...With... BOOK and VERSE

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 42, 1 May 1931, Unnumbered Page

...With... BOOK and VERSE

By

John

O'Dreams

N "Certain People," a collection of . _Bhort stories by the accomplished or of "Summer," "The Glimpses of he Moon," and other notable novels, Mrs: Wharton, with sure and subtle understanding, touches upon widely differing ehvyironments, social condi tions, and the secret springs of mind. and spirit animating her puppets. For fidelity of portraiture and skilfully suggested atmosphere; "‘The Refugees" is a small and consummate work of art. An inoffensive little American professor. of languages, travelling in France in 1914, finds himself swept into the world.vortex, is mistaken-for a refugee by an enthusiastic English spinster, taken under her wing in spite of stammering endeavours at. explanation, and hurtled: with hundreds of struggling unite to London. Willy-nilly the bewildered and inarticulate little man is hurried to one of England’s ancestral nomes, which appeals to a latent vein of romance, and. proves so beautiful and congenial a haven that he suc. cumbs to the temptation of making a brief sojourn, under false colours, in this new and intriguing world. Mrs. Wharton’s subtle and succinct analysis of activities of certain war-time ladies of high degree, each intent, with enthusiasm and without humour, on what was known‘colloquially as "doing her bit,’? makes excellent reading :-manners, oddities and extravagances having been observed. with meticulous: accuracy, and set:down for our delectation, if not in malice, with a substratum thereof that adds literary salt and savour to this excellent impression of a section of Mnglish ‘society in abnormal times. , "Atrophy" tells of a woman’s attempt t Bt: her lover in his last illness. " ing convention overboard, she visn¥ his home, where, beautiful, daring and gifted: though she is, she is aulked, intimidated, and incontinently driven forth by,an apparently ineffective, but -bitter and vindictive female relation of the dying man; who exercises, without a spark of pity or generosity, the power in domestic mileu conferred by imminent approach of death. This is a masterly presentation of a type that, unable to inspire devotion, resents and revenges itself upon the beloved woman. "A Bottle of Perrier’ has a touch of stark horror that makes it memorable, . in its visualisation of stark tragedy \enacted amid unutterable loneliness of the African desert. ‘The continuity and cumulative effect of this story of murder, with Nemesis in hot pursuit, are conveyed rathér than narrated; and in reading it we _ record impression that the hand of the creator of Ethan Frome has not lost its cunning,

THE B.B.C. gives its listeners a diversified and fascinating literary diet, ranging from the classics, represented by six talks on "The Dialogues of Plato," and a survey of Virgil and his times, to "Modern Literature," the -exposition of the latter being entrusted to Mr. J. ©. Squire, the witty and _erudite critic, essayist and poet. Mr. Desmond MacCarthy and Miss V. Sack-ville-West, both novelists of note, give regularly over the air concise reviews of books; Mr. Duff Cooper and Mr. Michael Sadlier discourse on novels that are new; while Mrs. Oliver Strachey is responsible for morning talks on "Books about People." An interesting programme, expounded by a galaxy of able and _ interesting "people of importance" in their field, who without doubt are competent to mingle manner and matter into an attractive whole. * * ¥ O many omnivorous novel-readers the name of Horace Annesley Vachell is one with which to conjure. My own predilection for this versatile and agreeable writer dates from when the world was much younger, and I made acquaintance with "Quinney’s," which I found delightful, and "The Will,’ which held me enthralled. Not up io that high standard is all of Mr, Vachell’s considerable output, but invariably it has an attractive flavour for his large and admiring retinue, who will find much entertainment and considerable matter for reflection in his latest work, "Into the Land of Nod." Primarily a deification of maternal love and self-nbnegation, it is also the story of Michael Lynn, his loves and struggles and years of wanderjahr. In the family history of this engaging youth is an hereditary taint which, skipping his own generation, is transmitted to his child, begotten of an idyll of light love in his rovings in Brittany. Neimegis exacts heavy toll from Michael and his beautiful Primrose, between whom flames a passion which suggests comparison with "Paul and Virginia," that classie of tragic youth. Michael goes through dark days of tribulation, but regeneration is effected through love and sacrifice, his son’s physical taint is.overcome-a fact accepted with some strain on one’s credulity-and the story finishes on a hopeful note of courage and high endeavour. oe =