IN BOOKLAND

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 31 August 1929, Page 18

IN BOOKLAND

JOHN GALSWORTHY

TWO FOREIGN ESTIMATES.

It is curious that the first comprehensive account and approval of Galsworthy should come from Germany. It is by Leon .Schalit, who discusses in detail everything that ’Galsworthy has published, novels, stories, poems, plays Nothing is too unimportant, Thus the very nature of the work precludes selectivity. There is a great deal more synopsis than criticism, and the result is a sort of textbook that should prove very helpful if courses in ’Galsworthy are ever given Tn the schools. Mr. Schalit’s method of criticism is

to work in his opinions along with the synopsis of the novel, story or play under discussion. In view of the fact that ho gives a synopsis of everything from "The Man of Property” to a poem called ‘l‘(Slum ,Cry, ” the result is a minute analysis of .the sort that has hitherto been confined largely to the plays of (Shakespeare. 1 n " The 'Man of Property. ’ ’ Mr. Schalit is struck by the leisurely tone, the calm and apparent lack of passion. He calls Galsworthy’s manner of characterisation "pointillistic”; that is, he puts- stroke on stroke, line for line, adds feature to feature, until we] are confronted with a finished icrea-’ tion. He says the usual things about Irene symbolising Beauty in the Forsyte world of Property, of which Soames is the mast consistent symbol. He answers those who .criticise Galsworthy for lacking feeling. ‘ ‘ Galsworthy is a .past master in reserve, repression and suppression, he excels in the unspoken; his brevity of style . . . gives us riddles to solve, and this reserve lies in his very being; it j is the most profound and strongest ex-1 pression of the specifically British in I him. Outpourings of grief or pain, dejection or disappointment, anger or vexation, arc repugnant to the wellbred Briton. But a sudden ejaculation in one syllable by a Galsworthian character is frequently more eloquent than whole sentences of other writers. ’ ’

Galsworthy’s characters, Mr. iSohalit continues, motivate the entire action themselves| all is evolved from within, which is at it should be. Mr. Schalit admires his subject intensely. "There are many veins in the temperament of this writer. A strong, sometimes too strong, intcllectualism, dry and disillusioning” is the nearest he ever comes to disparagement. This hero-worship is carried too far, writes G. T. Heilman, in the "New York iHeral'd Tribune.” No- one with as many books to his credit as Galsworthy could be expected to come through with as. uniformly flying colours as Mr. Schalit intimates Galsworthy is often sentimental notably in "Awakening,” with the interlude between "In (Chancery” and "To Let,” which deals with young Jan, the eight-year-old son of Jolyon and Irene, whose chief charm seems to be that he calls his mother "Mum” on the slightest provocation.

Not satisfied with denying that Galsworthy is ever sentimental, the intrepid Mr. Schalit deliberately quites large and glucose portions of "'A|wakening,” which he considers "a charmingly whimsical tale.” For "Fraternity,” "The Country House” and. the “The (Patrician ” he has equal praise. He accepts the Dali sons and Pendyces and 'Caradoes as authentic examples of English society. A more discriminating critic might well without unfairly minimising Galsworthy’s unusual ability to create atmospheres of entire groups and periods, question the infallibility of many of his self-styled aristocratic types. There! is something conscious and often priggish in Galsworthy’s ("gentlemen;” they arc unmistakably well-bred, but are too much aware of the fact to be as well born as their author would like them to be. Mr. Schalit would mot agree with this. "Wc {wander in the book with nothing, but joy,” he says of "The Patricians,” and might indeed say it of every one of Galsworthy’s books, which he wanders in. Joy is a very lovely thing in its way, but it ought not ibo a critic’s sole { equipment. * 1

NOTES. Joan Sutherland says that she wrote much of her new novel, “The Golden Altar, ’ ’ during various flights between London and Paris. In private life she is the wife of Captain Kelly. Sir James Barrie, who has given a sports pavilion to his native Kirriemuir, the “Thrums” of his booh, 'will perform the opening ceremony in the autumn.

John Murray will have the new, twovolume edition of ‘(‘The Life of Benjamin Disraeli” ready in September. Nothing is omitted from the original six volumes, and Mr. George Earle Buckle has carefully revised the work. The next undertaking of Mr. A. A. Milne and Mr. Ernest Shepard will be a new “Mother Goose,” founded on the old, traditional Christmas tale. Mr. Milne is to rewrite it, in his own modern way, and Mr. Shepard will decorate it .with his characteristic drawings. “Henry Green,” w r hose second novel. “Living,” has just been published, is in private life Mr. Henry V. Yorke, a nephew of Lord Leeonfleld, and a great-nephew of the late Lord Bose-1 berv. lie gathered material for his books (while working for about three i years as a factory hand in Birmingham, j The negro is now figuring in fiction! as much as he did in music a few years I ago when he expounded the qualities of' jazz. The negro novel “Porgy” is an j immense success, and now comes “Urn-’ bala,” the autobiography of Captain! Harry Dean, who was once described by tlie late Sir Harry Johnston as “tliei most ‘paleface, ’ dangerous negro in the | world,’ by Mr. Wvndham Lenvis. is just! out ; , and it deals with “the inferiority complex of the ‘poor white’ and the! ■white man’s prostration before the! negro.”

One of the best pre-war “best-sell-ers' ’ was “Trent’s Last Case,” an excellent detective story. Many of the post-war generation of readers have never read this famous story, and probably do not know its curious history First published in 1913, it was the outcome of a wager with Mr. G. K. Chestciton, and is the only novel by its author. Mr. E.‘C. Bentley It has been praised by such well-known detective-story writers as Mr. Wallace, Mr. A. E. W. .Mason, Mrs. Agatha Christie and Mr. Austin Free- i man. The. Bev. Father Knox said: ‘‘l suppose somebody might write another story as good as “Trent’s Last Case,” but I have been- waiting nearly twenty years for it to happen.” Ar.nold Zweig, author of “The Case of Sergeant Griseha,” has advised liis American publishers that he hopes to complete his new novel, “Education Before Verdun,” this year. This will I not be- exactly a sequel to “The Case' of 'Sergeant Griseha,” yet it will be! related to that story> it is the author’s! intention to round out a series of books 1 that will give a general picture of the ’ late war in its effect on humanity.