NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19813, 28 December 1929, Page 11

NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

ANOTHERN WESTERN FRONT. Goodbye to All T»s»: An Autobtoirapny. By Kobcrt OriTN. Jonathan Cape. S.> mi;, ii is s.-.iil about tins >..»>'k on the < able pn>.'o tins morning thai it is n.'i nee. viirv to cover the ground tnice. It is. however, vry n >sii v |o be fan. and to say at <n- c that the i.ibhil critu kiiic cue a quite detiited impression of the ant<<bun;r;>pl >• ,-k a uh.do. Ti>o remark "t th- 'ltalic Mail" tlmt the l«H>k is "paiulnl MrJ provocative k true, but it n not tiue to Mio,g»mt that Mr (iraces pr.--s< uts Frame and Britain as the authors of the war. Germany »» il* li'iioveiiL \ictim. and the famuli.m* and Australians as meie cnt-tbr. .its i.nd ruthrtiK. Up does say it i« ,1 the jev, really stupid things in tbo hook that the excuse |»r the Australians i> that t!ir\ were "only two p-v < rations removed I rum the il.ivs ,| Ralph liiKhletgh ami Marcus Clarke " But he makes it quite clear that what he says on this subject i* merely a Nummary of opinion* bandied about bv young officers m an iu~t nut ion camp in whioh talk was tree, and tluit thev were never able to decide "how tar this reputation tor atrocities u»s deserved, and how far it was due to the overseas habit of bragging and leg-pulling." All that was otnte ortaiu. he ;,dds by way of (dosing the • liscussicin. Mas lhat "to have committed atrocities against pnsomi * was. .■imoii'C the oversea* men, mid I'li'ii among «--.tiio British troop*, a boast and nut a confession."

But the point, of course, is that his remarks ibunt atrocities occupy three or four pages altogether in a bonk v'i ■toil pages. Tliev have no more importance, it the\ have :k much, than tllK report of a discussion, in the <=rme camp, the < leanest troops in trei'e!io». taken in nat innnlit ie* \V.< air, -d on H list I.L» tliits. in d-M-cmlm* order: KngtUli mm! Herman I'r.it f stunt > ■: Northern Iris.li. WrUli. end r»nadien«: Inch nnd Herman Cut lirtbr* . Sfoit ii.ll: Mnhurn in»dnn rndi«n«; Algerian".- I'ortuirtirn r: R.OKiniis; Trench. The H»lgiun« and Krenrh »•(■',•• nut thrrc for si<itr; they were not icjiTly dirtier th«n Die Algerian" oi Portuguese. Without, the la>t sentence the eniii parison would be offensive. With it it ceases to be anything more .serious (ban a vump man's idle comment during an "idle hour. (A good deal of (his boo'< was written before lie mi* t went ,-iuio.) And in any case, n is not all win A ireat deal of it some people will find Uieso pnges the m<>-l ititotcMi tg of all is an account, trunk to the piitnt of !ni,f."ilit\ , but f.rnr.-lii ig Mid hi*hlv iiitclliai ot. it the liff of Hie Knglish Public Hchrtol. Morally, Mr Graves suffered nlimM is much at mcliool as he did during the wnr, and hn si'iirche- v<iy hnldlv for the «nn«e. Finally. he ha, mi t moil nf I lie ablest' voimg aicn of England, and tiiHitv of the older men, mid he lias tin iinennuv faculty for allowing them us tlmv tenllv lire. If hi* storv mil Heniarques Ueniarque us n picture of lile on flu Western Front, it also suggest* l.ytlon Htrtchey nnd Frank Harris whim lie is dealing with celebrities It can hardly be- in'it»hsary to add thai it is one of 1 ho besfsust.■tilted piece- of cgotiMi) rvcr «et down in print, but it m fgotism direr fed by intelligence and lit up by humour. VIRGINIA WOOLF. (1) Th« Voyage. Out (li) Jacob* »«om (Ul) Mra DMlowtir. (It) Tb« Common Header. By VlrjlnU Woolf. T*« Hogarth l»r*ai. The first three tultimi's in the new uniform edition of Mrs Woolf'n work define n span of about ten yearn. At leant, "The Vovago Out" was first published in 1915, "Mr» Dalloway" in ]f»t!/>; "Jacob's Room" came between —in 19'22. , A writer's advance is always easier to , mark if he or she has had the good ! spnso to begin badly; and nothing cheers the critic more than to be ablo to glance with shrewd appraisal from "Juvenilia" to "In Memoriain." or from raw, youthful Thackeray to "Ksmond," nnd persuade his hearers that bread tastes better than dough. But when a j writers firm, delicate, and just to begin with, and her first prose no less than her later prose distinguishes and yrt unites the visible body of life and its unseen, formative spirit, ns the arc. distinguishes and unites convex and eoncave, then advance, though it tempts the critic to deelaro it, encourages him with no obvious landmarks. Mrs Woolf ha* moved in this secret way. Nobody at all sensitive ean fail to see. that in "Mrs Dalloway" she refines an art that was already fine in "The Voyage Out"; but there is no new quality in the later work, nor is the difference one to he explained by any weakness outgrown. Perhaps it can lie said that site ha* learned to do with fewer material signs and witnesses, to he less substantial without being less real; that she has come nearer to constructing a drama in which thought and will anil passion ar« the characters, and actions and speech are the symbols and reminders, like scenery on the stage. This is Mrs Woolf's mystery; her artistic organisation of life is not a formula, it is a process at work. But it reveals more accurate results without revealing more of itself. "The Common Reader' consists of Mrs Woolf's critical work. The complete set.—another four or five volumes are in preparation -will look extremely pleasant in their dark green linen and neat fold lettering. PICTORIAL VERSE. Am Uit Story Omi. Br B«Hy Kasll. sTuw o»ntury Pr«aa. Limited, Brdnay and Wal-ling-ton. We are told, ill the curious phrase of the Foreword, that th« writer's development has been "sninll short of amazing." It is difficult or impoMihlo to trace this development, sinew there is nothing in the book to show from what it begun nnd with what it ends. Hut if ' aiittißing ' is meant to apply to the quality of any or all of thene poems, it i« too formidable a word altogether. They are not amnr.ing at nil. The bust of them nre interesting and promising, even when irritating; tmd they are often irritating. They tire full of that minor emotional melodrama whie)i is the more deplornble tis it is the more ■onipetent. In <*onu» Australian writers this style is complete and cht'diic, in everything they do they chart a wilfully and eonsistentlv high Miss Knell has not yet learned so much of this febrile art as to suggest that her cane is hopeless, and that she must, or will, continue to n rite lor "every worthwhile paper in Australia and Sew Zealand." Khe plnyt frequently with irregular measures, which prove only that her ear i* not sensitive. Their movement is in general mechanically regular, hut she croup* her word* in inegnlsr ! iin». either at tb» bidding ol rhyme or for (he sake of the emphasis afforded by typi.graphical portion; and this is supposed to be rhythmical free lorn, ft is only n wnv o»' doing things easily without doing them we]|. She has n keen serine oi pteb-irial plir.Tte. and indulges it rare Ic«*ly. Tt sati*fies brr to write Onrfeoiisly itand the maplet one upon one Like h corpa of eoldlera at ease es pararie like corn in the thraf. Straight nf trunk, tuppl* of hranrh. shim mer of leaf. The first -idveib is bad: the butt line is badly placed; but what n worst is the last phrase, which trias to chswt the reader into accepting it as a trim co-ordinate with ths preceding two.

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