BOOKS REVIEWED.

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 115, 5 August 1927, Page 14

BOOKS REVIEWED.

ARLEN. THE vexing thing about Mr Michael Arlen is that he has to be taken seriously. He has not yet written a good book, but persists in writing books which force the unwilling admission that he could write a good one, and inspire the reluctant hope that next time he will do it. Why is this vexatious? Why the unwilling admission? Why the reluctant hope? Because the Arlen qualities which live nearest the surface and give it its peculiar character are precisely those which it would be a hearty satisfaction to sum him up by and kick him downstairs for. Metaphorically. But every now and again the glossy surface is stirred from unsuspected deeps: Mr Arlen betrays himself. He betrays his knowledge that there is more in the world than worldliness, that high-life is not life: that there are nine ctnor cczamanamnets to break and even to obey, that there is a wisdom which is not wit, that there is a difference between knowledge and being knowing, that there is a difference between effective writing and writing for effect. Mr Arlen’s new book, “Young Men in Love,” gives him away in this tantalising and promising fashion oftener and more definitely than any other of his books. It Is hTs nearest approach to a considerable novel, as distinct from a Mayfair penny peep-show. Curiously enough, it has not been as effusively greeted in England as Mr

Arlen’s generally are. Yet in the tale of Venetia, who loved Serle (did she?) and Savile (she did), and mar ried Raphael (why?), and Ysabel Fuller, who loved anybody (why not?) and married Savile (oh, the idiot!), and all the other lovers, young and old, Mr Arlen shows that he can still do all the things for which he has been admired and that he may yet do things much more admirable. “Young Men in Love.” Michael Arlen. Hutchinson and Co. The Charm of Sydney If forty men with forty pots painted for half a year, to misquote Lewis Carroll, they would not express fully the charm of Sydney, that flamboyant beauty flaunting her charms beside the blue waters of a harbour of which the whole world has heard (thanks chiefly to the good Sydneysiders, who can teach their American cousins something when it comes to boosting). “Art in Australia" has produced a special Sydney number and has captured for us the atmosphere of a fascinating city—one of the few south of the line to exercise a Lorelei call for the seasoned traveller. Elioth Gruner gives us the sapphire glory that is Mosman Bay; Arthur Streeton, the harbour from Point Piper; Blamire Young, Miller’s Point with its quaint jumble of buildings. These are reproductions in colour. Adrian Feint is represented by a woodcut of Old Milson’s Point, and there are excellent reproductions of etchings by E. Warner, Harold Herbert, Will Ashton, B. E. Minns, Norman Carter, Sydney Ure Smith, Lindsay and Roi de Mestre. Some wonderful studies by Cazneaux, master-photo-grapher, have been included. Here and there, the poets have been called upon to chant a stave in praise of Sydney’s charm. Most of them* have sung old songs—“by request”—and we notice among the contributors, Dorothy Frances Perry, whose name will be familiar to SUN readers. The Sydney Number makes us impatient for the Melbourne one, which is promised by the editors. “Art in Australia.” Art in Australia, Ltd., 24 Bond Street, Sydney. Our copy from the publishers. A Story for Girls From the pen of L. M. Montgomery, of “Anne of Green Gables” fame, comes another book of the Emily series, wherein the young authoress at New Moon wins her dreamed-of laurels, and incidentally brings happiness to the Disappointed House. It is a fresh, breezy story of young ideals and young love. “Emily’s Quest," it is safe to predict, will find its place on the bookshelves of countless young lovers of this author’s work. “Emily’s Quest.” —Our copy comes from Angus and Robertson. An Ernest Raymond Novel As the theme of Ernest Raymond’s latest novel, “Morris in the Dance,” is theatrical, it seems only natural that he should give it theatrical treatment. Mr. Raymond first courted fame with “Tell England”; he has not yet successfully won her, though “Morris in the Dance” is a definite break from his previous style. It is a curious mixture of psycho-analysis, love and mystery, and one feels that, in part, it is autobiographical. Morris grows up in drab surroundings, an illegitimate, though he does not know it until years later. Hopeless as a scholar, he cherishes a secret ambition to become a producer of plays. From a humble position in an English provincial store he gradually develops his gifts and spends his savings in forming a repertory company, producing intellectual plays. But the town is not large enough to accept Morris or his desire for intellectual stage fare. A young Russian dancer, Fedora, joins the company. She and Morris accidentally spend the night together in the theatre. Madame Scandal stalks abroad and failure follows. Then Morris and his dancer make another start as a danc-

ing act, touring the provinces. Once more failure overtakes them—this time the death of Fedora. There are many other characters, mostly the members of Morris’s ill-fated family, but all brilliantly drawn. Mr. Raymond has written in a sombre skilfully at times, but he has allowed sentiment to overtake him in the final chapters. Otherwise it is an excellent novel, and obviously an attempt to show the farreaching consequences of “the sins of the fathers . . .” “Morris and the Dance,” Cassel and Company, Ltd., London. Our copy from Whitcombe and Tombs, Auckland. The Mocking Chevalier Foreign Legions are at present in the fashion, and fortunate indeed is the novelist or scenario writer whose experience enables him to select, with some degree of certainty such a romantic setting for a story. In “The Mocking Chevalier,” Mr. A. G. Hales

has broken very much the same type of ground as Mr. Christopher Wren, only in a different field. This time it is the Spanish Foreign Legion, the Riff war of a year or so ago opportunely providing a good excuse for the necessary guerilla atmosphere, which, despite the demands of modern scientific warfare, must still continue to exist if only for the sake of the novelist. With the hero we can find no fault. He is a typical English youngster, “clean - limbed, - lanternjawed and true to type.” He is also a Heathercot, which seems to convey some further description of the type. When the family honour is sullied he naturally has to rectify the matter by reviving the now obsolate method of killing his man. Mr. Wren, for the time being having closed the door to the French Foreign Legion as an avenue of escape, he has only one recourse left—the Spanish Foreign Legion. On this subject Mr. Hales is evidently very much at home, and the reader is easily led hand-in-hand with Terry Heathercot through adventures innumerable. There is also the daughter of a sheik to add piquancy to the story. The author of the McGlusky series, “Rory O’Moore” and other stories, has constructed a very entertaining tale. “The Mocking Chevalier.” Mr. A. G. Hales. Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton. Our copy from the Australian agents.