A Postscript for “Little Ann”

Southland Times, Issue 24243, 28 September 1940, Page 9

A Postscript for “Little Ann”

LITTLE ANN, AND WHAT TO DO WITH HER. By F. L. Combs. With Drawings by J. F. Kahn. Whitcombe and Tombs, Wellington. Price 3/-. When the gifts of F. L. Combs as an essayist were revealed to New Zealanders in “The Harrowed Toad,” many readers believed that “Little Ann” was the best piece in the collection. It has now been reprinted, together with what the author (who shows the influence of Thomas Carlyle in more .ways than one) would possibly call an “elucidation.” “What To Do With Little Ann” is really an experiment in “pedagogical transcendentalism” (Carlyle again!); it examines the type of education which Mr Combs would like to make available for the commonplace little girls of this world. Some of the generalizations are wise; others are fanciful: all are touched with the kindliness which is the basic quality of the author’s work. It must remain a matter of opinion, however, whether or not this second essay should have been linked to the earlier one. “Little Ann” stands better alone, as a figure of pathos. Like all works of art, the essay provides its own explanations, and can be annotated most effectively by the appreciative reader. The magic fades in the colder light of theory.