PICKING AMONG THE PAPERBACKS

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30028, 12 January 1963, Page 3

PICKING AMONG THE PAPERBACKS

Every possible interest is catered for in the flood of paperbacks that continues to issue from printing presses all over the world. Barry Mitcalfe. for instance, has created a primitive, almost mythological figure in his “Salvation Jones” (Mate Books, 115 pp.). “Salvation" could easily have slipped out of Steele Rudd’s original “On Our Selection." He hardly seems to belong to New Zealand in this century at all. Nevertheless, Mr Mitcalfe has some good rough tough stories to tell about him. The emphasis here is upon action. It would be hard to find anything more different from “Salvation Jones" than Ruby M Ayres's “Where Are You Going?” (Hodder and Stoughton, 190 pp.). Miss Ayres tells her artless romantic tale in the artful style of studied Simplicity that has gained her hundreds of thousands of readers. This is the love story of Marlene Beech and Michael Strasmore, who has just been discharged from the Army after long service in the Middle East. Although there are misunderstandings in the novel, there is nothing very serious about it, and critical readers might call it insipid. More strenuous reading is provided by the latest Everyman Paperbacks. First of all comes the “Essays of Francis Bacon” (Dent, 200 pp.). Except for its cover, this volume is a replica of the one that was published in 1906. It therefore recalls the very first issue of the famous Everyman Library. “English Short Stories" (Dent. 368 pp.), came much later. As a paperback it is good value. It begins with a shortened version of the anonymous “Gawayne and the Green Knight.” passes lightly over the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but after that offers a really representative selection from more than 30 famous authors. Another useful Everyman Paperback is "Silver Poets of the Sixteenth Century” (Dent 428 pp.). No other book can be compared with this one on the score of comprehensiveness. Here are the poems of Wyatt, Surrey and Sidney, with a selection from Sir Walter Raleigh, and the "Orchestra” and “Nosce Teipsum” of Sir John Davies for good measure New Everyman Paperbacks include Anthony Trollope s ‘■Barchester Towers” (462 pp.). probably this author's best-known novel. In the valuable introduction to this

volume Sir Michael Sadleir puts forward his explanation of the materialistic attitude Trollope adopts in describing the clergymen who figure so largely in “Barchester Towers.” Sadleir writes: “Is it not conceivable that he had so profound a respect for the Siiritual functions of the ergy that he would have regarded any discussion of them in a novel as sacrilege?” Another delightful volume is “Plays and Stories of Anton Tchehov.” (360 pp.). Besides containing “The Cherrv Orchard” and “The Seagull,” this collection includes “The Word Demon” of 1889, a play of capital importance in the study of Tchehov's development, although it is often omitted in English collected versions. Thj number of short stories included is necessarily small and not wholly representative. Guy de Maupassant is now represented in the Everyman Paperbacks. His “Short Stories” (335 pp.), including such celebrated pieces as “Boule de Suif,” “Miss Harriet” and ‘The House of Madame Tellier,” reveal his surprising ingenuity and the reach of his satire. Aldine Paperbacks, also published by Dent, deal with modern rather than the classical subjects catered for in the Everyman's books. The new Aldines include a paperback edition of the autobiography of Coco the clown, and three other paperback editions of “hardbacks ’—Constance Spry’s “How to do the Flowers,” "Sketching for Pleasure." by R. O. Dunlop, ILA., and Walter James's very useful, and often quoted “Word Book of Wine." W. F. Harvey’s “The Beast with Five Fingers”—a series of uncanny stories—is another Aldine Paperback.

Pacific Books are published by Messrs Angus and Robertson in Sydney, and the emphasis here is strictly Australian. "Ned Kelly's Last Stand" (196 pp.), has been adapted by Frank Clune from “The Kelly Hunters," which first appeared in 1954. The author tells his story in a businesslike way, but his habit of writing single-sen-tence paragraphs soon becomes irritating. James Tucker’s historical novel, "Ralph Rashleigh" 008 pp.) is a much greater achievement Apparently founded on tact, it paints convict life in early New South Wales in vivid colours. More recently written and certainly much more romantie is K V.

Timms's ’The Challenge” (186 pp.). Susan Melrose is urged by her demented mother to seek out and punish the man who had deserted them both. “The Challenge” is set in Tasmania and Victoria a century ago. Timms’s style is smoother than that of Frank Clune, and much more modern than that of the author of “Ralph Rashleigh.” Australian humour is represented in Pacific Books. Elizabeth O’Conner’s “Steak for Breakfast,” and “Sammy Anderson, Commercial Traveller," by H. D. Williamson, are good examples.

Unwin Books continue to maintain the high standard set by earlier issues. Sir Ifor Evans’s “English Literature: Values and Traditions” (96 pp.) really belongs with his “Short History of English Literature.” It is a pleasantly informal commentary on the earlier book. That formidable scholar, Harold J. Laski, is represented for the first time in this series with "The Rise of European Liberalism" (192 pp.). This essay was first published 26 years ago, and it is a pleasure to report that Laski’s erudition is still as dazzling as ever. Bertrand Russell’s "The Practice and Theory of Bolshevism* (96 pp.) is a study of some historical value. It was written in 1920, and therefore gives an impression by an acute observer of the early days of the Communist State. "I Believe: Nineteen Personal Philosophies” (189 pp.) appeared soon after the beginning of the last war, and in spite of the difficulties of publishing, proved almost as popular as a best-wiling novel. The contributors included scholars like Albert Einstein and J. B. S. Haldane. Thomas Mann Jacques Maritain and Lu Yutang represented foreign opinion, and a much lighter note was struck by James Thurber. In reprinting “The Essential Vasari” (223 pp.), the publishers have done the general reader a good turn. Vasari’s biographies of celebrated artists are more often referred to than studied, and this agreeable edition should do something to end the neglect of an interesting writer. The iMt wodum* in this Unwin Books is the largest K H. Carr’s “Dostoyevsky, 1821-1181" (256 i jmj; isa standard work, which students are accustomed to read with Ernest J. Simmons’s “Dostoyevsky: The Makb« of a Novelist.” Cwt’s is the older book, and some moders

consider that the critical opinions expressed in it are more acute than anything found in later English works.

Oxford Paperbacks have put out a new edition of H. G. Nicholas’s valuable “Die United Nations as a Political Institution.” The new edition gives the author opportunity to bring his record up-to-date by including major developments since the first edition appeared in 1959. Another valuable book brought up-to-date and presented as an Oxford Paperback is Leo Marquand’s "The Peoples and Policies of South Africa,” an outstandingly good introduction to a highly topical subject

Ann Arbor Paperbacks, distributed in this part of the world by Ure Smith of Sydney, have issued new editions of Walter Lippman's “A Preface to Politics," and “A History of Business," in which Miriam Beard tells the story of business from Babylon to the monopolists.

Hodder’s new paperbacks include two that will be specially attractive to television viewers. They are “The World of Tim Frazer” (now on New Zealand television screens) and “The Scarf” another of Francis Durbridge’s television serials in novel form). "The Angry Silence” is John Burke’s novel that inspired the film about the man who, because he did not see the point of coming out on strike, was sent to Coventry as a blackleg. Hodder books by the ever popular John Creasey (writing under his several pen-names) include ‘Thicker Than Water” (as Michael Halliday), "Black for the Baron” (as Anthony Morton), and reprints of stories about Gideon of Scotland Yard (as J. J. Marric) and “Handsome" West and the Toff" (by John Creasey under his own name). The Saint” is another Hodder character very well known to readers in several countries. The pick of the Hodder collection is a paperback edition of the novel “Mantle," by Winston Graham. This story earned some notoriety tor a short time as the “vehicle” in which Grace Kelly was to return to films. Paul Hyde Bonner's “The Art at Llewellyn JonmT* is another very satisfactory novel hi the Hodder series. Two very well known war books have been added to the series, Charles Ogburn's story set in Burma entitled The Marauders," »d P. R. Reid’s The Colditz