BOOKS and AUTHORS

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 144, 14 March 1931, Page 18

BOOKS and AUTHORS

A weekly Survey

By

“Liber”

Give a man a pipe he can emoke, Give a man a book he can read: And his home is bright with a calm delight Though the room be p'oor indeed. —James Thomson.

BOOKS OF THE DAY French Politics. Vol. TV of the “Memoirs of Raymond Poincare (1915), translated and adapted to by Sir George Arthur (Heinemann), continues the story of the Great War which Poincare has to tell. The year 1915, with all its disappointments and its anxieties, is covered in its entirety. When concluded this diary will be, for many years to come, one of the most valuable sources of documentary evidence as to the difficulties and dangers which France and Great Britain had to face and with which the Allies had to cope, it was a stirring and an anxious year for France. “We take or lose a few trenches, but all the time death is stalking about.” So writes Poincare in the middle part of that eventful year, but the last words in the Diary are after all very hopeful. They run: “The year closes without any ray of the dawn of victory. But that dawn must rise. Victor Hugo was right to say that on the day when the light of France is extinguished, dusk will have set in over the whole world. Heaven be thanked, dawn did rise for France and England alike in th<j long run. But this Diary makes it clear that French statesmen were confronted by very serious difficulties in 1915. Poincare doubted the wisdom and good result of Joffr'e’s “nibbling” at the German line. He had “fears of Russia,” and he had his doubts as to the action of Italy and Rumania. It is, however, good, to see that he -had great faith in Kitchener and the English alliance. Clemenceau, so at least Poincare thinks, did not treat him well. At one juncture we find Poincare saying:— . For the last two or three days, and particularly this afternoon, silly stories have been current in Parliament. In the Senate, Clemenceau is responsible for the clumsy joke that I am going to get myself awarded the Croix de Guerre, while in the Palais Bourbon there is even a more malicious and mendacious report that before the Government left Bordeaux, I tried to negotiate an armistice with Germany. War is the mother of heroism, but is she also the parent of imbecility?

French action at Salonika seems ,to have given rise to a mass of opposition but Poincare persevered in his attitude, and although, as we have seen, the year ended badly in the Near East the French President always maintained his hopeful, confident attitude. (27/6.) “The Silence of Sarrail, Commander at Verdun in 1914, of the Allied Forces at Salonika, and High Commissioner in Syria” (Hutchinson and Co.), is a translation of a very debatable volume by Paul Coblentz, who claims to “tell the full and true story” of Sarrail’s chequered career. Sarrail, who was in supreme command at Verdun in 1914, was'afterward Commander in Chief of the Allied forces at Salonika, was High Commissioner in Syria when Damascus was bombarded. Sarrail always had his enemies, who held that he was in disgrace in all three appointments, but during his life he refused to justify himself by publishing the facts. Before he died he gave the author, an intimate friend, authority to defend him. If all or even most of what M. Coblentz says with so mordant a pen be true, then Sarrail was a most shamefully slandered man, and a severe indictment is brought against many Frepch statesmen and military leaders. But the question is whether Sarrail himself is always reliable. He was no friend of England whom, with regard to Salonika and Syria, he time and. again quite falsely accused of “treachery.” It is only fair to him, however, that his side of the case should be made public, and this M. Coblentz does with great frankness and in great detail. The .volume contains reproductions of numerous photographs taken in Syria and elsewhere. (22/-.) The Great Barrier Reef.

“A Year on the. Great Barrier Reef; the Story of Corals and their Greatest Creation” (Putnam’s) is tltp work of Dr. Yonge, leader of the Great Barrier Reef Expedition, 1925 : 1929, physiologist at the Plymouth Laboratory and late Balfour student at the-University of .Cambridge. Dr. Yonge, who had previously undertaken marine investigations in Norway, Sweden, France, and Italy, was in command of an expedition sent out to investigate corals and coral "reefs, and was stationed at Low Island from July IG, 1928, to July 2G. 1929. It was the largest expedition of its kind ever sent out from England, and it remained longer at work than any previous expedition. Dr. Yonge’s book gives a full, vivid, and most interesting account of perhaps the most extraordinary geographical formation on the globe, and he includes a derailed history and ’ description of corals and the coral insect. (27/6.) A German Philosopher.

Herr Richard Muller Frienfels, author of “The Mysteries of the Soul” (Allen and Unwin), is accounted one of the most original and notable of the younger school of German philosophers. Born at Ems in 1882, Ilerr Frienfels, who has travelled much in his time, is to-day Professor of Psychology and Aesthetics in the University of Berlin. In- 1922 he was awarded the Niethzche Prize for the best philosophical study of the year, and since then he has published several philosophical works, being now accounted one of the chief exponents of the. modern German philosophy of life. His “Mysteries of the Soul,” of which an English translation by Bernard Miall is now published, discusses religion and the soul of mau from an original arid unconventional standpoint; it is more than modern, since it looks to the future. The chapter headings give some idea of the scope of the work, which, for all its close thinking, is easy to follow, because the thought is so logical. Among the subjects, discussed are: “The Immortality of the Soul,” “The Individual Man and Plis Destiny,” “The Dramaturgy of Life,” “The. Americanisation of the Soul,” “The Religion of the Future,” etc. In the last-named sec-, tion the author strongly attacks as false the “belief which arises, from our present divided and dismembered condition, that religion must necessarily be opposed to science and the other forces of culture,” and continues: “Where religion has been genuine and vigorous, it has always absorbed the rest of contemporary culture; it has beeu the synthesis of culture. and its vital and creative force. It mav and must be so to-day and in the future.” (16/-.) “The European Heritage.”

As is well said by Mr. Whtsou Kirkconnell, M.A., F.R.Hist.S., author of “The European Heritage” (J. M. -Dent and Son), “ignorance is the mother of intolerance,” and “most of the bitter prejudices which to-day poison the relationships of nation with nation and of race with race spring primarily from lack of knowledge.” This ignorance, the author, who dates his book from a Canadian (Wesley) College, Winnipeg, seeks to correct and dispel in his attempt to set forth in comprehensive and readable form the several contributions made, to civilisation by all of the different nationalities and peoples of Europe, all European races being shown to' possess a vast unity in diversity. Those who can appreciate the supra-national significance of Dante and Pasteur, Tolstoy and Newton, Velasquez, Goethe and Mickiewicz, should welcome this admirable roll-call of European men of genius. (8/-.) A Great Elizabethan Navigator.

A recent and welcome addition to the fine “Golden Hind” series, edited by Milton Waldman (John Lane), is an entirely new biography of that great Elizabethan navigator, “Sir John Hawkins,” written by Mr. Philip Gosse. The name of John Hawkins must ever be associated with those of Drake, Raleigh and Frobisher, all men who did so much to extend the British Empire and to set fog Gpaat Britain ftunoua <Mt the

mother of navigators' daring and enterprise. Here is a fine full-length portrait of one who in his day had few rivals, certainly no superiors, in the world of British seamanship. Mr. Gosse retells the life story of Sir John Hawkins from his early days at Plymouth to his last voyage, when in 1595 he died, being then co-commander of a British fleet with Sir Francis Drake, shortly before reaching Porto Rico. The biography is amply detailed and usefully documented, and the interest of the text is enhanced by some well engraved reproductions of maps and old naval and other prints and portraits. (14/-.)

John Knox. A recent addition to “The Life and Letters” series (Jonathan Cape) is a new edition of the “Life of John Knox,” by Edwin Muir, published in more costly form in 1929. Mr. Muir says that his study of the famous Scottish reformer is not concerned with the truth or the falsehood of Calvinism, but rather presents the Calvinist in all his multifarious activities from the greatest to the most trifling, and shows his creed working out here •in heroic and there in ridiculous form. From whatever point of view the life of John Knox may be regarded it is evident that Mr. Muir has made a very. thorough and careful study of his .character and that his book, with its many new points, must be regarded as a very useful historical ■ and religious study. (5/6.) “The Horrors of Cayenne.”

Of late we have heard not a little, in cable, accounts, of the horrors - which awiit the French convicts who are sentenced to imprisonment in • or deportation to the French settlements at Cayenne, more especially of the very dreadful fate of those imprisoned on that Devil’s Island made world notorious during the sojourn there of the unjustly sentenced Dreyfus. In “The Horrors of Cayenne” (Constable) we are given what purports to be “the true story of a German, Karl Bartz, who through the treachery, so he contends, of a woman, was impressed into the French Foreign Legion, and was fighting in Morocco at the outbreak of the Great War. He organised a revolt among the German members of the Legion, and for this was sentenced for a term of years and sent to the penal settlement of Cayenne. If the Cayenne horrors are even half as bad as they are here depicted as being, there would seem to be some call for or justification of remonstrance, even interference, by the League of Nations. (8/-.)

Dr. Pinfold on New Zealand. Dr. James T. Pinfold, M.A., the author of “Fifty Years in Maoriland” (J. A. Sharp, the Epworth Press), is well known as a religious teacher and theologian of long residence in New Zealand in whose social as well as religious service he has done much good and deservedly esteemed service. Dr. Pinfold has written a really excellent account of his life in New Zealand of which, in his book, he gives a very clear and useful history of the country dealing in successive chapters with its native life, its scenery, natural history, political, and social progress, and the growth of its religious development. Dr. Pinfold regrets, we notice, the materialism which so much affects our civilisation, but on the whole takes a very philosophical and mildly optimistic view of the future of the country. He pays deserved tribute to the pioneers for their industry and courage, and' to the fine spirit of loyalty and devotion to the Empire which is shown. by succeeding generations. Mr. Elsdon Best contributes a foreword, but says nothing specially new, and a few illustrations have been supplied f>y the Government Publicity Department. (7/-.) LIBER’S NOTEBOOK From “Liber’s” scrap book:— While you converse with lords and dukes, I have their betters here, my books; Fixed in an elbow chair at ease I choose companions as I please. I’d rather have one single shelf Than all my friends, except yourself; For, after all that can be said, Our best companions are the dead. —Sheridan to Swift. To correspondents: A.F. (Wanganui) : See your bookseller. He ought to be able, through his London . correspondents, to get you any item—if it is not sold when the order arrives—in an antiquarian bookseller’s catalogue. “A Recent Discoverer of Reade” (Petone) : Your local library should have a copy of Charles Reade’s best and greatest story, “The Cloister and the Hearth.” On a more modern theme read Reade’s “Hard Cash.” ’ To those booklovers who in these hard times can afford expensive' but fine, reliable editions, I would recommend Constable’s issue of the best works of William Beckford, of Fonth Hill. The first volumes are the “Travel Diaries of Beckford,” now published in two volumes (English price 42/-.). and “Vathek and the Episodes of Vathek.” This latter has eight collotype plates, of which one is coloured bv hand, and is priced at 18/-. Next -year will come due a literary centenary of a certain importance. This is the centenary of the Rev. C. L. Dodgson, who, as Lewis Carroll, attained almost universal fame as the author of the delightful “Alice in Wonderland, series. In 1924 was published a “Bibliography of the Writings of Lewis .Carroll.” Of this work, a new edition is. to be published toward the end of this year, and will include a “Life” of. the author, with much new and interesting details as to the editions of “Alice” published since Mr. Dodgson’s death in -189 S. Subscribers to that invaluable work, the D.N.8.. otherwise the Dictionary ot National Biography, which, commenced by the late Mr. Smith, of the defunct firm of Smith. Elder and Co., is now published by the Oxford University Press, will be glad to know that the last volume, bringing the work along another decade, was due for publication at the end of last year. A Pew volume. “Christina Rossetti, by Dorothy Stuart, was recently added to the new series of English “Men of Letters.” edited by Dorothy Stuart, who wrote the monograph on “Horace Walpole” in the same series. A very notable book on “Peacock” was published a year or two ago in the same series, the author being Mr, Priestley, of late making such a name for himself as the author of “The Good Companions” and “Angel Pavement.” Peacock’s daughter married, it may be remembered. George Meredith, but the marriage was a sad failure. Peacock doesn’t seem to be greatly appreciated in New Zealand. I saW a complete Peacock, in seven volumes. sold at a Wellington auction for 10/-. His “Headlong “Crochet Castle” are among the funniest things I have read. Rex Beach, whose novels, with an Alaskan background, have had so many readers here, is now living in a very different scene, in Florida, the State where he was born. His next novel is announced as dealing with Florida, but an American paper says: “This can’t be done. We always picture Rex Beach clothed in furs and driving a dog team over the frozen Arctic wastes. He may go to Florida occasionally to thaw out. But he belongs to Alaskal” The German author, Remarque, whose “All Quiet on the Western Front” was such .a success, has received £75,000 in royalties. Of this the German Government has taken £25,000 in taxes. A pretty heavy proportion of 'his profits, but in Germany the Treasury is very needy. The death was announced in January of the Rev. Mark Guy Pearse, the Wesleyan peacher and author. He wrote several books on Cornish life, “Daniel Quoim,” “Mistar Hora,” and oth&ra,

and was a popular lecturer on Cornish life and Customs. Lord Riddell, in “John o’ London’s Weekly,” gives some interesting extracts from a privately printed biography of John Murdoch, who for some time acted as tutor “in English grammar” and French, to Robert Burns. Burns and his brother were pupils at their village school and later on their lowly parents found the money to pay a tutor—as Lord Riddell comments: “The true Scottish spirit!”

Ten new volumes are to be added to the famous “Everymah’s library” by Messrs. Dent and Son. Sir Gerald du Maurier has written' a special preface for the new edition of his father’s “Trilby.” which includes the author’s original illustrations. Then we have an Everyman edition in two . volumes of Dostoersky’s powerful, but to me rather gloomily morbid, “Possessed.” Middleton Murry is to furnish an “introduction.” In two volumes also will come what is claimed to be an “unabridged” translation of Rousseau’s “Confessions,” as well as a new edition of Mrs. Radcliffe’s “Mysteries of Udolphs,” over which our forbears of the early Victorian period used to shudder. A. Austin Freeman, who in his detective stories has made such good use of Dr. Thorndyke is to act as Mr. Radcliffe’s “introducer” to the present generation. Then we are also to have a new Donne (the “Poems” only), the autobiography of Richard Baxter, and Quiller Couch’s “Hetty Wesley.” Altogether a very desirable collection. Sir Philip Gibbs’s new long novel, “The Winding Lane.” is to be published by Hutchinsons. His last novel. “The Middle of the Road,” has run into its 140th thousand, so it can be accounted a “best seller.” Yet another periodical has appeared for the special edification of all “interested in the collection, preservation, production, and study of books.” This is “The Book Collector’s Quarterly,” published by Cassel and Co. Edmund Blunden, Holbrook Jackson, Shane Leslie, and Hannah Miles are among the contributors. The English price is 3/- net. Lady Eleanor Smith’s “Flamenco” receives some quite enthusiastic reyiews from London critics.. The author is a daughter of the late VLord Birkenhead, and wrote that decidedly attractive novel, “Red Wagon,” which had much to do with circus life, and was reviewed in “The Dominion.” Some of my readers are the happy possessors of sets of the Roxburghs Ballads, and of ballad literature generally. They should be interested in the Pepys ballads which are being edited by a Harvard professor, Mr. H. E. Rollins, and published in England by Humphrey Milford. The fourth volume of these ballads has now, I see, sheared, and should be of interest to all who have good editions (Wheatley’s is the best) of the famous “Diary.” An “omnibus” book, which will probably have a large sale, is Messrs. Collins and Co.’s edition, in one volume, of 1248 pages, of Oscar Wilde’s works, with fifteen drawings by Donia Nachsen. Judging by the Teutonic name of the illustrator, this was probably first a German edition. Wilde has always had a

great reputation in Berlin and Vienna. The St. Patrick’s College magazine has always been noted for the high literary standard of its contents and the 1930 publication has proved no exception. The magazine not only deals with the yearly activities of the pupils but gives news of the old boys. There is also an article dealing with the scholastic career of the late Father T. Gilbert, who was one of the most popular rectors the college has ever had. Eileen Duggan has written a fine poem to his memory. Among the contributions is some promising verse by K. Maher. SOME RECENT FICTION A Highland Romance. In “Breakers” (John Murray), Miss N. Brysson Morrison has written a first novel of no small power and promise, m a romance centring in an impecunious minister’s family living in a lonely Highland manse at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Miss Morrison is successful in conveying to the reader of her novel a fine sense of the dramatic picturesqueness of her scenes. A Norwegian Novel. In “Peder Victorious" (Harper and Brothers), Mr. O. E. Rolvaag carries on the great theme set forth ,by the Norwegian author in “The Giants of the Earth,” the English translation being by Nora O. Solum, Professor of English at St. Olaf College, and the author himself. “Peder Victorious” is a drama of the.life of the second generation of Scandinavians in the Western American States, and as such is full of picturesque scenes in the life of the hardy Scandinavian pioneers who have done such splendid work in the New World.