LITERARY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 96, 24 April 1926, Page 22

LITERARY.

Countess Euesell, -who is the Elizabeth of the famous "German Garden" has written a new romance, and entitled it "An Introduction to Sally." Perhaps this suggests that the heroine, Sally, will need other volumes in which to tell us fill her Adventures and' air all her wit. She will foe found a character in harmony with the heroines we already know in "Enchanted April," "The Caravannere," and other novels by Lady Russell. How the sight* and sounds and scents of London come again to the exile reading the perfect fragments of concentrated prose written by H. V. Morton. In "The Spell of London" (Methuen) the sketches of life portrayed are not so much word painting as models built and moulded in words. Not a word too many, nothing superfluous. Just the thing itself, clear cut and brilliant aa a ruby, vivid, dietinct, heart-reaching. After publication in a daily paper, saved from oblivion by issue in an unpretentious volume; a lesson in fine writing and in effective concentration. We can* not quote, because to pluck a petal from a rose destroys the flower, and the petal cannot reveal the beauties of the unmutilatcd blossom. All ie fish that comes into the net of Mr. Robert Lynd. He can write on any topic under the sun, and with a devil-may-care freshness and vivacity that is vastly entertaining. He breaks new ground in hie latest collection, "The Money Box" (Methuen and Co.), and blossoms out as a humorist with a delightful touch, light as the wing of Ariel, diverting and amusing in every changing facet. Nothing extravagant, never relying on broad farce or buffoonery, he finds something to cause a chuckle,, something to strike a responsive note, in the everyday happenings of life—a visit to the tailor, a shave, a friend's cat, moneylenders, silence, superstitions. There are forty of them in "The Money Box," delightful trivia that are as full of truth as of humour. Mr. Lynd ie a student of human nature, and he tells about the little faults and failings of his kind with a tenderness and whimsicality that entertain while they teach. His aim is to amuse, and he hite his mark in every page. Certainly a charming book, sincere and natural, but with depth of understanding behind its genial banter. "Dew on the Leaf," by Mary Leinster (Williams and Norgate), for the first few chapters captures the attention by Uβ Zolaesque frankness and the familiarity of the subject, Few of us have not known, or heard of, the delicate wife married to a drunken husband, and known, or imagined, the terrible misery resulting, the effect upon the children, and the' lasting and'uneecapaible consequences to the woman. "The woman pays." The authoress, however, having chosen China as the setting for her tragedy, stretches her plot, like an elastic band, to. a disappointing slenderness, and does this in order to give the reader a greater knowledge of China and Chinese manners and customs. Carrying her characters to England -(towards the end) fails to revive the interest. There is something of the rocket about "Dew on the Leaf"; it soars, explodes faintly amid Chinese stars, and dies in a moving but feeble spark. However, there is skill and power within the book, and the authoress has our sympathy for whatever circumstances marred its later pages. It is too good to be missed altogether, being well above the average. Zane Grey, now finishing his fishing in the streams round Taupo-Moana, can tell a story of adventure with the best of them. He is not what is called a writer's writer, but he knows so well how to interest and amuse the public that he has the biggest following of any writer of the day.. In "The Vanishing American/ he tells of the redskin, not from the', viewpoint that "Injuns is Piron," but to sympathetically reveal something of the true character of a dying race. Mr. Grey has not changed his background, but while keeping the •tory well in view all the time,-as he always does, lie has in "The Vanishing American" written with greater purpose than in any other of his tales of the West, so that he has produced a study of racial conflict and the clash of colour as well as an entertaining novel. The Indian Reservation forms the canvas on which this picture of the '"hundred per cent American*' is painted, and it provides plenty of scope for that descriptive genius which is his undeniable possession. The story deals with the treatment of Indians by the white men in charge of them, and with the problems arising from the contact of the races. " The Vanishing American" will enhance Mr. prey'e reputation with his army of admirers. Our copy from Robertson and Mullens, Ltd., Melbourne. EDUCATIONAL METHODS. Bertrand Russel, who now gives us a book "On Education, Especially in Early Childhood,'' has produced other works with his publishers, Allen and Unwin, London. Concerning these works on social subjects, the London '"Times" has frankly stated: "Mr. Russel is a fargoing revolutionist; he is avowedly an anarchist, but his anarchism is of a kind with which many, who are not anarchists, will sympathise. , - It is possibly those theoretically anarchistic notions of his that have influenced him in producing this book, with its usual mingling of ideas that are possible, and those which are only workable on the debatable dogma that the child is by nature entirely reasonable, and needs only to "find himself" It is Chesterton, we remember, who somewhat satarises the over-working of 'educae' to lead out, as if we could lead out of a child's mind a preference for studying algebra over his quite surface like for eating jam tarts. In his work the author is, perhaps, too little for authority.. His caetigation of. that old educational authority, Arnold of Rugby, seems a little' unjust, and we must take, of course, with reservation his advice, quoted from an authority whom he prefers: "If you say to a boy'l'll murder you if you dp that again,' then if he does do if again you must murder. him. If you don't he will lose all respect for you." The advice may be excellent from the Herod point of view; yet, in another part, the author seems to indicate that respect for the parent is not really essential to juvenile education. The author divides his work into three parts; the first, which is the shortest, deals with educational ideals in general; in the second part we have thirteen chapters dealing with education in character, and the reactions jrf the child mind to work, play and other companions, also the need of physiological teaching at an early age. In the third part he advocates strongly the nursery school, which gives the child of the -poor almost the same advantages as the middle-class boy*or girl. Views of 'day schools and boarding'schools and certain defects in the university system are also touched upon. The style of the book in vigorous and clear, with many concrete examples for the precepM PU* fprwigl.

Magnificently vivid in description of wars, poet and of the future, are the clean-cut staccato phrases of Mr. F. B. Austin In "The War-God Walks Again" (Williams and Norgate). Forty-five years ago a writer warned England (in a work of imagination) what might befall her if her navy failed to keep her shores inviolate. Mr. Wells did the like more recently, but overdid the grotesquenees, and was disregarded as emulating the fairy tales of Grimm. In the light of the past Mr. Austin sees the future, and his warnings—direct and implied—his satire, and his realism should bite deeply into the minds of thoee who know, as most of us do, that the world's monster is but lightly chained, and is resting to gather strength to break the chain. To avoid the waste of life and the heart-break-ing destruction of another war, when, Mr. Austin says, "there will be no time for reprisals," England is advised to have at hand the means of immediate attack so terrible and devastating that she may not be put in a position of defence. Security from attack is only attained by him -who ia prepared to . get his 'fist in first. , " A war in the air implies greater destruction below, and the means of the murderer and assassin are to be the weapons of highly civilised man/ for "fair play" is now no part of war. In the near future the milder nations will see sheer brutality so easily victorious that, Unless willing to be extinguished, they will be forced to 'be first in destructive inventiveness, entirely without mercy, and devoid of any feeling beyond that of protecting themselves, It i§ to be hoped that Mr. Edward Bucknell will write at le*at iv.« more novels of English country life, one having for its subject the yeoman farmer and, another the'tenant farmer. Both these classes of worthy men are threatened, with extinction by (irresistible progress, and what Mr. Bucknell haa done for the English squires in "Edger mar ton" (Williams and Norgate) should be done for their social inferiors but political, economic, and historical equals. There are yeomen farmers who have held their land since Saxon days, yet if the squires go they all go. No greater revolution has taken place in Russia than has happened peacefully and almost disr regarded by the bulk of the population in English country life. There is to there must be—a new England, and all who have loved and respected the old England cannot but regret it. Mr. Bucknell has shown the very spirit of that steadfast faith and honesty which, whilst exclusive, insular and resentful of intrusion, has served to bind our kinsfolk together in a manner impossible when once the tradition animating them is broken. Nobody can read the chapters of "Edgemarton" describing the service ia the country church, and "Silence," without feeling proud of t]ie character of the simple English folk which city people are so ready to ridicule for that simplicity. "Lindea Lea," and "Edgemarton" are a pair of purposeful novels true to life qnd most readable. Bulldog Dnysaiond has put something of the grip of his namesake on the reading public, and three volumes of his deeds of daring failed to satisfy, so out comes the fourth, "The Final Count." The Bulldog did not take the count and his gigantic frame will doubtless figure in yet another desperate adventure. "The Final Count" (Hodder: and Stoughton) is a real "thriller," told at breathless speed. When the third of the stories about the amiable Hugh concluded, Carl Petersen, alias Edward Blackton, alias the Comte de Guy, had just escaped from the clutches of the law and Was again rvady to p.-ey on society. In the present stjry he is shown into the future, the bants of the story being the discovery of a war poison so deadly that "a drop of it oji a cat's tongue will kill a man." Naturally the nation possessing the secret will be invincible, and war will become an impossibility. The "super-Moriarty" steals the secret; turnsi pirate and makes things very lively for the world at large, until the Bulldog gets orf his trail. Grim adventures crowd upon each other's heels, in a London cellar, a Cornish mine, at sea and in the air, all told with the dashing air of violence and versimilitude that characterise all Sapper's works. The end comes just after the Bulldog had averted a wholesale mur* der, with Petersen taking the final count. ''SAILING SHIPS At A GLANCE." Island people must always be interested in ships and the sea, In any history, of' the British people we are bound to come to the sea sooner or later, and find ourselves on board a ship. In when the time arrives that we cease'to be interested in such things it will mean that the end is in sight. Although our inherited love of the'sea is very strong, it is astonishing how limited our technical knowledge is when we come to test it. Your average ifeader strongly dislikes technicalities, and you can easily spoil his pleasure in the subject by overloading it with suph things, It ie bo in the matter of the sea; still in reading any record or story of the British, and particularly of the English, we often come upon' terms and phrases that puzzle us, and there is no doubt we miss much of the interest of the narrative by having to imagine what we don't quite understand. In soa stories there is often much that we slur ;ov.er. How many of up have a very distinct mental picture of the thing when we read of a caravel, or a carrack, or even our dear old friend the galleon—and a Spanish one for preference? It is people like that who will be thankful to Mr. Edward WHobbs, A.1.N.A., for his handy little book: "Sailing Ships at a Glance," published by The Architectural Press, London. Without overloading his craft with technicalities that are so obsolete that they might well be forgotten, the author has succeeded in giving us a wonderfully interesting review of ships right from the earliest times of which we have any reliable information. With a 'minimum of letterpress he has told his story mainly by means of scores of excellent _ little line drawings, which show the evolution of the modern craft right from the time when our ancestors used to paddle about in coracles—and he even goes further back to the earliest known representation of a boat, which looks rather like an enlarged quaich with only one handle. And as proof of how modern Mr. Hobbs is we have an illustration of that queer contraption- the rotor-ship, which was evolved only the other day. Mr. Hobbs. is an enthusiast, and his thoughtful little book will be welcomed by hundreds of people who would dearly like to more thoroughly understand the meaning of the old terms they come across when reading about their ancestors, but who have not the means or perhaps the energy to go fossicking about among old books for the knowledge they lack. Mr. Hobbs has obligingly done th« foraging and embodied th« rMuIU in the handitf t ions imaginable.