Books Reviewed

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 845, 13 December 1929, Page 16

Books Reviewed

WHERE IS CLIO? 'jJMIE Muse of History has been reported missing. Clio has vanished from the haunts of man. Who says so? None other than Philip Guedalla. Emir of Epigrammatists, who should know. if anyone does, for he has been on extremely friendly terms with the lady. He records her absence—a temporary one. we all hope—in a foreword which gives the title to his new book of essays. “The Missing Muse.” The book divides itself into three—- “ Period Pieces,” “Life Studies,” and “Critical.” In the first section is a gem-like essay in which the giants of an earlier age are seen through modern eyes. It is “In the Key of Yellow,” and is Guedalla at his best: How to evoke them from the shadows? the charm is fin de siicle. Murmur it softly to yourself, and soon they come —a mist of shadowy young- men with longish hair and shortish poems. The Tames have almost faded. Fainter than JJeowulf, one catches the once-modish syllables—Dowson, Crackenthorpe, Davidson, Wratislaw, Le Gallienne. Lie lightly »>n them, dust; for lying lightly was their forte. In the Life Studies are portraits, | brilliantly whimsical. There is a per- : fectly joyous essay, “Hilaire Belloc, j a Panorama, * in which Mr. Guedalia points out that Belloc is a collective but scarcely a generic noun, and pro-j

cceds to review a whole army of Bellocs as they march gaily by. Lady Astor, Winston Churchill. P. T. Barnum, George Cadbury, and "Jix” are among the sitters. There is diverting reading, too, in the third section, notably the essay on the spate of novels that emerges each year from the presses, greater than a “Missis-

sippi flood, on the surface of which Mr. Michael Arlen rides a coronet, while Miss Sheila Kaye-Smith swirls past clinging bravely to a hencoop.” When the occasion demands it, Mr. Guedaila can write most magnificent prose pictures. Two of them will always remain vivid memories with us—one in “Independence Dasq” describing the death of crazy old George III.; the other a glimpse of Fez. In this hook he is witty and incisive, and, as usual, refreshingly original. “The Missing Muse.” And Other Essays. Hodder and Stoughton, Ltd., London and Sydney. Our copy from the publishers’ Sydney representative, Mr. W. S. Smart. “The Immortal Tinker” “Every one of us must know something of ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress,’ ‘Grace Abounding’ and ‘The Holy War’ if we would know John Bunyan or would be counted among those who value the noblest things the world has—its imperishable books.” So writes'the indefatigable and gifted Mr. Arthur Mee in a preface to “The Children’s John Bunyan,” a companion book to that excellent production “One Thousand Beautiful Things,” with a colour frontispiece and 70 pictures in gravure. The great allegory “Pilgrim’s Progress” has been translated into almost every European language and, next to the Bible, is probably the best known book in the world. Many years ago, writing of Bunyan, Benjamin Franklin said: “Honest John was the first that I knew of who mix’d narration and dialogue; a method of writing very engaging to the reader who, in the most interesting parts, finds himseif, as it were, brought into the company and present at the discourse.” And those “most interesting parts” have been selected by Mr. Mee in his abridged version of “The Progress.” Here, too, in addition to “Grace Abounding” and “The Holy War,” are “Rhymes, Sayings and Stories”; fragments chosen from Bunyan’s prodigious output. Bunyan’s story of his imprisonment and an adequate biography complete a volume that should make an ideal gift for the thoughtful youngster. “The Children’s John Bunyan.” Hodder and Stoughton, Ltd.. London and Sydney. Our copy from the publishers’ Sydney representative, Mr. W. S. Smart. Fable and Fact Caterpillar ladders, stick insects obligingly converting themselves into racehorses for fairy princes, a praying mantis outwitting dragons and bluffing them into becoming flies— these and a hundred and one other oddities of the insect world go to make up “Fairy Tales from New Zealand,” where science and fable are so cleverly interwoven that one wanders from chapter to chapter through a world of fantasy, yet pausing u at regular intervals on the stepping-stones of fact. At the end

of the fairy tale the stick insect is labelled in an appropriate paragraph I as a lifeless-looking creature that con- ! ceals his identity by assuming the pati tern of any convenient twig, but the i memory of his guise as an enchanted racehorse lingers. Then there is Flit, the fantail, who knows all about fairies; pukekos and wagtails that hold contests in tailwagging. bitterns that stand sentinel among the raupo, Captain Spur, a dignified weta who guards the interests of the Fairy Queen, and little brown, beady-eyed lizards that scurry off at the least suggestion of danger, absently shedding their tails as souvenirs. Full of charm is this book for children from the pen of a well-known Aucklander, Miss Annie B. Vaile, with a foreword by Mr. Gilbert Archey, curator of the Auckland Museum. Attractively illustrated and issued by an English publishing house, “Fairy Tales from New Zealand” will bring delight to all little people who seek familiarity with creatures of strange ways and many legs, and those airy provinces of make-believe where even talking birds and caterpillar ladders are possible. “Fairy Tales from New Zealand,” by Annie B. Vaile, published by Simpkin Marshall, Limited, London. Our copy comes from the author. A Peer's Notebook A welcome addition to Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton’s Christmas list is a popular edition of the late Lord Edward Cecil’s light and breezy memoirs, “The Leisure of an Egyptian Official.’’ This sheerly delightful group of random sketches —the personal notebook of a hard-working peer i written originally for the amusement !

of his friends, but posthumously offered to an eager public—places Lord Cecil among the most successful of titled literary excursionists. Possessing a rare and infectious sense of humour he employed it to the fullest in his cunningly simple sidelights on the work-a-day experiences of British high officials at Cairo during his IS years of Egyptian diplomatic expedience. A shrewd observer of men and affairs, he wrote with a frankness that lends an often sarcastic, though never hitter, vigour to his leisured vignettes He portrays character and describes incidents, many deliciously funny, with the clean incisive style of your cultured Englishman—brilliant if a little intolerant; sometimes impatient of shams, but always in the best of taste. Lord Cecil's all-too-brief memoirs will live, and the new edition should widen tremendously an already extensive circle of admirers. “The Leisure of an Egyptian Official.” Hodder and Stoughton, Ltd., London and Sydney. Our copy from the publishers’ Sydney representative, Mr. W. S. Smart. Australians Abroad. “Walks Abroad” is the record of the experiences of “two Australians in the Wilds of the United Kingdom.” It is by Mr. S. Elliott Napier who, not so long ago, produced an entertaining book, “On the Barrier Reef,” in which he described himself as a no-ologist. Mr. Napier has a very effective lighthumorous style. He and his friend traversed familiar territory—Winchester, Amesbury, Exeter, Stratford, London, Salisbury, Edinburg, Dublin; mellowed and historic towns and cities that have been described by scores of writers, but he manages to give us something new—a fresh viewpoint perhaps, using “fresh” in the English and also the American sense. This is a breezy narrative of the adventures of two likeable “diggers.” We hear of “Don,” the second figure of the twain, only through the narrator, but there must have been some humour in a young man who would describe an old English castle as un petit rnorceau de tout droit! A jolly book, this, well worthy of a place on the library shelves. “Walks Abroad.” Angus and Robertson, Ltd., Sydney. Our copy from the publishers.

Windjammer Days. Its title happily borrowed from one of the best-known sea chanteys, “Blow the Man Down” is as breezy a yarn of the windjammer days as its name promises—but it is far from being a stereotyped “romance of the season.” The central figure is a girl of the streets who, for the time being tired of her life, stows away aboard a sailing-ship and when discovered is put to work waiting on the captain’s table. She becomes an object of interest to the second mate, who wants to marry her; to the mate, who doesn’t; and to a rather dreamy youth who is a passenger for the sake of his health. The three-months’ voyage from London to Calcutta provides scope for the development of a gripping story against the colourful background of the sea as the “shellbacks” of the ’eighties knew it —the fogs of the Channel, the fair weather of the Trades, the calms and squalls of the Doldrums, the great westerly gales and marching seas of the “Roaring Forties.” The end of the tale is inevitable, one realises: its course as inexorable as the sea itself; and it is told with the understanding of human frailties and the appreciation of character that one would exing him so far and leaving him groppect of a man who sailed in his youth before the mast, made and lost two fortunes ashore, turned his hand to writing, and has become a successful author, playwright and theatrical producer. He is Thomas W. Broadhurst, and his book is an excellent addition to Hurst and Blackett’s Orange Library. “Blow the Man Down.” Thomas W. Broadhurst, Able Seaman. Hurst and Blackett, Ltd., London. Our copy from the publishers. A Socialist Looks At Bolshevism. "We, the Russian Socialists, are bitterly opposed to the Soviet regime . . . we are convinced that the Bolsheviks are the worst enemies of the Russian working classes — . . . we consider the policy the Soviets are pursuing to be most detrimental to the interests of the Russian people and the International Labour Movement,” writes Anatole Baikaloff in this critical survey of labour and social conditions in Soviet Russia to-day. It looks at Bolshevism from a new angle—and the view presented is not an attractive one. One cannot think that a Socialist, and especially a Russian Socialist who was 12 times arrested by the Tsarist police, and finally sent to prison in Siberia—one cannot think that such a man is biased against the Soviets. Therefore his criticism ought to carry added weight. This is a heavy book; but the several chapters deal with separate divisions of the subject, and political students will find it well worth attention. “In Ihe Land of Communist Dictatorship.” Anatole V. Baikaloff. Jonathan Cape. Out copy from the publishers. In Borrowed Shoes Uncommonly interesting both as a romantic modern story and as a character analysis in contrasting phases, Isabel M. Cluett’s' “Waif’s Progress” is one of the best things she has given to a big and appreciative gallery of admirers. We know Mrs. Cluett best as “Isabel Maud Peacocke,” an Aucklander who has made a number of delightful contributions in light fiction for youngsters. Her newest story is decidedly more ambitious, strengthened as she is by wider experience and the fruits of discerning observation in varying social strata of London, the city to which her tale

1 is dedicated. “Waif’s Progress” is | the clever study of a girl of the lower I middle class whose ambition is spurred : by the necessity of providing for a sick 1 room-mate. By a subterfuge she gains access to an aristocratic home, only to ;be unmasked and disgraced. The progress of Vivienne the waif is ! cleverly traced, and the conflict of her ’ ambition with her inborn preference j for people of her own type carries one : on with swift expectancy until the last j scene. The earlier chapters of the story are especially successful but an j even standard of narrative and porI traiture is maintained throughout. ! Mrs. Cluett prefaces her new novel 1 with a defence of the principle that a j “real” story cannot always be “pretty 1 and nice,” but the defence is unneces- j sary. She has handled her subject adequately and well. “Waif’s Progress,” by Isabel M. Cluett. : IToclder and Stoughton Limited, London. Our copy from the publisher's Sydney agent, Air. W. S. Smart. Mr Murry And God. “This is a queer book,” frankly admits Mr J. Middleton Murry in his j preface to “God.” It is. Written out of the author’s personal experiences—spiritual experiences, if we care to call them that —it is confusing to the reader who has not passed through the fire similarly; it is all the while taking. Mr Murry claims to have recon-

ciled science and religion” and by neither violence or vagueness,” albeit his reconciliation is “so thorough that perhaps neither of them will like it.” His root idea is still that which inspired “The Life of Jesus,” only here the theme, is carried further, and Mr Murry’s theological reasoning races forward at such a speed that the struggling layman with a mental background of orthodoxy is outstripped. An anticipation of which probability no doubt prompts the closing sentences: “If I am mad, I am mad in a new way. That is something. Further, if my madness should prove to be catching enough, it will ultimately be sane.” In the long autobiographical introduction, the reader is brought close to the saddening last months of Katherine Mansfield’s life. “God,” being an introduction to the science of metabiology. John Middleton Murry. Jonathan Cape. Our copy from the publishers. Detective-Philosopher Scots shrewdness gave John McLean the necessary foundation for his ability as a C.I.D. man of Scotland Yard; years of experience among criminals, with observations of the workings of human minds, permitted him to develop a distinctive philosophy. In “McLean of Scotland Yard,” George Goodchild has written a vclume of stories which commend themselves as gripping accounts of detective work. McLean, the detective, is revealed as an unusual person. The author has created an interesting figure and has introduced varied criminal types into his work. He has shown care in the presentation of psychological material, but the attraction of the book is actually in the ease of the writing and the cleverness of the subjects. There is a sinister underworld leader, Dr. Fingal, who

causes McLean and his assistant, Brook, extraordinary trouble. The climax is one which must have appealed to the whimsical side of the philosophic McLean. “McLean of Scotland Yard,” by George Goodchild. I-fodder and Stoughton, Ltd., London. Our copy from Mr. W. S. Smart Sydney.