LITERARY.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 194, 14 August 1920, Page 18

LITERARY.

i The iast. volumes, numbers five and I .-i.\. of the "1/ifp of Benjamin Disraeli.'" • i were pirhlifhed a. fe-w weeks apo. bringI in;; to an end the nvmirmental work that rim lull' Mr. W. V. Monypcnny began, an-l Mr. n. K. lUu'kle continued. We ■ wonder wiiether there will ever again ■ In' a. ni\ volume biography. How many 1 |ii'i>ple lave iiH-lirmtion or time to read one in three, diiw! Morley managed to i deal with <;iad'atoiK> in three volumce, I and MoTley could hardly he dull if he f iried. ■ Die peup'io who viuit the mvoihl- ■ \ hand imokshops .ir.- often as entertain--1 ' in- ;,_ tin. 1>,,..)., themselves (i»ays an ;>:ii«jli»h wrileri. Take for instence. the ■ l|bn>l\ and liDcol c gentlenuin in a billy- • ji-ni'k hat %\lu> \as seen outside one of | 1 Itlii'M- it-lal.lislirufiits the other day. lost : 1j in the pipes of Maeterlinck'■« "l/ife ol | 1 1 It.- 1ie,,." The traflie of ihc pavement : j surged about him. but still he read on. i ■ land when the watchful shopkeeper j ' Jennie to the door from time to time, he ' i found him reading yet. At last he ; i-li sol the volume with an approving! grunt, and. tapping its cover with a • thick forefinger, addressed the bookI I seller. "I suppose now," he said, "you I ilcn't happen to have a hook by that chap on cowsT 'j The rain falls on the just and the unJ'i.iust. and publishers' cheques are sent ■ t 1 the naughty .is well as the good, re•i marks a writer in the "Christian Science j: Monitor." No one can have read withj out anger, or with amusement if ironicnHy fashioned, the statement thai | LudVndortT. Hindcnburg and yon Kluck ' I haw b Might castles in Herman Rwitzer- ■ J land from the royalties they received : I from their war hooks. They were paid ■I in dollar*, and oounds; they thrived, on ■ the depreciation of the mark. If Thomas " Hardy adds to "The Dynasts" a volume I on the Oreat War, the spectacle of these three defeated generals making fortunes • out of books explaining their defeat, ■ and shifting the bhune to somebody else, 1 should provide amazing material for his r ; ironical pen. ' '"A vast number of books, of all prades ' of poodnee? or badness, are at pre.-ent • ' coming to us; from America, cays a re- ■ j viewer in the "'Westminster Gazette." j : and it is at first sight a little difficult to 1 pink upon any character common to I them all wh-icli differentiates them from! prpfent-day English books. Indeed, after j reading a pood number of the. average! i productions jf both countries, one is j forced to the conclusion that American books are really uncommor'y like English ones, save for an occasional vertml or idiomatic difference. Ye.t we think that in all but their very best works, which we are not at the moment discuesing, American authors, even more than English ones, fail to balance exactly the aesthetic and material elements of life; art appears too often to them a thing to be treated either with scorn or with Titual. 'Whereas the truth is, if we may speak so presumptuously, that, if no one made poems, no one could make sewing-machines, and vice-versa." In one of the boks ! tihat inspired these remarks. • an American essayist asks this question: , ! "Did Shakespeare, or Goethe, or Whitl man, or Buddha, or Tolstoy, or Con- . fucins. or .Rousseau, ever teach you as Important leesons as ytm learned from c your parents, from your worthy and intelligent neigWbouTS, from the leading men of practical affairs in your own , lountry and age? They did not. and you f know it." We should say it depended t on the parente and the neighbours. 1 1 Mr. Thomas Hardy celebrated his eightieth birthday a few weeks ago, and received nation-wide congratulations. The recognition on this occasion of his place in letters by tie Press is proof that Hardy has come into the fame that is his due. He had a long etrnggle in hie earlier years. The Rtory goes that "Under the Greenwood Tree" was suclj a failure as to find iU way into the "fourpfinny box" of the second-hand bookshops, and that the mere chance of a copy being picked up by an editor on the look-out for talent {rave the author hie first commission for a serial. That ■editor was Greenwood, who -wae attracted by the title, of the book. Even "Tess -, hung fire; it 3 type was just going to be distributed when its merits began to Ik? noticed. Many of our readers will remember the storm about "Tess," and the still greater one about "Jude, the Obeeure." -The controversy has died down, partly through widening recognition of his genius, partly because so many novelists dabble or wallow in the sex question. Hardy has written nothing but poetry since "Jude," and his "Dynasts" ie acclaimed as one of the great imaginative works of the age. An English writer remarks that he belongs to the generation of writers who regarded writing not as a trade but as a Kailling. jLike Meredith, who shares with him the honours of later Victorian fiction, he -wrote according to his high standard of an artist's conscience, and -<ever deliberately lowered that standard in order to sell more books. Ruefcin J-eft a deeper mark on eronoruics than the orthodox economists have been prepared to admit. Messrs. Allen and Tnwin promise a Tvork enthled 'The Harvest of Rirskin." by Principal John vV. (jrah&m, containing a. critk-jil estimate, of Ruskin'e teaching- in the light of the present situation between Capitalism and Labour, the advocacy of guild Socialism, and existing ideas in the regions of education and religion. It ie from the same publishers that the volume of centenary- studies, entitled "RiieJcin the Proph-et," is coming. Tlu.= ■ will include critical appreciations and ; essays h v - John .Mase'field, Dean Inge, C. 1 F. G. Masterman, Laurence Binyon, TT. • W. IXeTinson. J. A. Holjson, and the I editor.. J. 'Howard White-housv. ; SOME NOVELS. . Browning got his story "The Light ■ Woman" into a short poem. There was ■ the woman -who had ensnared the man. . and tbe friend who determined to save ! j him by luring her away. Unfortunately • she fell se-riously in love with the friend. ■ who came to the. conclusion that it was Inn awkward business playing with souls. In "The Woman Hater," Miss Ruby M, Ayers takes a volun»e to tell a similar story. It is frankly based on Browning, for there are frequent and rather irritating quotations from the poem. It is a sentimental tale of a kind liked by many. Hodder and Sttmgnton publish it at 7/6 net. The following reprints are to hand (from Hodder and Stoughton): "Miss Haroun Al-Raschid," by Jessie Douglas Kerruish (first prize novel in a IOOOgs competition some years ago); "Cappy Kicks," by Peter B. Kyne. "The Half- [ Hearted,"* by John Bnchan, 2/6 net-. j From Oassell and Co.: "Prairie Fires," jby Annie S. Swan; "The Soul of Susan Ycllam," by Horace Assesley Vachell. 2/ net.