CHAMELEON
BOOK OF THE DA Y
Letters of J. M. Barrie. Edited by Viola Meynell. Peter Davies. 311 pp. (15/- net.) The revelation of Barrie in these letters is, as might be expected, that of a bewilderingly complex, even perverse character. As he adapted himself to this correspondent and that, as he saw himself, as he showed himself, as he spoke to be Barrieish, as he spoke without artifice, he was a dozen different men—some of them more likeable, more admirable, than others. Compare his letter of compliment to Mr A. A. Milne ("Hide and seek with the angels is good enough for anyone,’-), closing on the common, wistful note of "I wander about alone.” with those to Mrs Thomas Hardy, In self-forgetful praise of her husband; and compare these, again, with his tricksy, shallow speech when the Hardy memorial was unveiled. The fascination of the book is in these transformations.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19430409.2.28
Bibliographic details
Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23918, 9 April 1943, Page 4
Word Count
151CHAMELEON Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23918, 9 April 1943, Page 4
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Acknowledgements
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.