What London Is Reading

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 207, 2 September 1939, Page 10 (Supplement)

What London Is Reading

LONDON. THE study of the early history of man and the gradual rise of civilisation is a subject fraught with as much interest and' excitement as any tale of fiction. But man did not always think so. In 'The Discovery of Man" (Hamish Hamilton) Mr. Stanley Casson has traced the histories of those twin sciences, archaeology and ethnology, showing in the course of his study that early man was not interested either in his own past or in the past or present of his neighbours. The book is not so much a study of man's history as a study of man's interest in his own history. At first man considered himself perfect, and was therefore indifferent to the stages by which he had attained that perfection. It was the Egyptians who first realised that there existed in the world otlir.• types of mankind as well as themselves, and from them Mr. Casson traces the history of anthropology. It was the curiosity of the Milesian sailors which noted the differing customs and habits of those among whom they traded which led to a growth of interest all round the lonian coast and inspired the first anthropologist, Herodotus. Adventurous Humanity I The Greeks, like children, were for ever asking questions, and where no answers were given them they were ready at all times to propound theories of their own. Such theories may be read by all in the pages of Herodotus, who, though fully aware of the importance of his own Hellenic culture, is yet able to take an impartial interest in the customs of his barbaric neighbours. After the great age of Greece the science of anthropology declined as the Greeks became too self-conscious to study their own history or that of others. The Romans,. whom Mr. Casson dislikes

8y... Charles Pilgrim

extremely, were, he suggests, too stupid to think about anything except wars, latifundia and law.

In modern times ethnology suffered from the suspicious attitude of the Church, and this opposition has only comparatively recently collapsed. Archaeology, on the other hand, has had few of these difficulties to contend with. Pausanias, Mr. Casson does not rate very highly, and he finds the true beginnings of archaeology in the fifteenth century. The mania for "collecting antiquities" in the seventeenth century gradually fused into archaeology proper, and its history is traced through William Camden, Schliemann, Sir Arthur Evans and Cnossus to the mysteries of Ur. This is a serious scientific study written by a scholar, but in a lively manner which will interest even the least scholarly. World Disintegration We have learnt to expect some pretty strong writing from Mr. George Orwell, and those of' us who appreciate stern stuff will welcome his new novel, "Coming Up For Air" (Gollancz). The tone of the book may be epitomised in the words of its hero, Fatty Bowling: "And yet I've enough sense to see that the old life we're used to is being sawn off at the roots. I can feel it happening. I can see the war that's coming, and I can see the after-war . . . There are millions of others like me .... They can feel things cracking and collapsing under their feet."

Mr. Bowling is a middle-aged insurance salesman, with a wife and children, who lives in a semi-detached suburban villa and eats at Lyons. This is his story, told without any frills, direct and honest. He is an ordinary type of Englishman of his clasS, but perhaps he feels rather more than the average. He recalls his early life before 1914, and

he contrasts its quiet serenity with the abyss into which the world is moving today. But for some of us Mr. Orwell's picture will be rather too pessimistic, because he forgets the other side of the picture. The pessimism, however, is not assumed. Pleasant People For those who like to take their pleasures rather less sadly, a brighter picture will be found in "Swallows' Eaves," by R. Cameron Ward (Hodder and Stoughton), with decorations by Leslie Penny. This is a happy story in which the characters are all likable in their different ways and in their different levels of society. It is the story of a spoiled young woman of fortune and her admirer, a useful young man with money and leisure. Jean Merton-Crosby is bored with the devotion of Garth Turner, and answers a typist's advertisement for a young woman of her own age to share the expenses of a country cottage for a short holiday. The cottage belongs to a farm owned by a brother and sister, and Garth manages to stay as a paying guest, so the stage is set for a dramatic unrolling of the plot. The story and its telling are charming. It is the rich young woman round whom this small world revolves, but the typist has her moment at the end. This is a first ■ novel that many will like.