Rapid Reviews.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 14, 9 June 1911, Page 13

Rapid Reviews.

Three Worth-While Books

By UPTON SINCLAIR.

Perhaps the most important symptom of the progress of Socialism in America is the flood of Socialist books which are pouring from the presses nowadays— books written by native-born Americans, and dealing with American questions from American points of view. Not the least important among these are the ■works of fiction, for the novel lias nowadays becomo a battlefield, where tho qxiestions of the time are fought out. Personally, I think a good Socialist novel is the best tool one can use to open the minds of the average non-Socialist, and so I watch with interest the appearance of Socialist or semi-Socialist fiction— euch books as, for instance, Pv. Herrick's " A Life for a Life " and Kauffmann's

" The House of Bondage." Two new novels lie before mc, both of them written by Socialists, one by an American — " The Chasm," by George Gram Cook ; and " The New Machiavelli," by H. G. Wells. *' The Chasm." " The Chasm " is a first novel by a man •whoso name I have never heard before. By the " chasm " he means the class conflict. He has chosen as the characters to illustrate his theme the daughter of a great trust magnate in the Middle West and a young Socialist workingman, who falls in lovo with her. This is, perhaps, the most obvious of all the themes which Socialist writers have attempted to use. I could name offhand a dozen novels •which I have read in which the idea has been used, and all these nov*els have failed for one of two reasons—either tho ■writer is a Socialist, knowing the Socialist philosophy thoroughly, but knowing very little about the daughters of capitalists ; or, on the other hand, he is a conventional literary man, knowing the conventional capitalist's v daughter, but unable to portray a working class fighter except as a caricature. .When I picked up this novel I was wondering which of the two traps Mr. Cook would fall into ; it was with delight that I found myself coming to realise that he was not going to fall, into either. It is something worth hailing in the Socialist movement that •we have a writer who "belongs to the party who knows the Socialist philosophy thoroughly, and who, at the same time, is a novelist, and knows other aspects of life. This writer is a man of ideas ; liis characters argue the questions of the J_our, but they argue them -with brilliancy and passion, and you are interested not merely in the ideas, but in the people who set then- forth.

Mr Cook introduces his heroine coming home from Rome, -where she has become engaged to a Russian count. In her father's conservatory she gets into a chance conversation with the young gardener, who little by little opens her eyes to a new philosophy of life. In the end she finds herself falling in love with him, and she has to choose between him and the count, -who is a prophet of the dispensation of Nietzsche. She chooses the count, and the second half of the book has its scene in Russia, where tho count is a member of the Dourna, swaying uncertainly between Liberalism and reaction —unable to choose because of his fear of the Socialists.

This part of the book is one of tho most absorbingly interesting stories it ha 3 ever been my fortune to read ; in fact, I think it has been years since I have read a novel with such complete, and even painful, enthralment. Tho new countess finds herself drawn step by step into sympathy with the revolutionary movement in Russia. The image of Walt Bradfield is always before her, and his ideas are always haunting her mind. Little by little she discovers the futility of her husband's philosophy, and the hoplessness of Ins attitude, both toward Russian society and toward herself. The Russian terror closes its grip about her heart.

I will not spoil the reader's enjoyment ©f the story by telling -what happens to, her. Suffice it to say that the incidents, while sensational and even melodramatic, take hold of you because you believe in ©very one of the characters ; and that, in the end, when the countess and Walt Bradfield make their escape from Russia, you realise that the daughter of the trust magnate has become a revolutionist for life. And if you want to make revolutionists for life out of the novel readers you know, I advise you to get them to read " The Chasm." It is a real event for the cause -when a book like this is published, and Socialists can help to make ■uch events more frequent by taking advantage of their opportunity. Let mc assure you that those in New York who decide what books shall bo published and what books shall not be published

will not fail to observe tho signs which you give them. If the publishers know that whenever they discover and produce a worthwhile Socialist book, there are thousands of men all over the country who will buy it. and boom it, there will be more and more Socialist books published every season: '* The New Machiavelli." The above novel is by a new writer ; the other is by an old hand, a man whom I personally consider the greatest of English living writers of fiction, H. G. Wells. " The New Machiavelli," I believe, is his masterpiece, ono of the most powerful of English novels. It can be called a Socialist novel, provided that the word is understood in its broadest sense ; it is an appeal for sex freedom rather than for economic freedom, but, incidentally, it takes into its view the whole of tbe modern movement for the emancipation of thought. It is a tremendous and moving piece of work, and its publication is a great event in English literature. lam willing to risk the prophecy that it will be the most talked-of novel of the present season.

" Tho New Machiavelli " recites in elaborate and comprehensive detail the life story of a. rising young university man who goes into public life. He comes into contact with all the various forces which are struggling in English society at the present time, and ultimately becomes the founder of a movement for the advocacy of social reform w T ithin the Conservative party. He becomes a member of Parliament, and is well on the way toward a Cabinet position, when his career is wrecked upon tha rocks of our present-day marriage conventions. We have had such cases, both in this country and in England, but here, for the first

time, -wo see the story from the inside. We see the man's marriage, and understand the causes of its growing unhappiness ; we meet the second woman, who proves to be —our " yellow " papers have made the word " affinity " almost unusable, but there is no other -word that can be substituted. Wells' purpose is to assert the dignity and nobility of true passion, to vindicate its rights, and to set forth its meaning in the scheme of nature. The epoch-making quality of his novel lies just here ; that one follows the story, step by step, and is irresistibly moved to understand and to sympathise. The latter part of the book is simply terrific. It gathers head-way and moves like an avalanche ; it has the inevitability and the tragic power of one of the old Greek dramas. Wo see the man fling his career to the -winds, and turn his back upon England, with its Philistinism and its Pharisaism, going away "with the woman of his love. Some eminent English Bishop is on record as having said that he would -rather inoculate his daughter with smallpox germs than have her read " Ann Veronica." I shall wait with interest to hear -what assortment of diseases the bishop will select to express his disapproval of '* The New Machiavelli." War —What For ? After a person has been in the Socialist movement for a certain time ho comes to feel that he has got the subject settled and that he -won't read any more propaganda. I have found myself feeling that about Socialist books, and so when I read interesting reviews about Kirkpatrick's book, " War—What for ?" I said to myself, " I know everything about war." But ours is a living movement, and you can. never tell "what will happen in it next, ■what new thing the power and passion of tho Socialist imptilse -will develop. I happened to pick up this book by chance, and I read it -with astonishment. It is ono of the most extraordinary pieces of Socialist propaganda that has ever come to my attention, and I feel it my to ask space in the Appeal to call the attention of the comrades to it.

Take my advice about this book and get it. Get it, even if you have to do a hard day's work on purpose j even if you have to go without a glass of beer every day for two or three weeks. Get it, and when you have read it, pass it around among everybody you know and get them to read it. A copy of this ought to be in the library of every Socialist local in the country, at ought to be in every

public library. Extracts from it ought to be read and discussed at meetings of labour unions and at other public gatherings. It is a most extraordinary book ; it is a perfect encyclopedia of Socialist material, the most effective material that can be imagined and presented with extraordinary fire and conviction. How a workingman or workingwoman can read it and not become a Socialist, I cannot conceive. Even though ho might be and might remain an opponent of Socialist theories, he would be made to understand and to thrill with the Socialist impulse.

When I was new in the Socialist movement, I read Blatchford's " Merrio England " and Bellamy's " Looking Backward." Each of these books has sold in the millions. I believe if I had read Kirkpatriek's book in those days, it would have moved and thrilled mo even more. Quite recently I saw an advertisement of the book in the " New York Call," stating that something like 13,000 copies had been sold so far. This is an extraordinary achievement for a book published by the author ; but if the work affects everybody the way it affects mc, the 13,000 will soon be 130,000. The book is published at West Lafayette, Ohio, and the price is $1.20 Can you not give us a paper edition, Comrade Kirkpatrick, so that we can circulate it more rapidly ?