BOOK NOTES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 76, 26 February 1938, Page 7

BOOK NOTES

“JOURNEY ON THE WAY.” ‘‘Tlie strange chronicle which forms this volume,” says Frank Vernon in a preface to “Journey on the Way,” “was not intended by its author for publication. Written at odd moments, in odd places, it presents the unusual | characteristic of being the truthful rcI cord of the emotions arid observations I of a man who wilfully cut himself off j from so-called civilisation.” This man, disillusioned by the faithlessness of his wife, disappeared from their Paris apartment and roamed about the southern counties of England. He is neither bitter.-nor self-consciously philosophical. Having denuded himself of all but absolutely essential possessions, he finds shelter where he may or sleeps in the open. He earns his food by doing odd jobs on farms. Because of Ids perceptiveness, the record of his experiences forms a volume which is as interesting as it is unusual. It was in the late spring time that the wanderer set out. His first contact was with ia groom who was having serious trouble with two massive stallions. This led to his first job—ditching on a farm—which blistered his townsoft hands badly. The old woman who kept her goats in Horsford’s Park afforded him a generous fund of insight into the yokel mind. His acquaintance with this witch-like creature led him to a Lake-side shelter which. became his home for a period packed with incident. His meeting with the artist who carelessly turned out masterpieces and unfolded one of the strangest tales imaginable forms one of the outstanding portions of the book, and the Harley Street specialist, sunk to a low level owing to drink and gambling, awakens memories .and is ultimately the means of bringing the wandere'r unwillingly back into the harness of civilisation. For a short time we read of life in an English country house. His perceptions sharpened by his experiences, our .friend observes his conventionbound host, his wife, and her brother with cruel clarity. At the first possible moment lie escapes to resume his untrammelled existence, to revive acquaintances, and to seek fresh ones; to continue, in spite of himself, his careless idyll with the delightful little gipsy girl who has, since his early days on the road, been his good angel and companion. The freedom and fluency with which this book is written argues an experienced pen. Whatever the source of Mr Vernon’s material may have been, he has contrived to present it in a mo6t attractive manner.

“OVER THE FRONTIER.”'; In “Over The Frontier,” by Stevie Smith, we are among the mountains. What the bok is about Miss Stevie Smith herself may be able to explain, but all that matters is the fact that a mind of energy and imagination has been let loose to deride or deplore politics, human relationships, and art, says the London Times. Miss Pompey Casmilus is at an exhibition of pictures, she travels abroad, she adventures into war. One is never certain in what order these events should be placed, or even whether they are related except in the continuity of the mind', which is free to insert memories into accounts of experiences and to ramble through its associations. In the course or the book one picks uu quite a lot of French, German, Latin, American, and other languages, a gentleman should know, but one can forgive most of these cultured affectations—except where they distract and irritate a reader eager to come to grips with the author’s mind—for the wit, the passion, and the artistry of a great many passages. “THE MASTER OF CHETWYND.” In her new novel, “The Master of Chetwynd,” Joy Baines builds up an admirable study of a man whose conception of liis duty to his children was dictated by personal ambition and dominated by personal cha.racreristics, which, however admirable in themselves, were a danger to his intimate circle. Murray Galbraith is portrayed as a man of exceptional vitality, academic distinction, and definite ambition. The Chancellor of Chetwyn University is about to retire. Murray is the popular and efficient professor of classics and English literature. Because of his connections he is justified in believing that he will succeed l>r. Warden as the Master of Chetwynd. In order to consolidate his position he feels that it would be .advisable that his son should marry Marie Slisonby, daughter of the chairman of the council and Mayor of Chetwynd. His eldest daughter, Rosamund, has just taken her medical degree, and he looks forward to her occupation of a lucrative position in his brother’s firm, where, as medical supervisor, she should earn enough to repay him for all that he has spent upon her education, and also add lustre to the Galbraith reputation. Honor his wife, is unfortunately a somewhat colourless figure. She adores her delicate younger daughter, Judy, stands in awo of her brilliant husband and eldest child, and fails lamentably to understand Stephen, her son. Her children regard her with genuine affection, but fully realise her inadequacy to cope with their respective problems. Some readers may argue that the ruthlessness with which Miss Baine9 invests Murray Galbraith is overdrawn. That a father who is also a highly intelligent man should endeavour to mould his children as this one does, is, however, quite credible when the motives and characteristics of the man are comprehended. In this portrait the author has succeeded in depicting a type which is common to every generation; a figure which might be found in the background of innumerable human tragedies. The subsidiary characters in the book are excellently portrayed, not without humour. “THE MERRY MERRY MAIDENS.” School friendships seldom outlast the end of school, but in Miss Helen Carlisle’s new book, “The Merry Merry Maidens.” the lives of half a dozen American girls are fused together for the next 20 years by their experiences outside those of school. They are growing up, they are about to leave, they form a club to eat sweet cakes and talk about the future —it is all normal and enjoyable until the War makes itself felt even here and the merry maidens are suddenly grown up and plunged deeply into one another’s doubts and unhappiness. In one, case it is a broken love affair from which neither party fully recovers; in another it is separation from a two months’ husband; in a third the perception of so much hatred, bitterness, and cruety released upon the world. Their ways separate, and come together again; the housewife sees her friend climb unexpectedly into the company of Bernhardt and Duse; the music teacher in the slums fosters a genius; the journalist goes blind; the plain one sets up house in Soviet Russia. All the time events or friendship keep them in touch with one another, and though at times this record of the group falls into the easy error of sentimentality it is more often humorous, kindly, and remarkably vivacious.