“Portrait of a Writer.”

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 30, 29 October 1932, Page 17

“Portrait of a Writer.”

“Thackeray—A Personality," by Malcolm Elwin (London: Jonathan ■ Cape). ’There is no definitive biography of Thackeray. Hence, perhaps, the fact that although as much has been written as might have been expected about one of the greatest English novelists, there is no adequate and accurate portrait of his character. It is the aim of Mr. El win’s present volume-to repair this defect. , Thackeray was not merely a writer of genius, the author of “Esmond” and “Vanity Fair.” He was a man of arresting personality, whose conscience carried on a perpetual battle with subversive instincts, urging him to a restless activity which cut short his life in its prime. Mr. Elwin’s portrait of his personality is drawn nga’nst the brilliant background of his varied life, across which pass the shadows of, Tennyson, Fitzgerald, the Fraserian group, the founders •of “Punch,” Forster, Dickens, Lever, Leech, and Charlotte Bronte, besides the whole of literary America in the ’fifties'