Literary Views and Reviews

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29390, 17 December 1960, Page 3

Literary Views and Reviews

NEW FICTION

The Darkness and the Dawn. By Thomas Costain. Collins. 448 PPThe opening chapters of Thomas Costain’s latest novel may seem a trifle heavy in tone; but the author is setting the scene for a story of the fifth century A.D., which is really on a heroic scale. Europe is in confusion; for the Roman Empire is crumbling. Attila the Hun is engaged in raising the largest army the world has seen. “He is about to throw down the gage of battle to the City on the Tiber.” Attila himself is one of the leading characters of “The Darkness and the Dawn”; but it is really the story of Nicolan of the Ildeburghs and the Lady Ildico. Nicolan is one of Attila’s generals, “or rather his chief tactician.” He is actuated by bitter hatred of the Romans, who slew his kindred and deprived him of his lands. Nearer home he has to contend with the rivalry of Ranno, a rivalry which culminates in an elaborate, barbaric trial-scene and a mounted duel with lethal whips. Mr Costain also brings into his complicated novel the scheming Romans, headed by the dictator Aetius. The centrepiece of the book, however, is the description of the Battle of Cholous. an imposing historical reconstruction. It is for his conduct during this battle that Nicolan is put on trial for his life. The Shepherd’s Tune. By Francesca Claremont. Hodder and Stoughton. 319 pp.

Mrs Claremont has written a novel that is unusual from many points of view. What will probably strike most readers is the author’s power of conveying the curious atmosphere of the Provencal countryside. The peasants of this region follow a way of life that has persisted in essentials from time immemorial; and Mrs Claremont’s understapding of their ways is obvious. It need hardly be added that she was bom and brought up in Provence in the years between the wars. The story opens with Nourade stealing out to meet a young shepherd, Battista. It for the last time, as she is going to marry and live far away. But she was not to be free of Battista at all, as it turned out; for he came to the Alpine foothills in place of the head shepherd, who had taken ill. Battista, however, is interested in many girls, and few of them can resist him. The author unravels an intricate theme with remarkable skill, leading up to the dramatic conclusion of September, 1939, when the order of general mobilisation called the reservists from the farms, leaving almost to solitude “pale apd silent women, whose men wefe going to the war.” It was a situation far from unfamiliar in that region. Mrs Claremont suggests that this little world of Provence will never be the same again.

Some Like Them Dead. Crime Writers’ Association Anthology. Hodder and Stoughton. 239 pp.

All those who still delight in sophisticated slaughter and have not yet been magicked away into the misty realms of science fiction will take much pleasure in this, the fourth anthology of the Crime Writers’ Association. Here are 13 short stories, all distinctive in style and presentation, written by some of the best known and most widely read of mystery writers; Margery Aliingham, Ellery Queen, Edmund Crispin, Ngaio Marsh, Julian Symons, are only a few represented. The stories have in abundance all those qualities which the avid reader of whodunits looks for; psychological observation, convincing background, and exciting denouement. Among the best— Janet Green’s “The Most Tattooed Man in the World,” and Anthony Boucher’s “The Statement of Jerry Molloy.”

The Chinese Love Pavilion. By Paul Scott. Eyre and Spottiswoode 326 pp.

This love story of a British officer, sent on a special mission to Malaya at the end of the war, and a lovely Chinese prostitute who competently runs a brothel in the military outpost, is fraught with tension and excitement. Tom Brent has come to Bukit Kallang to trace his one-time friend and benefactor, Brian Saxby, an odd character with mystic conceptions of the human soul and its functions. Having been hunting for botanical specimens in Malaya when the Japanese invaded it, Saxby had teamed up with guerrillas, and was now believed to be systematically hunting down and murdering those people known to have been collaborators. Brent is tom between his desire to find Saxby alive, and his fear that the Chinese girl, who had placidly continued to run her business during the Japanese occupation, has been marked down by Saxby as his next victim. With officers of the unit to which he is attached he makes a methodical search for his friend, whose final end is not unexpected. The subsequent tragedy, however, has an air of contrivance not quite in keeping with the rest of the book, which is an able study of the reaction of people to the stresses and strains of life in the East.

Mrs Harris Goes to New York, by Paul Gallico. Michael Joseph. 191 pp-

Those readers who followed with interest the adventures of a London charwoman in Paris, culminating in her purchase of a Dior dress, will no doubt be entertained by her latest adventures. Mrs Harris and her faithful friend Mrs Butterfield are engaged by the wife of an American tycoon to accompany the couple to .New York m the positions of cook and housemaid. This prospect opens up an exciting field of new experience for Mrs Harris, but she creates a considerable complication for herself by her determination to rescue young Henry Brown from the clutches oi brutal foster-parents, and restore him to his American father who, since divorang Hemy s mother, has never been heard of again. Together she and Mrs Butterfield smuggle the child on board the French liner which is taking them to New York, and, which is more difficult, succeed in getting him ashore there with the highlv improbable connit ance of a French diplomat. Her most formidable obstacle surmounted Mrs Harris, aided by her kindly em ployers, proceeds to search the United States for the Ge ° Brown who has fathered little Henry, and when she EU ’;'^ eds her quest is dumbfounded All ends well for everybody, and the fcook is quite good fun m its Way.

The Ardent Years. By Janet Stevenson. Gollancz. 374 pp.

The name of Kemble is well known in literary, as well as theatrical, history. Charles Lamb proposed to one Miss Kemble; Edward Fitz Gerald wrote some of his most charming letters to another; and it is the last one that Janet Stevenson has chosen as the heroine of her first novel. “The Ardent Years” tells the story of a talented, vivacious girl, born to captivate, but without a touch of selfishness, who took up a stage career almost in desperation, in the hope of repairing her father’s fortunes. Mr Kemble had the lease of Covent Garden, and all acknowledged that the Theatre Royal was still magnificent; but then it did not pay. Fanny, Mr Kemble thought, might save the day; and strange as it may seem, he was right. She made her debut as Juliet in “Romeo and Juliet,” and immediately all London was at her feet. She was a born actress, but perhaps it was really her beautiful speaking voice that moved her hearers. Nothing, however, could overcome her dislike of the stage; and “The Ardent Years” tells how she thought to find a new life of happiness when she married an American gentleman from Georgia. But her husband was a selfish man; and even worse, he was a slave-owner. He was quite unable to perceive why this last state of affairs should horrify his wife. Fanny saw slavery for herself; the conditions in which slaves lived on the plantation appalled her. There a curious thing happened. She discovered a real vocation for the theatre, and resumed her career with even greater success than before. Mrs Stevenson’s interesting book reveals Fanny Kemble as a great actress and as a woman endowed with unusual qualities of insight and sympathy as well. Villa Mimosa. By Jerrard Tickell. Hodder and Stoughton. 255 pp. Mr Tickell has written another of those cleverly arranged stories which are the delight of his admirers. The only qualification to be made is that the situation has not perhaps the sheer originality that was so apparent in previous books like “Appointment with Venus” or “The Hero of St. Roger.” The Villa Mimosa was situated near Coville, not far from the Atlantic coast of occupied France. The villa had an equivocal reputation; but was frequented by German officers of all ranks. They all admired Magda, Lucille, Elsa, Monique and Golden Mouse; but one group had another purpose in meeting there. The year was 1944, and they had come to detest Hitler and the rule of the S.S. and the Gestapo. But what went on at the Villa Mimosa was also of interest to some astute observers in room 057 of the War Office in London. In next to no time Major Charles Addison was masquerading as Charles Bertin, a watchmaker from Madagascar originally, but now in business in the, Pas de Calais. “Operati®i Sabine” was about to be put into operation. It was well named; for it involved a delicately-timed commando action, by means of which the German officers at the Mimosa were to be snatched away. The scheme was successful; but there were some bitter-sweet complications characteristic of this author. Would admirers of Jerrard Tickell need to be told any more?

Cher Papa. By Frederick Kohner. Longmans. 130 pp.

“Cher Papa” is not quite a novel. It is one of the modern long short stories that capture a fleeting moment of time and isolate it with brilliant sharpness of vision. The setting is the American ski-resort of Sun Valley in Idaho, where Professor Hofer and his daughter Franzie, aged 17, are on holiday. Franzie is a charming, impulsive girl, and she chooses that moment to reveal to her father her love for a young man she had already met at Malibu some months before. His name was Cass Jason: but everybody called him the Kahoona. He was an interesting young man who lived hard, drifting up and down the Pacific coast as the mood took him. It was perhaps his gay nonchalance that Franzie found fascinating. She announced to her father that she was going to live with the Kahoona. Unfortunately for her, however, another admirer of his arrived at Sun Valley. This was Msss Kelly, who was considerably older than Franzie, and who knows the Kahoona rather better. This awkward triangle is only broken up when Franzie discovers that the F. 8.1. were interested in Miss Kelly. But her betrayal of her rival led to a crisis with Cass. After a bitter quarrel they were both nearly overwhelmed by an avalanche: and that, of course, was the end of the affair. For the father, who observed it all. it was. in one sense, a great relief. But when he thought of his daughter’s suffering. it was a bitter-sweet conclusion. “Cher Papa” combines American directness with an almost Latin sophistication.

The Venus of Konpara. By John Masters. Joseph. 256 pp.

John Masters has a remarkable power of holding the interest of his readers, a power which almost amounts to fascination. “The Lotus and the Wind” and “Bhowani Junction.” his earlier successes, both exhibited this same quality: and most readers are likely to find his latest novel “The Venus of Konpara” equally fascinating. The story takes place in a small Indian state in 1890. Mohan, its ruler, has just returned from Cheltenham and Sandhurst, where he has been educated. He is already deeply involved with a Tamil dancing girl. Rukmini; and at the same time a painful situation has come about, because an English woman, Barbara Kendrick, seems to be infatuated with him. Mrs Kendrick’s husband is Mohan’s adviser and also a close friend. At this moment a fragment of an ancient statue is discovered, part of the leg of the Venus of Konpara. This find is a matter of interest, also to two other Englishmen, Foster and Smith, who is an archaeologist. These six people set about "finding the rest of the statue. Mr Masters explores in lavish detail the emotional entaglement that follows. The curious mingling of the voluptuous and the tragic which characterises this story produces an effect that few English writers can equal. “The Venus of Konpara” is an arresting noytL

Fatal Lady. By Mary Scott and Joyce West. Paul’s Book Arcade. 204 pp.

“Fatal Lady” is unlike many mystery novels, in that it tells a good story in an effortless fashion. The book takes its name from "Fatal Lady,” an Auckland Cup winner, retired in her prime by her owner, greedy old Jack Hawkins. The first crisis of the story comes when Hawkins is found dead in the paddock where Fatal Lady is grazing. ’’’He has an ugly mark on his forehead, which at first is thought to have been made by a blow from the horse's hoof. Jim Middleton, who has a property close to Hawkins’s “Pine Tree Farm,” is particularly interested; for he cannot understand how so docile an animal as Fatal Lady could have done such a thing. He had also noticed that the back of Hawkins’s coat was covered with grass stains. He was not surprised when the police decided that the body had been dragged some distance along the ground, and that the fatal blow was not that of a horse’s hoof at all. In fact someone had murdered Hawkins. In the district suspicion immediately came to rest on Hawkins’s nephew, Simon, -with whom he was on unfriendly terms. As Simon was his only relation, he stood to benefit substantially from his uncle’s death. Luckily for him, he had an admirer in Sara Derwent, who worked in. Dalby Lord’s stable. Sara noticed things. For instance she noticed that the cat which had been so attached to Fatal Lady seemed to have lost interest in her old companion. Furthermore, Mr Lord had a large bottle of hydrogen peroxide in his stable, and this was something new. It would not be fair to the clever authors to reveal the bearing of these facts on the solution of the mystery; although they provide clues to what actually did happen at Pine Tree Farm. It need only be said that “Fatal Lady” is. pleasantly written and has the genuine atmosphere of the North Island.

The Progress of a Crime. By Julian Symons. Collins. 256

This is a notable addition not only to Mr Symons’s successful crime novels but to crime fiction. It tells the story of a murder, and tells also a series of related stories. The reader sees the murder story treated by a provincial and then a national newspaper. He sees the police in action and he sees lawyers at work both before they appear in court and at ,the trial. He sees the criminals’ families, and, best of all, he is taken into the company and minds of juvenile delinquents. Readers of Mr Symons’s earlier crime, novels will know that he is an excellent story teller and that he has a gift for incisive characterisation. A crime novel that excels this one will surely make the top of the list of this year’s crime reading.