...With... BOOK and VERSE

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 33, 27 February 1931, Unnumbered Page

...With... BOOK and VERSE

By

John

O'Dreams

HE. British Museum, during. the past year or so, has been enriched by the presentation to it by the author of much of the MSS.: of "The Forsyte Saga." Mr: John Galsworthy has.now completed the gift ‘with .those. volumes of his great work that were published during, 1930, including "A- Silent Woo ing" and "Passing By," so that. the whole of this invaluable manuscript is iow enshrined in the great treasurehouse. of the nation, : 2 * . R. ARNOLD BENNETT has risen to the occasion in his latest novel, "Imperial Palace," at any rate as far as length is concerned, it being a cumbersome tome of some 700 pages. ‘This is no deterrent, however, to rapacious novel-reader and enthusiastic admirer of Mr. Bennett’s racy .style and tremendous vitality. -: On the big cah"Kas of his latest book the brilliant and versatile ‘spinner of tales paints, with vim and vigour, the rush and scramble of life as it is rushed through at the present day. In this story of life in a big hotel, Mr. Bennett’s acute vision of seething life, with: all its exaggerations, absurdities and complications, and his faculty for irresistibly amusing and illuminating expression thereof, are ‘arresting and s’mulating as of yore.. e s bd J[NTERESTING to note that one of the most modern and gifted of our poets, Mr. ‘Humbert Wolfe, has written a mellifinuously-phrased and extremely eulogistic tribute to the work of the late Lord Tennyson, It was to be anticipated that Mr. Wolfe would clothe his views in delightful phraseology, but the fact that his admiration is great for the poetry of the Victorian Laureate has all the charm of the unexpected. One might have thought that Mr. Wolfe, as his central theme, would have selected the stately measure, the grave and beautiful sentiment of "In Memoriam"; but. instead, he has chosen. "Maud,’? that great love-poem, with its innumerable passages of lyrical loveliness. Perhaps, now that the ball is set rolling. the tide of appreciation ‘will turn, and the day may .even come ‘when the youngest highbrow cf them all will be brought to admit that there’s something to be said: for Tennyson. after all.

N anthology that has at. least-the merit of originality is entitled "The Art of Dying." In it are set down, in . orderly sequence, from. Jezebel down to the, present time, the last words of many who were personages in their day and generation. For those who have an unfailing thirst for intimate knowledge, to whom: the personal note of notable men and" women is all in all, this record of last words, before the spirit has ‘left the body, should be a cherished ‘possession. * # ae RECENT announcement of ‘interest to the intelligentsia is that Chatto and Windus ‘will, publish shortly Dooks by Julian and Aldous Huxley respectively; the former being represented by an account of travel in Bast and Central Africa, and’ the latter. by a volume of essays entitled "Musie at Night." Like all vivid and fearless personalities, Mr. Aldous Hux‘ley has fervent detractors as well as fervent admirers: but no student. of, the trend of fiction-writing can afford, to ignore the scintillating and analyti- . eal work of this most’ modern young man. C * + LN "A Note in Music," Miss: Rosa"mund Lehmann has written an’ able and subtle study of the-reactions . of a brother and sister,’ gay ~ and carefree and young, ttpon. the drab lives of a small group of people,. mid-. dle-aged. provincial and dull..A slight . theme, but treated with. .a ..penetrating knowledge of -psychology,. and..2 competence in handling: the-monoton-ous environment: of a" provincial town, with the gradual abandonment ‘of*hope, ambition and zest which ‘sometimes creeps upon people who are not ‘ideally mated. The contrast between * flaming youth and_ disillusioned middle-age is excellently well presented; and, in the treatment of her theme. Miss Lehmann infuses such a vivid consciousness of the heauty of the English countryside that can hardly fail to: stir response in lovers of the out-of-doors,