BOOKS and AUTHORS

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 33, 2 November 1929, Page 30

BOOKS and AUTHORS

A Weekly Survey :

By

“Liber”

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. Thomson.

BOOKS OF THE DAY

German Royalty. There seems to b 6 quite a spate of translations of German written books on royal personages. Of these, Her. bert Euleriberg’s monograph on “The Hohenzollerns” (Allen and Unwin) is a good example. Eulenberg, born in Cologne in 1876, and having studied law in Berlin, Leipzig and Munich, as well as having travelled extensively in Italy, Tunisia, the Balkan States and Russia, has made himself famous in Germany as a champion of peace. He was one of the first Germans to be invited in America by the Carnegie Institute on world topics, and has also earned considerable fame as a dramatist. Dr. Eulenberg draws a very ugly picture of the Hohenzollerns. They cared always far less for love of the Fatherland and its people than for their unlimited absolutism, their own sense of Divine Right. To this end they made a fine show of patriotism and sabre-rattling. Dr. Eulenberg makes the Hohenzollerns show ever their persistent hereditary characters; Each biography is illustrated by a well-executed portrait. (18s.) More Historiacl Biography.

Paul Wengler’s “William the First: His Life and Times,” translated into English by Constance Vesey (Allen and Unwin), is yet another copiously documental picture of German royalty. All the great figures of the first half of this century are' described by Herr Wenglerwith' an unfailing eye for striking character. He liberally introduces telling anecdote, his historical biography being vivid and dramatically animated. * The author has made a name for himself as a writer of historical monographs, and is also well known in Germany as the translator of many works by Anatole France, Jules Laforgne and others. The illustrations, mainly from historical prints, have been well reproduced-(215.)

“Joy in Work.” “Joy in Work,” by Henri de Man (George Allen and Unwin), is a translation from the German original, by Eden and Cedaog Paul. The book, which is psychological in character, is based upon the work of the author at the Frankfort Labour College, when he collected reports from 78 persons, industrial workers and salaried employees, on the conditions that promoted their pleasure in or intensified their distaste for their various occupations. These various reports form the ground-work for arguments and inferences about the interesting problem, mooted sixty' years ago by Samuel Butler in his book, “Man versus Machine.” On the basis of that ethical Socialism to which he has propounded in some of his earlier works, the author comes to fairly sanguine conclusions, if not about the present at any rate about the possibilities of the near future. (11s.).

“The Poison of Prudery.” Mr. Walter M. Gallichan’s “Poison, of Prudery” (T. Werner Laurie) 'is claimed to be. the first historical survey of prudery, and is the outcome of tho suppression of Miss Radcliffe Hall's much-discussed book, "The Well of Loneliness.” Mr. Gallichan has the courage of his opinions, and a good deal of what he says about pornography and pornographic publications, is true enough. v But we fail to see the necessity for''a defence of sheer filth and much of w’hat the author says had been, I think, better left unsaid. (10s.). “The Truth About Mind Cure.”

Dr. Wm. S. Sadler’s "The Truth About Mind Cure” (George Allen and Unwin), is the outgrowth of- his lectures on “Faith and Fear,” which have been delivered over a thousand times in the United States. The doctor asks us to bear in mind that !‘this is a popular lecture on mental medicine, and not an exhaustive or logical treatise on psychotherapy.” He proves his case that there is a close connection between the patient’s state of mind and What are only too commonly assumed to be physical ailments. What he says about nervous disorders, deplorably so rife in America, is specially common-sense. (65.)

“Fleet Moments.” Under the title “Fleet Moments” (Selwyn an<J Blount), Mr. Trevor Smith republishes some articles contributed by him to the Melbourne “Herald” and Sydney “Sun,” descriptive of his experiences when accompanying the Atlantic Fleet, on the autumn exercises, in H.M.A.S. Canberra. Admiral Hon. Sir Hubert Bland, R.N.. testifies to the worthy maintenance of the high standard of efficiency and smartness by the Canberra while she was with the Atlantic Fleet. The booklet will, he believes, “do much to strengthen tfie bonds between the two Navies and give the people of Australia a good impression of life in the Brititsh Fleet.” *%» • '• The Joys of Nature Study. In “The Garden of Enchantment” (Rider and Co.), Mr. Sydney Klein shows with simplicity and sympathy how we may best study the laws of nature and bow, by close study, we may recognise “The divine relationship which exists between the material and spiritual worlds.” Mr. Klein's pictures of the little world of fairies are very charmingly written. “Nationality: Its Nature and Problems.” “Nationality: Its Nature and Problems,” begins No. 301 in the series of monographs by writers connected with the London School of Economics and Political Science (Loudon, George. Allen and Unwin), is a critical study of the entire question of nationality. Its author, Dr Bernard Joseph, is a Canadian lawyer now practising at the Canadian Bar, being intimately acquainted with the Nationalist movement in Egypt, and amongst the Arabs of Palestine and Syria. The various attributes of nationality, race .language, tradition, religion, culture, and national consciousness, are all analysed in an effort to establish the importance of each in its formation, development; and preservation. The principal nationalities of the world arc considered-in detail in order to establish the fundamental basis of nationality. The book deals further with the various problems affecting nationality. such as its' relationship to cosmopolitanism. the State, patriotism and War, and indicates the real nature of nationality and its importance in the social order. (135.). Australian Discovery—By Sea. M. Dent and Sons),' edited by Professor ScOtt. I’rojgs&pr oj History in the Unb

versity of Melbourne, is a most important and deeply interesting book, telling of the discovery and exploration of Australasia, by sea, from the earliest times up to Flinders’s voyages round the southern continent. The test consists of the actual words of the old explorers themselves, the narrative interest being heightened only by the careful abridgment of the more formal matter. Cook’s own narrative is accordingly used, instead of the voyages as “writ-' ten up” -later, and Flinders’s “Voyages,” which round off the book, and form about one-fourth of. it. are here ■ reprinted for the first time.' Apart from the historical value of the volume, it is of great human interest, these firsthand accounts of new lands, of wrecks, and mutinies and meetings with aborigines, of privations endured and difficulties overcome, compelling one to read on. ’ The addition of fifteen' contemporary portraits and maps, the latter photographed by permission ofi the British Museum trustees, add much to alike the interest and value of the publication. New Zealand readers should feel proud of the fact that a reproduction of'Natlmniel Davies’s.fine portrait of Captain Cook,, hanging in the Gallery of Greenwich Hospital, forms the frontispiece to the volume, which.is to be followed .by a similar book, also edit-, ed by Professor Scott, which , will, deal with the. discovery by land'of Austra-. Jia, from the account of. Blaxlarid’s famous crossing of the BlueMountains' in 1813. (13s.' 6d.) : . Dogma in History and Thought. A recent addition to “The Library of Constructive ‘ Theology” (Skellington) of studies by varibus' wfiters'; including 'W. R. Matthews, E. J. Bick-' noli, Charles Gore, Richtird Hanson/ and others; the substance of the book being given as. a course of public lee-' tures at King’s College, Lontloh, during the Michaelmas term,. 1028,. With one exception, Dr, Franks, the authors -are all. members of .the. Theological Faculty of King’s College, the book' being, it is hoped, to be accepted as. evidence that King’s College remains true to its, tradition of striving, to combine “true religion”-with sound learning, and of a comprehension as -wide as the Church Of England. (Bs. 6d.) ■■ Victorian Working Women. Mrs. Wanda Fraiken Neff? the author of “Victorian Working. Women,” an historical . and literary study of women, in British Industries and Professions, 1832-1850 (George Allen and Unwin), is a brilliant American student of sociology, -who,; graduating from the University of Minnesota, in 1909, .received the. M,A; - degree in English from Columbia University in--1917. She afterwards studied in London and at Oxford. Her study of womeji during the period- dealt With is almost encyclopaedic in its scope, treating of the economic, social, moral, and intellectual status Of the Victorian.' woman, factory girl, dressmaker, shop worker, governess, etc. Mrs. Neff, even includes a comprehensive study of the ‘idle woman” for the ladles "who compressed their waists, pinched their feet, loaded themselves down with a weight were not idle,” in the face of statistics which proved that many women would be neither , wives n mothers, they continued to be educated for functions they could never perform. Mrs. Neff has ransacked magazines, newspapers, novels, essays, parliamentary reports and legal records to complete her extraordinarily vivid picture of British civilisation. (165.) “Just Across the Road.”

Based upon a short article which appeared two years ago in the columns of the London “Daily Dispatch.” Mr. W. R. Calvert, author of “Just Across the Road” (Skeffington), wrote a long series of nature sthdles which appeared in the weekly edition of that journal and attained considerable popularity. These he has now collected in a handsome volume containing well-written articles on a vast variety of subjects all Illustrating the truth of Byron’s lines:—

Dear Nature is the kindest mother still, Though always changing in her aspect nil. Mr. Calverta article on birds and bird life we have found specially interesting, but the book-is one rich storehouse of fact, ingenious fancy, and interesting information for the- lover of nature. “Anthropology and Modern Life.” Dr. Franz Boas, Professor of ’ Anthropology at Columbia University,'is one of the most distinguished of American anthropologists, and his book. .“Anthropology and Modern ,Life’ r (Gebrge Allen afid Unwin), is well'deserving of. an English edition. Popularly written, live and interesting.- this book, the. result of the experiences of a . long and distinguished career, shows how- the study of man. as a group, as a-social unit rather than as an 'individual,-il-luminates the social processes' of our. time. There are chapters on the problem of race, the interrelation' of races, nationalism, eugenics, crimino‘logy, the stability of culture, edrication, etc. (135.)

SOME RECENT FICTION

The Forsyte Saga. With “A Modern Comedy” (Heinemann), Mr. John Galsworthy gives us the ■ conclusion of the Forsyte Saga, otherwise the text of the three-novels; “The White Monkey,” "The Silver Spoon.” and “Swan Song,” which, in conjunction with the two Interludes, “A Silent Wooing”-and “Passers' By, make up the sequence to the first volume of the Forsyte Saga and complete the history of the Forsyte family to the present day, that wonderful epic of upper middle-class society, by which its author has’ won himself a front rank place among modern English masters of fiction. With the various novels and fragments which round off this remark-, able achievement, my readers are no doubt already well acquainted in de-: tail. With the, republication of the second : series of the novel, Which practically commence with the meeting of Sonnies Forsyte with Irene, ■ and end' when, as Mr. Galsworthy puts it. "its' spine snapped and Sonnies took the ferry forty-five years later.” The author in his preface to tills second and final instalment of the Forsyte Saga himself states that this Modern Comedy is staged against a baekgrond of that more or less fixed quantity. Soames, and his eo-fnther-in-law, light-weight and ninth baronet. Sir Lawrence Mont witli such subsidiary tico-Vletorlaus as tlie self-righteous Mr.Danby Eldcrsou. Mr. Blyth, Sir James Fitskfeson, Wilfred Bentworth, and, Hilary CharweU. pooling theli; - idiosyucracies,

qualities,, and mental attitude, one gets a fairly comprehensive and steady past "against which to limn the features of the present, Fleur and Michael Mont, Wilfred Desert, Aubrey Greene, Marjorie Ferrar, Norah Curfew, Jon, the Rafaelite, and other minor characters.” 1 .

And then Mr. Galsworthy moralises as follows:— The multiple types and activities of today, even above' the Pllmsoll line of property, would escape the confines, twenty novels, so that this Modern Comedy is bound to be a gross under-statement of tho present generation, but not perhaps a libel upon it. Symbolism is boring, so let us hope that a certain resemblance between the case of Fleur and that of her generation, chasing the serenity of which it has been defrauded, may escape notice. The fact remains that for the moment, at least, youth is balancing, twirling on the tiptoes of uncertainty; What is to come? Will contentment, yet be caught? How will it all settle down? Will kings ever settle down—who knows? Are there to cQme fresh wars, and fresh Inventions, hotfoot on those not yet mastered and digested? Or will Fate decree another pause, like that of Victorian times, during which revaluated life will crystallise and give property and its brood of definite beliefs a further limings?

■ And Mr. Galsworthy closes on the final thought that whatever we may think of his great masterpiece, at least we must admit that Soames Forsyte is a real creation—“he was honest, anyway. He lived and moved and had his peculiar being, and now he sleeps.” Reading again; in its completed form, this second and final Stalment of the Forsyte Saga, we are compelled to agree with him. Soames, with all.'his weaknesses and faults, is-, a real , man, surrounded by mud influenced' by real creations, not 'mere .bibodless puppets. As for the hook itself—this second and last phase ,ip,the story, of the Forsytes, we may echo what was written by a famous English-critic of-the first phase: “The lightness of its beauty, the quickness of its growth, give the, note of tragedy in modern life. Tragedy which comes from human weakness, not from passion or fate or the malign clutch of circumstances.” "The Modern Comedy” puts the final coping-stone upon the family pedestal of the Forsytes. Every Englishman who is rightly' proud of this superb “family piece banging on our own walls” for all to wonder at and admire, should at once give “A Modern Comedy” a place of honour on his book shelves. (Ils.) A New Lucas Novel. . “Windfall’s Ere” by E. V. Lucas (Methuen),' is the first novel published by this author since his “Advisory Ben” in 1923, and marks a return in style to the same writer’s “Over Benrierton's.” An official of the British Museum, a middle-aged, cultured gentleman, Richard has the good fortune to win the Calcutta Sweep, which suddenly puts him in possession of a very large sum of money. News comes to him that he is at last a “six-figure man,” but he does not lose his head. He is besieged by letters begging a share of his fortune, but these—with the exception of a friend who has got him to buy the ticket winning the prize—he resists, for Blakeley suggests that he make him the present of a new hunter, which is given him, and is renamed Sweep. Richard resigns his position on the Museum staff, and takes up his quarters at the Dayenant Arms, .which, it may be said at’ once, is a comfortable old inn whose proprietor, Elijah Oubbage, is a typically Lucasian character,- full' of pointed quips and with much commonsense. One of Richard’s first and ’ most difficult problems has reference to the engagement of his sister’s son, Vivian, who is in love with and the accepted suitor of a revue star, Posy .Crystal, who is old enough to be his mother,, and whom Richard remembers as having been one of the most adored x music-hall celebrities of his youtli. Vivian’s engagement to the lady causes great pain to his parents, the Rev.'Rupert Blake, a retired clergyman, and his “society” wife, and Richard has to use all his tact to bring ■ about its breaking off. Then there is his friend, Alban Hulse, a dying man who makes a new and most extraordinary, though perfectly legal will, once a fortnight, to the exasperation and sad inconvenience of his legal ad- . viser : ; and an old acquaintance, . the Hon. Victoria Poole, who sets up business as dealer in antiques in an out-of-the-way street, at' a quaint old Cathedral town, Canchester, and who is assisted by Richard with some very good advice, and better still, is helped to a partner,, his niece and a sensible increase of capital. As the reader of “Verena in the Midst,” and other Lucasian entertainments will expect Richard’s comments upon the ways of 'antique dealers are very amusing. His remarks on the literary methods of Bruce Frobisher, the novelist, Mrris Head, a cricketer, and the Hob. Mrs. "Furzy Radlett, a breeder of Pekingese, are most amusing. He also gets some good fun out 'of the “crossword” problems put before him by the pretty Hermione Gage. Bertram, an up-to-date young architect; Hamblin, a typical self-centred chauffeur; and others are in the story, but the two principal figures in this amusing potpourri -of quaint characterisation are his old friend aud associate in so many amable enterprises, Mrs. Jimmy Candover, a lady who lives in retirement at' Greentye. Manor, a quaint old Elizabethan manor house, and whose husband, concerning whom we might hear a little more than we do, lives apart from her: and an American gentleman, Mr. Spofford, who, nosing out the fact that the manor had its Shakespearean associations, is desperately anxious to buy it and make it a centre, for Yankee touristdom. Richard cleverly euchres the ingenious -Spofford’s efforts to secure the place, with the ! idea of helping his friend, Mrs. Candover, but to his astonishment the latter is quite willing to part withhe. property, havii in view a. very, charming wintering Riviera residence. There are a host of other characters, all, as is'.the.Lucasian.way, productive of. first-class comedy effects.'- The.story has no plot. a. fact which, is variously commented on in a number of bogus reviews which the author masses together at the end of the book, which is uniformly interesting and should be given a place besides the author’s earlier “entertainments,” “Over Beiherton’s,” “Mr. Ingleside,” “London Lavender,” and others. Personally, although, some of Mr. imcas’s admirers may uold fhat the texture of his latest story is, in places, just a little thin, I could go on reading a “new Lucas” aS often as it pleases him to write One. Which cannot be too Often. From John Murray. “Fire: A Romance of Hawaii,” by Armine Von Tempski. Readers may differ as to the wisdom, or otherwise, of marriage between mixed races, but whether Alma Manning was wise or j not in her choice of a lover, in her Hawaiian-born husband, Lilo-liho, the pair, bravely faced the adventures which met them and camo smiling# through their absorbing romance. Like its predecessors, “Dust”, and ‘Hula,” the story is redolent of Hawaiian life and local'colour,