LITERARY.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 134, 8 June 1929, Page 2 (Supplement)

LITERARY.

I am.not one of the intelligentsia.— Mr. Baldwin.

Scandal at its finest is the truth that we tell behind a man's back because it would be unkind to tell it to his face. — Mr. Robert Lynd.

Patriotism is a comparatively new growth, opposed to human federation, dividing man from man implacably throughout the world.—Mr. H. G. Wells.

"William Penmare," whose second novel, "The Scorpion," was reviewed rceently in these columns, is a daughter of Mr. Joseph Hocking, the novelist. "Penmare" is the name of the old house at Hayle in Cornwall which was once an inn, where the Hockings used to live. "William Penmare" is the wife of a member of the staff 'of international lawyers attached to the League of Nations.

"Motoring Without Fears" is the title of a motorists' guide by Lord Cottenham (Methuen), which indicates all the things to be feared and avoided— except the lady driver, for whom the noble lord writes a chapter of compliments with but one real warning, "Don't talk when driving." The author believes in tlie safety of speed, or with speed in hand at instant command and not to be had only by changing gears. He tells motorists generally that" they are not entitled to half the road, but only sufficient room to travel safelv, which sometimes demands all the road and a bit over. Photographs and sketches are excellent and informative, and every motorist, without exception, wmild be a better driver and a better man for having adopted the earl s advice.

A DAY'S CRICKET.

That there is no other game so closely connected with literature aa cricket is illustrated afresh by the fact that Mr. Hugh de Selincourt should have thought is worth while writing a book about a oneday match. "The Cricket Match," which Jonathan Cape has added to his "Traveller's Library," is a description of twelve hours in the lives of two teams who meet on a village ground in England. Below the fuss and fury of Test matches, which fill the public eve, is a vast body of cricket that is not at all anxious to have any change in the rules; it is hard enough as it is to get runs. Club cricket and village cricket form about per cent of the game in England, and it is of an inteT-village match that Mr. Selincourt writes so charmingly. He describes the day of various players—the villager whose'fast bowling is the mainstay of his side, the middle-aged batsman, the young squire, the boy who is playing his first match, the sensitiveminded literary man who captains the team—their day from early morning until, after the match, night falls on the village like a benediction. It is a story of actions and reactions. The game itself, which does not start until the afternoon, is described in detail to its closest possible finish. The book is rich in the drama, the poetry, the many-sided character of cricket played in homely conditions, and every lover of the game ehould read it.

JOHN GALSWORTHY, O.M. We print on page 1 an appreciation of Dr. Robert Bridges, who has just been admitted to the Order of Merit. Mr. John Galsworthy, who keeps him com-pany—-n-e do n ot remember two previous appointments at one time —is, wtih the exception of Sir Jame3 Barrie, the most popular writer on whom this supreme distinction has been conferred. Thie popularity, however, has come to him relatively late. Galsworthy is now over sixty; he was forty when he' made his first hit with "The Man of Property"; and it was not until the development of this story into the "Forsyte Saga" within the last ten years that he became one of the most widely read and discussed authors of the day. The "Saga" is one of the great achievements in fiction of the time. Throughout the Englishspeaking world, and on the Continent as well, men and women waited with the keenest interest for "Swan Song." Soames and Fleur and Irene and the other Forsytes have become friends of all of us —people with an even fuller vitality than real beings—and the word "Forsyte" has passed into the language as indicating a certain class and attitude towards life. It is comforting to be reminded of tlie truth that is clear enough in Eii<rli c h literature—that the works of genius may win wide popularity. But this writer is more than a novelist; he is a great dramatist, one of the most gifted of the band who made English drama a new and living thing, after the long period of Victorian narrowness and convention. A question that is sure to be widely asked is this: "What of George Bernard Shaw?" Whatever one may think of Mr. Shaw's opinions, it is undeniable that he is a great dramatist; indeed in tlie eyes of foreigners he is. a greater 1 man than Mr. Galsworthy. It would be interesting to know what the Baldwin Government thought of his claims to this honour, tha only one that he could accept.

PRAISE TOR A NEW ZEALAND HISTORIAN.

The "Times" Literary. Supplement of April 18 contains a review of "The French at Akaroa," by T. Lindsay Buick. Among other things, it says: "Legends die hard. Even painstaking and complete dissection of the corpse seems frequently unable to destroy their vitality. So it is probably .too much to expect that we have yet heard the last of the 'great race' for Southern New Zealand, in which' Britain supposedly won by a bare nose and something very like sharp practice. Still, after Mr. Buick's careful and thoroughly documented study of the really quite simple transactions which in the end gave Britain her fifth Dominion intact, further recitals of that legend may be considered inexcusable. . ... . The really startling feature of all this voyaging is that, so far as can.be ascertained from long and close study of the'documents (notably that made by Professor Ernest Scott), not a single expedition had annexationist designs; even those made during the. Napoleonic'wars were sincerely scientific in purpose, though one or two young hotheads on Baudin's staff amused themselves with unsolicited secret service reports to superiors of their own kidney. .; . Mr. Buick lias (not for the first time, by any means) deserved well of his ,j country, and. of-all students of colonial history in that, with great patience and Ion? research, he has made available all the evidence for a series of transactions which I'pr'ctotly advantaged the Empire, and which' reflect credit on officers of two nations placed in a very difficult position."

The Femina Vie Heureuse prize, for 1928-29 has been awarded to Mr. H. M. Tomlinson's "Gallions Reach."

Dr. W. H. Pettit, of Auckland, has published a pamphlet called "Evolution," which has for its sub-titles "Is it Scientific?" "Shall we Teajh it in the Schools?" and "An Appeal to Reason and Common Sense." Dr. Pettib cites certain evidence offered as proof of evolution in New Zealand University lectures, and subjects it to detailed criticism. He quotes opinions of scientists against evolution, and contends that the truth lies in the Bible.

"Gilbert White, Pioneer, Poet and Stylist," by Walter Johnson, F.G.S. (Murray), is a book about one of the classics of natural history. The author of "The Natural History of Selborae" was a man of many parts, ornithologist, geologist, botanist, entomologist and poet. The fact that White's discoveries and researches were made 150 years ago, without the assistance of the mechanical, and scientific appliances of to-day, makee his work still more remarkable. Mr. Johnson draws White's character, and gives a clear insight into his laborious work of acquiring an insight into the habits of the creatures which came under his observation. This simple-living country gentleman who planted and pruned and noted so carefully, wrote a book that ranks him with leaak Walton, and probably no work in natural history has been more frequently reprinted. Mr. Johnson has collected a mass of information about one of the most charming writers in this field.

ANTARCTIC MISERY.

RECORD OF A SUBSIDIARY

EXPEDITION.

The limit of human endurance varies with the individual and with the climate: In "The, South Polar Trail," by Ernest Joyce (Duckworth) a very, thoroughly illustrated diary of Polar travel, there is little to relieve the sadness of continued records of miseries and discomforts, of pain, disease and death. In cold (such told as 80 degrees of frost and worse) wet and famine, a party sent to prepare a eeries of ''posts" for Sir E. Shackleton'a Rose Sea party (starling 1914) struggled for nearly 2000 miles on ice and enow without medical aid or proper equipment, the latter going adrift by accident. As an example of courage and determination this record cannot be beaten. When Polar exploration success Is gained it has been usually the result of a fortunate retention of needful things throughout a journey. For 5J days one member of this party lay in a wet, cold sleeping bag, slowly dying. Other men fought on through wind and snow when they themselves were more fit for hospital than travel. The rewards of flueh endurance were proportionate to the suffering of the explorers. The sympathy and admiration of readers of this diary, and the success of subsequent explorers, perhaps based upon the achievements of Joyce and his party, cannot atone for months of misery no words can adequately describe, particularly as the object of the author of the journey was not attained.

VITALITY OP GERMAN LITERATURE.

An important development in English publishing is the number of German books that are being issued. "Jew Suss" is one of the best known. Several books on the Great War have been published and are being widely read. We will review shortly "All Quiet on the Western Front," which is acclaimed one of the most important of all war books. A writer in the London "Observer" says of German post-war literature, "seething with ideas and force," that "no literature in a single decade has ever shown more rapid, yet powerful, fluctuations both of thinking and impressionism, with the same old familiar engine of research pounding all the time. . . Our next-to-nearest neighbours are still charged with sheer vitality. Nothing will cure them of their desire to get at the root of the purpose in whatever they undertake. 'I don't only want to cut hair,' said the studious German barber chaffed by his English mate; 'I wnnt to find out what hair isl' "

TWO NOVELS

ANOTHER STORY OF AUSTRALIA.

MAUD DIVER'S LATEST

We had the pleasure last year of commending Mr. Frederick Howard's first novel, "The Emigrant," a story of a voung Scotsman's struggles in Australia. "Return Ticket," by the same author (Longmans), is not, as we thought at first, the story of hie return to Britain. It is a tale of another immigrant, this time a young Cornish grocer, who, on being left a couple of thousand pounds, uproots himself and his wife and seeks his fortune in Australia. It is a sad tale of frustrated longings. Cedric, breaking away from the narrow life in the Cornish shop, goes up to London, gets employment in a shop and marries the cashier. The r ; ri is a good wife to him, but the aesthetic side of Cedric is not satisfied, and it is left to another woman to touch it. Cedric and his wife settle in a small Victorian town, and the life there is well described. His wife, competent, affectionate, ambitious, but unimaginative and materialistic, is sympathetically drawn, and so is Cedric, the poet tied to the grind of the grocer's shop. A poignant story. There are all the well-known Maud Diver elements in that popular novelist's latest story, "Wild Bird" —an impulsive charming young girl, Anglo-Indian life, music, poetry, and much sentiment. The "Wild Bird." the daughter of an officer in the Indian service, a girl of imagination and spirit, reftels against humdrum life in England,, and goes back to India by herself. On the way she becomes engaged to a man old enough to be her father, and heads for tragedy. In India we are introduced to a grandson of the Desmond of Maud Diver's first novel— and it is not' difficult; to guess the rest. There' is the usual collection of cultured high-Tnirid'ed people, and though, one feels at times as if the atnvosphere was somewhat rarefied, one feels better for meeting such characters. The author writes with equal charm of the English and the Kashmir landscape. John Murray is the publisher.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

Black Democracy, by H. P. Davis (Allen and Umvin). Women are Like That, by E. M. Delafleld (Macmillan). Awake and Rehearse, hy Louis Bromneld; The Great Horn Spoon, by Eugrene Wright; Combed Out, hy F. A. Voigrnt; Between Earth r.nd Sky, by Konrad ■ "reovlce: Friday Nights, by Edward Garnett; Contemporaries of Marco Polo, by Manuel Komroff (Jonathan Cape. The last four are fn the Traveller's Library).