NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20215, 18 April 1931, Page 13

NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

JOURNAL OF A POET. . Xba Notebook of Halts Laurld Brigg#. By Bainer Maria Bllke. The Hogarth Press. The Danish poet, Brigge, of this; self-revealing Notebook existed only in Rainer Maria Rilke's imagination, and it is impossible not to read its pages as oblique autobiography. It is, as Lamb said of Sir Thomas Browne's style, a "beautiful obliquity," but it is deceptive. Perhaps here and there the identity between Rilke and. Brigge is complete and exact; this may be felt as it is.possible to feel in reading Shakespeare, Now Hamlet is Shakespeare himself, or Here Prospero is. The more frequent these certitudes, the less they are to be trusted. There is nearly always some artistic refraction of light to be allowed for; and who shall always be sure how much? - How incompletely truthful, for instance, as a portrait of George Gissing is Henry Ryecroft? Would anybody, unless forewarned and prepared, easily link the truth of that idealised self-portrait with the truth of Morley Roberts's objective study of the novelist in "The Private Life of Henry Maitland''? Similarly, Brigge is more and le,ss than Rilke, like him but not his image, and there is probably one respect only in which the relation between them is constant?. Brigge seems to express the self over whom Rilke's conquests were won, the nervous, artistic sterility that he made quick and powerful, the fears that he over-rojje. Brigge is Rilke's morbid arid dreaming though exquisite sensibility, to which the poet had to add energy and will and the wisdom of experience; and there is a beautiful passage early in the book, illuminating both the. dreamer and the creator- To leave aside the problem of the indication of Rilke's personality / with Brigge % what is most remarkable and interesting is the pictorial quality of much of the writing, and the pictures are of twQ kinds. There are records of daily experience, which every acute sense is called on to Bharpen and refine. There are memories of childhood, which have the. strangeness and the isolated distinctness of things within the circle of a light, While all around iii shadow deepening to darkness. It cannot have been an easy matter to retain the value of these passaged in translation; and the translator, Mt John Linton, deserves high praise.

THE MODERN FRENCH NOVEL. French Novelists from the Revolution to Proust. By Frederick 0. Green. J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd. (7s 6d net) Professor Green's book is almost a model of what literary history should be. It has breadth without for a moment teeming to bulge and spread under* the pressure of its contents. It is well proportioned, and thiß in a class where proportion often means nothing but the varying allowance of space: ten pages ! to a big man, two to a middling one, and a sentence to a nobody. It tracer growth and connexion. The criticism reflects a judgment fresh, cool, arid personal, though . not eccentric, and ! never for a moment takes the dreadful note of the text-books which authoritatively declare the right things and license the student to repeat them. All that Professor Green lacks, to give, the highest 'pleasure and delicious annoy; ance, is a touch of perversity and, wilfttbiesgji of exaggeration in likes and disr likes, such as Professor Saintsbury has. A good way to read this book ' is to use tho index —to search ont what Professor Green has written about* novelists or novels familiar to the reader, so as to get the measure of his mind) then to reul the book through .** A whole. Dipping brings up interesting remarks sach as those At the 1 Close of this chapter on Balsacj for instance, | "BatjAo benefits J>y that state ol! mind 'peciiliar to those witnessing great drama.'' Or there is the question about Flaubert: "What is .it that leads sn«h - vitality to Flaubert's proset Ib it- not the discovery that tnere ss .no, such, thing as 'still life'!'* ; SPo have sampled P&&0S h©i*6 and thfiiw is to Jcwpttr th&ti the book is worth settling down to.

BUT FKNSTERMAN WAS DEAD. , Th» Poor Atulfttt**. By ftfea C#bttor. Jo&atlMb Xfepe.

Extraordinarily ingenious as this book is, it does not overreach lteOlf in ingenuity, as many,' detective stories do, and fall outside credibility. The are interesting and lifelike and form euch a group as' might,, M the given circumstances,- have Undertaken the singular experiment on which the plot rests, Five.men on, ft holiday, argue with idle seriousness th? question whetheramateurs .Can,. as detectives, compete with the police, l'ensterman dogmatically ;.toat it is impossible: Binqess suggests thai tfe real impossibility is on? of piroof ' ot disproof, because the experimental mttnod cannot be."applied.. Fensterman, a positive, provocative man, challenges this and-offers vto .provide the experiment. Ha fc|',to disappear, leaving behind him,' on conditions' agreed upon A all the evidence. to show that he has been murdered, and when, and where, and why, and how, and by whom, within a fortnight !the , five are to metet again and the 1 four investigators to offer 'not more than I fbtir solutions, With the evidence. The agreement is.dtown up, the stakes are - fixed, S'enstermah goes off,, on the ftp* pointed ? day investigation begins, evidence is -found} though conflicting Inferences are drawn from -it," and at the end, °f the determined period tfe« four - amateur dotectivea prepare their solutions, -in roadineas for TPensterman*S return. But Fensterrian is dead. ■ The gome they have played has made the real murderer's task very simple and hidden/ him almost beyond nope of discovery. -

PRISONER OF WAR. Vrisoner Hste. -By Sari Wilts. Hutcbln- .• . son, Tzon WMtgombe and Tombs, Ltd. Thpugh the tide of interest has probably turned against war novels, it will be * pity if this one is neglected. It deserves to,, be read, aa an honest and moving account of the experiences of a prisoner of war. Heinnch Halm yr&& captured not long before the end of the war, when his company was fighting a rearguard aotion in the Garman repeat: ;and the early, chapters wve a good picture of war-weaxy troops, ' strained to 'breaking point. Balm remained a prisoner, in various camps, until early in 1920'. The pictare of life in these camps is drawn with an unrelenting firmness,, the effect of 4 which •is accentuated by Halm's mild • and studious character.

FOUR "PERIOD" NOVELS. (t) Tumult in the North. By George Preody. John Luxe, The Bodiey Head, (tt) Spanish Xover. By Frank H. Spearman. Hodder and stonghton. From W. 8. Smart. (Hi) xjie Bavena Enter the House. By Ivory Burnett. John Hurray. (iv) Mr Conlngton. By Bora Barfoed. Hodder and Stoughton. From W, S. Smart. Mr Preedy, in whose name, we are how told ; Miss Marjone Bowen has achieved her second and higher reputation, turns to the period of the 'Fif-

teen for his story and the North of England for his background. The young hero is reluctant to jeopardise his possessions, love, and happiness in a crazy adventure; but ho goes. "What brought us here, Harry 1" smiled my lord, as he stepped through the mire and the ,graves to the barricades, "when there was nothing in the world that we bad not or might not have had—" "Belle brought thee," thought Mr Lovell. and, as he looked at the stern pale face of his brother he thought of what my lord was like to lose.-' ... "North 1" shouted Mr Lovell. "North!" And a little party broke away from Preston to the misty hills. The story is exceedingly well told, to the point when the cause is lost and the tumult in the north is stilled, and my lord goes into exile. But the wreck of his fortunes, is not all loss. Mr Spearman is the most adventurous of these four explorers. His hero is Don John of Austria, Mr Chesterton's Don John, "the last Knight of Europe ... the last and lingering troubadour" of "Lepanto." Two chapters contain an admirable account of the great sea-fight, Don John's victory in the centre and then the fierce struggle in. which he retrieved the defeat of the right wing under Doria. Mr Spearman makes his pages gorgeous with the trophies of an opulent age, but does not overload them. The narrative, never flags in pace or strength, and if Mr Chesterton earned the right with "Lepanto" to the dedi-; cation of the first good prose romance on the theme, Mr Spearman proves his right to offer the dedication. The end* papers are two attractive and useful maps—of the world of Don John's warfare and of Lepanto. The name of "Ivory Burnett." the publisher says, conceals a "distinguished author, bred in Scotland, steeped in Scottish lore, learned in Scottish history, devoted to "Scottish romance." Whoever he—or she—is, the book stands firmly on ita own merits. The scenery is Highland, the period Caroline; the immediate background of event is provided by Montrose and Argyll, both vigorously drawn. The author gives his novel substance and animation; It has the breath and -: movement 6f fomance, without tile stage gestures; and toe glimpses of land -and .weather are excellent. , Miss Barford will not have it that Queen Anne is dead—nor the "solitary horseman" who used to appear ov&r tho rise of G. P. R, • James's .fitffc paragraphs and many other, writerfcV Here in a prologue scene, :"a» etching in black and silver," the solitary horsenjan comes trotting up the hill, his horse, his coat, his boots, his wig all block, his spurs, hie sword "and pistols, and his Mechlin lace all feilvw under the tnoon. He' halt* 'under titfe gibbet and DavidGrigg's swinging bones— ' >■

" 'B. death, old friend, 'tis inany a mile we rode together In the past, and many a golden prise we took; but thou wouldst net listen to advice, and so they got (bee ./ and toon or late they'll get jakA tool . . But) faith, I shall cnt • sotr? figure at the end of iv " my iron jacket becomes me »o more than thine dees thee."

, But Miss Barforcl did not invent this gallant figure And repeople and recolour the highways of Queen Anne, only to let him dangle »nd bleach in chains at the finish. She reserves Cdttington for a happier endiwzand a> tnofe moral life. ... .. the Greyhound Inn 1* u6t a ehMrfbl plaoe, bufc Grovelaqe ttd betted brutal, depraved, 3ee£erous, ImmS MOM» shrewish,; witted people. in Mr 'BamiweV story a .fooßah man Of the kihd tliat They' take over .the, S ttinks too much *aS gambles, away tSje money. that.coiaM in; afld whoa the' money, 4a, .done, tfhft Saturday night of climax?;. catastrophe, he "beggars' jtimjsetf -by! , staking and Jobiw~ I down, to the l&sfpoitje. on/t&e -sh&& Mr Hampaon gives this ugliness an iufo, i»»i<s twfctby introducing a rich woottfoL , who hears. the wife 'it pitifal fttofy sympathetically td Just when the reader begins to, suspect a fairy tale ending, of coBr6«" we„gOM away without doing aayttang." -ftf Haakon being ayotisg s&fiof ' this trick not hopeless, 'He has < a gOo£.*lul||4 style. -. ■_ , [/ ; , , ' - AMERICA: ttOitf;. SottM ttolldiy, "'By Vptoa\ dfoelsir. TT. Wemte Historical parallels ate ofvaitoe only if it is recognised that they bfr&ak down. Xf they are not allowed tti they are false; and Mr tJpton gikclair rules that his shall be h**d and* <ut asirtW rails. - Between Borne aftei'Owtlißge and-the United States in the last decade enough resemblance can be found to provoke, interesting, reflections,. and perhaps to generate a Jittle *morO light; but to find' a close that differO&ocs can be forgottenor ignored, so close that we need only blink and 3iomela New. York and New York Eome, this is pretending that moonshine is brighter than 'dayUght, and the best to read histoty Tjy, Thottgh- lift Sinclair, as wwalj tells . his story „ cannot v so badly misuse 'his fift fo> dramatiV narrative as to tit ull—4he satiric purpose with which he shifts his hero from age to age 5* blunted by the .blind,„energy with which he drives it, and £ew r®au«, ers will try Very har/1 to follow it,''or will have much success if they doi'

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. Snob is life. By . ST. H. 0o*& 'Artliflr H. Sfcrekwill, Ltd. <2» Of) , These are-stories about New land, and the'fact is painstakingly &n-> nounced in the first paragraph- of each of them. Miss Cnad is .a historic who has temporarily.'deserted ; fMt» for the more appealing charaa©fflsr> tion, ljut most readers will ; wigh th#t. she had not changed from her e«w allegiance* She tells of a "bright moon shedding.a pale radiance ffl around, enhancing the : charms '- w lovely women and braya, men,"'of pool eirl' half mad with'fwght/' va "bloodthirsty chief" who "grinnted holically," a "captain o? a gallant ship," and an "interesting ann<ra|M»ment." ' ( Vision. A Notel. By Anae'Vxkltt.' Ths Lothian Publishing Company Pty., 244. An Australian girl. * marries < an" Englishman fot his money. They hatfr eoch other at first, then fallinlove* and together build up the. vision of > great 'settlement in an unknown, land valley. -When (fori*, novriiet'e gpod rt&fonV rana away, JWck devotes himself & tfco and it fails.. 1 For dually good reason ahe eom«s back; *n4 it suo» oee&a. ' •* __ _ __ - ''■! . '