LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2938, 25 November 1916, Page 13

LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

Stray Leaves. .-' Frenchmen will hot, I fancy, - be very enthusiastic over the granting- of the Nobel Prize for Literature to Homain Rdlland, the author of that tremendous work, "Jean Christophe," which riins into some five or six volumes. For Rdlland has recently been talking very mischievously, and; as is thought in. Paris, very unpatriotically, about tlio making of peace. l All through the "Jean Christophe" novels thero is an under-current of sympathy with Ccr,man thought. Holland's enthusiasm for Wagner amounts almost to a mania.It is -some time since we had a book from Richard Le Gallienne, now and for some years past settled in New York. It appears' that ho has spent the last three winters in tho : Bahamas, one result being a romance of treasure-hunt-ing, entitled "Pieces of Eight." .The titlo suggests memories of John Silver's parrot in Stovenson's "Treasure Island." Major Cedric Dickens, a son of Mr. Henry Fielding Dickons, K.C. ; (the novelist's youngest and sole surviving son), has been killed at the front. .Ayounger brother, Philip, known to tho family as! "Pip" (who does, not remember "ijip" in "Great Expectations'' ?)yhas been wounded. . ilore than ono war correspondent, notably Mr. G. F. : Porris, of tlie "Daily Chronicle," has taken Hilaire - Bclloc right roundly to task for his curious helittlement of the part played by tho British in tile Battle of the Maine, as described in the second volume of Belloo's history of tho war. Mr. Beiloc sacrifices too much to his passion for the picturesque, and never for one mo'fnont forgets the fact that his father was a Frenchman. E. F. Benson has a new book coming out with Foulis, of Edinburgh. It is' not a novel, But as it/is entitled "The Freaks of Mayfaiv" I presume it will come under the heading of light literature.' Which is moro than can be said of his brother's (A. C. Benson's) essays.' ' Jerome K. Jerome, of whom so little has been heard of late years, has written a'riefr story, "Malvinaof Brittany," for Cassells. 1 Alax Peinberton, the well known novelist, has had three sons at tho front. All three have.been wounded. "Tho Tutor's Story," I an unfinished novel by Charles Kingsley, which has been running as a serial in "Cornbill," is boiugVopublished in volmno form. It was completed and edited by Lucas Malet. (Mrs. Harrison). A collected edition of tlie poems of Thomas M'Donagh, one of the Sinn Fein rebels; who was executed after the Dublin revolution, is announced for early publication by Mauusols. The tiitlo is "Songs of Myself and Other Lyrical Poems." Madame Novikolf, a lady who, now half forgotten, was once, in the 'eighties of the last century, famous as a Kussiaii diplomatic agent in London—someone called her "Tho Member for Russia"—has written her reminiscences. Gladstone and AV. T. Stead aro said to havo been greatly affected by Madame Novikoff's cleverly conducted propaganda. Mr s. Humphry Ward's now story, "Lady Connie," which has been appearing as a serial in an American magazine, was, to bo published in book form at the end_ of last month. Tho scene is Oxford in tho seventies and eighties of the last century, tho Oxford of Jowott and Mark Pattison. Owen Johnson, tho well-known Amer-

ican novelist, is doing hospital work in France —for tho Allies—but, ho has found time to write a new story, "The Woman Gives." Jeffrey! Farnoll, of "Broad Highway" fame/has written an entirely new novel, a romance of modern life, to bo published next month. A war book of exceptional interest is entitled "Naval Preparedness," by Mr. Winston Churchill, which Hodder and Stougliton (havo in tho press for early publication. English'papers speak well of "Damans" Lncas Malet, an Anglo-Indian story by Mrs. St. Legcr Harrison, who, it may ho remembered, is a daughter of the late Charles Kingsley. - SOME RECENT FICTION A DOUBTFUL EXPERIMENT, "the Brook Kerltll: A Syrian Story, by George Mooro (T. AVorner Laurie, Ltd., 7s. Gd. net). To many people tho semi-fictional treatment of the story of Christ, His, life, death, resurrection, and spiritual teaching must appear to, bo in very doubtful taste. I confess to sharing this opinion. No matter how brilliant, how dignified, how reverential may bo the treatment, either on tho stage or in imaginative litorature, there is, to me at least, something decidedly inappropriate, nay, positively repellant, in, the .choice of such a subject. Now, Mr. Moore's version of tho Christian story, or-legend, as I presume he "would call it, is neither brilliant nor reverential. It is a terribly long story miuiing, at a Tougli guess, to some 200,000 and here and : there it- certainly does contain passages of great beauty. But elsewhere aro page after page of meticulous detail, or insistence upon that "realism" which in so many of Mr. Moore's earlier stories has so offended a fastidious reader. Even where reverence is sought after it does not ring true, hut is sadly artificial in tone and expression. Also, there are, certain passages which prove that Mr. Mooro is still beset by that morbid desire to dwell upon the sexual element in life, which went so ( much to mar his earlier books. The main idea of the story must naturally affront and shock j the orthodox. Briefly summarised, Mr. Moore's theory is that Christ did not die upon tho Cross, but that He was taken down therefrom before the vital spark was flitinct, and brought back to life, but, according to the author, with a much impaired .reason. After assiduous nursing has done its best for him Our Lord is supposed. to have rejoined a community of the Essenes, a Jewish brotherhood whose members were vowed to poverty, and resumed the, occupation of his youth, that of a shepherd. He is. now a morbidly introspective man> and in his lonely watches on the hills he comes to the conclusion that his life has been a grave mistake: Learning that his resurrection has been accepted as a fact by a rapidly . increasing sect of Christians, he determines to return to Jerusalem and proclaim tho truth. Meanwhilo to the littlo Essene settlement on the Brook Kerith_ thero comes Paul, robust in his full faith in Christ's divinitv and resurrection. To Paul, Jesus makes the confession :— In my teaching I wandered beyond our doctrines and taught that this world is but a mock, a sham, a disgrace, and that naught was of avail but repentance. John's teaching took possession of me. . . . His teaching was true when he was a teacher, but when I became his disciple his teaching became false; it turned mo from my natural self and ihto such great harshness of mind that in Nazareth when my mother came with my brothers and sisters to the Synagogue, I said, woman, I have no need of thee; and when Joseph of Arimathea returned to me after-a long attendance by his'father's bedside, I told him he must learn to hate his father and mother if he would become worthy to fol- i low me. But my passion was so great in those days that I • did not see that my teaching was not less than blasphemy against God, for God has created the world for ua to live in it, and l Ho has put love of parents into our hearts because He wishes us to love our parents, and if Ho, has put into the heart of woman love of man, it is because He wishes both to enjoy that love. . . . In telling this story I am but doing the WoTk .of God; ho man strays very far from tho work that God has decreed for him. But in .ths time 1 am telling I -was so exalted by the many miracles which I had performed by the power of God or the power of a denloit, I know not which, that I encouraged my disciples to speak of mo as the, son of David, tnougli I knew myself to be the son of Joseph, the carpenter. ... To Paul all this is but the raving of a madman who has deluded himself into the belief that lie is identical with the real Jesus, who has suffered, on tho Cross, and Paul's faith.in the real Christ, and that Resurrection which he has accepted as true, remains firm and unbroken. As for Jesus, lie proceeds with his new mission,, that 6f seeking truth rather than proclaiming himself The Truth, and there' is a suggestion of. his pushing his search as far afield as India. ! Where Mr. Mooro has' succeeded is in reproducing tho overy day lifo of the-Jews, as they lived in Our Lord]s day. As a matter of fact, Jesus is not so much in evidence in tho story as is Joseph of Arimathea, who is depicted as tho only son of Dan of Arimathea, a wealthy dealer in salt-fish. The youthful life of Our Lord is dwelt upon at great length, and Mr. Mooro might well have spared his readers the tedious detail of the shepherding episodes, for which, however, tho author is credited with having made special studies in Palestine. As I have said at the outset the book is a curious combination .of' brilliancy and 'dullness. Opinions will differ as to tho exact degreo of success achieved, but many readers will, I think, agree with mo that it-is a very great pity Mr. Moore ever wroto tho story at all. AVhat makes the story, in places at least, rather hard to read and difficult to folio;tv is the curious omission of Sny paragraph "breaks" and quotation marks. The reader is often puzzled to know what is merely connective narr'ativo or what is the speech of tho various characters. A word of praise is duo to tho publishers for the exceedingly tasteful binding of tho book and its admirably clear type. SHORTER NOTICES. "The Will to Live," by Henry Bordeaux (Eveleigh Nash). This is a translation by Pitt Duffield 'of a French novel, "Lesßoquevillards." M. Bordeaux gives • a powerfully written and pathetic picture of tho misery brought upon a proud old French gentleman and hia family by tho misconduct of his eldest soil, who' falls a victim to tho wiles of a married woman, older than himself, and is led by her into a position in which not only his personal/honour, but his actual honesty, comes under suspicion. Tho struggle of M. Roquevillard to savo his son's namo, even if it involves tho loss of tho, family estate, and tho equally heroic conduct of his wife and daughter, aro skilfully contrasted with the avarice and mean spirit of revenge which characterises tho cunning notary whoso wife has caused all tho mischief. M. Frasno is quite a Balziician figure. Tho moral of tho story is excellent, but hero and thero tho translator lias clearly botched his work rather badly. "The Came of The Tangled Web," by S. C. Nctliersolo (Mills and Boon: per Whitcombo and Tombs). Like that excellent novel, "Mary Up at Gaffrios'," Miss Net-liersole's now story deals with English rustic life, tho lifo of the hall and the village. The lady of the Hall—it is hero tho_ Houso —is the wife of an Indian official who only comes homo at long intervals. She

adopts tho boy child of a travelling' tinker to replaco hor lost baby, and Corban, the lad in' question, is a very prominent and generally a very unpleasant figure in the story, wliiob, though it would ho the better for a littlo humorous relief, is, however, a painstaking and convincing study of country lifo. Received. Messrs. W'iiitcombe and Tombs send review copies of four novels, "Theodora." by Frances F. Williams (John I/ano); "Tho Super Spy" by W. HoltWhite (Melrose); "Betty Grier" by J. L. Waugh (Chambers); and -'Tho Bright Eyes of Danger" by John Foster (Chambers). All four novels were reviewed in t-lioso columns some months ago, tho two Jast-iiamcd.in May, tho two termor in June last.