BOOKS AND WRITERS

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20257, 28 July 1937, Page 11

BOOKS AND WRITERS

COMMENTS AND EXTRACTS. “I’do not think children ought to say to their mothers “0.K., baby.”—Miss Fox, Headmistress, Beckenham County School.

THE CORONATION. BERNARD SHAW’S CRITICISM. 1000-YEAR-OLD TOMFOOLERIES. Bernard Shaw, In a letter to “Time and Tide,” declared that he would renounce fifty limited monarchies sooner

nounce fifty limited monarchies sooner than endure the ••thousand-year-old tomfooleries of the Coronation.” He proposes that a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Royal Personages should be instituted. BOOK BY A NUN. ‘ BROTHER PETROC'S RETURN.” REVIVED AFTER 400 YEARS. The strange and enthralling tale which is published as “ Brother Petroc’s Return ” bears on the title page the initials S.M.C. They conceal the identity of the author, a Dominican nun. Anonymity is imposed upon her by the rules of her Order: The publishers were quick to recognise the charm, freshness and unusual merit of this unfashionably short novel, the manuscript/of which reached them out of the blue. It has been selected with as little hesitation as our book of the month, says the London Daily Mail. The authoress bases her story of monastic life on a startling hypothesis which she claims is ‘‘not at all impossible in the universe to which it belongs.” She assumes the suspension of vital functions for close on four hundred years. Her hero, a monk, awakes about 1930 from a trance into which he fell in 1549. His fellow monks, believing hkn dead, buried Brother Petroo hastily in the choir of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Brioc, perched on a high, bleak headland of the Cornish coast. Four Hundred Years Later. A few hours later they fled before the attack of King Edward NTs soldiers, and all perished at sea. Nearly 400 years later the English Benedictines bought the ruined and deserted monastery and adapted it to modern needs. It was found necessary to disturb an old grave In the choir which, when opened, disclosed to the amazed beholders the body of a young monk, faintly breathing. His eyes flicker, and presently there comes from his lips a faint murmur. For hours the Abbot and the SubPrior, a former doctor, labour to preserve and strengthen the faint vital spark. Rv next d;i> u bewildered I yoiwig man of ‘.’7. spare, small and 1 supple, \'ilh set mouth and brilliant,

keen eyes, in a half-unearthly face, awakes in a world grown older by 400 years. The author of this tale is a natural story-teller. She has clarity of mind and 'a strong sense of humour. But she is not a practised novelist, and the concerns of contemporary Action are not her concerns. Bworn 10 Silence. Her acute-, .unsentimental gaze is

directed towards the religious life. | During Hie 15 months which Brother ! Petroe survives in a woVld which he i finds uncomfortable and perplexing, he seldom leaves the monastery. The little community is 'sworn to j silence. No word of Brother IVi nr. ! passes Ihe w ills. “Thank God.” says' the Abbot. Ilial, i .11 this extra..rdinarv and diflloull situ a lion we have to deal with a vnunff man blessed xuLJi ucnes

Twentieth-century neurasthenia would never stand it.” But the Sub-Prior refuses to lay any strain on an Elizabethan heart. Brother Petroo ages rapidly. He Is separated from his human Interests by a gap of 400 years, and outward happenings make’very little odds to him. In his loneliness and failure to oomprehend or , make contact with modern life he cries bitterly: ‘‘Your mode of life, your thoughts, and your motives are beyond my ken; neither i can you undertsand me.” GREAT LOVE LETTERS. ! “ALL THINGS TO ME.” KEATS, BEETHOVEN, NAPOLEON. Great love cries loud in the heart t for great expression. Listen to the

great lovers of the past—- • You are all things to me . . . instead of alt and better than all,” wrote Elizabeth Barrett to Robert. Browning. "[ can see nothing bevond you. nor wish to see it. Here is John Keats. “within fliree years of dying, writing to his “dearest Girl,” Fann\ Rrawnr "My love' has made me selfish. I cannot exisf wDy-'R >ou. f am for *et f "' nr ever\ \|:,i;; LmL SCCiUff YOU •

again—my Life seems to stop there— 1 I see no further. You have absorbed S . me . . . My Sweet Fanny, will ( your heart never change? My love, t will It? ... I could die for you. ’ My Creed Is Love and you are Its only tenet. You have ravish'd me away by « a Power I cannot resist. . . . 1 * cannot breathe without you. ...*•] J Napoleon Wrote — j Napoleon pauses in his roaring like ' a lion over Europe to speak in the tenderest accents to his adored Jose- . phine—"Before T understand love," he tells . her, "I could contemplate with calm ■. the possibility of the direst misfor- \ tunes, but now the fear that my , Josephine may be ill, or the mournful j though that her love for me may dim- . inish, withers my soul, makes my . blood to cease to flow, and leaves me without even the courage of fury or ; despair.” From Beethoven. The master-musicians have added much to the literature of love. Here is a sample of Beethoven's loveletter writing—- " Before 1 was up my thoughts flew to you, my everlasting beloved; 1 cannot exist unless I am absolutely yours. . . . I have resolved to wander about at a distance until I can flee to your arms. . . AUTHORS AND NAMEB. HOW THEY GET THEM. FROM THE AGONY COLUMN. Mr Chitterlow, the actor-playwright ef H. G. Wells's "Kipps," got the name ' Kipps” for a character In his play from the agony column of a newspaper, and thus brought fame and fortune to Arthur Kipps himself. That is one way of getting names for bookpeople. Other authors turn for inspiration to tlie telephone directory. Our great men of ihe past often took inanimate object ax connected with callings—as Captain Oakum of "Tobias Smollett,” or names of suggestion—as the Bob Sawyer for a medical student of Dickens and the Sir Benjamin Backbite of Sheridan, to distinguish their characters. Apparently the choice of names has always been a .source of trouble, more or less. It can also be a source of danger through an unintentional use of the name of a living person, followed by court proceedings. HAMILTON LIBRARY. NEW BOOKS ADDED. The following new books have been added to the Hamilton Public Library; General Literature—" Arctic Journeys’’ (Edward Sharkleton), "The | Valleys of Ihe Assassins ’ (Freyda 1 Stark . 1 Visit the Antipodes ’ Cherrv I Hearto n . "Th* Nile in Egypt," \oi. If. Emil Ludwig . • Revisiting Mv Pygmy Hosts” (Paul rchebesta . 'The Worst .Tourney in Ihe World” \. Gherry-Garrard». "The Face of France” (Harry .!. Greenmail . -\D Rig Gam* Hunting Diary” Count lien r 'k -Npponji . r ran Spain” Reru-nd N ex'man . "TJis. Jipeclre. £iL

Ism" (Henry Gibbs), “Great Cases of Sir Henry Curtis Bennett* (Edward Grioe), “Soviet Russia Fights. Crime” (Lenka von Koerber). “The Way to Live In Health and Fitness” (George Hackensohmidt), “An American Angler in Australia" (7. ane Grey), “Bedrock Principles of Golf” W. W. Lowe), “Badminton for All” i.r. F. Devlin), "Mutiny at Sea” (H. 1.. Hadfleld), “The Destiny of France” (Alexander Werfh . “The I - (Bertram Thomas), “Russian Hazard" (Dorian Blair), “Four Hundred Million Customers” (Carl Crow), "The Far East Comes Nearer" (Hessell Tiltman . "The Honourable Company” (Douglas Mackay), "The Negro Question in the United States” (J. S. Allen), "A Rustic Moralist” (Dean Inge), "Lady in Blue” (Commandant Mary Allen), “Charles Dickens” (T. A. Jackson). "Edward VIII., Duko of Windsor” J

I 'Basil* Maine), “Three Lives —And , Now” (Stephen Foot), "Ralph Fox: A Writer in Arms.” “My Melodious Memories” (Herman Flnek), "Henry VIII.’* (Frederick Chamberlin), “The Testament of Joad iC. E. M. .load), "The Best of Me” (Basil Maine). "Edgar Allen Poe” .Edward Shank-*. "Madame Roland” (M. P. Wlllcocks . "Grey Steel” (J. C. Smuts . (11. C. , Armstrong , "Ace of the Black Cross” (Ernst LMel).