A RELIGIOUS PRIZE NOVEL

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 11, 12 July 1930, Page 21

A RELIGIOUS PRIZE NOVEL

"The Ship of. Truth," By Lettico Ulpha Cooper. London: Hodder and Stoughton, Ltd.

In the unanimous opinion of1 the judges, in Hoddor and Stoughtou's recent religious novel competition, "The Ship of Truth," by Lettico Ulplur Cooper, easily outdistanced all its 400 rivals. It is in many ways a remarkable book. Miss Cooper deals with two of the biggest problems with which man has to contend —morality and religion—and their relationship each to each; but she does it in such a way that one sees them, not from a dogmatic or pragmatic point of view, but through the eyes of a worried and sensitive, very human Ghurch of England clergyman. Little echoes 'of big matters make themselves heard in his parish: all tho big questions of the day have their minute prototypes coming under his direct judgment and jurisdiction. These things weigh too heavily. He loses faith in himself and feels himself alien to God.

The clergyman is much impressed by reacting Masefield's lines—

Iran with his burning soul Has but an hour of breath To build a ship of truth In which his soul may sail, Sail on the sea, of death . For death takes toll Of beauty, courage, youth, Of all but truth. . . .

The next thing the clergyman does is to convince himself that he preaches where he does not "practise. In bewilderment he resigns his living. It is :i great shock to him that he, so very much iv' love with his own wife and family, can yet be attracted by another* woman. Miss Cooper deals sym: pathetically and sensitively with the situation and with her characters. "TheShip of Truth" is a fine tale, finely told, written with a sincerity that makes itself felt from beginning to end."—sS.K.