MR. STUART’S THIRD NOVEL

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 124, 18 February 1933, Page 17

MR. STUART’S THIRD NOVEL

A Spiritual Message for the Modern World

“Try the Sky,” by Francis Stuart (London: Gollancz) ; “Jenny Wren,” by E. H. Young (London: Cape); “A Hunting We Will Go,” by Brigadier Geoffrey Brooke (London: Seeley, Service).

In his third novel Mr. Stuart shows the same tine qualities, the splendid prose, the superb flights of imagination, so apparent in “Pigeon Irish” and “The Coloured Dome,” and with them a clearer exposition of his spiritual creed .—his “message" Mr. Compton Mackenzie calls it in a brief and rather unnecessary foreword. “Try the Sky" is the story of an age-old struggle; it is the attempt of two lovers to beat off the chains which bind them to the earth, and soar on wings of ecstasy to the untroubled heights. In "The Death of Ivan Ililtch,” Tolstoi’s great character, suddenly in the midst of torment cries: “Now 1 am on the wing”; and to that state of happiness Mr. Stuart’s pair of lovers would attain. <• To do that they must fight a battle of spirit against spirit. “The dark, secret, brooding spirit of the earth resentful of the spirit that would soar above it and transcend it,” Mr. Stuart writes. "The mysticism of the earth against the mysticism of human love.” This is no story of the war between .good and evil. It is ironical that it is a conflict between two forms of beauty —the solid and material beauty of the earth aiid an invisible, amorphous beauty reaching its greatest expression in the selfless love of a man and woman.

Any attempt to describe in a few words the action of the bqok would be an injustice to the author; he depends so much upon atmosphere and mood. But “Try the Sky” is a novel to be read for its purity of style, Its breaks of imaginative fantasy, and the strange intensity of its story. One has to be in just the right mood to appreciate "Jenny Wren,” for Miss Young's methods of telling a story are very much her own. She gets the effects she w’ants, but there are times when one cannot help filing that she takes an unconscionably long time about it. Some chapters provide niucn the same sensation as moving gently to and fro in a swing, pleasant and comfortable under the right conditions, but by no means exciting or exhilarating, and certainly not getting one any further forward. Jenny and her sister, Dahlia, loving the life of their patrician father and living that of their plebeian mother, are delightfully, if a little vaguely, drawn, and their relations with the lodgers they have been obliged to take in and the other residents of Beulah. Mount are described with that touch of quiet humour so much Miss Young’s own. Indeed the whole book has a calmness and placid beauty which owe a good deal of their character to the very lack of definition and slow movement so likely in many moods merely to repel the reader. “A’Hunting We Will Go,” as its title indicates, is a novel of horses and hounds and thrilling exploits of the chase, with a little human, interest added. Brigadier' Brooke, author of “Horsemanship” in the Lonsdale Library, knows his subject thoroughly. He writes so freshly and amusingly that his book should not fail to appeal to lovers of tales of the hunting field. A FRENCH CASANOVA “Memoirs of the Comte Alexandre ds Tilly,” translated by Francois Delisle, with an introduction by Havelock, Ellis (London: Gollancz). It is surprising that such racily-written memoirs as those of the Comte de Tilly with their brilliant pictures of the eighteenth century aristocracy should have been left till now—some 150 years after the events described in them—for their presentation to the reader in English. True, Stendhal, As Mr. Havelock Ellis notes in a lengthy introduction, made some attempt to get them translated as far back as 1828, but publishers apparently foilght shy of the writings of a man with a reputation like Tilly’s, It was Stendhal’s idea to reduce the three volumes of the original to one, cutting out moralisations and generalisations, so that “we should have a delicious book.” But Mr. Ellis and M. Delisle thought otherwise, although they have put all three volumes between two covers. “It is true,” Mr. Ellis says, “that neither. I nor the translator has ventured to follow Stendhal’s scheme of abridgment. We judge, indeed, that the English reader will prefer to have the book whole and select for himself the episodes which are 'delicious'.” In his early 'teens Tilly was sent to court as a page of Marie Antoinette ,andso began those strange adventures, amours and gaieties which, up to the time of the French Revolution, are so fully described in his memoirs. Of the twenty-four years of life still remaining to him until his death by suicide in December, 1816, he writes nothing. But those early years were the best and most attractive and an account of his subsequent doings, so frequently discreditable, would be little gain. The chief value of the work lies in its pictures of life in the pre-revolutionary days. His descriptions of various prominent figures of the ancien regime are excellently done and the book as a whole should be of great interest to students of the period, quite aprirt from the abunj dant entertainment its pages afford. In fact, of all the memoirs of those who take love easy there arc none fitter than Tilly’s to stand on the same plane of accomplishment with the volumes of the more famous Casanova. THE SOUTH COUNTRY “The South Country,” by Edward Thomas, with wood engravings by Eric Fitch Dalglish (London : Dent). It is particularly fitting that Messrs. J. M. Dent and Sons should have chosen of the books of the late Edward Thomas “The South Country” for presentation in a fine edition. For it is, as Mrs. Helen Thomas says in an introduction, one of the happiest of his prose works, as it is certainly one of the most popular. All those lovely manifestations of nature, the sight of which could so enthrall and bemuse him, are described in this book with the delicacy and precision of a keen-eyed lover of the open air, who was at the same time a great artist in words. But Thomas was in love with all country life, whether in or out of doors. And so his wife can recall “long evenings of talk with friends, and pipes and beer round a great fire in a low cottage room; or, with a child on each knee, rending aloud Chaucer, or singing some of his native Welsh songs till bedtime came. . . .” Honest company by night and long days alone in the world of simple things, these were his food and drink. Mr. Dalglish comes very near to being the perfect illustrator of Thomas’s work. His engravings have dignity and poise; they are true works of art, drawn with imagination and yet amazing accuracy of detail. They enrich and add a most appropriate embellishment to the text of this beautifully-produced volume.

Ito-day’s reviews] I . “Try the Sky’’ j ; “Jenny Wren” i = “Nonsuch—Land of Water” | f “Memoirs of the Comte de Tilly” i I “For Ever England” |

' .UIIIIIIIIIHHMIIIIIIIHIIHIIIIIIIIItIIIIIIIMHItIMXIHHUIIIIIIini A PATRIOT’S BOOK

“For Ever England,” by Major-General the Rt. Hon. J. E. B. Seely, C. 8., C.M.G., D.S.O. (London : Hodder and

Stoughton). General Seely is a soldier, a politician, and a lover of the whole of England—city, town, countryside and coast. But above all, he is a patriot, and his new book for that reason will be a gripping and inspiring adventure for all who believe with him that “the virtues of honour, faithfulness and humour are found in higher degree in England than in any other country in the world.” Primarily he sets out to show what he regards as the essential nobility of the English character, and especially, at it seems to him, its refusal at desperate moments ever to despair. His book is up to the minute, and here and there he speaks urgently of such things as the agricultural situation, tlie extreme importance of coal, and the- need for keeping the nation free altogether from domestic strife. In some wise paragraphs he shows the changes which have taken place in the last decade or two in both the domestic and Imperial scenes, and in ti e last chapter of all, a brief one. he points to the “extraordinary position” in which England finds herself at the present time in the world at large. Overwhelminglythe greatest part of moral appeal and financial support for the League of Nations has been left to England, and of all the nations 'she is the only one. he suggests, who has followed out the ideals on which the League was founded. She has disarmed to the limit laid down by treaty, and at the Same time is in such a position as to-be affected seriously or even menaced by developments in the Far East, on the North-Western Frontier of India, qp by the “many mdlionsi of fully-armed men in Russia,” who. according to the General, are “under very uncertain control.” These things are mentioned, but not elaborated upon, in the last chapter of this book, which General Seely dedicates “to the boys of England.” He remarks that Englishmen are “better at this war business” than men of other races, and says that for that reason an Englishman has the least to fear from those who attempt to break the present truce. So I suggest, with respect to the boys of England (he says), that they should see to It that we keep the League of Nations going, however unpopular Its programme may seem at the moment, while at the same time nerving themselves to be the first and the strongest to beat over the head those who disregard the teachings of the League. Every man who does not elect to join the Regular l<’ojces should regard it as his duty in the cause of peace to put In some time with the Territorial Army, the Naval Reserve. or the Auxiliary Air Force. ... I would claim it as an elementary duty for every Englishman, to be ready to defend his country's interests, wherever they may be assailed, just as the men on the coast fit themselves to be ready to rescue the ship-wrecked mariners, whatever the race to which they belong.

This lesson, with some others touching on the subjects mentioned above as the Generhl’s chief anxieties, are the only propaganda in the book; and nil told they occupy but a fraction of it. In the remainder, and by far the largest part, he writes in a delightfully easy and conversational style of all classes of Englishmen—farmers, blacksmiths, pilots, miners, the people of city and town, and even of politicians. On these last, his chapter is headed “These Rotten Politicians,” because wherever he goes he finds “people, otherwise sensible and goodhumoured, who use this phrase when referring to, members of Parliament and Ministers'who are ultimately responsible under the King for the government of our country.” The phrase, according to the General, is “fantastically untrue.” and the politicians themselves, "whatever their merits or demerits, are the best to be found in this imperfect world.” Interesting chapters on national characteristics and on the-Englishman at play, at war, and abroad, round off an attractive book. Those who believe that such prefervid patriotism is a bad thing may be referred to the section in which the General suggests that children all over the world should be taught their own language, and in addition Italian. “the language most easy to spell, the most easy to speak, the most easy to understand.” This would do more to diminish the risk of war. he thinks, than all the pacts, all the conventions, that have ever been made or thought of. So, with respect to the boys of England (he saysL I commend them another thing to work for. . . . Let them strive at home to maintain and improve the beauty of the land, the good-humoured tolerance of the people, and ever reach out overseas to trade with and befriend the people of their own Empire and of all other lands, with the understanding which comes from knowing at least the elements of some language common to them all. EDUCATION IN N.Z. “The Education System,” a Concise History of the New Zealand Education System, by A. G. Butchers. M.A., M.Ed., LL.B., F.R.Hist.S. (Auckland : The National Printing Co., Ltd.). _ This new and inexpensive book by Mr. Butchers, which contains an enormous amount of material of great value to those who are interested in the subject with which it deals, is, as he says, substantially a digest of his former works on education in hew Zealand, carefully revised and brought up to date, and “presented in a form suited to the times.” It will appeal, one imagines, to a far wider publie than any of his previous books, and for both layman and student it seems to be an extraordinarily good and concise account of the past and present of this country's education system.

The foreword is contributed by Mr. W. A, Bodkin. M.P.. chairman of the Parlia?oon oz? Recess Education Committee, IUJ'J-30, who reveals that it was Mr. Butchers who was draftsman of the committee s well-known report. Mr. Bodkin takes the opportunity of acknowledging publicly the Committee’s appreciation of Mr. Butcher’s services. “Ilis vast knowledge.’ says Mr. Bodkin, “of the details of modern educational developments in other lands, as well as of the history of education in New Zealand, was freely placed at the committee's disposal; while liis skill as a draftsman and lucidity of expression were of the greatest assistance to the committee and contributed in no small measure to the splendid reception accorded to the report in the House and throughout the country.”

Explaining the method whieh has been followed in the present book, Mr. Butcher says that the curtailment of certain discussion undertaken more fully in the previous books has thrown into more prominent relief the essential theme of the whole study, viz., (1) the original systems of education in New Zealand were provincially organised and controlled; (2) when the provincial governments were abolished the national system of education was organised on a basis of local control in all its branches, elementary, secondary, and university; (3) there has been a progressive change from this system to one of increasing centralisation of control in every branch of education. “From this point of view.” Mr. Butchers says, “it is hoped that the present work will be found to be a concise and generally accurate and reliable history of the New Zealand education system from the earliest days of European settlement to the present time.” Upon examination of the book it appears that his hope is realised.

A WORLD OF WATER Dr. Beebe’s Absorbing Story of the Submarine World “Nonsuch—Land of Water,” by William Beebe, Sc.D., LL.D., Director of the Department of Tropical Re.search of the New York Zoological Society (London: Putnam). It is hard to imagine a reader of i this book who would not decide after the first few pages that it was fascinating and at the 238th and last page that it was one of'the rarest delights for months. Dr. Beebe is a first-class zoologist, an acute observer, a wag, a poet and a most considerable artist in the telling of his strange and absorbingly interesting adventures. On Nonsuch Island, Bermuda, he and his scientific group have had their headquarters for three seasons, studying particularly the marine zoology. Dr. Beebe introduces readers who have not before encountered him to a new’ and immensely fascinating w’orld —the land of water —some fathoms below surface, where fish and plants of many kinds, plain and coloured, lead their lives. It is an extraordinary experience to go flown in spirit with him to the sea bed, and see through his wide-awake eyes all the activity of a region, six fathoms dow,n where the day is short, find is preceded and followed by a prolonged dawn and dusk. There are “winds” and “fogs” down below on the surface of the small submerged plateau, Almost Island, where lie has. mainly worked, and If terrestrial weather consists of heat, cold, dryness, moisture, wind, rain, snow and fog, the weird little submerged islet has "weather” in abundance.

The extraordinary story which Dr. Beebe tells would require, probably, Dr. Beebe himself to describe it; and one can only say that it is full of the most wonderful adventures and incidents to be met with anywhere. One sits down with Dr. Beebe on a wide flat expanse of white sand, many feet below the surface, Watching the events in the clear water. One passes through a school of Silversides which part and come together like a beautiful living tapestry. There is a disturbance and the water is filled immediately with sand grains, a pale-blue fog through which the reef or some great fish looms up momentously. Or one hangs with Dr. Beebe, many feet below the surface, on the last rung of the ladder suspended from the boat above, sweeping slowly through the water, among tangles of brilliant weed, curious anil Inquisitive fish, taking risks here and there with the jutting crags of some reef towering up from the sea bed, touching a foot occasionally on a projection, climbing up a rung or two hastily as a shape looms In front and there seems for a moment a possibility that the ladder will foul it and perhaps break. And there are adventures up above as well. Hunts for flying fish, the study of migrations, and a hundred and one other things which, like everything, apparently, that Dr. Beebe sees, immediately become striking and frequently beautiful. One learns moreover about submarine snobbishness, about submarine manners, conventions, courages and cowardices—in fact; about a whole wet, dimly-lit world corresponding in scores of ways to the familiar world of human civilisation. Without straining for effect Dr. Beebe achieves it with almost every stroke- of his pen. He has an alert mind, lavishly stored with experience and associations, and the result is often brilliant in humour or in poetry. There is not a dull page from beginning to end. miscellany An American poet and dictionary publisher has made a list of whftt he considers to be the ten most beautiful words in the English language. They areDawn, mist, Jiush, luminous, iullabv chimes, murmuring, golden, tranquil! melody. 1 ’

In the Oxford Universltv Press bulletin, “The Periodical,” for December, appears the final instalment of desiderata for the supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary, which, it is expected, will appear in the autumn of 1933. The issue of the . lists of desiderata—comparatively new words whose earliest appearances are sought or old words which have acquired a recent new application—has, the Oxford Press states, been abundantly justified. Many hundreds of quotations from all parts of the globe have been received 10”8 the Dlan WHS besUU in October ’

According to a report from Russia, a special suburb is to be built outside Leningrad next year to house a colony of writers.

In the new version of Mr. Hugh Walpole’s play, "The Cathedral,” it is reported, “the Archdeacon’s wife no longer elopes with one of the local clergy; he has become a solicitor.” There is good precedent for the emendation, for in the first draft of “Patrina” Bunthorne was a curate (following the “Bab Ballad” original), and the .change was made to avoid offending the susceptibilities of church people. Mr. Walpole’s father was the Bishop of Edinburgh.

Another member of Mr. Thornton Wilder's family has entered the field of literature. This is a sister, Miss Isabel Wilder, who. has written a first novel entitled “Mother and Four.”

Miss E. M. Delafield is writing a new long novel to be published next autumn.

The life of D. H. Lawrence has already become a mere legend, which might be of any antiquity; and tlie romantic and rather sentimental glamour that has already gathered about him is now quite as distant and diffused as that whieh gathered around Byron or Burns.—Mr. G. K. Chesterton.

A combination of philanthropy and business always leads' to trouble.—Mr. Justice Bennett.

The "Manchester Guardian,” which in the past has been unfriendly to the Book Society, has adopted the same attitude toward the recently established book-oL the-month club for ch ldren. What value to the real republic of letters, the “Guardian” asks, is a reader, child or adult, who takes books that are shot at him instead of following the honest bent of his own mind and inclination? These, it says, arc not the freemen of letters, but the conscripts of fashion, and it seems a particularly unfortunate thing to tie children. who have usually honest and unprejudiced minds in the matter of reading, to a system of this kind.

Macaulay warns us (remarks the “Times Literary Supplement”) while Gibbon helps us to keep cool. To do either is a virtue in a historian; more, it is a test of his vitality.

In connection with the death of Kenneth Gj;‘ihame, it is mentioned that 250,000 copies of “The Wind in the Willows” have been sold since 1908.