INTROSPECTIVE NOVEL

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 160, 1 April 1939, Page 2 (Supplement)

INTROSPECTIVE NOVEL

“The Squire,” h.v Enid Bagnokl (Loudon: Heinemann). This is not a book likely to appeal to the young. It is a book of tranquility, strangely without action. “The Squire" is the mother of a. family left in charge of a large household while her husband is away for three months. While he is away a baby boy is born to her and the whole book centres round the domestic problems of the household. There is much that is introspective—many musings on the part of the mother upon the nature of youth as personified in her child, and death, the knowledge of which she was born with. The children form pleasant character studies, as does nurse and the midwife. In fact, all the characters are well drawn from the least important to “the squire.” Yet tlie reader seldom hits the feeling of meeting “the squire” face to face. He learns all about her but hardly comes to know her.

There is a mystic quality about Miss Bagnold’s writing. She sees beneath the surface of things, but only suggests what she has seen. She does not attempt to explain her vision. She is original and sensitive, but careful not to cast her pearls too freely. Thus her work is likely to be passed over hi favour of less thought fnl books with a higher entertainment value. For those who like the calm of introspection, “The Squire” will afford very pleasant reading.