldane) nodding still—bland, imperturbable, and omniscient—tho very Imago of a clnna mandarin. Liberals, however little addicted to extremes ln°Srs S' 3re stranßly tolerant of extremes "' *Ir- v' ins!on Churchill: He is still a solitary. The silhouette- comes up asrainst thp sky. The deep background E lows behind tSe buccaneer, eternally superb upon his deck— or is it someone else's? •X £&**& Stcn^uVhlffem'^ |=|S^^^,erst^ vs Wwl?h 8«^ B 'If anlatcur diplomats chastised Syncs '" ° ecouoralsts chastise us with toKJL 'wlcSVlty f r /^-S-o n s No matter what Mr. Guedalla may leave his readers'to infer from his re marks on the essay, this collection of has miscellaneous writings is to bo regarded as more than the diver sions of the historian who wrote "The Second Empire," "Gladstone," and "Palmerston." '