UNUSUALLY GOOD CRITICISM.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 40, 16 February 1929, Page 2 (Supplement)

UNUSUALLY GOOD CRITICISM.

To those who like good essays on books we can cordially recommend "Reading for Pleasure," by R. Ellis Roberts (Methuen). Mr. Roberts, who is a contributor to leading London journals, is well read, writes in an unusually godd style, and is refreshingly sound In his judgments. He is a scholar but not a prig. The subjects range from Shakespeare and Swift to Mr. Kipling, Arnold Bennett, clowns, limericks and American pessimists, and every essay is interesting. In a time when brilliancy at all costs counts for so much in some quarters, and there are so many clever young men who think that nothing really matters, it is a pleasure to read Mr. Roberts' defence of higher values. His criticism of Anatole Franco is telling, and should be read by those who think that apostle of disillusion a safe guide in life. He sees Mr. Arnold Bennett's weaknessses, and his short study of Mr. Kipling is one of the best we have seen. It is not the only sign that as time goes on what is really great in Mr. Kipling's work is st-'iding out in its true splendour. And Mr. Roberts greatly admires Mr. Chesterton. "Of all the men of this century, he remains to rac the man who is at once most himself, and most willing to admit that there are many powers outside himself, things, he does not know, things he cannot see." Altogether an unusually good book of the kind.