BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

Evening Star, Issue 18146, 9 December 1922, Page 4

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

CHANCE AND CHANGE. To Hie chance .reading of a book, Or flash of some remembered scene, ' Some silent sufferer’s upward look. Or thought of things that might haye been — To this or Hint, in after days, We trace the parting of the ways. • Yet. ne'er was Fate or wandering Chance 1 Sole lord of that uplifting hour; I The passing touch of circumstance j But loosed some bidden spring of power, I And whatsoever foes wo front, N That, inward power must boar the brunt. ; —Thomas Tliornely in Sunday ‘ Observer.’ PASSING OF THE HANSOM CAB. Along the crowded a.vcuue it goes its lonely way; _ _ , A faded, creaking ghost it is—a. gl(ost of yesterday. And young folk, speed mad, laugh at it; but some old people sigh, Because with it their springtime dreams are slowly passing by. ■' Once perfumed ladies rode in it, and when the dark swept down And wrapped itself, a spangled cloak, about the laughing town, Young levers, tasting now and then a new, sweet mystery, Went in' it through the fragrant park, where budding tree touched tree. —Margaret Sangster in. New York ‘Sun.’ “ BETTER THAN SHAKESPEARE.” About the most famous speech ever delivered in a theatre by a member of the audience is the "Whaur’s your Wully Shakespeare noo?” that was drawn from an Edinburgh first-nighter by the first performance of John Home’s tragedy of ‘Douglas’ (aays the Manchester ‘Guardian’). This week brings the two hundredth anniversary of the. birth of Home. We fear wo might not have noticed the fact but for the sleepless vigilance of the ‘ Observer,' which, watches for centenaries to swim into its ken as the. famous official in New "York looks incessantly from his tower to. “spot” fires in the city. Now that, the fact is out, none would deny the duo meed of faint praise to this most sporting figure in the long procession of those who have been thought better than Shakespeare in their time—and not by dunces only, but by quite sizeable critics. Some of these fugitive betters of,Shakespeare have been really great writers. Diyden was one. The worthy Vicar of Wakefield was appalled to find that Drvden and Rowe were going out of fashion as the eighteenth century wore on, and that “that antiquated dialect, that obsolete humor, those overcharged characters” which abounded in Shakespeare were taking the fancy of people who ought to know better. Another transient superseder of Shakespeare was Otway, whoso ‘Venice Preserved ’ reposes well bound on many of our shelves, one of the old friends we never cut. Otway, as a regular and elegant tragic writer, was the very last word in mastery of “ the done thing.” The passion in his plays is what the eighteenth century called “just” and loved aa such; like the " exact Racine’s,” his drama was never a button short nor had its wig out of the -straight; Shakespeare was a scallywag beside him. In quite recent times there was an incipient move to find a new superior to Shakespeare, when Stephen Phillips published Ida ‘Paolo and Francesca’; but Phillips stamped this out by writing Herod and Ulysses.’ Home’s boom was more imposing. Gray said Home had rediscovered the true language of tragedy, lost for 200 years. David Hume, the philosopher—who was later to give substantial expression to his admiration for Home in a considerable legacy of port and claret—credited Home with “the true theatric genius of Shakespeare and Otway, refined from the unhappy barbarism of the one and the licentiousness of the other.” The one critic of the time whom nothing could take in was Samuel Johnson. He said there were not ten good lines in the whole of ‘Douglas.’ Stevenson says somewhere that to marry a wife is like domesticating the recording angel. For the writers of an age. to have a Johnson in. their midst is like domesticating posterity. ,

A NOVELIST IN CAPRI. "Rare must he the mgn who, .having spent an appreciable portion of his life in the Mediterranean, can stay satisfied ■with the .English Channel for what remains,” writes Compton Mackenzie, in ‘The Times.’ “Flecker much desired Hellas in Bloomsbury, but he sang with equal passion gnd sincerity of hia longing for the lanes of Gloucestershire when he was fixed in the Levant. “Personally I have never sighed for the freshness of green England—not when I have been toning along the dustiest road south of Borne, not when I have been panting up the most arid limestone track ; and those white cliffs of Albion, which are reputed to quicken the pulse of the returning traveller, have never been able to thrill me as authentically as I am always thrilled by the sight of the first two carabinieri beyond the Mont Cent's tunnel. “ No. however delightful may be my own island of Hcrm, I am convinced that I shall never complete a -year there without craving for that other island on which, at the moment of writing, I most joyfully find myself again. “The prudent lover will postpone his flight until the misery of an English summer gathers about him in swollen clouds. Tills year May gave us all that May can give; but those tempestuous, morns in early June, dear to Matthew Arnold, which -revolt and justly revolt the cuckoo, rovjAed me this yeqr, and, falling into as qnic.c a despair as the bird, I was gone before him. “ Nor do I regret my lack of endurance, for since then I have sat here in a delicious complacency of mind, body, and spirit, looking at pictures in the English papers, of umbrellas intent upon the game at Wimbledon, of umbrellas betting at Ascot, of umbrellas cheering Leander to victory at Henley, of umbrellas—always and everywhere of umbrellas, umbrellas living, umbrellas loving, umbrellas newly born and lately dead, umbrellas murdering one. another, divorcing one another . . . a. blade undulating world of umbrellas. “ Man requires the sun. Civilisation requires the sun. ft must have been the sun that first enticed the embryo of humanity from a gelatinous existence on. the, primeval foreshore. It was for a. place In the sun that Germany fought; but at the Peace Conference everybody fought for his neighbor’s umbrella. It is humiliating to rule, the sea and lie ruled by rain. “ Capri is never too hot. . . . “It pains me to declare that the charm of Capri is incommunicable. The landscape of Capri is really an inspired, chromolithograph. Pen or brush that seeks to render its limestone and blue water is merely gilding the lily.” y ST. JAMES’S STREET. “ The whole neighborhood of St. James's still wears an air of dignity and comeliness, compared with the glaring show of other quarters,” says the ‘New Statesman,’ reviewing Mr Beresford Chancellor’s new book on St. James’s street. “No street can have an equal claim on the devotees of excitement <tnd romance, for here Byron woke to find himself famous. Johnson bought shoe buckles, Gillray met his death by tirowing’himself out of the window, the loveliest woman ruled, and men with England In their hands found their relaxation. “ Mr Chancellor might have stolen with advantage n stanza from the ‘St. James’s Street’ of Locker-Lampson: ’‘Why. that’s where Sacharissa sighed, Where Waller read his ditty; Where Byron lived and Gibbon died, r. ..

A LITERARY CORNER.

NOTES. In a London, library is an array of open books without, parallel in Europe, They arc Jinks with the past, and especially with a memorable event, for. among them is Martin Luther's* New Testament, published'4oo years ago. Older than his New Testament are fourteen, different editions of the Bible ini High German; and 1 the library—at the headquarters'of the British and Foreign Bible Society—contains specimen* of all these, as well as two out of the four that were published in Low German. As befits treasures beyond' price, they are in glass-covered cases.

'the first' volume of the British ‘Official History of the Great War’ is rapidly approaching completion. The work has been compiled -by Brigadier-general J. E. Edmonds, C. 8., and includes Hie operations in France and Belgium to the close of the operations on the Aisne, October, 1914. It will be published by Messrs Macmillan and Go.

A London writer records that the late Michael. Collins made a dramatic statement just subsequent to signing the Irish Treaty in London. The Prime Minister asked" him “What is Irish for republic?" “I cannot think of anything nearer,” said Michael Collins to Mr Lloyd George, “than two words meaning ‘Free State.”’ “Then let us have the Irish Free State;'’ was the Prime Minister’s prompt..reply. Rafael Sabatini, author of ‘ Captain Blood,’ has been writing for several years. His first book, ‘The Lovers of Yvonne,’ was published in ISO2. His first success, however, camo only last year with the publication of ‘ Searamouche.’ In addition to his writing, ho directed a publishing house in England for five years, and during the war served in the Intelligence Department of the War Office. His chief hobby is history, and in -addition io his fiction he has written several histories of various periods, a ‘Life of Cesaro Borgia,’ and * Torquemada- and the Spanish Inquisition’ among them, Sabatini is encouraged by the success of ‘Searamouche’ and ‘Captain Blood’ because he feels he is being instrumental in reviving interest in the historical novel. On the vexed: question- of singular or plural for nouns of multitude, a, correspondent. wrote to ‘John o’ London’s Weekly,’quoting newspaper inconsistencies, such as; “The Government has broken faith," “The Government have -had to he driven," “The War Office has acted," and asked for light on the question The editor’s reply "was: “In my opinion ‘Government’ and ‘War Office,’ as used in the examples quoted' by my correspondent, should 1 iu cadi instance be followed by a suigular verb. The rule is that when a noun of multitude is not used to indicate its separate units the verb As in the singular, but if its separate units arc pictured, then the verb is’plural. Andrew Lang once wrote incorrectly : ‘ The whole group do not as a- body wage war on another alien ’; he should, of course, have written does." Ho added; “Another common error is to attach a plural verb to a plural noun which is simply a, name for a single object or a quantity. Thus one should write: ‘Young’s “Night Thoughts" is little read ilbwadays,’ and ‘The United States has intimated to the British Government,’ not ‘have.’”

Eleven parchment sheets of at least two codices of the ‘ Divine Comedy,’ with valuable illuminations, have been _ discovered in the archives at Chiavari by Professor Valle, of the Ginario Colombo, of Genoa.

- Messrs Whitcombs and Tombs, Ltd., have sent os a copy of the November ‘ Strand ’ Magazine. As usual it contains some arresting articles and stories, as can bo easily understood when it is stated that the contributors include such celebrities as H. A. Vacheil, J. J. Bell, Percival Gibbon,' P. G. Wodehouse, Arnold Bennett, and Mrs 0. M. Williamson. Tlie secohd instalment of the ‘ Six Greatest Men in History ’' is a feature of tho number ; and so also is a study of Chopin by Mark Hambourg. The November ‘ Windsor ’ is quite up to the standard, set by this excellent magazine, both the i itterpress and the illustrations having been entrusted to persons who stand h gh in' their professions. ‘Lawn Tennis Experiences and Opinions,’ by Jean Borotra, will be read with interest. The fiction department of- the ‘London’ November issue is very entertaining. Borne of the best short story writers of the day arc amongst the contributions. There arc four special articles—' Secret History of Sinn Pein,’ ‘ How the Golf Germ Crossed the Atlantic.’ ‘ The Land of Opportunity ’ (Canada), and ‘Stage or Screen.’ It is a •wellbalanced and attractive number.

The manuscript of ‘ The Haunted Man,’ by Charles Dickens, presented by him to the Bai'oness Burd'ctt-Coutts, was recently purchased in London for the United States. It is greatly interlined, the story having been practically rewritten. It shows the wonderful care taken by Tic great novelist m preparing his writings for the public. These Dickens manuscripts are very difficult to obtain. John Forster was Dickens’s biographer, and most of the Dickens manuscripts are in the -Foist er Collection in tho Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington. The manuscript of ‘ A Christmas Carol ’ and of ‘ Hunted Down ’ arc now in tlic, Pierpont Morgan Library. Tho' manuscript of ‘ Our Mutual Friend’ is in' tho George W. Child’s Collection, Philadelphia. Among the manuscripts in tho Forster Collection arc those of ‘ Sketches of Young Couples,’ ' Master Humphrey’s Clock,’ ‘Martin Ohuzzlewit,’ ‘The Chimes,’ ‘Pictures from Italy,’ ‘Dorabey and Son,’ ‘ David Copperfield,’ ‘ Bleak House,’ ‘A Child's History of England.' ‘Little Dorrit,’ ‘A Tale of Two Cities,* the unfinished' manuscript of - ‘ Edwin Brood,’ and ‘ American Notes.’ They are mostly conveniently placed for public inspection in glass-topped cases, hut are not, of course, allowed to he handled. A book about ‘Anatole France and Hie Circle,’ by M. Paul Gsell, contains a description of tho celebrated' French writer, now over seventy, in his library. Tho extract, to be fully appreciated, shpuld 1 be prefixed .by the reminder that Anatole France's works were recently placed on tho list of forbidden’ books ty the Vatican, as the work of a sceptic. Writes M. Gsell: “You pushed open an old, padded, leather-covered door—an ancient door from some church vestry, On entering you might have imagined yourself in a chapel. . Through stained-glass windows, emblazoned with cents of arms, streamed a dim, religious light. This attenuated light poured languidly on to a low ceiling, covered! with embossed and gilded leather. Its rays glinted on pyxes, chalices, monstrances, patens, and censers, with which many a cabinet was overflowing. Anatole France is an enthusiastic collector.of religions objects. There its no mortal on earth whose tastes are more ecclesiastical. . . .

He is enveloped in a long clerical dressing gown. True, it is delicate in color and soft in texture. On Ills head-, like abbes in churches,, is an externa) skull cap, which —true again—is of a seditious red. This cap plays a, great part in his conversation and manners. Unconsciously he mates it reflect his thoughts. When he Is Joyful his cap has a provocative air. H, is like a caricature of a tiara or of a Venetian corno ducale- At times when he raises the tone of his voice ironically it affects the majesty of the pschent, on which the Pharaohs so much prided ' themrelves. . . . His profile, with, its high forehead and aquiline nose, is very long, and his small beard elongates it still more.” The Rev. Robert Keable," author of ‘Simon Called Peter’ and ‘The Mother of Alt Living,’ is a clergyman of the Church of England in South Africa, where he was at one time rector of three parishes in Basutoland, covering a territory of 4,000 square miles. In 1917 he went to France as chaplain of a regiment of native laborers. The impressions made upon'him by the war are fully set forth in ‘ Simon Called Peter.’ After the war he returned to his work in Africa, and it is there that the scene of ‘ The Mother of All Living ’ is laid*

A correspondent ,of the Chicago ‘Tribune’ has been interviewing the eS-Crqjvn Prince of Germany n-tDooru. "Everytime the Grown Prince -obtains permission to Joave his island and visit his father,” we are told, “he-lays in a store of thirty or forty English novels at a small' Doom book store, the met’its of which lie discusses with the local bookseller nn his next visit. The ‘Adventures of Bind-le’ is one of the books which appear to have made a great hit with Wilhelm, jun., the ex-Kaiser,, and .the whole of his family.” If the ex-Royal Family of Prussia have read Bindle with attention, they must have come across some piquant Criticisms of. Hie cx-All Highest.

‘What Shall I Read?’ is a. booklet issued by Mr Robin Adair, younger men secretary of the Y.M.O.A. The design is to put young people on the right took in regard to a course of reading. The suggested course includes fiction, poetry, history and travel, essays, biography, and science. It is quite a good list as far as it goes. That is, little exception can be I a ken to what is included, hut the weakness. if one may use the word, is that so many notable authors and books are left out. - Still the issue of the booklet is a good idea, arid it, should fulfil a very useful purpose. ‘ With the Prince in the East,’ by Sir Herbert Russell, of Reuter’s, tells how, when the Prince of Wales was due to visit Peshawar, the loyal Airidis proposed to clear the place of disaffected residents: “Came a- deputation of chiefs from the frontier hills to Sir John Malley, the Chief Commissioner. With deep humiliation they protested that the traditional reputation of tlioir country for hospitality had been sullied by a band of rascals and a crowd of curs. Would His Excellency give his sanction to a. .bit of reprisal tor such an outrage? The chief spokesman, a grand old Afnidi, with ilasn-in-g eyes and flowing heard, said that live thousand hillmen only awaited the word to open the bazaars and take the roof off every one. The Chief Commissioner expressed deep appreciation of the friendliness which prompted this offer, but- added that he was -afraid it really .would not. do. He assured the malik. that His Royal Highness was under no misapprehension as to the loyalty and hospitality of the frontier races, and did not for a moment regard the throats and funk of the very few as representing the sentiments of the whole. However, the indignant tribesmen were not to be denied some satisfaction for the slur cast upon their repute, and there was a very large crop of black eyes and thick lips in. Peshawar city that evening.” An American librarian says that one of his women readers always looks through a book by an unknown author to see if there is much dialogue.: “If they talk a lot," she says, “ it’s pretty sure to be interesting, but if there is a lot of description there isn’t any pep to it.” Another American librarian reports that his readers regularly steal cowboy adventure stories and novels by Ph.illips Oppcnhe-ini and the 'Williamsons. If ‘ Winter Comes ’ is never stolon. The virtue of Mark Sabre obviously infects the readers.

Sir George Protbero, the historian and editor of the ‘ Quarterly Review,’ who died on July 10, left estate valued at £18,324. Subject to legacies to his executors, he left his estate to his wife for life- At her death £SOO is to tie given to King’s College, Cambridge, for the encouragement of historical study, and £SOO to the British Academy for a similar purpose. After various bequests tho residue is to go to the Royal Historical Society for the promotion’of historical research in modem times and the maintenance of a library dealing with Great Britain, Roland, and tho Empire. He left his armchair and books to the editor of the ‘ Quarterly Review.’

Norman Angell, who was for ten years managing director of the Paris edition of the Northcliffo ‘Daily Mail. - in an article entitled ‘ls Northciffo Through?’ in -a recent issue of ‘ Hearst’s International Magazine,’ makes the interesting _ point that Northcliffe’s power Jay not in Ins immense number of news-papers, but in his still greater mass of fiction and “feature” weeklies, which touched the ruder emotions and more trivial interests of the English people. NEW BOOKS. detective yarn's. ‘The Eight Strokes of the Clock.’ By Maurice Leblanc. Forwarded by Whitcombc and Tombs, Ltd. M. Leblanc is the author of (hose wellknown detective stories of which Arsciio Lupin is the hero. This time, the master hand in the clearing up of the mysteries so vividly described in the present volume is one_,.Princ6 Renine, though there is a shadowy' belief —shared hy the author that Areene Lupin and Prince Renine are one and the same. But what s i:n a name? A Lupin by any other name would do just as remarkable things, and this series of adventures is further proof of M. Leblanc’s ingenuity in the weaving of yarns of this .description. Prince Renine has wonderful intuition; his clues are invariably of tbc flimsiest, yet be just as invariably follows them to a successful issue. Further, he is, in the working out of hia cases, a. master of the art of “ bluff.” ‘Tho Tell-tale Film,’ in which -a- couple of movie actors repeat in earnest the scenes they lately enacted for a film story, is well worth reading, as indeed arc the whole eight yarns that comprise the book. ‘ The Secret of the Sandhills.’ By Arthur Gask. Forwarded by Herbert. Jenkins, Ltd., London. John Stratton, a medical student before the wa.r, won a commission, and after the armistice was recalled to Australia to settle up-the affairs of his dad, who had just died; then, wasting what little came to him, he became hard up. When at his shabbiest ho fell in love with a great heiress. This turned his luck. He picked up the pocket book belonging to.the rich heiress's father, got £lO as an acknowledgment, plunged on the tolalisator, made a little pot, found a wealthy cousin and became his heir, resumed his place in society, and married the lovely heiress. Incidentally it is related how he killed a man who attempted to assassinate him and steal the total isator winnings, how bo buried the body, how he was arrested for murder, but managed 1 to break down tho police cose, and then assisted lb© police to entrap the mate of the would-be assassin. Most of these happenings we.ro in South Australia. John Stratton is a smart man, and Mr Arthur Gask is clever enough to beguile the reader into reading on and on, excusing the improbabilities of the story for the sake of finding out how, it ends. And that, after all, is the purpose of most modern romance writers. So, in a way, this hook is a. success. BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. ‘Jennifer J.,’ a story from tho pen of Ethel Turner, has all the excellence of that writer's other works, ft. is written in. the lightly humorous stylo that has made its authoress famous. The characters are wonderfully well drawn, and, though very typical, have sufficient originality to keep them from 'becoming tedious. Most of the action takes place in and around the hom'e. of the editor of an Australian daily newspaper. Jennifer, the heroine, is a likeable, high-spirited girl, full of, mischief, but with a heart of gold. The story is a, very readable one, and, like Miss Turner’s other works, would make an excellent. gift for .anybody old enough to appreciate it’s stylo and humor. A writer who occupies a high place among' authors of literature suitable for young people to read 'is Lillian M. Pyke. Her story, ‘Sheila at Happy Hills,’ 'is an excellent one in every respect. The heroine is Sheila Chester, the daughter of an invalid lady who has long been -separated from her ne’er-do-well husband, Sheila’s stepfather. On her deathbed the mother, in a forgiving frame of mind, urges her daughter to search for the missing husband in order that ho may share the estate. This becomes known, and a pair of ruffians endeavor to rob the girl of her possessions. Knowing that Die girl has only a faint recollection of her stepfather, one of the, men poses as the latter. However, the villains are outwitted, and the story ends happily. Both of the hooks mentioned come from ‘he publishers, Messrs Ward, Lock, land Co.