What London Is Reading

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 219, 16 September 1939, Page 8 (Supplement)

What London Is Reading

ByCharles Pilgrim

LONDON A NOVEL with real characters is "She Married Pushkin" (Constable) by Miss E. M. Almedingen. It is a novel which starts with a clear bias. By many Pushkin s wife has been held responsible for Pushkin's death. The story of the beautiful Nathalie Honcharoff, who married Russia's most famous poet, has been mainly told by the poet's friends and partisans. By them she has been held to l>e frivolous and of doubtful morals, the mistrese of the Czar and not improbably of the poet's brother-in-law, with whom the fatal duel was fought. .Miss Almedingen takes up the cudgels on the side of the wife. She paint* her as beautiful and brilliant, the victim of an over-jealous husband. The poet she draws as a highly romantic figure, Byronic and tremendously imposing. The note generally is hvperfervid anil <| uitc clearly the author has set herself out to write a good story as well as to justify one whom she regards as a heroine. The fashion which is growing of digging out actual biography and turning them into pseudo fiction presents a puzzle to the average reader. One cannot trust to the novel alone. It seems advisable to go to a reference library and refer to one or two reliable and sober biographies in order to verify the facts. But it may satisfy many to aeeept the novel at its own value as entertainment. In these days when the fate of great nations seems to be hanging in the bula nee and most people find it difficult to be happy or detached, it is pleasing

to turn to an account of one of the small nations which may in sonic ways lie accepted as a model. "Danish Delight" (Duckworth) bv Monica Redlich. is a book by an Irishwoman of London birth married to a Dane and living in Copenhagen. During the first year of her married life she kept a journal of her impressions and being a practised writer she has made her journal a very pleasant one to read. She paints a picture of a people who may be described broadly as happy and prosperous. They have their problems, but they seem to know how to deal with them. So far as it is possible they are democratic in their organised life. Their King is one of themselves, but they entertain towards him an affectionate loyalty. Their homes are well run, their industries skilfully planned ami their towns modern and hygienic in the best sense. They work hard, but they play easily. Their general atmosphere is one of cheerfulness. In Mexico There is a common feeling, even amongst those who do not know very much about it, that -Mexico to-day is to be accounted amongst the progressive nations; that its rulers have taken in hand a number of abuses arid dealt with them wisely if drastically. But this is not the opinion of Mr. Kvelvn Waugh as expressed in "Robbery Under Law" (Chapman and Hall).

Mr. Waugh can see nothing in modern Mexico history but spoliation and wickedness. As lie sees things, the ( hureli was robbed some eighty years ago; then followed the robbery of the great land owners, and the latest has been the expropriation of the oil fields. All of these acts Mr. Waugh denounces. He has to admit that the peasants are letter off than they were under the old order, but that does not satisfy when he finds the priests persecuted and impoverished. Although there may be in his attitude all the prejudice of the "ancient regime,'' he will be rend with interest on account of his reputation as a novelist and because it is always well lo take notice of both sides. A Public Servant The question of public health is one of universal intercut, therefore "Building of a Nation's Health" (Macmillan) by Sir George Newman has world-wide value, although it refers largelv to matters in the United Kingdom. Sir George was for 2K years Chief -Medical Officer to the Board of Education and Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Health. During his term of office he earned a high reputation as a jealous administrator and writes with the fullest knowledge. His book is the story of the building up of a public health service in England from its very beginnings. One may not agree with all his views on medicine, but one must admire the way in which step by step many of the deadliest diseases have been wiped out, and how through official acts a healthier standard of living has been acquired. ❖