BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17335, 25 November 1916, Page 12

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

>r BOOKS OF THE DAY. f A DOUBTFUL EXPERIMENT. . • No book of the year lias boon more 'widely reviewed and discussed than Mr jGeorge Moore's Biblical novel. "The Brook Kerith: A Syrian Story."' Copies of the be/ok arc not yet, I believe, on ■'. &alo iu tho Dominion, but a friend .•who received one direct from .England by the last mail has kindly lent it to me. It> certainly is a very extraordii nary production to como from the pen which ga-vo us "Evelyn lanes," ''The N Mummer's "Wife" and """ Esther "Waiters."

To mur4y people tho semi-fictional treatment of tho story or Christ, his lifo, death, resurrection,, mid spiritual teaching must appear to be in very doubtful taste. I confess to sharing this opinion. No matter how bril- . > liant, how .dignified, how reverential may be tho treatment, either on the stago or in imaginative literature, ''.. there is, to me at least, something decidedly inappropriate, nay. positively repcllant. in the choice of such a sub- .-' ject." Now, Mr Moore's version of tho Christian story, or legend, as I presume ho would call it, is neither bril- ,, ' liant nor reverential. Jt is a terribly ■ long story, running, at a rough guess. ■to some '200,000 words, and hero and there it certainly does contain passages of great beauty. But elsewhere are I page after page of meticulous detail, '■'• - or insistence upon that "realism" 1 which in so ninny of Mr Moore's ■ .oarlier stories has so offended a. fastidious reader. Even where reverence is sought after it does not ring 'true, but is sadly artificial in tone and ' expression. Also, there are certain ' ••passages which prove that Mr Moore 'is still besot by that morbid desires to 'dwell upon tho sexual element in life which went so much to mar his earlier [ books. The main idea of the story must naturally affront ami shock the orthodox. ..Briefly summarised. Mr ■ ■ Moore's thcorv is .that Christ did not ; die uoon the Cross, but. that Me was takon"down therefrom beforo the vital spark was extinct, and brought back, to life, but. according to the. author, with a much impaired reason. After assiduous nursing has done its best for him Our Lord is supposed to have ie;joincd a- community of the Essenes. a Jewish brotherhood whose members wore vowed to poverty, and resumed the occupation '.' of.* his youth, thai of a shepJicrd. He is now n morbidly intro- ' spec-tiro man, and in his lonely watches on the hills ho pome's to the conolu- . sion that his life has been a grave mis- | take. learning that Ids rcsurrec- | tion has been accepted as a fact by a rapidly in creasiny sect of Christians, ho; determines to return to Jerusalem and j proclaim the truth. Mea. vhile io tho j little Essenc settlement Jon the Brook Kerith there comes Paul, robust in his full faith iii iClirist's divinity and resurrection. , To Paul. Jesus makes the

confession:—-;. In my teaching 1 wardered beyond our tloc- ' ."trinos "and taught that this world is but «, iinock, h, alinm, a disgrace, and that naught J';: -%vai» of avail but rcpcmancc. John's teaching tcok of me. . . . His tcacliin? was true ...when ho was ft teacher, but'wheu I bo- ! unit his disciple Jiis leaching bc■?9mo false; it turned 'me from my 1 Miattrrel ■ self and into such great haslmes3 of wind that in Xuzarcfh v.-hcii-uiy moiher came-'with/ my brothers and sisters to ithe Synagogue, 1 said, women, I have no iseejil of thee, and when Joseiih of Ariraathea rettirned to ms after a long attendance by his fatW.'* bedside,. I told him lie. must learn to haw his father and mother it he would bbcrnns worthy to follow me. But uiy ]>auion ■tva| eo great in those! days that 1 did not *ea»tßat my leaching tv»* not less than blasphemy against God, for God has created iho world for us to livo in it. n,nd He has rut love "of parents into our hearts because He -wishoa -us to lev our parents, and if He lias pui into tbo heart of woman love of man, it is Because He wishes both to enjoy that love. X.lln telling this story I am but doing! the! work-of God; no man strays very far from'tho work tlvat God has decreed for Jjnn. But"in tho time lam tciiin<: 1 was so exa.lrd'br tho manv miraclea which I had per- - formed by tho power of God or the power of -a demon, I knoW, not which, (hat I encourage® my disciples lo speak of me as tho aon • of :Pav'd. thouph I knew myscif to be tho son;o'f Joseph, the carpenter. Tp ? Paul all this is but the raving ' of who has been deluded into ■ tbft belief that he is identical with the ' ' real Jesus, who has suffered on, the Cross, and Paul's faith in the real Christ,, and that Resurrection which }to has accepted as true remains firm and'unbroken As lor Josus, he proceeds with his new mission, that nt seeking truth rather,'than proclaiming , himself Tho Truth, and there is a suggesUon'of. his pushing his search as as India. . ... : , fwheror-Mr Moore ,Ims succeeded is 'ip£reprodiicing, the every day life of th'ojiJews, as they lived in Our .Lords' As-a matter of fact, Jesus is ' much in evidence in the" stony .asKi's Joseph of Arimathea, who is depicted as an only son of Pan of Arimathea, a wealthy dealer in salt-fish. Tj)f;youthful life of Our Lord is dwelt ' >Tip3n at creat length, and Mr Moore flight well have spared bis renders the f tedious detail of the shepherding epi(?odeis, r for .which, however, tho author is Credited with having made special studies in-Palestine. As T have said at.-tno outset, .the book is a curious combination of brilliancy and dullness. Opinions will differ as to the exact degree of success achieved, but many readers' will. T 'think, agree with mo th|t. it is a very great pity Mr Moore eVer wrote the story at all. "What , mjik<* the story, in places at least, rather bard to read and difficult to ' follow is the curious omission of any paragraph' ''breaks'' and quotation • rrfdrks. Tlio Vender is often puzzled to know what is merely connective narrative or what is the speech of tho various characters.

&lICHARD HARDING I>AVTS'S § LAST BOOK. ¥ 1 likvo been flipping! into the pages ofirthri Into Bichard Harding Davis's ]a'st book, "With the French in •France and at Salonika." It seems to , rae that had he lived to revise the final pfbofs of the book Mr Dans would probably have modified certain of the opinions expressed in tbe book on tire question of Greece's connection with. t&e war, and more particularly the riflxt played by M. Vonezelos. .Mr Davis seems to me to be as unduly :fc#ourahle in his estimate of King Cwnstantin© as he is unfair to M. Venes. For instance, after defending fstantins for refusing to go to tbe of'the Allies at the Dardanelles, Mb Davis says: "In refusing to sacrifice the-Jives of his subjects, the militjjy judgment of Constantino has been vindicated'. He was willing to attack Turkey through Kavalla and Thrace, "bj&ause by that route lie presented an aimed front to Bulgaria. But, as he pointed out, if ho sent his army to the Dardanelles, lie left Kavalla at the mercy .of his enemy.: In his mistrust of Bulgaria ho has certainly been justim?> sßuch a passage as this reads very ctjriously nowadays, in view of the that has been made public ofi the fact that so far from "inis•trusting Bulgaria," Constantino has lalLalong,been acting just as much in tcerefc agreoment with Sofia, as with

TREASURES OF THE SHELVES. (By ''LIBER:") Give a man a pipe he can smofcp, (rive a man a Sook he can read; And his hdtne. is bright veith a calm delight Though the room bt poor indeed. —James Thomsos.

Merlin that ho not only allowed the Bulgarians to seiae Kavalla, but actually disrated and disgraced those Greek officers who wished to oppose the Bulgar invasion of .Macedonia. 1 wjll do Air Davis the justice to admit that later on in his book he himself appoars to have been doubtful as to the trustworthiness of the King and the Court military party, lor he says, referring to tho situation '"'likely to arrive" at Salonika in the spring (last April):— ;: What that situation may be, whether the Bulgar-Germans will attack Salonika or tho Allies advance upon Sofia, and as an inevitable sequence draw after them tho Greek army of 200,000 veterans, only the spring can tell.' Exactly what Mr Darts meant by tho words '"draw after them" it is now impossible to say, but most people who now know what Constantino and tho Germans intended those veterans to do, will incline to tho opinion that had Mr Davis written "upon' instead of " after " it would have been hitting the right nail on the head. Certainly General Sarrail bad little doubt as to which side the veterans would be on; hence the long delay in moving out of Salonika. Apart from the author's evident bias against Venezelos, and his curious apologies lor King Constantine, fits book makes capital reading. All through the book one is impressed .by the sympathy of the late Air Dans with the Allies and their cause. As representing tho views of the better class Americans, tho conclnri'ing passago of tho preface is worthy of notice:--- ' i

111 tho meantime, that Fiance and her Aliies succeeded, tihoulcl bo tho hope and prayer of every American. The tijrht thoy.are waging is for the things, the real, unhyphenated American -is supposed to hold most hic;h uni ino.it dear. Incidentally; they are iightin; his light, for (heir Bucceffl will ialVr i*ve him, unprepared as ho is to defend, himself, from a humiliating ar.d terrible tbrlishjng. And every word and act of bis now thai helps the Allies i< a blow ggainal fvi'/Htfulceas, against despotism, and .in behalf of a broadci 1 civilisation, a nobler freedom, and a much more plea.sa.nl world in which to livo. "OUT THERE."

"Out There*' is the litle of a little book published by Mr John Long, in which Air Charles Tgglesden records his impressions of a. visit to the western front, under the auspices ol the. War Office. Mr lgglesden's articles are written in an unpretentious stylo, without ever a.trace of the artificial or theatrical about them. They recoid many 'interesting experiences and give a. neries of enlightening pictures of the life led in the trenches, and elsewhere, by the British and their gallant Allies. Like so mniir other writers, Mr IggTesdeu is specially struck with the splendid spirit of uncomplaining self-sacri-fice and grim determination which chataefei'iscsj not only the French «,soldiors, but the whole of the French people. The old men and the women among the peasants goon with, their ploughing despite the fact that shells are dropping iu the very fields in which they arc working. The author writes, in ■' I'"ranee, Vnder the Sword";—

1 have a vivid recollection of my last impressions of rural Fiance when motoring back towards Boulogne. Three ploughs with three old men, who in would have; been relegated to their children's fireside, or to the workhouse, a? incapable of doing another stroke of work, were trudging over the clods of rticky earth—for rain had beep, falling on and off for a month. In tho' roadway e.loao- by a farm cart was being l drawn up ii. hill by a half-starved rib-show-ing horse, an old woman trying lo help by pushing the back of the carl, while a little hunon-backed boy oi about fourteen added his strength to. aid the struggling, panting hcrse. Such arc the fights one sees whilst traversing miles and miles of Frtfnch territory. Every man who can bear arms is a .soldier doing )m duty at the front, while thousands of others, alas! l'*e under the ground that must be tilled by their sous and grandsons later on. France ia denuded of labour. I can. safely fay that after travelling manv mile? in that country, close to the firing line, I did not see a single physically caponl i Frenchman in civil life. A MUCH DISCUSSED PLAY.

It is understood that the .1. C. Williamson Company. Ltd. will produce in Australia an English, version of Brieux\s famous problem play " Los Avaries," under..the title "Damaged (roods." A cheap edilion of the play, translated by John Pollock, and containing a preface by Mr Bernard Shaw, and a foreword by Mrs Bernard 'Shaw, has been printed by .Messrs Williamson, and we have duly received n copy. It is not, necessary, nor, ,so I am old-fashioned enough to consider, is it desirable to give a detailed description of the plot of M. Brieux's much discussed play, in the columns of a daily newspaper. It may suffice however'to say that the play presents a most powerful indictment of the folly and wickedness of persons being allowed to. marry who possess any syphilitica! taint. Tnto the nueitioii of whether such ,n play is suitable for public performance I'.'refrain from entering. Mr Bernard Shaw, it i.s true, is very severe upon tlioso who object to the public performance of such a play, calling them " perversely Btupid." But Mr-. Shaw is not to-day accounted the same unassailable authority on anything and everything that he was held to he by devotees of the Shaw fetish say three years ago. and at the risk of being' charged with "pVrverse stupidity" I cannot help thinking that such plays as "Damaged flood*" are best road privately, and not played in public. However, here is the play in its English form, and those who wish to read it can now do 80. LIBER'S ?\ T OTE BOOK. DR JOHNSON ON ZEPPELINS. H. G. Wells had a notable predecessor in foreseing tbe "war in the air." ■ At first sight, it would seem that a very pretty problem might be propounded in the question : " What did T>r Johnson think of Zeppelins?" As a matter of fact, the industrious " 80/.zy" never recorded any utterance of the Doctor on flying machines. Bt nevertheless, "in another place." as the parliamentarians put it, Johnson did make such an allusion. In his story, " Jtnssela.s, Prince of Abyssinia." which in Johnson's day was conI sidered a marvel of wit and imagina- | tion, but which a reader of the present j generation would. I am afraid, vote most deplorably dull, the following curious passage is to be found: — " Tf «H men were virtuous," returned the artist, •' I should with great alacrity te«ch them to fly. But what would lie the eecuritv of the pood if the bad could at pleasure invade them from the sky? Ag-ain,«t an army f-a.iJin.ir through the cloud*, neither walls, mountains nor seas would afford seourity. A flight of. northern garages might hover in the wind and light, with in-ftsiMible violonce upon the capital of a fruitful region." ' It would be interesting to know what the sago of, Bolt Court would have remarked had be ljred to see a Zeppelin hovering over his beloved Fleet Street. A PARALLEL FROM FROISSART. ■ Apropos to some remarks on the brutality with which the Germans treat prisoners of war, jnado by Abbe Aubry in his recently-published book, a" correspondent of " The Times" Literary Supplement has unearthed a curiously pertinent passage in Frois- . sort's famous "Chronicles." " Tho English and Gascons," wrote the famous old chronicler, " aro of such

condition that they put a knight or a squire courteously to ransom; but tho custom of the Germans and .their courtesy is of no such .sort hitherto. I know not.how they anil be henceforth—for hitherto they liavo had neither pity nor mercy on Christian gentlemen who fall into their bands as prisoners, but lay "on thenv ransoms to tho full of their estate and oven beyond, and put them in chains, iu irons, and in close prison like thieves and murderers; and all to extort the greater ransom." Evidently tbo Hun was just the. same. " blonde beast " five centuries ago he is to-day. Five centuries from now bo will probably bo still the same. THE ORIGINAL OF LORD STEYXE. Iri the course of an interesting article in the September number of the " Athonwum" on "Thnekcray as nn Illustrator," Mr S. M. Ellis revives, I notice, the much-debated <|iiestion ns lo who was the original of the Marquis of Steyne in "Vanity Fair." Most commentators on Thackeray's famous novel have decided flint' the wicked old nobleman who played so prominent a part in the. career of | Reeky Sharp was drawn from the. third Marquis of Hertford, mainly, it would seem, because this samo nobleman was depicted by Disraeli, in "Goningsby." as Lord Monmouth, and because he had, as an agent or managing man, John Wilson Croker, who suggests the character of AVenham in " Vanity Fair." Mr Ellis contends, however, that if Lord Steyne had a model, it was Francis, second Marcfuis of Hertford, who was a notorious roue, quite in tho style of Lord Steyne, and boro the sobriquet of "Tho Hoary Old Sinner.'' Ho was Lord Chamberlain of the King's Household, and a companion of the Prince of Wales (the future George IV.), and of the notorious Duke of Orleans. "Egalitc" Orleans. Iho third Marquis of Hertford married a lady, named Maria Fagniani, whose, paternity was variously assigned to tho Ihike of Queensbury, to George Selwyn. the witty friend of Horace "Walpolo, and the Marquis Fagniani, and it is worthy of mention that this lady was tho putative mother of Sir Richard Wallace, who lived so long in Paris, and whoso magnificent, collection of. pictures and j other art treasures is now, snider the I name of the Wallace Collection, boused ' at the old-time.intension of tho ITect- | ford family. Mr Ellis's article throws | many new and interostino; sidelights on j I tho topography of Thackeray's novels. : and the originals of his characters, and ! ! 1 specially commend it to the atteni tion of Thaekeray lovers. I SIN'X FEIX. Concerning the exact, meaning of j •''Sinn Fein."' C.X.O.L. writes as fol-| lows:—" It is evident that Mr J. I/. ; Garvin, knows no Gaelic, and it is i equally evident that Mr Clement | Shorter who corrects him, knows very J little. This must not be imputed to them for blame. That language mainly I interests Irishmen and Scotsmen at Home, and some philologists in other j countries. ' Will you allow one who . knows a little Gaelic to air bis know- ■ ledgo by giving his ideas about, the j translation of "Sinn Fein"? At worstbe can only lay himself open to enr- j rcetion by one who knows a little I more. 'Sinn' certainly means 'we,'! and ' fein ' means different things in different connections. ' It may mean 'own,' 'even.' 'though,' etc. In the phrase 'Sinn Fein' it merely makes ' sinu' emphatic, and the nearesttranslation is 'ourselves.' lam very doubtful if the phrase 'Sinn Fein anthem' is good Irish. To me it looks like 'bearlnehnv,' or writing Irish with the English idiom. 1 always heard 'Sinn Fein, Sinn Fein, a dupli- j cation of the words to express.'ourselves alone." But 1 speak undtr cor- j rection. By the way, the pronuncin- | tion of ' Sinn Fein nmhain ' is ' Sbing i Fane a-wawin.' " STEVENSON'S "CUMMY." In Clayton Hamilton's "On the Trail; of Stevenson," there is an interesting! reference to Stevenson's famous old j nurse, Alison Cunningham, who died! at an advanced ago some, two or three j years ago. Those who havo rend i "Stevenson's Letters on Graham Ba'-i four's lifo" will remember how j " Cmmriy," as she- was familiarly call- j od, was a second mother to the fMl'uroj novelist. Stevenson was very grateful and wrote to her regularly for many vears from Samoa and elsewhere, j rt wn's .Mr Hamilton's good fortune toi meet Cummy in tho summer of 1910. j Ho wrote: — She was already at a grea'. age, and the j beaulv of lift face seemed to have been I chiselled in eternal granite. She- had be- I come almof.t completely deaf, and her evenight was fading rapidly; but tho dimming of these seiiFCs seemed only to accentuate the expressiveness of her voice and oi her gestures. She bad a grand, hymn-singing voire, with a sort of sturdy gciltloncss of intonation,'. Her hands were tho most eloquent I havo ever known. She had a way of suddenly Homng both your hands in hers: and by that touch she knew you, and had r.o need oi hearing or -of sight. Lotiis has sung of her "moat couifor'.n.bie hand." and there is no other adjective so fitting to describe a feeling that afforded you a sense of strong shelter and ' insuperable peace. There were times, too, when Cummy would grasp you by both ahotildors and draw you eagerlv to her bosoin,i and it was ae if you wero being taken to tho heart of all womankind.

Naturally tho conversation was entirely about "Master Lou," for such to his old nurse was Stevenson to the end. One of the many anecdotes told to Mr Hamilton by the kindly old dame is given for the first time. When the little "Louis" (he was christened Lewis) was about five years old, he did something naughty, and Oummy stood him up in a corner with orders to stay there for ten minutes. She left the. room and at the end of the allotted period returned and said " Time's up, Master Lou, you may como out now." But little R.L.S. remained motionless. "Cummy" repeated her injunction. And then the child raised his hand and with a strange light in his eyes raid, "Hush! I'm telling myself a story.'" A LIFE OF BOTHA. General Botha has been such a splendid friend to the Empire sinco the war began, and had had such an interesting career before the beginning of tbe great struggle that a biography of him was inevitable. 11 has been done justice by Harold Spender, who has made what newspaper men call an excellent "story" out of the private and public life of the South African Prime Minister. _ Tho Botha family, it appears, originally came from Alsace-Lorraine, so that Botha has a personal inherited interest in doing what he can to help the Allies. Wfeen they first emigrated they were the Bottes, and it i« curious to note that, upon Mr Spender's authority, the Irish Butts, the family from which j sprang the la.tr> Mr Isaac Butt, the first leader of the Irish Home Rule party, came from the • same stock. The Irish connection is strengthened by the fact that when the present head of the Botha family was twenty he. ! married a. Miss Emmett. directly descended from a brother of Emmett, the famous Irish rebel. He is a farmer by profession, although he has been fated to become more famous ns a soldier. His courage is proverbial. The story goes, for instance, that once as a young man he found himself alone, face to face with tbe Zulu chief Mapelo and bis followers. The Zulus charged. Botha, had a rifle and one cartridge. He sat silent on the boxseat of his waggon, the rifle at his side, and calmly lit his pipe. The. Zulus drew rein, and Botha proceeded to bargain with them, and gave them a sheep on condition that they left him in peace. Botha struck the savage warriors us a man devoid ofjoar, but he admits that, it, was the most disturbing moment of his life. Like Mr

Asqnith, lie is credited with having a weakness for a little game of auction bridge. Even in his old campaigning days ho used to get. a game of whist whenever he could, a fact which rather disturbed soma of tho older schools amongst bis Boer followers. STRAY LEAVES. Frenchmen will not, I fancy, bo V6TJ enthusiastic over the granting of the Nobel Prize for literature to Romain Holland, the author of that tremendous work "Jean Christophe." which runs into some five or six volumes. For Holland has recently been talking very mischiovouslv, and, as is thought in Paris, very unpatriotienlly, about the making of peace. All through the 'Mean'Christophe" novels there runs an under-current of sympathy with German thought. Holland s enthusiasm for, Wngner amounts almost to a monomania. It is some time since we- had a book front Richard Le Gallienne, now, and for some years past, settled in -Now York It appears that be has spent the la.st threo winters in the Bahamas, one result being a romance of treasurehunting, entitled "Pieces of Fight." Tho title suggests momories ol .John Silver's parrot in Stevenson's " Treasure Island." Major Ced'ric Dickens, a son of Air Henrv Fielding Dickens, K.C. (the novelist's youngest and sole surviving son) has been killed at tho front, A vounger brother, Philip, known to the family as " Pip" (who does not remember "'Pip" in "Great Expectations'":') has been wounded. .More than one war correspondent, notab'lv Mr G. F. Perris,", of tho "Daily Chronicle," has taken Hilnire Belloo' right roundly to task for his curious lielittlonient of the part played bv the British in the Battle of the Maine, ■as described in the. second volume of Belloc's history of the war. Mr Belloo sacrifices too much to his passion for the picturesque, and never for one moment forgets the, fact that his- father was a Frenchman. E. F. Benson has a now book coming out with Foulis, of Edinburgh. Itis not a novel, but as it is entitled

"The Freaks of Mayfair"! presume it will conic under the heading of light literature, which is more than can be said of his brother's (A. C. Benson's) essays. ■ Jerome K. Jerome, of whom so ni.t.lo has been heard of-late years, has writton a new story, " Malvina of Brittany," for "CasscllV. Max Pemberton, the well-known novelist, has bad three .sons at the front. All three have been wounded. •• The Tutor's Story," an Unfinished novel by Charles Kingsley, which has been miming as a .serial jn "Cornhill," i* being republished in volume form. It wns completed and' edited by Lucas Mulct (..Airs Harrison.).