PRAISE FOR C. R. ALLEN

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 128, 26 November 1938, Page 27

PRAISE FOR C. R. ALLEN

Writing on the subject of "The British Annual of Literature,"\ our London correspondent remarks that the producers realise that the project is an ambitious one, for the aim is to give in a yearly bulletin an outline of literary production and tendencies, not only in England, but in all the wide Dominions under the British flag. Imperial progress has reached a point at. which it is necessary to take into account the great centres of culture which are developing overseas.

To this first well-produced volume, Miss Edith M. Fry pays tribute to the ability and versatility of Mr. C. R. Allen, who, she says, "has worked his way upwards to a leading position amongst the New Zealand writers of today, establishing himself in the affections of his countrymen by a curious dualism—a blending of the original and the typical, which makes a twofold appeal."

Reference is made to Mr. Allen's novels, -dramas, poems, and Miss Fry concludes: "Throughout the work of this versatile writer run the fine threads of fancy, tempered by sympathy and sensitiveness. In his earlier work imagination is allowed a freer rein. . Perhaps this may be explained as a natural reaction to his physical affliction. 'Art is escape from Life,' I remember hearing him say, and he is in a sense an escapist, shrinking within himself from contact with the outer world from which he had suffered. In the later works a notable evolution can be traced- He has transcended the opposition inherent in his earlier attitude to life, and learned to occupy himself with, the lives of his fellows. But if the two later novels are more realistic than the earlier ones, there is no falling-oflf in creative power. The restrained art of 'The Hedge-Sparrow holds promise of greater things, and rouses hopes of a final phase in which he will show that he has not escaped from life, but conquered it .by th<? healing virtue of imagination. The idealism of the earlier works, if never insincere, is now and then a note too easily sounded, as by one who shrinks deliberately from discords. In the later, he is learning to blend harmony and discord in a full orchestration."