Mystery for Moderns

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 407, 11 April 1947, Page 16

Mystery for Moderns

E M. FORSTER’S "The Celestial * Omnibus" is not quite the usual fare expected by listeners to the Mystery and Imagination series; and that, one might be tempted to think, is a pity. It would, of course, be absurd to suggest that E. M. Forster doesn’t know the difference between a short story and a radio play, but the thought might just possibly occur to you on listening to this item. The rules for the mystery-story of to-day seem , to dictate that the author must always keep at least one foot on the ground. The moment he loses touch with it he loses touch with his audience; the thing ceases to be a "mystery" and becomes merely "far-fetched." The difference is a subtle one. Nothing too impossible or too remote must occur; and even for the mildly incredible event the audience must ordinarily be well bolstered up by a setting in the "mysterious East," or by an atmosphere heavily charged with "psychological" disturbances. In the present case, however, Mr. Forster has both feet well off the ground. He sends a horse-drawn omnibus charging across a rainbow into the realm of the Immortals, it being driven in turn by Sir Thomas Browne and Dante. And he does this in London-London at thé turn of the century. The story is one of a small boy who discovers the Celestial Omnibus Service, and is well received by the Immortals; and of his companion, the wealthy patron of literature who has "read Dante, quoted Dante, and bound him in vellum," but who nevertheless fails to see the Immortals when he arrives there. Allegory, thinly disguised? Perhaps. But not, by any stretch of. the imagination, mystery.