Miscellany

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28784, 3 January 1959, Page 3

Miscellany

The Mainapcinc of Murder. By Philip Lindsay. John Long. PPIn this book, the novelist Philip Lindsay provides a superficial account of a large number of people who murdered on the grand scale. Many of these multiple murderers will be unfamiliar and those who titre a dash of the macabre in their week-end reading may well enjoy this brief- account of some rather more than usually sanguinary murders. The book, however, purports to be something more than a collection of murder stories and to be a serious attempt to discuss and describe the mentalities and motives behind large-scale murder. Mr Lindsay argues that the mainspring of murder is frequently to be found in the lack of love, sympathy and understanding which the murderer received as a child. The author also asserts that the satisfaction given by killing inspires further killings, except in the numerous cases where it doesn’t; that any true humanitarian should demand the death penalty for those who have been found guilty of murder although insane, and for those who have used poison; and thanks to socialism and the welfare state, murder is one of the few outlets left for the development of initiative and craftsmanship. Mr Lindsay has no doubt many fans who are eagerly hoping for his early return to novel writing. This hope will be shared by all who are seriously concerned with the problems of criminology.

A History of Sexual Customs. By Richard Lewinsohn. Longmans. 424 pp.

Dr. Lewinsohn describes in this book the various attitudes towards sex, from the earliest records such as the 20.000 year old “Venus” of Willendorf up to the problems and hopes connected, for example, with contraception, artificial insemination and the psychological treatment of aberrations, which modern scientific discovery has created for the present-day world. The author has assembled a large amount of material and supported the text with numerous well-chosen illustrations. Much of this should prove interesting and novel to most readers. Although the writing of this 400page history of the sexual customs of mankind has clearly been a labour' of love, the end result is nothing more than a miscellaneous collection of bits and pieces of information about sex and its ramifications. No central theme emerges to bring organisation to the material. The treatment of the individual topics is for the most part extremely sketchy and sometimes misleading. "A History of Sexual Customs” is innocuous enough, but it is to be regretted that the author has relied so heavily on the intrinsic interest of the subject matter to carry the reader through a lengthy book. As Love Is Deep. By Betsey Barton. Gollancz. 144 pp. '

This sombre chronicle of suffering bravely surmounted, and the spiritual strength which replaced a numb despair is couched in language worthy of the theme. Betsey Barton had been for 16 years a paraplegic after a car accident, when the mother she tenderly loved, and whose devotion had been the chief factor in helping her to face her disability, was smitten by cancer, and lay dying for 30 terrible months. During this illness the patient kept up a steady belief in her ultimate recovery, and her refusal to recognise the approach of death increased the heartbreak of her family; more especially that of her daughter; The painful, grinding inevitability of death,, and man’s helplessness to avert the blows of fate drove the author to agonised fits of introspection, and when her mother eventually died she plunged for a time in a spiritual vacuum. Her physical state denied' her the release of bodily activity; she could develop no mundane interests, and life seemed to her to be without purpose or hope- By a supreme effort she pulled herself out of this deadened condition, helped by wise and kindly friends, and the deep affection of her father and brothers. The book ends on a note of renewed interest in life, and she determines, as far as fate will allow her, to take her mother’s place, by remembering a friend’s counsel, "The only comfort in losing a mother is in mothering others." Miss Barton has a distinguished literary talent and many sensitive and bereaved people may find comfort in her book. . . .

Two By Two. By Martha Gellhorn. Longmans Green. 187 p.p.

The four sketches which make up this book are illustrative of the four central vows of the marriage service. "For Better For Worse” is set in Italy near the end of the war. The American wife of the heir to a princely estate strives to detach him from his elderly parents ahd the cramping implications of his heritage. He is equally anxious to effect his escape from tradition, but circumstances are too strong for them and they accept their lot with resignation. "For Richer For Poorer” is a brilliant study of a clever and ambitious woman hounding her husband, against his will, into seeking ministerial office in-the Conservative Government Despite her carefully laid plans he evades the obligation and retires to the country to farm, leaving her to hitch her waggon to a more satisfactory star. “In Sickness and in Health” has an American setting. The husband keeps his incurably sick wife in all the material comfort he can afford, but seldom visits her in her quiet country retreat. There is inevitably another woman in his life, and' the tragedy of a hopeless liaison makes them both long for the .wife’s death, and hate themselves for so doing. “Till Death Do Us Part” is a rather diffuse story with more than one flash-back. Bara, a press photographer of Central European origin is a man of numerous casual love affairs. He determinedly eludes pursuit by a woman who begs him to marry her, and through the revelations of a friend after his death the reader learns of his fidelity to the memory of his young wife, whose early death bereft him of all desire save the gratification of the moment. The book is very wellwritten, and the study of character is both acute and penetrating.