BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

Evening Star, Issue 22721, 7 August 1937, Page 24

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

A LITERARY CORNER

VEMIB MAT r THE m Anclanfc the tyranny that’s overpast, And yet methinks the tyro thrush that Hi* “ Sursum Corda ” through the listening walls older still by lineage. There is cast A spell uneasy. As when from the mast The lone watch sighte the land, and so enthralls His Waiting company, th 4 spring-song falls, And Omega is Alpha at the last. What we hare feared of winter may not be I* summer's early diffidence; but then Is born distrust of our reverie And that which lies within our little ken Of summers past; for only they are free , - , Who’ve ta’en their wage, and left the haunts of men. —C. R.'Allen (Dunedin). PMBINER He gased upon the narrow cell j Wherein the prisoner must dwell, And being free to coma and go Hi* self-confinement didn’t know. From: day to day he saw no more j Than ledger books he pondered o’er.. Behind the gilded bars of trade A prieoner of himself he made. He had no time for reading books, For'garden plots or fishing nooks, Andltlindito beauty, deaf to s6ng. He walked a treadmill all year long. Unto this wonder world of ours Spring cam 4. He scarcely saw the fiowers. Woods greened and orchards bloomed, but he ' . Nothing but business here could see. He thought it pitiful to dwell Within the prison’s narrow cell, Tet did not mind the ball and chain Of those grim wardens, loss and gain. —Edgar A. Guest. MW BOMS THE BANK IF ENGLAND OLD LADY’S ABSORBING LIFE. The familiar saying “ As safe as the Bank of England ” has not always been aa true as it is to-day. The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street has had to weather some shattering storms. It is a far cry from the political expediency of 1684, when the bank was founded a* a handy means of raising money to pay the debts of the hard-pressed William HI 1 ., to the organisation of 1937, with the bank one of the world’s most powerful and firmly entrenched institutions. W. D. Bowman, in ‘ The Story of the Bank of England ’ (Herbert Jenkins), has written an admirable account of a great national bank. Hit sober style seems to suit the history of the Old Lady, who, in spite of her dignified appearance, has had some exciting experiences.. On one occasion the. bank was saved from disaster by the contents of an old box. It was m 1825.' England was speculation mad, as. it had been,at the time of the South Sea Bubble, and it wa* equally gullible. People were persuaded to provide money: for all kinds of wild-oat schemes—including one the object of which was to drain the Red Sea in order to recover the treasure abandoned by the Egyptians after the crossing of the Israelites! Shares rose sky-high. Then in the November the market collapsed j great firms went bankrupt, and, within six weeks more

than 70 banks had to close their doors. Aa is always the case, the Bank of England was beseiged by the panic-stricken, anxious to exchange banknotes for cash. The trouble was that there were £20,000,000 of banknotes in circulation, and only a little more than £1,000,000 in specie in the vaults. It was then that the old box played its part. As one of the directors said in his evidence before a Parliamentary committee:— “ At the latter end of December, 1825, the amount of gold in the bank coffers was miserably Tow, The timely issue of the one-pound notes worked wonders, and it was by great good luck we had the means of doing it; for it happened that an old box containing a quantity of one-pound notes had been overlooked, and they were forthcoming at the lucky moment. This, as far as my judgment goes, saved the country.” During its long and honourable career the bank has had many other shaves. It was founded to provide William HI. with the sinews of war for" his ceaseless campaign against France, and from its earliest days had its enemies. Chief among them were the goldsmith-bankers who «saw the now concern, founded actually by a shrewd Scotsman, William Patterson, as a powerful rival. Armed with large yuantities of the bank’s paper currency, they deliberately organised runs on the bank; but somehow or other their plots were always defeated and; the Old Lady went serenely on. ■* ' In the last century,' the speculation' mania that swept the “country gave the bank some unpleasant _ moments. Investors flung their money into South American shares, into new railways, apd into mafiy other' schemes, and wete caught,when.th© crash came, Pressure oh the banks was so acute that only the most powerful institutions could stand fast. -■ The (Bank of England saved many of-its-fellows, but others failed for vast sums—as much ns £16,000,000 ih the case ■ of, the ‘ Agra and Masteman’s Bank alone. On ohe occasion, about 90 years ago, even the great Old. Lady, her coffers almost empty, had to appeal to the Government for assistance. In recent times, too, extraordinary measures had to he taken. On " August 1, 1914, for instance, the Government agreed to the suspension of the Bank Charter Act of 1844 so that the bank cpuld, if necessary,, issue notes without holding gold against them. “ Only for a very short period.,” says Mb Bowman, “ was this permission to exceed the issue limit of uncovered notes taken advantage of.”

With the' changing years many reforms have been made in the bank’s practices, and activities until to-day it meets the practical needs of the nation. In the sense that alterations and modifications have been made, bit by bit, as difficulties arose, the bank closely exhibits the British character. “We cannot doubt,” Mr Bowman writes, “that there are other developments yet to come and that the bank will sooner or later become a national bank. . . . That the nature of its operations will bo changed we cannot believe. . . . The dividends of the proprietors may be guaranteed. The currency note issue and the Bank of England issue may be changed into a single issue; and the Treasury will bo represented on the court of directors. The other great banks may be called on to bear a share of the expenses of maintaining the huge quantity of gold which is immobilised _ and held in reserve, partly for their protection and the security of their assets.” ‘ The Story of the (Bank of England ’ is, in effect, the story of contemporary England. It makes absorbingly interesting reading. . MIRABEAU'S LIFE Of 25 millions'“’hurled forth out of All their old' hkbitudos, arrangemerits, harnessings, and garnitures, into the, new, quite void arena and career 6f 'Sanscullotism, there to show what originality is in them,” only three original men were disclosed, according to Carlyle. They were Napoleon, Danton, and Mirabean, of the last named of whom Pierre,Nezelof has written a biography, ‘ Mirabeau, Lover and Statesman,’ in which there is, like there was in the Frenchman’s life, more loving than statesmanship. The academically minded will deplore this work as a biography, but those who like thenreading highly seasoned and abounding in graphic reconstructions of a life which would bo incomprehensible nowadays will find much that is entertaining in it. ‘ Mirabeau ’ is a romance, sensational and oxciting, and is probably the most modern of the Boccaccio typo of stories we have read. The full account of Mirabcau’s love affairs—his licence and dissipation be'gan almost from his cradle days—is given in ’ their sequence, but they become wearisome. M. Nezelof’s biography merely skims the surface of the ufo of the “ Hercules of the Revolution,” but he has made a : breezy story, obviously written ■with a background of real knowledge. Robert Hale is the publisher. • A DELIGHTFUL BOOK A masterpiece of gaiety and altogether a delightful book is ‘ PalHeter,’ a translation from the Flemish, the author being Felix Timmermans. -The story is dedicated to the great god Pan, the scene being laid in a small Flemish village. Pallieter is a healthy young man to whom the earth and everything on it are something beautiful to be enjoyed. Each day is a succession of delights from sunrise to sunset. Every-day affairs take on a new and beautiful meaning as seen through the eyes of Pallieter. On this scone of contentment comes Marieke, a fit mate for PalHeter, whose love for her is elemental, like all his joys. Delightfully written, in > plain yet picturesque language, the-story is full of joy and of gratitude for the mere joy of living. It seems to move to the setting of unseen music. Attractive drawings of ordinary folk and scenes are provided by Anton Pieck, and the translation from the original is made by C. B. Bodde. The publishers are Messrs Angus and Robertson, Sydney and Melbourne.

‘THE SEfiRET OF AYANORA ‘ A .glamorous tale of the southern seas is told by Mr Basil Carey in ‘ The Secret of Ayanora,’ in a setting where life is crammed with hazards and men’s passions are swift to rise at a word. Morgan, a seafarer, receives a message from his former partner, Blanchard, with whom, he had quarrelled over the theft of a ■ golden • chalice, a rare treasure, and finds him at the point of death. Blanchard admits that he stole the chalice, which was afterwards stolen from him by a notorious cut-throat, Ratcliffe, who has a hiding place on the isle of Ayanora, a reef-encircled piece of land. Blanchard is .worried at leaving his only child, Coral, a beautiful and wilful girl, and he begs Morgan to look after, her welfare. Ratcliff© is determined to obtain the girl, and Morgan is equally determined to carry out the wishes of his former partner and also to regain possessionof the chalice. There is a savage struggle between the men, but in the end Morgan wins and gains the love of the girl. The story is well told, and the characters graphically depicted. The publishers are Messrs Robert Hale and Co. Ltd. / DISCIPLES OF PLATO There are humorous writers whose wit is spontaneous, and there are others who labour for. effect partly with and partly without success. An author who fits the,latter description is Hal Pink, who -does not possess the ready wit of many of his fellow writers, but nevertheless has turned out a passably good humorous story in ‘ Purely Platonic.’ One • cannot help but feel that he is gamely striving at times to create comedy, but if one is prepared to overlook this deficiency, one will find a good deal of pleasure in following the adventures of the ill-assorted bunch of characters who come together in the yarn. ‘ Purely Platonic ’ has to do with the short-lived league founded solely for the benefit of disciples of Plato, and the timely end it comes to when its staunchest members, by virtue of circumstances, alter their personal views on the marriage question. The casual reader more especially will appreciate this book, which has been published by Herbert Jenkins Ltd. • EVERLASTIHG HURRICANE ’ ‘Everlasting Hurricane,’ by R. Waiter Coulter (Angus and Robertson), is an arresting story relating the experiences and the fate of two escapees from New Caledonia. Raoul Servan, a Communard, and Peter Craig, a young Englishman living in Paris with his French step-father, are deported to New Caledonia. During a hurricane they escape in an open boat. A little later they are wrecked on a reef in the Loyalties. Their subsequent experiences are even more exciting. It is a tense drama written with much skill. Mr Coulter’s characters are drawn with insight and an economoy of words, and his descriptive passages are remarkable for their imaginative power. THE LOVES OF GOYA Francisco Jose de Goya, y Lucientcs was a genius as an artist; but Gautier said; “Good old Goya, ho was greater oven as a man.” Round the facts of the life of the great Spanish painter, who dynamited his way through the raw indelicacies of Spain of the eighteenth century, Marion Chapman has written a brilliant novo), ‘ Loves of Goya. - In a vivid and a most unusual style, always good literature, the author has painted Goya’s moods, hopes, ambitions, tempers, conceits, blasting ironies, and sincere blasphemies. “In this story,” she writes in the foreword, “ the social life of the eighteenth century Spain, court intrigues, personal ineptitudes, vices, historical data, scandals, politicians’ mud are authentic. Some names, for biographical honesty; are disguised or invented. Goya’s loves, except for one or two famous episodes, are fiction. Fiction not_ written to startle, but written and sincerely conceived as part pictures of this bizarre, strange blend of hot-headed idealist and cold-headed revolutionary; a devil for love and justice, a love of freedom who absorbed corruption, who exposed the vices of his time and moralised like Hogarth; an audacious enemy of hypocrisy, of tyranny and stupidity, ‘ a libertine who rebelled against all the laws of human morality, and preached equality whilst ho mad© love to duchesses.’ ” Miss Chapman's story pulsates with life. It is a splendid historical romance, written brilliantly. Herbert Jenkins is the publisher. ‘ THE DORMOUSE—UNDERTAKER * Frank King’s intriguing character, i/he Dormouse, who is a gentleman yerook, likeable for all his- faults and unorthodox outlook on life, is the central figure in ‘ The Dormouse —Undertaketv’ His adventures are as thrilling and as entertaining as in any of the previous stories in which readers made his acquaintance. Sleepy as usual, tof ;ether with Alice Faversham, his faithul assistant, and Mr Reginald Watt, his servant, he appears in a series of exciting escapades and romance. From the moment the action begins—with a murder on the stage of a London theatre—the story holds the rapt attention of the reader, who will find himself unwilling to lay the book aside. In his efforts to help a lady in distress, who is sought by enemies for a valuable package she holds, the Dormouse finds himself in some queer ami dangerous surroundings, including the house of a crafty Chinese who uses all sorts of hideous tortures to make his victims speak. The Dormouse, as usual, is successful in circumventing the plans of the criminals, distasteful though his methods are to the police. The publishers are Messrs Robert Hale and Company Limited, London.

SHARE IN EMPIRE BUILDING PKOUD RECORD OF SCOTSMEN. To loyal Scotsmen the belief that the Scottish race has contributed largely to the development of the British Empire is an article of faith; yet even they may be astonished to learn from the compact, well-written pages of ‘ Scottish Empire,’ by Professor Andrew Dewar Gibb, how completely that faith is justified by fact. The book is not, and does not profess to be, a work of original research. It is, however, a clear record, based upon reputable authorities to which reference is given, of the performances of Scotsmen in all parts of the globe, with an exceedingly interesting chapter on Otago. Tho record is left to tell its own tale. Professor Gibb shows no love for “ post prandial ’’ boastfulness. His claim is that “ Scotland has played the most important part, after England, in the work of empire-making.” He shows very clearly the ill-success of the Scottish colonial ventures made before the union of 1707, and though, like all Scotsmen, he resents _ the part played by England in the Darien affair, he does not attribute the failure entirely or even mainly to English machinations. However, he does point out that in Ulster the Scottish colonists made a better job of things than the ■English colonists there and in other parts of Ireland; and his statement that the Scots got on better with the native Irish is the forerunner of other statements that, generally speaking, the'Scot did understand native populations better than his more prosperous English neighbour, who was apt to assume that English ways and institutions were always best. Much attention is given by Professor Gibb to the missionaries, and he tells with obvious pride of the travels and discoveries of the great explorers, the industry and zeal of the traders, and the valour of the soldiers. A great gallery of portraits is presented, and the author paints them excellently. All his portraits are’ of men with a moral purpose and whose names are written large in the histories of the dominions. He shows us the sons of Scotland in the lonely plains of Canada, in the heats of Kenya, on the fields of India,_ in the bush of Australia, in the islands of the sea,' and in the early days of Otago. Although he introduces many names and many situations, his book is as easy to read as a novel. In small compass he has presented a lively and valuable account of Scotland’s empire-builders, although the action of nearly all is shown without much relation to the big movements of history, both in Great Britain and abroad, and it is possible that if those actions were viewed in a wide historical perspective some of them might be differently judged. Tho part that Scotsmen played in the settlement of Otago is described with authority, and Dunedin is the only city mentioned of which a street plan is given in ‘ Scottish Empire.’ In a final chapter Professor Gibb suggests that, though Scotsmen so greatly helped to build the empire, the empire which has emerged is rather an English than a Scottish empire; nowhere has the personality of Scotland expressed itself. But, as he himself points out, as the dominions grow in stature so do they take qn their own personality, and it may well be doubted whether in fact that personality is more akin to that of England than that of Scotland; the doubt is particularly strong in Dunedin. ‘ Scottish Empire ’ is published by Alexander' MacLehose (London). A SECRET SERVICE STORY * Marinova of the Secret Service,’ by Richard Essex, is different from the usual run of spy stories in that the author never loses touch with humour. When Teddy Montrose journeyed out for his last night in London with a £5 note in his pocket he encountered a series of thrills ,and a big romance before he defeats the ruthless agents of a foreign country and wins Marinova. ‘ Marinova of the Secret Service ’ is racy and exciting reading for those who take their novels in light form. Herbert Jenkins is tho publisher. ON LEARNING “ WHAT TO READ " “ If the public library is to bo the engine of culture and recreation hoped for by its promoters, more attention will have to be given to instructing and helping readers,” writes Mr Edward Green, F.L.A., chief librarian of Halifax Public Libraries, in tho 1 Municipal Journal.’ “Most users of these democratic institutions have received but the rudiments of education, have left school at an early age, and have mostly come from bookless homes. “ They are quite unaware of the, rich literary heritage as represented by the numerous classes of books. It is still customary in many libraries to have series of formal lectures, usually bearing on the books in tho libraries, but these nppealy to, and are attended by, the better educated, and they do not sufficiently reach the average or general reader. “ Good as they may be, it is not certain that they are as effective as homely, informal talks, given to sihaller groups, where discussion is likely to arise. The average reader wants not so much critical estimates, as to know something of the theme or subject matter of-the books. “At Halifax we discontinued tho formal lecture after the war, and arranged to give hook talks to small groups under the auspices of organisations which asked for them.” ARCHBISHOP ON THRILLERS “ I think it must be held that the detective story belongs to the same class as tho limerick, on the ground that in both the esential virtue is dexterity. Here, however, it is dexterity, not 'of words, but of plot,” said the Archbishop of York, Dr Temple, in bis presidential address to the British Library Association. “Of course, there are other ingredients, such as sheer excitement at the dangers faced ; tho best defective story is always also in greater or less degree a shocker. But this is a subsidiary element. In rihe detective story the primary interest is in the game played between the author and the reader. _ The perfect story would be one in which the had before him all tho evidence on" which the criminal would bo convicted, and yet was led to suspect someone else until tho moment of arrest. When the author leaves us in the dark by keeping out of the story either the criminal himself or the clues which point to his guilt, ho is cheating, and spoils our pleasure in defeat, for in this game defeat, if only the author plays fair, is the condition of the highest pleasure.”

NOTES Of tho many thousands of books which have been published since tho invention of printing, fewer than 100 have climbed up to a sale of 1,000,000. An authorised collection of Thackeray letters is shortly to be published l . It will bo largely drawn from the unpublished letters—there are between three and four hundred —now in the possession of Thackeray’s granddaughter. Harold J. Laski thinks a revival of interest in Anthony Trollope’s political novels would bo worth while. One of them, 1 Phineas lledux,’ has, in his opinion, the best murder trial in modern fiction. And there is ‘ Ralph the Heir.’ ‘ Plato To-day,’ by Mr R. H. S. Crossman, Fellow and Tutor of New College, Oxford, which Allen and Unwin are bringing out next week, is based on the author’s recent series of 8.8. C. talks entitled ‘ Plato Looks at the Modern World.’ The talks have been almost completely rewritten since they were delivered. Sir Arthur Quillor-Couch has written an introduction to a small book of ‘ Chinese Lyrics,’ translated bv Mr T. E. Ch’u, chosen from works _of the tenth to the seventeenth centuries. The author, himself a Chinese poet, has sought to imitate the native rhythms as far as possible. The hook is announced for early publication by the Cambridge University Press. Mr Hilaire Belloc has written for Cassell a survey of the conduct and significance of tho Crusades. His aim is to answer ns far as possible the question, “Why did Christendom fail to maintain itself against Islam?” The book makes a 'kind of sequel to ‘ The Battleground,’ which showed how Palestine has Jong been a natural theatre of war, Mrs E. W. Savi, who calls her new Indian novel ‘ Tho Soothsayer,’ married an indigo planter at the age of 18, and spent many years in rural Bombay. Their plantation was surrounded by Indian villages, there were mo white neighbours within reach, roads were bad, and there were, no motor cars. No wonder that Mrs Savi turned to writing to relieve tho monotony ! Robert Clive, whose novel. ‘ Eleventh Hour,’ has just been published, is a direct descendant of Clive of India. His father is tho present British Ambassador to Japan. Robert Clive spent the years jlist before the advent of Hitler as Berlin correspondent for ‘ The Times.’ 1 Eleventh Hour ’ was written out of his experiences at that period. The Honduran Bay Islands are said to bo peopled almost entirely by the descendants of British pirates from (the Spanish Main who took refuge (there several centuries ago. Mr Peter Iveenagh writes of them in ‘ Mosquito Coast,’ tho story of a journey be undertook with his cousin through Spanish Honduras. A very good ‘ Cranford * brought £49 at a recent sale at Sotheby’s. The copy of the second' edition of ‘ Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,’ 18(36, which was given to the Prjncess Beatrice in exchange for the 1865_ copy which she returned, was in the original presentation binding of white vellum, and brought £320. There were a few modern books in the sale. Thomas Burke’s ‘ Limehouse Nights,’ 1916, and ‘ Twinkletoes,’ 1917, both first editions with presentation inscriptions from the author, brought £l4, and Drinkwater’s ‘ Abraham Lincoln,’ 1918, a first edition, presentation copy, and! four other books by him, all presentation copies, £6. Shakespeare is in high favour with publishers this year (says ‘ John o’ 'London’s Weekly ’). For some weeks tho rival sixpennics—the Penguins and the Nelson series—have been lying cheek by jowl on the bookstalls. Today they are joined by yet another cheap edition the ‘ Traveller’s Library Shakespeare.’ / The first Volume, similar in format to other books in Cape’s well-known series, offers four popular and representative 'plays—‘ Richard 11.,’ ‘ Julius Caesar,’ ‘Twelfth Night,’ and ‘Hamlet.’ The text is based on that of the first quarto, and particular account has been taken of Professor Dover Wilson’s recent investigations. , ‘ The Mystery of Alfred Doubt,* a story by AVilliam Hay, delineates the manners and customs of the penal days in Australia and Tasmania. The mystery is apparently the uncertainty in the minds of the authorities as to whether Doubt-ought or ought not to be in the penal settlement along with a group of Irish rebels whom he had known “ back home.” One reviewer finds “ a flavour of unexpected delicacy ” in the book. ‘ Tho Works of Morris and Yeats in Relation to Early Saga Literature,’ by Miss A. D. M. Hoare, lecturer in archeology and anthropology in the_ University of Cambridge, has been issued by the Cambridge University Press. One of the objects of the book is to •solve the problem: “ Why should Morris and Yeats, both by temperament inclined towards dream, have been attracted—as they undoubtedly were—to the world of Norse or Irish saga, a world at the opposite polo of experience from theirs?” The defence of Toledo’s Alcazar last year was an event which stirred the imagination of the world. In ‘ The Siege of Alcazar ’ an eye-witness of the fighting, Mr H. R. Knickerbocker, tells how a garrison of 1,500 rebels, iucling 500 women and children, held out for 70 terrible days against a ■ large force of Government troops. Another book on the siege, ‘ The Epic of the Alcazar,’ has been written by Mr Geoffrey Moss, the novelist, who spent months with the survivors and among the ruins. It is reported by the publishers (Putnam) that I. J. Singer’s ‘ The Brothers Ashkenazi ’ has been banned in Poland and that all copies of the book have been seized by the Government on tho ground that it slanders the Polish nation and its army. Exception was taken particularly to tho description of a pogrom which occurred during the rise of tho Polish revolutionary movement before the war. Although Mr Singer has been living abroad for several years, bis former home was raided by the Polish police. Should he return to Poland, he will be prosecuted. No single person bad more to dp with the starting of the American Civil War than the woman described by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s wife as appearing “ tired far into the future” the woman who wrote a book expecting it to bring harmony between North and South, and was amazed when it intensified the bitterness and became an influence towards war. That book, of course, was ‘ Uncle Tom’s Cabin,’ its author Harriet Beecher Stowe. It is odd that there has been no biography of her, written by anyone but close relatives, whose viewpoints are necessarily nob completely objective. _ Catherine Gilbertson .has supplied this want in her ‘ Harriet Beecher Stowe,’ recently published by Appleton Century.