EXTRAVAGANT PRAISE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 88, 15 April 1933, Page 2 (Supplement)

EXTRAVAGANT PRAISE.

Attention has been called more than once in these columns to the extravagant praise bestowed on novels by many English critics, and to the problems raised by the employment of leading novelists to write reviews in the popular Press. The literary critic of the Melbourne "Age," quotes from a recent "New Statesman" ridicule of the adulation with which Mr. Liam OTTlaherty's new book has been received. It should be noted how many of the critics referred to are also novelists. He says: "This book, which was reviewed in the 'Age' on February 18, deals with a small phase of the civil war in Ireland in 1920 between the Free Staters and the Republicans. It is a vigorously written story, without depth or subtlety, but well worth reading because of its viv:*.d pictures of that troublous period in 'Ireland when former comrades in arms during the Easter rebellion of 1916 found themselves fighting again&t one another. But according to the novelist critics of the stunt Press the book is a masterpiece. Dr. A* J- Cronin, the author of 'Hatter's Castle,' who, like many other novelists of to-day, has turned critic, states: —'It throbs with an immense vitality; the final crisis is terrific; a superb, oh! an overwhelming book. I simply could not lay it down.' Miss Phyllis Bentley, another novelist critic, who reviews books for the Manchester 'Evening Chronicle,' states: 'Excitement is a word too pale and too cheap for the throbbing anguish one experiences as one reads this tale . . . A'work of genius. It fulfils Aristotle's definition of tragedy, and, by making us experience pity and terror, purges our soul.' Miss E. M. Delafield, another wellknown novelist, who is a reviewer on the London 'Morning Post,' describes the book as a tense and living piece of drama.' Miss Rebecca West, novelist and critic, states in the "Daily Telegraph' that 'The Martyr' is 'as ghastly and powerful and beautiful as one of Goya's "Desastres de la Guerra" series.' Mr. Compton Mackenzie, novelist and critic, states in the TJaily Mail'; 'The more I meditate over it the more remarkable I find it.' An anonymous critic in the ■New Statesman' says concerning Mr. O'Flaherty—"What an amazing writer he is! . . . One is carried on,as by an avalanche.' Another anonymous critic states in the 'Evening News' (London): With no word too much, and no sentence that lacks its achieved purpose, the story develops in excitement to a final page so perfect that it stays almost word for word in the mind." "It is sad to think," concludes the "Age"' critic, "that the reading public is unmoved by such enthusiasm on the part of novelist critics for a fellow critic's book."