What London Is Reading

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 129, 3 June 1939, Page 12 (Supplement)

What London Is Reading

LONDON. IT has been a pleasure to welcome recently one or two novels of outstanding merit by Australian writers. Miss Kylio Tennant is another Australian whose work, "Foveaux" (Colin ncz) should be read with enjoyment wherever it may find its way. Foveaux is a suburb of Sydney, and we are given one of t.ho«« picture* of tt whole community to which writer* have accustomed ?m of lute. This treatment naturally implies ii large nillection of chat-actem and a ii urn her of morn or less clomly related t a lea.

ByCharles Pilgrim

In this mnp, am In similar cane*, the district Itself in the real central character. Seemingly, Kovemix ha* never been anything better than genteel. Hut In the course of events the ;tuburb shedeven it* gentility and life amongst it* inhabitant* becomes sordid and increasingly violent. At first there is at least eomflort and security, but after the World War security has largely disappeared and the people assume habits not far removed from sheer faction strife. The impression one has of them, and the impression the author seems to wish to convey, is that with all their faults they are a strong set who will not easily be overcome hy worsening circumstances. They may not have any enlture and their virtues may he moro than doubtful, but they will keep going and hold their heads tip. "Foveatix" may be placed in that collection of works which are of sociological interest M well as of dramatic power. A Proftuor't Love Story Mr. R. H. Mottrnm can always be relied upon to tell a tale well. From the time he wrote "The Spanish Farm" and other war stories he has been a master of the quiet »nd assured pen, and this mastery has never been more fully shown than in his most recent novql, "Yon Can't Have It Back." (Hutchinson.)

This, like si] his recent work, is a lII* of quiet life and one which lean •hly told might not hold the reader, for th« ground covered in not unfamiliar. It tells Uft how a middle-ajjrd professor, Joeelyn Rldfast, is in love with a very young girl, who has been one of his •indents and at the same time has not

been able to discntangle his heart from an older woman with whom he was in love in >i youth. •locely n i H |»i ill fully pulled between the two and manages to make the be-', or the worst of the dual influence. H" enjoys ,i fervid hilt not altogether satistory experience with the Aider woman, and is tlien trf-warded by nisirriagc. whirl, prom ise* tol be enduringlv happy with the girl. E Ihe outline of the :ale may i>e regarded as conventional, hut the "treatment is so skilful ami the character* so syrupat het icallv drawn tli.it almost i:i spite of oneself one is held throughout the tangled and scntinienial pages of .Tocelyn'* romance. Ramtay Mac Donald There was publi-hc| long a'.'., a biological attack on .Mr. Kamsa v Ma. Donald, which insisted on nothing but. hi* weaknesses. Now we have a study of another arid much fairer portrait in "The Life of James Ramsay Mac Donald (IBWI- 191 ft)" (Collins), bv Lord Klton, As the inserted dates i'niplv, another volume will complete the work. Lord Klton knew the late Prime Minister through many vears and, although he does not attempt to gloss oyer certain characteristics which made him difficult to deal with, holds him in high regard. Obviously, Mac Donald presents complex problems to his biographers. He was a man, aristocratic and aloof in temperament, who

found himself working passionately in a movement essentially democratic. Lord klton takes him through those years of poverty in the dual field -if journalism and politics. He explain-, his reactions towards the World War in lf>l4. and those reactions were r.o more simple than in relation to any other problem. He takes "s through the miracle of MncDonald's political resurrection after the debacle of lftlH. The tale is as romantic and dramatic as could be devised by t mv fiction writer. Indeed, Mac Donald in appearance and behaviour was a. very creature '»f romance and cannot be judged by th.» simple rules of political logic. Victor Hugo Victor nifgo's voluminous works mav not be rfA.I much nowadays, hut "Les Miserahies" is still the subject of popular film making. M. Leon Daudet, the author of "The Tragic Life of Victor Hugo" (Heinemann) approaches h's subject ill an attitude of hostility. Hugo's politics are anathema to him, and it may be that on account of this the biographer has harped on the domestic miseries of the poet's life. But he is too good a writer himself not to have carried out his task well. He shows us a great soul straining at involuntary exile and returning to his native country too late to enjoy any happiness in repatriation.