SOME RECENT FICTION.

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 247, 6 July 1918, Page 11

SOME RECENT FICTION.

"The Loom of Youth." Originally published in July of last yoiiT, Jlr. Alec Wiiuijli's much-discussed story uf English public scliool "life, "Tlio Loom of Youth," is now in its seventh edition. A belated copy of the book lias reached me from (ha publisher, Mr. Grant Richards, per favour of Messrs. AVhitcoinbo and Tombs, Ltd. Mr. Wauj;h's slory is a \evy remarkable achievement, ior its author Is even now barely ninelee;i, and the booh is said lo have'been written when Mr. AYaiigh, then ii military ce.iiel at Derkhainpslcml, was yet only a little over seventeen. And'yet tlure. is a singular absence of crudity In the slory, which, it miiv be said at once, constitutes «i stroiij,'ly, "and in places bitteily, worded iudietliieui. against certain features of the Knglish ]iublii: school system. It is sincerely lo be hoped thai: Fernchestor and its' system—or want o( system—of education "is the exception amongst lli'J public scliools of the Old Cir.in'ry. .11 not, the educational outlook I'm' I he nous of tlie wealthier n.iddle-cla- is but poor indeed. Since Mr. Hugh Wnlpole wrole that sardonically satirical study ol the English public school. "Mr. I'errtn and Mr. Trail," no nook dealing wilh public school life has been so frankly and ] convincingly enndemnatory of the ftupid eld censervatism of English educational methods as Is "The Loom of Youth. To those who only know of English public scliool life as it H depleted m Hie paws of. saw Tom Hughe's- iinmcrlnl "Tom Broivn's School Hays." Hid lonijo intoi'vallo, Mv. Vair.ell's "IV .Hill. \l'-. Wnnph's ])ii:!ures of its insane worship of allilelie-. iU pnggish and reactionary masters, its domination hv tlio '■HloocN' " inlliieiice. H- paralysing of all menial and intellectual 01 i»itmli'y and individuality, will come as a rmle and unpleasant shock. Ami yet. 111 Mis long and thoughtfully written |.rolar.-<'. Mi'. Thomas Scccombe appears to linn!. Hie author's pictures are neiflier overdrawn nor over-coloured, limn 'he complel- inndopuiry of ;he old pub ie School svstem. ill f«"0 of the problem* nf the age and Hie necessity lor young Englishmen to bo mentally ale.-t and iu-

tellcetnally efficient, Mr. Seccombo waxes very indignant, lie is specially insistent upon the stupidity of a .system which appears lo ignore, ..ml, indeed, almost openly lo discourage, the leaching of modern history upuri a well ordered plan. Thus: j\ Our public school youth dislike history, it. seciiis. 1 recently asked some candidates from oobjl' «!' the most expensive J, schools in Britain, who were trying their p hands at- a General Knowledge Paper, to j. name fivo great historians, and the following are a representative selection:—Hot mer, Virgil, Oman, Ovid, llickle.tohn, Br. ' Johnson, Pluto, and Tout; and tho history * they ■ served up was unite on a. par with i( their choice of historians. Lailysniit.li waa o: a siege in tho Indian Mutiny, or a town \{ in which Lord Kitchener was uirroundod s | by the enemy during the whole of the Boer War. "Paradise Lost" was written , by Shakesiearc; "Utopifl." by Guy Thome; ■*' Cetcwayo was a great P.onian conqueror; !l "The Canterbury Tales" written by oi Charles Lamb; tho Tuilcries, inountaitiß in ti Italy. v. .Mr. Secconibe further says h "the dearth of a boy's natural interest (l in such subjects as the geography, the j, elementary economics, the politics, the ,: culture, tlio aversions and pretensions of . „ the various countries' in the Europe of to-dav" seems to me "to spell bank- )i ruptev-if the. public school Is goinc to t< retain its ascendancy over tho growing ] t generation. It means a blank cheque to s the .Mandarins, who keep at arm's length c.; any popular attempt, at a. vivid interest in the family history of Kuropo" ' Coming to tho story itself it. is, as I have, said, a really remarkable achieve- ( ment: for so young a writer as is .Mr. , Waugh. Gordon Carruthers and his - friends are tremendously alive, and the J f mere literary craftsmanship of the siory is astonishingly good. Doubtless there is r some exaggeration. It is diliieitlt to believe that masters could speak and act ( in such a positively idiotic and.contempt- j ible manner as do some of Ilio Fernehes- (. ter pedagogues. Also, the disgusting ( j language so often used by some j. of the leading characters' is sure- ( ly the exception rather than tho f. rule. According to jMr. Waugh, at „ schools shell as Fefncliester the atmo- j sphere is such as to crush out all'in- „ tellectunl vigour and individuality, to v belittle the value of mental industry, and „ to attribute lo athletics a grossly exag- n gerated value as. a factor ill (lie develop- g ment of youthful character." The book has been the snbjeet of much animated -j and angry discussion in the English Press, and although educational methods and conditions iu the Dominion are so 1 very different from those obtaining in a the Motherland, there is much'in Mr., t Waugh's brilliant story which will afford o food for useful thought by our New i ] Zealand educationists. , a .=. — — — ■- t