PERIOD OF CHANGE

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 104, 4 May 1935, Page 24

PERIOD OF CHANGE

LITERATURE, 1910-1935

A SURVEY AND RETROSPECT

FJREEDO3I AXD LICENSE

(By "Quivis.")

-It is customary and convenient to divide history into periods according! to the reigns of ruling monarchs, and, arbitrary as the division may appear,' it usually seems to be fairly well justified by events and tendencies Thus theie is a Tudor Peiiod, an Elizabethan " Period, periods of the Stuarts and the Georges, and later a Victorian Peiiod, in which a distinct demai cation may i be traced between predecessor and successor Applied to the history of literature the method is quite successful, not only for the student who may have to pass examinations in any particulai "period," but for the general reader who desires an orderly survey of development One has only to think of Dickens, Thackeray, Tenn>son, Bi owning, Kingsley, and some of the lesser lights in fiction and poetry to realise that there was such a thing as a Victorian Period of literature Can one say the same of the twenty-five year's that have elapsed since our present^King, Gcoige V, came to tlje throned Is theie a Neo-Geoigian Period* Only posterity can answer that question Not the most disinterested and abjective obseiver would presume to attempt a final judgment on cohtemporaues, the best that can be done is a rough survey of the peiiod with opinions that must be largely personal. Our swans of today may turn out geese tomorrow and vice veisa What is quite certain is that the Victorian Period has gone for ever, leaving hardly a trace in the literature of today. Whether ours is a greater literature than theirs is impossible to say it is definitely different. It has been described by writers, like Mr. John Strachey, who link literature with the economic and social movements of the lime, as a mirror reflecting contemporary life, as "decadent," that is symptomatic, in their opinion, of the decay of a system. There is no doubt that the literature of a period is profoundly influenced by events and changes that occur, and a period which includes the Great War and the great slump and political and social and economic revolutions in different parts of the world is likely to produce a characteristic literature. - THE REAL REVOLT. _The real revolt came after the war. H. G. Wells, a journalist first and fore-4 most in his reading of the times and in. his anticipations, accurately pictures the earlier period in his series of novels beginning with "Tono Bungay" (1909) and "Ann Veronica" of the same year. Others in the series aie "The New Machiavelli" C 1911) "Marriage" (1912), and "The Passionate Friends" (1913). In these he foreshadows the questing spirit which later entirely broke away from convention. Readers m a later era will get a good idea from the works of Mr. Wells as to the events and atmosphere of our times. His mobile mind keeps up to date right through the period and even a little bit ahead until recently when evejits liaVe mpved too fast'even for his agile imagination. lfilo »Arn? ld Bennett and v John Galsworthy, both now dead, were in the heyday of their powers, and they continued to write until long after the war was over, but both had their roots in the earlier pre-war period. Thomas Hardy, who lived until 1928, in these latter years wrote only poetry. Joseph Conrad and George" Moore were not period" writers—they might belong to any age ,of literature. It may be that posterity will give to Conrad the highest place among the novelists of 1910----1935. Certainly none excelled him in the mastery the English .language George Moore in his later works * The Brook Kenth" (1916) and "Heloise and Abelard" (1921) maintained the exquisite craftsmanship of his prime Another of the later Victorians, ,Rudyard Kipling, who m his day cast a spell over the younger generation of the Empire, not now entirely lost, still writes occasional verse, his latest poem appeanng quite recently. Nothing has been more astonishing ".than the virile survival of these old Victorians into an wa so alien to their natural .genius. The chief characteristic of post-war literature, especially fiction, is" reality— gross reality. 'Just as the-war ataelf broke through the entrenchments of restraint and Tsecame towards the end a struggle of primitive instincts to survive/ with, recourse to any or all weapons, in defiance of rules, so the conventions and'barriers, in civil life crumbled* in sympathy -■and writers crowded through toe breach In the rums to show that tKe pen was mightier than" the sv/6vd, indeed, and could depict the horrors of peace as well as r>f war. Thus in'the recent works'of quite well-known writers, novelists, and poets alike, there are passages which for sheer shirk realism and all •■hat it connotes compare with the very Worst pages of the Restoration dramatists. < THE COMPLETE PICTURE. BuF this freedom from restraint was by no means always abused and in the hands of artists in fiction and verse, led to a remarkable enrichment in detail and extension of scope which were all to the good. They were at least able to say whatever they thought should be said, with the option off selection, and to paint life as it is on' -all its sides, and for almost the first time in English literature, certainly for the first time for over a century, to give a complete picture. A conspicuous example of the advantages of the new freedom m tacklingl the large canvas, so .popular with modern novelists, is Phyllis Bentley's "Inheritance," the writing of which would have been infinitely more difficult, if not impossible, k at the beginning ofi the Georgian era. ■The newer school of fiction is characterised by an average standard of craftsmanship higher than in any preceding age. The modern novel is not only longer, but, apart from mere wordage, has far more in it than the novel of the Victorian and Edwardian times. A multitude of fine touches, cunningly placed, helps to present a picture of life more convincing than the somewhat "thin" pigments and stereotyped brush work of a typical late Victorian like Stanley Weyman or H. S Merriman. Nothing is "common and unclean" to the writer of today, and the acceptance of this maxim opens new doors in fiction in every direction to cover almost every phase of life An outstanding example of the exnloitatinn of a field hitherto deemed unfit for fiction except of the sentimental, evangelical type, is that terrible story of slum life in Saiford, "Love on the Dole." Even if the author were to write no other book worth reading, this first attempt should survive.: as ; a "human document" for the study of civilisation Of practitioners of the finer arts of writing and masters of the technique of style will be rememberer! amonsc others in the period the late Katharine Mansfield, cut off in her youth, whose "Bliss" and "The Garden Party" rank high among English short stories, and the late C. E. Montague, ■ who, in a few short years between his retirement from journalism and his

death, compassed work in fiction of remarkable brilliance of touch and originality of conception. SHAW AND THE IRISH. It is impossible here to deal with poetry and belles-lettres during the period, though, in the opinion of many, i their quality is fully equal to that-of ! the fiction. But what of Shaw and the drama? Of all the figures in the i literature of the time G.B.S. is the i' greatest by universal consent the \ "grand old man" who more than any j other has influenced his generation and ! its successors, for he touches at once the end of the mid-Victorian period and , the beginning of the new era now openjing. Only the other day it was announced that he had written a new I play "in the style of Ben Jonson " In him the virility of the Victorians seems' to go almost "Back to Methuselah." • Finally, across the water in, Ireland, where the reign of the King has been eventful in more senses than elsewhere; the achievement of a large measure of, political freedom has been followed,1 as it often is in history, by a flowering of' literature and drama of unusual brilliance. The names of James Stephens, James Joyce, J. M. Synge, Seumas O'Kelly;, Scan O'Casey, Liam Flaherty," Padraic Golum, Eemar O'Duffy, . and J^oid Dunsany will take a high place1 in the hteiature of the period. Nee. wheie else in the Empire has such a galaxy of talent appeared, but it may be that the visible stirrings, beneath the surface, of the younger generation of writers is an indication of a rich harvest m the years to'come.