NOTES ON NOVELS

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21708, 15 February 1936, Page 17

NOTES ON NOVELS

DISTURBED PARISH

Mr Theobald’s Devil. By Anna Gordon Keown. MacMillan. 343 pp. A delightful novel, this, in which the unrealists of all sorts are fussed and involved by the incursion of a terribly real d .vil of a fellow. (Was it Barrie who first thought of this recipe or formula? Not that there is anything too or at all whimsically Barrible about this book) The devil is Captain Wyndham, odious, impressive, active, and perturbing beyond words; and the little, unrSal world upon which he rests and busies himself is the parish of Mr Theobald, a bothered, perspiring, bicycling, excellent little man, who suffers under his peculiar parochial tyrant, the lady of the manor. Fortunately, the devil is not the only invader; there arrives , also her sister, Anne. But the dreadful thing is that, what with the devil and all, Mr Theobald is sure she is a mur,deress and not an angel... but falls in love with her, all the- same. And how nice for Mr Theobald that the devil is put to flight, and his error too, even though the devil uses Mr Theobald’s new motor-car. And uncommonly good fun for the reader, all of it. ■ THE PILGRIMAGE CYCLE Clear. Horizon. By Dorothy M. Richardson. J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd. and The Cresset Press. 239 pp. This is the eleventh volume, actually, of the “Pilgrimage” series in which Dorothy Richardson is detailing the story of her Miriam. And the shape of that story is not yet clear, not yet even to be suspected; it is just one of Miss Gertrude Stein’s becomings and goings on . . . The end (if there can ever, be an end, so long as Miss Richardson lives and is loyal?) may be at the twelfth volume or at the one-hundred-and-twelfth. But let nobody hesitate to continue, having begun, and let none hesitate to begin, knowing nothing of Miriam’s past, her surroundings, her associates, her destiny. Because the one thing that is clear is that Miss Richardson’s vision is poetic, ample, and minute, catching surfaces and penetrating depths, pictorial in the most exact sense, musical in the most liberating., There is nothing to be done, nothing that need be done, but look with her, listen with her, move and touch and halt and dream with her. Miriam is not so much a person as a medium, a means, a focus. BROTHERS AND LOVERS The Island. By Claire Spencer. Rich and Cowan Ltd. 392 pp. Through VVhltcombe and Tombs Ltd. Miss Spencer is over-generous. She tells two full stories at once and the effect is a little overpowering. One is of the invasion of a secluded island, off the Scottish coast, by trippers and exploiters, who corrupt its dignified poverty and vulgarise its solitude. The second is of two brothers, one of whom, Duncan, carelessly seduces a girl, and the other, Gavan, marries her and devotes himself to her and wins her love; but he is emotionally trapped, as he accepts the domination of Lucy’s power-crazed mother and the loneliness within which Lucy’s love alone can console him, disillusioned as he is by his brother’s callousness —a betrayal and denial, as he sees it, of the best in the world by the best in it. The refuge that he has is destroyed when Duncan reasserts his casual power over Lucy; and the tragic issue is reached when the brothers make their first and only voyage together in the boat which symbolised their unity. OUT-OF-THE-WAY PEOPLE Tortilla Flat. By John Steinbeck. William Heinemann Ltd. 314 pp. The paisanos of Monterey claim pure Spanish blood; they may be allowed some of it, or rather a muddle of Mediterranean blood, together with splashes of-American, Indian, and other vague tinctures. They live apart, despised rather, envied (a good deal), and happy (uncommonly). Mr Steinbeck’s is the story of a group of them, Danny their centre, the lord (by inheritance) of a residence in Tortilla Flat. This wais a rich inheritance; and that was why Danny’s troupe gathered about him, thirsty, lustful, lazy, generous—generous especially in being ready to share out whatever they could find of anybody’s saving. Hence the peculiar comedy of “the pirate,” his industry, his dogs, his hoard, his vow } his surrender, and his victory. This is a wellpointed moral comedy, the pricks of which each may feel where he is softest or reject with a laugh. FULL STRENGTH OPPENHEIM The Battle of Basinghall Street. By E. Phillips Oppenheim. Hodder and Stoughton. 314 pp. From W. S. Smart. One of Oppenheim’s happiest complications. The young peer whose father has died of a broken heart, finding himself involved as a guinea-pig director in the ruthless, predatory operations of Woolito, Ltd.; who sets himself out, therefore, with all his wit and all his money, to bring the Woolitp men down tb the ground and break them there; and. who falls in love, upsettingly, with the Woolito Big Shot’s daughter, Lady Julia. The duel goes on, Woolito directors falling right and left and Woolito shares falling flat, while Julia’s father throws in his last £40,000 and his house to prop the price and his loyal secretary cleaves and clings .... And then Mr Oppenheim presses a few buttons and fixes everything. MEDICAL HISTORY Jamie Simpson. By Lawrence Oliver. Ivor Nicholson and Watson Ltd. 330 pp. Through Whltcombe and Tombs Ltd. The great Sir James Simpson, the discoverer of the anaesthetic uses of chloroform and one of the most brilliant teachers in the history of medicine, is the subject of this excellent novel, which is also as good and accurate a biography as any reader whose interests are not -first and foremost technical could want. Simpson’s ’early struggle is admirably described. His immense industry, his advance, slow at first, then impetuous, his fame and the antagonisms it produced, his barely won election, to his professional are all here, in a narrative which has imaginative as well as factual truth and never flags. MISSISSIPPI Deep Dark River. By Robert Rylee. William Heinemann Ltd. 302 pp. Mr Rylee’s is a first novel, the faults of which, over-emphasis and excessively sharp t contrast, do not much cheapen its worth. In a bold picture of life in the' southern state ,Df Mississippi, the central figure Is a

negro, Mose Southwick, who is driven by - a plantation manager’s persecution to the ’ necessity of killing another negro in self-defence; and in his trial for murder there are concentrated against him all the moral ugliness, racial prejudice, and vindictiveness, and inbred stupidity which Mr Rylee sees flourishing so darkly oyer a beautiful country. Its soil and air and tradition should breed better humanity; and Mr Rylee expresses his ideal and' his" hope and comforts his sad heart by raising against the battalions of evil ’ not only the brave and good Mose but white champions, a few, including the lawyer, a woman, who fights for him at his trial, At< the end, Mose is wondering “what .victory really is,” : and how. the land- about him “could sometimes be so beautiful and sympathetic.” PROFESSOR BASTION AGAIN The Emerald Spider. 'By Gavin Holt. Hodder and Stoughton. 318 pp. From W. S. Smart. Professor Bastion takes higher rank with this mystery, full of dramatic suspense and rising to a climax of admirably ; horrible surprise. Golthard Farbrius was nearly' crazy with hatred of his_ halfbrother, whose life contrasted so humiliatingly with his own. Then Golthard left the .Farbrius jewels with a Paris jeweller, Asshur; and Asshur was . murdered and the jewels were. gone. . . . Gotthard’s journey cannot be followed to its tragic end without a change of pulse.