Jottings

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 4, 7 August 1931, Unnumbered Page

Jottings

AN other book from the author of India" cannot fail to aroyg@, interest, remembering Miss Kat®@ine Mayo’s courageous and terrible of the hideous evils of the Hindu child-marriage system. Her ‘revelations, burning with indignation, worded with the utmost frank ness, and giving chapter and verse fo1 her statements, shocked the Western world. Passionately partisan, her book was challenged by many writers and. thinkers as hysterical and _ proP gandist, but in its obvious sincerity imotive made a tremendous impression in three continents. Recently a special committee investigated the revelations contained in "Mother India." This €émmittee consisted of prominent Indians and one British woman doctor. eden India and took voluminous filling 4534 pages. "Volume 0," Miss Mayo’s latest work, is a of the report and evidence of this ge of Consent Committee," the concisions of the committee being summadrised and set before readers in concise and ‘convincing fashion. Witnesses of all classes, ranging from members of ‘the Indian intelligentsia and Brahmiins, women behind the purdah and women with university degrees, to field labourers and untouchables, were examined, and their evidence brought to bear in throwing light on the grear isting evil. Miss Mayo maintains + at the evidence as a whole supports | , iter main contentions: that early marTriage is widely prevalent all over India, and that such marriages are not merely formal; that the movement against it is confined to a very small progressive minority; and that recent legislation has proved ineffective. Miss Mayo's courageous efforts to fight this diabolic practice are to be acclaimed, and-no student of Indian affairs can aff to ignore the testimony epitomisedAn this enlightening .volume. s » .* [PHE. comand. of the Goethe Prize for Literaturé ‘to Ricarda Huch for her life’s work has been acclaimed by the ‘whole of the German literary world.:*’ ‘Riearda Huch is over seventy years‘old, and she is the only woman writer: whose works claim equality witi those Sot. men ‘on the bookshelves of German * aeademicians and _ writers alike... Her latest .work, "The Reyolution. of the Nineteenth Century. in Germany," just published by _ the Deutsch * Schweizereische VerlagsanSh talt; ,ci#owris her year-long labours in he historic field. , The revolution is that of 1848. Ricarda Huch began her career as poetess aud novelist, and her insight into the hidden springs that move the great figures of her country’s history is such that many be lieve the present work will be the classic picture that will make Germany’s later revolution of 1914. fully clear.to posterity,

"wire MAUROIS, versatile, .. vivid; and profound, has added feather to his literary cap in "Chelgea Way. * The milieu of the story is Chelsea, its protagonists the artists who live, move and have their being in the artists’ quarter. M. Maurois is delightfully witty at their expense, and their eccentricities of speech and manuer are aptly parodied. The pen of this ready writer flows on like a smoothlymoving river, and it is interesting to observe how he exploits the possibilities of the long sentence.

"WVANDERER’S END" is an intriguing novel.! The author, Dennis Cleugh, spent years in writing it, describing the life he led when one of a travelling company of players giving Shakespeare in the English provincial towns.. ‘It is sad to think he died suddenly before finishing the book. His wife, Sophia Cleugh, wrote the last two chapters; and there is a foreword by Christopher, Morley, whose troupers Cleugh joined"in the Hoboken Stock Company, and: died: suddenly just after rehearsal, ‘The : ‘story relates to one Don Paradise, who, in trying to escape

from himself and from memories faints outside the gates of Marcu Junius Pollen and his wife Miranda; one gate bearing the name "The Priory," the other "Belmont," to suit the ‘tastes of both husband: and wife.’ Paradise became secretary to the Pollens, and we are introduced to @ strange household-Dame Trot, the kind-hearted; Sobit, the red-bear :ed hunchback; Robin, the quaint and lovable son of a bearded lady; the inhabitants of Wanderer’s End; and a host of the most interesting characters, including Lady Sabrina Cuddy, Alonzo the long-lost, and a quite essential elephant., Interesting and charming, with a true touch of sadness in the wane derer’s end of Pollen with his ambitiom to play Hamlet. > > x

"(COPPER City," by Mr. Myron Brinig, is written in rapier-like style that flashes and euts in its narrative form. The author’s keenness of phrase and observation are outstanding, and his sympathies singularly farreaching. There are practically two heroes in this rather remarkable novel; an-uncle and a nephew. But their interests do not clash, but rather run parallel in this vivid story of life in a gold-mining town. The contrast between John, the upright and naturally abstemious, and the woman Zola, with her practised knowledge of the seamiest side of human nature, whom he takes to live in his home, makes memorable impression. * a BS R. BEVERLEY MICHOLS keeps up the pace. At 25 he gave his reminiscences to an astonished public, Two years later came his piquant, audacious, and oftentimes impertinent sketehes of famous people whom he knew. Then "The Star-Spangled Manner" appeared, and excellent reading it made, with its revealing comments of American modes and manners. Now these volumes are combined in an omnibus book of nearly 900 pages. Mr. Nichols’s years number thirty, and though there are some who disdain his literary methods, there are a great many more who delight in his franlk and mordant comments on the passing show .as it appears to his singularly gimlet-eyed and challenging regard. * * * [y "Society at War,’ Miss Caroling Playne, who already has the admirable "The Neuroses of the Nations" te her credit, gives a vivid description of what civilians did in Britain during the war, 2 subject not often dealt with.