Jottings

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 20, 27 November 1931, Unnumbered Page

Jottings

"EO. the student of social history and the bibliophile, "The MWnglishman and His Books in the Early Nineteenth Century," will prove an exceedingly interesting and agreeable chronicle. The author, Mrs. Amy. Cruse, takes the reader from the stilt- © ed days when Madam d’Arblay’s "Camilla" first saw the light, right down through’ the years, annotating with vivacious and illumiryting comment the personality and achievement of a long list of statesmen, philosophers and inspired contributors to the belles lettress of that brilliant period. . For her subject matter the author has delved, with patient and acumen, into ancient biographical lore, diaries, \etters, publishers’ statistics and reviews, and she makes able and excellent use of her investigation of that rich treasure-trove, Politics and drama of the age are discussed with animation and humours; and a floodlight of critical comment 4 let loose upon the highlights ofthat shining firmament which coruscated © the genius of Wordsworth, Byron, Sir Walter Scott, Charles and Mary Lamb, Shelley, Godwin, Hazlitt, and the. charming youth who afterward became : Lord Palmerston. ’ Contemporary journalism and ¢arrespondence are invoked to add verisimilitude to fascinating pen portraits of men and women famous in their .day and after; and there’ is a descrip"tion of leisured literary society ‘in the days when Mr. Macaulay dined atgHolland House; Janguishing muaiderm" kept albums wherein enamoured swhins were blushingly implored to "dash off’ a poem and sign it with | watt: ao notable names-a deplorable custom © not yet wholly extinct;*and beauteous : ladies in trailing high-waisted gowns ' flocked to hear the witty Sydney Smith give his famous lecture on "Taste," when we are told the charm of his manner, happy geniality spread throughout the hall, intonations of attractive voice, and glances and gestures carried his audience away. Thumbnail sketches of melodrama. at the Surrey are acutely revealing; -and there is an illuminating sketch of , Fanny Kemble, fresh from Paris boarding school, making unwilling debut on the boards to ‘save the family financial fortunes. ey It is impossible in the space ayailable to do justice to this. fascinating. medley of other times, other manners, | which is to be recommended cordially . to commonalty and connoisseurs,

MES. ELINOR MORDAUNT has written some excellent fiction, but her latest novel, "Iull Circle," perhaps will not add greatly. to her already established reputation. It is the story of Leverson Hurle, who writes novels and plays on the principle of photography, that is to say, he takes the incidents he sees around him, the private and less reputable episodes in the lives of his acquaintances, and writes them up for the delectation of his public. By this more or less simple method he succeeds in achieving fame and fortune, bul is an unspeakable bounder, and one finds it hard to believe in him, Theve is good work here and there, as is inevitable with an author of the calibre of Mrs. Mordaunt-such, for example, ag scenes in Penang and Singapore--but the book as a whole is unworthy of its creator. s e ® A BOOK to be eagerly awaited is "portraits and Appreciations," by Viscount d@’Abernon. This, as the title indicates, is a collection of personal sketches of statesmen and artists and writers, many of whom were the intimate friends of Lord d’Abernon, who lias known eleven Prime Ministers and puts in the front rank Lord Balfour, of whom he gives an admirable pen portrait. We also’ are given an arresting study of Lord Oxford, with all his great qualities and inherent weaknesses of character, he, apparently, like lesser folk, having a rooted objection to talking things over. "Colleagues.and experts were occasionally invited ‘to have a quiet talk with Henry,’ but history records no case of anyone having had it. The Prime Minister was busy; he had a headache; he had gone for a drive: anything rather than the ordeal of talking things over." So reprehensible, and so entirely human! fo be added to the not inconsiderable list of really lifelike children’s books is "Emil and the Detectives," now published in an excellent translation, and with the added attraction of an introduction: by Mr. de la Mare. The young protagonist who tries so assiduously to be at all times a model is essentially a human boy, and the story of his remarkable adventures on his way to Berlin, the dire exploits of the man -wearing a bowler hat, and the ramifications of exploits of the yeung detective gang, will be found priceless by children in Fingland as well as Germany. The black and whice drawings illustrating the volume ares an added attraction,