BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17223, 13 August 1921, Page 7

BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

r RECENT NOVELS. w "Dangerous Ages." By Bow Macauiay. lAWjdon.".' Collins aiid Sone.—"Where the Ptvement Ends." By John Russell, I^maon: Thornton Butterworth.—I"The 1 "The Ivory Bell." By C. C. Hctchkiaj. New York: Watt and Co.—"Man to Man." By Jackson <Jjejory. New York: Scribner's Sons. (Through. Whit-oombe and Tombs, Ltd.) "The . S.torm Man." By John B. Hicks. London: Hodder and Stougiton.—"Paxnaero9 on Wheels." By Christopher Morley. Jjondon: William Heinemarun. (Through L. : M. Isitt, .-Utd.) In the June number of the London"Mercury," Mr Edward Shanks has 'several t>age3 of "Reflections on the English Novel," which appear to lead him to two crnclusions: that "recently" the better novelists hare been concerned with the display of character, and have had little success in creating new and substantial life, and that "the narrative gift, the faculty of telling i» . story, is taking -with renewed importance ita place in the development of the novel." How hard it is to generalise, however, becomes very clear when one takes at random any dozen new novels. The only clear impression they yield is that one cannot write of "the liiodern novel" a 9 a thing as definite as modern poetry, which has same very marked characteristics of its own. The ' mistake made by some able critics is that they take letters as a genus and the novel as a species, instead of recog- . nising that the novel is a genus, of which any Species is as good as any other. There are good and bad in. every species. Except that they are both fiction, for example, there is no likeness between "Where the Pavement , Ends" . and "Dangerous Ages"—no means of comparing them with each other. And yet of each one can ,68y -that it is first-rate of its kind. We know what to expect of Miss Rose Macauiay, and we find it in "Dangerous Ages." "All ages are dangerous to '•people' in'this dangerous age we live,"' • is the truth, which she would demonstrate in this acute and humorous btudy of seven women—Neville, and her chil- ■ dren, her sisters and their mother, Mrs ; Hilary, and great-grandmamma, who is eighty and clever and at peace. She ~ alone is pa&t the state of discontent, tolerant, and not uniamused by the restlessness of all her descendants. Mrs Hilary is 63, stupid, active, and jealous of her Children. Neville is 43, and ■f feels more acutely than any of them < all, -the uselessness of having nothing to do: Nan, the novelist, is in the thirties, "the right, ordinary age that meet people are." And Gerda is Nevilles child—a child of the age, a student of Freud, thinking and speak-, irig frankly of subjects thle very existence of -which was unknown to Mrs ; Hilary. Miss Macauiay does not ; 'de- . perui for ter effects on incident in ehowv : mg us these restless women -bitten by the murderous hatred , of time '-that "i consumed them. ■■ ;&he -"has N k .clearly, conceived her character*; and" her ac-' ; oomplished artistrygoes to-the,brightest- ■\ and sharpest drawing' of them. One , reads her, as one.readsAthe author of • "Elizabeth in her Geranan Garden',''' for ; l»r bird-like • 1 To enjoy her Httle j6kes .one inusi be'' pretty familiar with' current-literature; " and'eurrent events.: Grandmamma;-is • the* vehicle for the best of them. " ' A / wonderful man,' said grandmamma, jy who, had bwn •*;' (General. Bpdth 6) • fife °.njs tvrb. >lirgejvpl- ! times.- SWpt Jfcny; V thing#; Jmv&.'been* v lijclre'interesting if it had,-been•'written. by *Mr Lytion Strachey, iftstead of Mr" . Begbie; he has a.better touch on our . great religious leaders." > Mrs 1 Hilary ; was a stupid woman: '•"" 'Tearing on - their jewellery in publio like that,' said Mrs Hilary in disgust, as she might have said,. 'tearing off the chemises,' 'and goli watches Tying in piles on the collection table, still ticking. It • was indecent' she-felt,' that the watches . should have been still ticking; it made t the, thing an orgy ; like a revival meet- « tug, cr some cannibal rite at which vicwere offered up still breathing." ' The author of "Where the Pavement r Ends,". Mr John Russell, has been ac_r claimed as a new Kipling.' He is at „ leafit a new Benfiation—a writer of short 'i- stories fall of colour and action .and _ thrill, which it woufcfjcot be inacourate r $o describe as a blending of Kipling and i the Grand Guignol. That is a recipe which will attract, and, we understand, r s has already , attracted, an .even larger ■and more damprous'crowdjthan patfon- ■ : ises Miss Macauiay's'• comedies; Mr'Rusi ' f sell's storieii -tflfto^tlleSouth 1 . "The Fourth Man,'.' L Is a escaped from New. Caledonia on a raft a Kanaka, and they are not picked ' *tfp as :their friends had arranged. Their ' V;=®nal|fstore 1 of water runs low, and in a under aburmngskyin • tho''last drops are lost and the men die. The Kanaka, silent and denied any, water, has lived on. "The tost God" .is jthe story of Jim . Albro. lie was Mow' in his diving smit c>ff shore wjhwjjibe - - yearling party were overwhelmed who cut the life -'ashort in - "his diving' srat' whiijaiiras^received as a •god; . Bat he could, not get out of- his ■■ helmet. lii"The Price of_ the Head" we have a history of the/loving care and Satience with which Karalri rescued a erelict beachcomber, and with infinite paiiis steered him to. Bougainville, com r nutting innrder and undergoing great .hnidaViji. n'nt? . suffering for his sake. . -he;wanted was tne beachcomber's : - which was made a pearl bevond ' piit»|by its red, jwhiskers. There are iwdvei-equally dramatic episodes,in this ,uncommon book| and the climax in each ■ ia violent and startling. . Tha Americans continue to pivduce in abundance those stories of intrigue and action: which - American call "man's jize books;" Mr Jackson Gregory's "Man to Man" is made acoord- - v lug to a Tery. popular formula —the ; young man dispossessed - coming bade to clum his own, and finally securing it ■ after some tremendous fightiiig with his -enemies. In this case the] young man ; has amongss. his enemies a-fierce old " grandfather, who chooses too well the • TrifflnTin who are to test his grandson's : V spirit. There is the usual spitfire Weetern girl, and the usual end comes after SSO breathless-pages of excitement piled ' upon excitement. It would make an excellent film, and an even better film' would lie yielded by Mr Chauncey C. HoMikisYs "The Ivory Ball." The ball is 3 sacred relic stolen frbm a Chinese shrine. In a desperate situation during Villi's rerplution it comes into the hands I of a young American, who is subse- | - qnently kidnapped by the % Chinaman 'Who*lias searched for the ball for years. Hie Chinaman, first in his beautiful Ijopie, and' then on his yadit, endeav- ' , 'onrs to. drive the Amwican to suicide, >when all seems lost tbe-Chinaman Via outwitted, br 'a reaJly clever use of the ' tnok'of chatißmg poisoned and harmless drinks. J Mr Hotchkiss's mannw .is simple.- and free from the absurdities one ■ might expect from such a melodramatio . ta£7