BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 69, 15 December 1923, Page 23

BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

BOOKS OF THE DAY.

BOOKS OF THE DAY Lord Meath’s Memoirs. In “Memories of the Nineteenth Century," by the Earl of Meath , (John Murray, per Whitcombe and Tombs), we have an interesting record of the long and useful life of an eminent diplomatist, Imperialist and pliilanthropist. Lord Meath gives an account of his youth at Eton, of his travels as a young man in Italy and Germany, and then proceeds to give reminiscences of his earlier years in the Foreign Office. Marrying, in 1868, a daughter of Lord Lauderdale, he spent his honeymoon at Athens and Constantinople, and was on the _ staff of the British Embassy at Berlin when the Franco-Prussian War broke out. His next change was to Paris, where he served under Lord Lyons. In 1877, he retired from the Diplomatic Service, and the remainder of the book is devoted to a description of the author s travels in Europe, the United States, Palestine, and the visit he paid in 1892 to New Zealand and Australia. His position in the Diplomatic _ Service, and in society, enabled him to meet at various times a large number of British and European celebrities, and, aided by what has evidently been an excellent memory, his chapters teem with interestiDjg pen sketches or notable men and) women, and include a large number of interesting, and often very amusing anecdotes. He was an intimate friend of the Gladstones, of whom he has many stories to tell. Mrs. Gladstone was his godmother. The memoirist describes her as toeing an exceedingly amiable, but terribly absent-minded lady. On _one_ occasion the Meaths received an invitation to dinner from her, written on a halfsheet of paper. On turning it over he found on tho other side a tradesman s bill endorsed in red ink, “This is the tenth application.” One very amusing story he tells, is of the late Hon. Alan Herbert, whom lie met as a student at Bruckobeng in Germany. When he arrived in Germany he could not speak _ a word of German. One day he received an invitation to the house of a, lady in society. He agreed to accept the invitation if his friends would write out for him some polite sentences in German, and asked what the lady was interested in:

“We replied ‘Bees: she is a meat apiarist.' So he said, ‘Write me down in German this sentence: “I have seen vour lovely bees, and they are the finest bees I have ever seen.” ’. This we translated as ‘Gnadice Frau! Ich habe ihra hubsche die Ich ,ie geschen habe.’ Unfortunately, wrote, by copyink it out. 'Berne instead of ‘Bienen,’ so that the sentence ran. Noble Lady, I have seen your beautiful legs; they are the finest I have ever seen I’ Tableau 1” New Zealand readers of the book will be specially interested in the author’s account of the visit ho and his wife paid to this country in 1892. Mr. John Ballance was then Prime Minister, with Mr. (afterward' Sir Patrick) Buckley as Colonial Secretary. The visitor was present at a great meeting held at Patea to discuss tine differences which existed between the Natives and the West Coast leaseholders, and warmly eulogised-“tho wise and conciliatory intervention of the Primo Minister.’ For many years Lord Meath was specially interested in Imperialism and was, it may be remembered, a strong advocate of the observance of Empire Day. The book contains several interesting illustrations, mainly portraits. (N.Z. price, 18s.). Lady Paget’s Recollections.

Not for some time has there been published more interesting memoirs than those of Walburga, Lady Paget, published under the title of “Embassies of Other Days” by Hutchinson and Co. (per Ferguson and Osborne). The Memoirs (written for the most' part at Vienna in 1883-93) are published as they were written, and include reminiscences of scores upon scores of men and women prominent in the political and social history of the last century. Lady Paget, wife of Sir Augustus Paget, who was British Ambassador at the Austrian and several other European courts, was a Saxon lady, the daughter of Count Hohentha.l Puechau. She was appointed Maid of Honour to the Princess Royal of England on the eve of the latter’s marriage with the Crown Prince Frederick of Germany, father of the ex-Kaiser, and was for over fifty years an . intimate and trusted friend of the British Royal Family. In her Memoirs we get interesting glimpses of great statesmen, such as Disraeli, Gladstone, Bismarck, Lord Salisbury, and others, crowned heads, including the old Emperor William of Germany, King Humbert of Italy King Leopold of Belgium, and, of course, Queen Victoria, of whom Lady Paget tells many new and interesting stories, and social celebrities innumerable. Extracts from the Memoirs, which are set forth in two handsome volumes, with many illustrations, were given in The Dominion on November 17 and November 24. (N.Z. price 525. 6d.) “The Fabric of Europe.”

The post-war problems of Europe continue to be responsible for a vast bulk of new if not always very enlightening or useful literature. “The Fabric of Europe,” by Harold Stannard, M.A. (Collins, Sons, and Co., per Whitcombe and Tombs), is a very careful examination of European conditions, its sub-title, “An Historical. Survey of International Relations” giving a general idea of the scope of the book. Mr. Stannard, as do all of us, hopes much from the League of. Nations, but it is clear that he considers it very doubtful whether “the strength of the League can, in our time, be made manifest.” In the long run, so he points out, “a State’s international conduct is governed by the elemental truths of its geographical position, and by the consequences that inevitably grow therefrom.” The Slav, he thinks, will still strain to the sea, although it is as yet doubtful whether Bolshevik Russia, or a Ukraine republic and a Jugo-Slavian State will become the political protagonist. Mr. Stannard holds that “the new antagonism between Slav and Latin is already more acute and more fundamental than the old antagonism between Slav and Teuton,” which is assuredly not a very promis : ng sign for the future. Tho terrible conflict of 1914-18. says the author, “stripped war of its last shred,of chivalry.” It is now recognised as “utter lawlessness. ... humani-

ty’s last, blind, desperate acknowledgment of its own incompetence.” Mr. Stannard is not optimistic as to the chances of universal peace, but at least such books as this do good service in such an admirable cause. (N.Z. price 12s. 6d.)

"In Many Places.” Commissioned last year bv the “New York World” to travel through Europe and give her impressions of post-war conditions tn various part of tho Continent, Mrs. Clare Sheridan, the American lady sculptor, who had previotts’v been to Petrograd and there ‘done” the beaus of Lenin, Trotsky, and other Bolshevik celebrities, now given w», in a

By

Give a man a pipe he can smoke, Give a man a book he can read: And his home is bright with a calm delight Though the room be poor indeed. —JAMES THOMSON.

volume, entitled “In Many Places” (Jonathan Cape, per Mhitcombe an Tombs), a most interesting account or her travels and impressions. She begins by describing Dublin in the days when the Republicans were besieged in the Four Courts. She managed to make her way through and have an interview with Rory O’Connor, and gives also a series of interesting pen sketches of Michael Collins and other political celebrities. Next follows a visit to Paris and a description ol the two deliberately machine-made gaiety of nocturnal Montmarte, and so < n through Belgium and Germany. “One does not,” she says, hear much about the Belgians. They do not; talk of ‘la gloirv ; nor are they filled with deep self-pity . like the French.” “The unimaginative Beige has much to forgive; but,” adds the author, “he lives with his horror and has grown accustomed to the sight. I doubt, however, whether many Belgians will agree with the author when r*Te writes: “Involuntarily I find myself wondering why Belgium opposed the German army? Why didn’t they let them through? How much less would they have suffered and what would it have mattered to .them? Airs. Sheridan visited the Danzig Free State, Constantinople, Smyrna. Athens, Soha, and Bucharest, as well as attending the conferences at Geneva and Lausanne. Everywhere she seems to have interviewed prominent statesmen, men such as Mussolini. Stambouliski, Kemal Pasha, Ismet Bey, and others, and of all these celebrities she gives some extremely interesting word portraits. The chapter in which Mussolini is the central figure is exceptionally interesting. Mrs. Sheridan evidently considers the Italian Prime Minister —or dictator —to be a poseur. “It is difficult to compare Mussolini as a leader with either Lenin or Kemal, who are bo impressive with their cold, calm simplicity, their genuine modesty. One is conscious In them of such depths beneath the unruffled surface. But Mussolini. the dramatic tenor without a voice, belongs to an emotional race of actors and to a people more difficult to manage than Russians or Turks. .. . Whether Mussolini is clever enough, deep enough, well-balanced not to lose his head, not to lose his judgment, and not to get drunk with power, remains to bo seen.'

Qui vivra, verra—who-lives win see — applies to not a few of the author’s impressions, estimations and predictions. Mrs. Sheridan has written one of the most readable books we have yet had on the political leaders of social ■Conditions of post-war Europe, but it is more than doubtful whether she does not, in places, sacrifice accuracy, and sometimes, also, good taste, to her anxiety to present an effective picture. (N.Z. price, 12s. 6d.).

"Towards International Justice.” Under the title “Towards International Justice” (Allen and Unwin, Ltd.), Mr. F. N. Keen, LL.B., iKCIt collected a number of essays and papers on international organisationSf and more particularly the League or Nations. The opening lectures were delivered whilst yet the war was in progress, and are devoted to proclaiming the ideal of making future wars impossible. Tho later essays and lectures were written after the armistice and the Versailles Treaty,, and deal very largely with the constitution and limitations of tho League of Nations,

LIBER.

and tho best means by which the League may bo mado an instrument of security, both in tho present and the future. Tho author is evidently not blind to certain weaknesses in the League’s constitution. Thus, referring to article 10 by which members of the League are bound to vindicate existing boundaries, he points out that there is always some danger of such boundaries losing their relation to political and ethical realities. He advocates therefore the provision of “some new and systematic form of procedure which would enable changes of territorial boundary to be claimed as of right in cases where their justice would be fully established to the satisfaction, of an appropriate tribunal.” That many serious difficulties confront the League is admitted, but on the whole the author is very hopeful of its ultimate success. Professor Gilbert Murray contributes a thoughtful and interesting introduction. (N.Z. price, 10s. 6d.)

LIBER’S NOTE BOOK Orders for “New Rambles in Booklaird” have been received from leading booksellers in Melbourne and Sydney. Last year’s book by the same author was sold out in a few weeks, and copies are now unobtainable. A review of Mr. James Cowan’s new historical work, “The Old Frontier: The Story of the Valley,” will appear on this page at an early date. This New Zealand production has been, very favourably reviewed and is bound to go up in value as years go by. I notice that >the price of Mr. Cowan’s excellent book, . “The Maori?,” has now been advanced to 20s. As a rule New Zealand books are issued in relatively small editions. The wise collector should therefore “get in early.” Ten years from now "these books will be greatly sought after, and be at a high premium. An excellent feature of the present book-buying season is the much greater number of young men and women who are buying really good literature, literary classics in poetry, and belles lettres generally. The extension of university training may have something to do with this, but whatever the cause, the effect is good to notice. Is Hugh Walpole to become a twentieth century Trollope? . It looks like it when we read that his fine novel, “The Cathedral,” is to have two successors from the same pen, both novels dealing with the Church. A new “Barsetshire” series in fact.

The title of Llogd George’s hook “Is 'it Peace?” is taken. I understand, from the question asked by the Arch Druid when he enters the Eisteddfod. A second series of reminiscences from the pen of “A Woman of No Importance” has been published. The author isj it' is said, a Mrs. StuartMenzies, widow of a former officer in ihe Gordons. Two famous novels, of very, different authorship, are being filmed in America. One is Sir Walter Scott’s “Fair Maid of Perth”; the other, Stanley Weyman’s fine historical romance “Under the Red Rohe?’ Moro reminiscences. It is understood iJiat two famous journalists, Mr. H. W. Massingham and Mr. A. G. Gardiinor. are writing their autobiographies. Arnold Bennett’s new story, “Riceyman’s Steps,” was to bo published in londeu (by the house of Cassell) lato October. It is not as was at one time rumoured, a story of the “Five j’owns,” the scene, being laid in a bystreet in Bloomsbury, the heroine being a domestic servant in the employ the charm of Jefferies’ famous book, seller.

SOME RECENT FICTION “The Encl of the House of Alard.” There is less, of the Thomas Hardy influence in Aliss Sheila Kaye-Smith’s latest novel, “The End of the House of Alard” (Cassel] and Co., per Whitcomb and Tombs) than in her earlier stories. In its own way, regarded as a family history, it may seem to have something in common with Air. Galsworthy’s masterpiece, “The Forsyte Saga-’ 5 But Aliss Kaye-Smith’s point of view is less detached than was that of, the creator of the Forsytes. The story is a penetrating. study of the gradual decadence from its old masterful strength of a Sussex county family, wherein it has been a cherished tradition that all individual interests and ambtions shall be accounted as nothing to the preservation of the family’s acres and the power they give. The story of an unencumbered estate, the owners of which have to f acc social and economic ruin, is in a way a peculiarly pathetic tale. Peter, tho head, sacrifices his love for a doctor’s daughter, and marries a rich Jewess. George, his brother, a clergyman, dies of heart disease. Another brother is killed at the front. Gervase, yet another brother, after a vain attempt to find freedom from the tyranny of the Alard spirit as a motor engineer, ends up in a Catholic brotherhood, and on Peter’s tragic end by suicide, horrifies his mother and sisters by declaring that he finally renounces the family tradition by selling the whole Alard estate. As for the women of the family, they too suffer. One of them gets mixed up in a divorce case; and retires to a miserable life in small hotelsand boardinghouses, and another is doomed to remain a soured spinster. The youngest, Jenny, has more, pluck in her, and throwing over her first love, a well-born but impecunious squire, gains Tier freedom by marrying a yeoman farmer, and settling down in a less socially elevated, but far happier position. The moral of the story x, apparently, that it is useless for the impoverished Handed proprietors and their families to fight against fate, that the old-time squirearchy is doomed, and must courageously face tho changed conditions. I'he story is rich in sharply-etched character sketches. It smacks of the Sussex soil, and has much picturesque and convincing local colour. As a novel of present-day English country life it has great merit, but Alias Kaye-Smith has, perversely and mistakenly, so many of her readers will consider, chosen to make it the medium for championing the cause of Anglo-Catholicism. . By so doing she has lessened the interest of the narrative, clogging its progress by long interpolations of sectarian argument. “The End of tho House of Alard” is a novel of consummate literary artistry. but the novelist’s many admirers will, I think, trust that in future the author will give a little less prominence to her religious views and opinions. Shorter Notices.

“Film novels,” novels dealing with film production, and kinema magnates and actors and actresses are becoming quite- common. The heroine of “Film S’lruck, or “A Peep Behind the Curtain” (Stanley Paul and Co.), is a country parson’s daughter who “goes on the films.” Her experiences in the film world are occasionally rather lurid, but the story ends happily by her return to her bucolic surroundings as tho wife of a friendly neighbour.