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New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 484, 1 October 1948, Page 18

a long time ago in the books of Samuel. It is one of the two greatest "novels" in the Old Testament, and many themes have. been taken from it by writers and poets. The encounter with Goliath, the sick mind of Saul, the friendship between David and Jonathan, the disappointed love of Michal, the feud between the rival houses of Israel, the wanderings. and escapes of David, the love of Abigail and the amorous in-trigues-these are creative springs from which wide-branching streams have been drawn into world literature. Writers who select an episode or. a character may turn again to the books of Samuel with some hope of making an imaginative enlargement which can bring the ancient theme into a new relationship with art or history. Gladys Schmitt, 4 story of David was told

DAVID THE KING. . By Gladys Schmitt. Hamish Hamilton, London.

however, has attempted to fill out the whole of the original framework — a task in which only genius could have been successful. There has been’ some transposition of events, and a certain amount of new material has been introduced. The author has followed some modern scholars in rejecting the myth which allowed the young shepherd to prevail against Goliathp and has traced it to rumours fed from David’s poetic imagination. This is an interesting theory, soundly based in psychology; but it would be more convincing if the Biblical story had not shown David consistently as a man of action who could fight and sing with an equal fervour. If Goliath is to be dismissed, much else should go with him: the conception of a young egoist with an over-heated imagination would have to be developed, and it would destroy the consistency of the whole legend. In ‘general, however, Miss Schmitt has been satisfied to fill in some of the gaps, to add a great deal of flesh to the bare bones of the Biblical narrative, and to link the main events in a more or less conventional interpretation of the central character. There is some excellent writing, and the characters move naturally in the setting provided for them. Nevertheless, at the end of 648° pages the reader may feel the hopelessness of a gallant venture. The economy and beauty of the Old Testament story are lost in a modern idiom, and only a new psalmist could

recover them. .

M. H.

Holcroft