HOLIDAY BOOKS

Evening Star, Issue 22460, 3 October 1936, Page 23

HOLIDAY BOOKS

Hugh Walpole, in a letter to ‘The Times/ writes thus happily on the subjecf of ‘ Holiday Books ’ One ot the best of English prose writers said on an occasion that “ When a new book comes out I read an old one.” To-day there are two schools of opinion. One (often youthful) declares that very few of the older English writers are worth the reading. The other •'(middle-aged to elderly) finds little to admire in our contemporaries. I have found for manv years that a fitting juxtaposition or the old and the new makes for much profit and pleasure. For example, after Mrs Woolf’s ‘ Mrs Dalloway ’ I suggest Miss Austen’s ‘ Pride and Prejudice. It will he found that both ladies have their permanent virtues. After Mr Huxley’s ‘ Eyeless in Gaza, Swift s 1 Tale of a Tub ’ is most instructive. Miss de la Roche’s ‘ Jalna ’ stones are no mean companions to the ‘ Barchester ’ Trollope’s, and Mr Kipps is on excellent terms with Mr Micawher. Professor Trevelyan’s ‘ Blenheim can liold its own with his great-uncle’s magnificent chapters on the Irish wars. Hr Donne does not look unkindly on Mr T. S. Eliot. Beddoe’s ‘ Jest Book can give a new colour to Mr Auden. Even (a small gift worth 3d for Mr Shaw’s eightieth birthday) ‘ Saint Joan ’ need not bow her head before Henry \ .