LONELY CLIMBERS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 473, 16 July 1948, Page 32

LONELY CLIMBERS

THE WALLED CITY. By Elspeth Huxley. Chatto & Windus, London. HE walled city is somewhere in Africa. It becomes the centre of a conflict between two colonial administrators of widely different types: Freddy Begg, who puts all his faith in regulations and memoranda, and Robert Gresham, who insists on treating natives as human beings. These men find themselves opposing each other at: critical moments in their careers. Moreover, ‘they become involved emotionally as well as professionally. Freddy admires Priscilla, Robert’s attractive wife, and can never quite forgive her for rejecting -his somewhat naive and pathetic advances. His own wife, Amorel, is a strong-minded woman who devotes a life without love to Freddy’s advancement. In the background is the warm and exciting life of Africa. There is an underlying philosophy in Mrs. Huxley which gives depth to the thinking and a cool preciseness of style to the writing. Although for the most part the thought is expressed in situation and dialogue, it overflows sometimes in passages where the writer is speaking plainly for herself. They range in subject from the treatment of animals to the weaknesses of "the service" and the decay of faith in the west; and they are so interesting that even the impatient reader should pause to study them. Less successful, however, is the construction of the novel. The prologue in 1942 is followed by chapters which deal, with events in 1929. This method of looking backwards ‘from a fixed point becomes acceptable when the author’s purpose is revealed; but there are later sections which return abruptly to 1922, 1919, and even 1913; and in most cases the intention is merely to give fuller treatment to episodes which have already been. included sketchily-though adequately-in the main narrative. |

M. H.

Holcroft