BOOKS AND AUTHORS

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 151, 27 June 1936, Page 2 (Supplement)

BOOKS AND AUTHORS

In the opinion of G. W. Stonier, the modern novel is tlie least differentiated form of writing. Whole chapters, even in many of the best current novels, might have been written by any novelist possessing a certain competence. No one could tell, after reading a couple of pages of each, a Brett Young fr<">m a Frank Swinnerton or a- Walpolc from a Priest lev.

Robert Lynd thinks it is the books that we reread that give tlie greatest happiness, even though we know that some of them are by no means among the world's masterpieces. The letterwriters and the essayists are, as a rule, not among the giants of literature, but to those who care for them they have this great quality of re-readableness.

There must be fc.w countries in the world where Dr. Axel Munthe's remark - ;i 1> 1 e hook. "The Storv of San Michele," has Jiot circulated, lie published it in 1020, and it steadily grew into one of the most notable best-sellers of the century. Incidentally all the profits have gone to charity. The old doctor, who went blind before the hook was issued, may often be seen, a rather lonely and pathetic figure, in hi<% club in London. But recently a remarkable thing has happened. An operation by an opthalinic magician, ]}r. Alfred Yoght. of Zurich, ha.s restored his sight, and he has just read, for the first time, his great book—a new illustrated edition of it which is being published. He modestly says that it makes him out to be a finer fellow than he ever was. ]int his judgment on that point may bo doubted. What is interesting is that he is at present working on a sequel, to lie called "The .Missing Chapters of the Story of San Michele."