CURRENT BOOKS

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25092, 25 January 1947, Page 3

CURRENT BOOKS

NORWAY UNCONQUERED A P £? pl . e W llO Loved Peace. By Rov Walker. Gollancz. 11l pp. Mr Walker’s account of Norwegian resistance and non-co-operation, during the Nazi occupation, is one that stirs admiration and also deep thought. What Mr Walker chiefly seeks to demonstrate from it is the effectiveness r^, force,” in the philosopher Ake r en s conception of it, or, as Mr Walker himself defines it, of “the positive assertion of the virtues of Norwegian civilisation.” Norway’s policy towards the invaders developed through four phases. It is the third With which Mr Walker is chiefly concerned: when the cultural unity of the people fully expressed itself in rejecting the Nazi order, in protest and defiance, denial and contempt. The Church, the press, the arts and professions, the teaching and student body and the very school children, the athletic organisations, the trade unions—all shared in this. What was its effectiveness? Certainly the will of the invaders and collaborators was frustrated—as much as by underground fighters and saboteurs, or more. There is no evidence that it was weakened: the inference is that, m the long run, it must have been, since the Norwegian spirit was one of unbreakable unity. This is plain, however, that Norway’s swift and untroubled return to normal order was that of a democracy whose unity had been tried and proved. DENIGRATING BACON The Martyrdom of Francis Bacon. By Alfred Dodd. Rider. 192 pp. Through Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd. Mr Dodd is not here concerned to prove the greatness of “our Englishman,” though he declares it often enough; nor to prove that he created and founded the “secret Elizabethan fraternities,” notably the Rosicrosse Literary Society, the Rosicrucian College, and “Modern Freemasonry”; nor to prove that Bacon was “the creator of the character named ‘William Shake-speare’.” Well, that simplifies the issue, or rather limits it; for Mr Dodd is a terrible complicator of his story, which is built as some indefatigable, untidy bird might build a nest, ever zealous to flap home and work in some new scrap, shred, or thread. The story is that of Bacon’s fall or disgrace, as Lord Chancellor, when he confessed himself guilty of bribery and corruption and paid the penalty. It was all a plqt. How it was engineered, and why; how his confession was forced—this it is Mr Dodd’s object to tell; and what a tale! Spedding thought that Bacon could have put up a perfectly sound defence; but he had no idea at all of the fantastic truth, no idea in the world. PIANOFORTE STUDY We Piano Teachers. By Victor Booth, F.R.A.M. Sk effing ton and Son Ltd. Whereas most books on piano playing deal with but one aspect of the subject—technique, it may be, or interpretation—Victor Booth’s book gives concise but essentially practical help on all matters connected with pianoforte study. The ear, the eye, the muscular sense, time, mood, tone, technique, fingering, pedalling, 1 expression, methods of practice, reading, and repertoire—all receive consideration in this thoroughly useful book. Victor Booth gives in these pages the results of his long experience as a piano teacher, and presents his matter in a personal, individual manner. An excellent example of this is seen in the way in which he dealt with the subtler forms of the much misunderstood element of rotation in piano technique. In the first place he entirely avoids the use of the term rotation, for that in itself can be, to some, a stumbling block. Instead, he uses what he terms pivoting exercises, in which “every finger must be trained as a pivot for every other finger.” Correct rotation comes therefore of its own accord as the result of his simple approach. Such simplification is to be found everywhere in the book; and it is this, together with its wide range of topics, that makes the book so valuable.—E.J.

FOLDER - H. L. Mencken, author, says a Baltimore report, has in his safe deposit box an iron-clad contract guaranteeing him two cases of Canadian ale monthly for the rest of his life. Under the contract completed by Cinema (Canada) Pictures, an Ontario brewery, and Mencken, the film company gets rights to Mencken’s burlesque essay, “History of the Bathtub,” and the brewery is to ship him the ale. Mencken says he got the best of the bargain. “That essay was first printed about 30 years ago in a newspaper, the old ‘New York Mail’; it’s public domain, and they didn’t have to offer me anything,” he explained. "Perhaps they believed they wouldn’t have to ship it to me much longer”—Mencken is 66 — “but I’m out to fool them.” One clause of the contract specifies that “the bottles and containers or other cartons in which such ale is shipped shall not be returnable and the author shall not be entitled to any refund thereon.” The clause doesn’t worry Mencken. * Remember Dr. George Dorsey’s “Why We Behave Like Human Beings”? (The title, anyhow, and the fact that this book, a psychological work of too. too solid flesh, sold like a too, too sultry novel.) It seems that it was the title that made it a bestseller. ... A corresoondent of the “Saturday Review of Literature” explains this: Dr. George Dorsey was a quiet, earnest college professor who was catapulted into literary prominence by one best-selling book. The work was a highbrow psychological study of mankind—few finished reading it. Because of his prominence Dorsey was invited to make college commencement speeches. They were jampacked with six syllable words, and the audience as well as the graduates had to guess at what he meant. After one such address I asked him: "How did you get such a striking title for your book?” “Well,” he replied, “no one ever asked me that. I had written it and, let me see,” twirling his ribboned eyeglasses, “and had tried a dozen titles, none of which seemed—ah—appropriate. So I took the proofs to my publisher, asked him to read them and suggest a title. The next day I called. He shoved the proofs across the desk with ‘I can’t make head nor tail of this darned thing. What in hell is it about, anyhow?’ ‘Why,’ said I, ‘why it’s why we behave like human beings.’ "There’s your title!” he exploded. And it was. The public seems to have liked it. C. M. HARGER.

“Great characters are the rarest of creatures,” says Hesketh Pearson, the biographer, in an article describing his own pursuit of subjects. “There are plenty of great writers, great composers, great painters, greaf warriors, statesmen, prophets, ecclesiastics, scientists, actors, lawyers, sportsmeh, criminals, and so on; but I doubt if you will find a score of great characters in the world’s history. Dr. Johnson. Socrates. Dean Swift, Voltaire, Sydney Smith, Carlyle, Beethoven, Wellington, Lincoln: all these were great characters, and in later days we have Mark Twain. Wilde, and Shaw. Humour is the essence of a great character, and from his work and such knowledge of the man as we possess we may guess that Cervantes was one; but it would not be easy to add to my list on the evidence of contemporary records. If therefore the biographer depended on great characters as material for his art, he would have a very restricted choice. Fortunately there are quite a few lesser characters who are almost as interesting to write about, and after disposing of Sydney Smith I was fortunate to find a remarkable contrast in Gilbert and Sullivan and a fascinating study in Henry Labouchere.”