LITERARY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 204, 28 August 1926, Page 22

LITERARY.

Mr. Silas K. Hocking, at the age ol seventy-six, has yet another novel in hand. He has stipulated with his publishers that it shall be completed at leisure. Mr. H. L. Mencken, probably the most astute, certainly the wittiest oi literary critics in America, has paid a remarkable tribute to the work of Miss I Ruth Suckow, whose beat-known novel, I "Country People," Mr. Jonathan Cape is soon to publish in England. Misa Suckow, says Mr. Mencken, is "the most promising writer of fiction, man or woman, now visihly at work in America." There have been some good novels from America recently, notably "Teeftallow," and "The Venetian Glass Nephew." The Murray Presses continue their service to good reading by the even flow of their two-shilling reprints of books which have stood the test of time. The latest series include Amy McLaren's "Bawbee Jock," a joyous

romance of youth and happiness in Scot- . land, and another fine Scottish story of the killing days, "Flower o' the Heather," 'by R. W. MeKenna, a stirringly ' adventurous tale of the Covenanters. Sir Rider Haggard is represented by his ! "Queen Sheba's Ring," one of the most 1 thrilling of his African mystery stories, and Kathleen Norris by "Rose of the I World" and "Sisters." This fiction library is remarkably well printed and bound for the price, and taste and discrimination have been shown in the selections. j The further adventures of Mrs. 'Arris, a pantomime dame from London's slums, are humorously told in "Mrs. 'Arris Again," by Clifford B. Poulteney (Herbert Jenkfne). Mre. 'Arris goes through a series of wonderful adventures with her friend, Mrs. 'Opkins, the sewing circle, and the vicar's wife, and she retails them in the Cockney dialect in a manner which keeps the reader aniueed. Of the series of stories that relating to her stage appearance—she liked the name of Ermyngtrude—and to her success ac a J prophet are the moet entertaining. Some :of the comedy is a little far-fetched, a not unusual happening when one character carries on through a couple of books. "The Orient I Found," by F. J. McMahon (Duckworth) is. worth more than its cost for the manly, vigorous, outspoken introduction by the author. His appeal to his readers, and through them, to the Empire, to realise the dangers threatening as a result of the educated white races putting knowledge and power in the hands of natives (black, brown and yellow peoples) without waiting for them to acquire sufficient mental stability and sense of responsibility to prevent abuses is quite masterly and convincing. His description of his travels is somewhat spoiled by too free use of superlatives. He is at fever heat of demonstration by adjectives all the time, and this gives the effect of breathlessness, of j haste, of intense, rather than cool and j deliberate, observation. However, the author's sincerity is doubt, and his warning bo undeniably necessary, i that all men should take heed. The mystifying Glimerick has won its way into literature, G. P. Putnam's Sons (London) have published a whole volume of entertaining specimens under the title "The Glimerick Book." The volume contains some very smart Glimerieke from the pen of Mr. S. J. A. Witherspoon, together with | many famous old classics made into Glimericks. The author gives a succinct j

explanation 01 now it is aone, _ ■»»» follows this up with a series containing plenty of rhythm, wit and nonsense, these three difficult factors combining to make a very amusing collection. Anyone with a penchant for this sort I of puzzle will find the geries a particularly entertaining one. The clever titles are one of the beet features of the book; they often offer some clue to the missing worda and they always cap the whole with an amusing jest or smart commentThere is no variety of mine in which the result of effort and the value of shares <re so uncertain, as the joke mine. A vein of humour is discovered and is steadily worked with most satisfactory success, until quite suddenly nothing comes to the surface but heavy useless stuff, and the bottom drops out Df the market. The more modern the mine the more ephemeral its success, rhe Sam Slick, the Joe Miller, the Mark rwain were not only wonderfully proJuctive, but each endured for a normal lifetime. The Jerome K. Jerome, the facobs, the Burnand, and a number of lesser ventures, were worked out in a few years. To-day there is but one nine which promises to continue its mtput, although already showing signs )f weakening—the Stephen Leacock nine. The last load of material, "Winnowed Wisdom" (via the Bodley lead), has showings of pure gold, but here is much dull looking stuff, which equires sifting and treatment. Shares ire still above par, and promise to renain so, bu.t investors should buy now md be watchful of further quotations. Our copy via Dymock's Book Arcade, Sydney.) Aldous Huxley has passed through nany phases in his comparatively brief he is only 32) but prolific literary areer, since he first began his transitions from the French and adopted he French model for the first of his tones. His ultra cleverness ana apparnt sophistication in some of these irero inclined to become wearisome, u£ thaV method was soon dropped in avour of the models of his native land nd "Crome Yellow" and "Those Barren lieavee" won him a deserved fame. "Along he Road," a series of delightful essays, larked another change in manner, and off,' in "two or Three Graces" (tihattp nd Windus), a short novel, to which hree other stories are attached, he has cached a greater amplitude of eharacerisation than he attained in any of is earlier works, while the vulgarity nd the tendency to show* off exhiited in "Antic Hay" and "Those Baren Leaves" are done with. Grace, the eroine, really is two or three graces, t> completely does she take colour from er surroundings. She is married to a ore—good-natured but intolerable—and lie leaves him to become the mistress f an artist of the ultra-modern school, lodney Clegg, and she outdoes him in lqdernity, as a gay and terrible "vamp." 'hen «he really falls in love, and that ri'th" a real "eeconij-riter, JOngfyt'm, y?\io nmiliates her and drives her to despair y Bis The analysis} o£ race is bitterly satirical, bu£ not nsyinpatheijc. ft is a satire, too, on lodern neurosis as it affects the women f ho are always "§tagy" in public, who ke to take the limelight wherever they » a y gp- $ut the satire is not allowed 3 overlay the characterisation, and the •hofe story is written with great clarity nd wH,, tfo entertaining of the W9 beine remarkablj; wejl done!

J The life of ax- orphan girl in a convent, ! and later, as a London (Northeliffe) ■journalist, is ably set forth ia C. G. L. 'Dv Oann'e "First Lee, Last Love ! (Duckworth). That le premier baiser is the best of all kisses, and : ts memory the most lasting, ie the opinion of the author, who demonstrates the fact that i a faithful lover may go unrewarded, I whilst the reckless, worthless, unfaithful !is preferred. The final chapters are I almost Zolaesque in their stark brutality, and if the main features are not founded upon fact, they are sufficiently startling to be true. '•Mental Life," by B. Edgell (Methuen and Co.) is sent out by the author as an elementary study in such things an heredity, environment, memory and mental processes generally, but it is really more suitable f or advanced students. The that it is built upon personal observation and analysis gives it a special value, and is far more accurate and scientific than works on jsyehology consisting ehieily of undemonstrable theory. The i noblest study of mankind may be roan, j but to deliberately study oie's own I mental processes is to invite a dangeroue ! form of introspection. After all, it is not I always useful to probe lor motives except I j where evil thought has prompted evil action and a repetition must, at all costs, !be averted. It is never possible, with all ! accumulated knowledge, to predicate mental reaction to a given stimulus, and to discover the average reaction of the average mind is to learn no more than the hying of a normal life supplied by experience. In tie study of mental uiseas* such knowledge as this book gives is useful, but for the general reader or J the idle, it can but lead to unwholesome '■ study of personal thoughts and actions destructive of impulses, and upon impulse most noble deeds are done.

Major P. C. Wren has lived a life of adventure and has led troops in five armies. He writes of what he knows, and can tell a stirring story with great elan. Hie ••Beau Ueste" was one of the prime favourites last year, and he has followed up with another story of the French Foreign Legion, "Beau Sabreur" (John Murray; our copy from Robertson and Mullens, Mcl bourne). In * prefatory note he tells his readers frankly that certain of the events chronicled in hia earlier works were objected to as impossible. They were impossible, he admits, but bis defence is that they actually happened. And he proceeds to give chapter and verse to prove it, adding, in "Beau Sabreur" nothing is told except what has happened, only "he has ueed the author's privilege of re-arranging the details of the livet of people who loved, fought and suffered in the desert. The story is a fine one, the characterisation robust and true, and the incidents exciting enough for the most adventurous. It is the Odyssey of an officer of the Legion, schooled in England, and then sent out to play a man's part among the Secret Service agents in the great Sahara. It opens with an intriguing account of the life of a French trooper in the barracks of the Blue Hussars, witty and sparkling, and then drifts over to Africa, where Major de Beaujolais joins up with the Spa hie and then sets out Dyer the desert to win over the allegiance of a desert tribe which has suddenly rieen to power. A rising and massacre force him to take an American girl and tier English maid with bis little force, md his stern acceptance of a terrible luty gets him into much trouble before I he lady realises his worth and surrenders ' ter future to one who has proved worthy if the trust. The leaders of the tribe , >rove to be a couple of runaway Ameri- ' :ans. and their niininf. ami /tnrinua oov. !

ings and comments add a delightful touch of humour to a book which promises to be even more successful than its predecessors. "Beau Sabreur" had the uncommon honour of simultaneous publication all over the Empire and in America.

ROUND ABOUT THE POLE. Adventures have crowded thick upon Captain Frank Hurley because of bis insatiable lust for them. It was never his way to sit down prosaically and wait for something to turn up; from adolescence onwards he has sought the trials and troubles which await the reetless in the out-of-the-way places. Twice he went down to the Antarctic, the first time with Sir Douglas Slawson, and later with Sir Ernest Shackleton, each time as cameraman of the party, and in his record of these two great voyages, "Argonauts of the South" (Putnam's), he has produced a book in which he has become the ally of lens to make a most fascinating story. Mr. Hurley can tell a plain unvarnished tale with striking vividness, and there is much to tell of both these expeditions that wants the telling in just that way. The story of Sir Douglas Mawson's expedition is told with a blunt directness that is very effective. There is an evident sincerity about the narrative which makes it a real human dominant, a story of great-hearted men who put the cause of science before everything, and who pitted their strength against the mightiest forces of Nature with courage that knew no despair. Macquarie Island, hpmp of the penguins, introduces the reader to the hardships of Antarctic discovery, and then Southward Ho! for the land of the blizzard. The thrilling navigation through the pancake ice is described with the skill of an artist. and then follows a wonderful story of the landing on Antarctica and the preparations for the siege against the polar winter, which raged in infernal fury upon the huts. The blizzard won its fight to protect the South Magnetic Pole, and the keen disappointment of the party when forced back only fifty miles from its objective is vividly recounted, while the journey back to headquarterg forms an epic in itself. The second part of the book, the voyage of the Endurance, is the story of a pentecost of calamities, of marvellous heroism and stoic endurance of suffering, magnificently illustrated by photographs that are artistically and technically perieet. Splendidly bound, the book is ftn example of the art of the printer. BOOKS RECEIVED THIS WEEK. Nature, Thought, and Personal Experience. By W. Tudor Jones. (Williams ana Norgate.) 7/6. ' Fifty Yearr of Army Music. By Lieut.-Col. J. MacKenzie Rogran'. Otfethven.) 15/. The Oreat Valley By Mary Johnston. ' (Thornton, putterworth.) ?/6. Maori Grammar.By' A. T. Nffata. Third - edition ' (Wnitcrmbe and Tombs.) ' 2/6. Uotndt of the Maori. By the late Colonel Porter (L. M., Cnrtetenurco.) AiTjOfuipotrt Vavlne. By tfdf* K. Strange. (Stanley Paul.) 1/6". ■ ■ A Wife in Kenya By Nora K. Strang-e. (Stanley "aul.) S/e. From WHltomhe and Tomes. HilUboro' People. By Dorthy Canneld. (Jonathan Cape.) ?/. Flower Phantom*. By Ronald Fraser. (Jonathan Cape.) 3/6 The Pfood of Fate. By W. C. Tuttle. (Collins.) 3/6. That Kind of Man. By I. D. Beresford. ''(Collins.) b/s: Officer. By H. Foototr. (Collins.) «/«.