CURRENT LITERATURE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17895, 24 September 1921, Page 1 (Supplement)

CURRENT LITERATURE.

NOTES jON NEW BOOKS.

BY CBITIC.

The sister arts of music and painting receive less notice at the hands of the writing world than do many kindred subjects. A great many people, without any technical knowledge of either art, do undoubtedly derive considerable pleasure from both music and pictures. Themselves they are inarticulate on the critical side, and yet instinctively are able to discriminate between the good and the bad. The picture which appeals to the intellect as well as feasting the eye— music which pleases the educated side equally with the sensuous—these things make for a real art. Yet the man and the woman who have this double appreciation are often unable to argue the merits of them. A richer literature would be the means of helping this quite large class of people.

THE ENJOYMENT OF ART. " The Enjoyment of Music " —by Arthur W. Pollitt (Methuen, London). —In this book the author attempts to " supply enough general information to make the understanding of music an intellectual as well as an emotional pleasure." It aims at giving the ordinary untrained listener a point of view from which judgment and increased delight may proceed- " A standard of criticism at first unconsciously applied, and afterwards consciously used." This is how Mr. E. T. Campagnac sums up Br. Pollitt's book. " Music is a language," writes the author, " and as such requires steady and persistent study like any other language. . . . While possessing the power to intensify the emotional content of words, goes far beyond their scope in expressing emotions which are too deep or too subtle for verbal utterance. . . . Music is essentially the language of emotion; not exact, like other languages, but suggestive, appealing to our emotions and imagination as no other language has succeeded in doings and yet satisfying our intellect just as much as any other language, if we will allow it to do so." From these premises the author proceeds to his analysis of music, subdividing this into studies on the suite, the symphony, oratorio, etc., including very complete notes on the component parts of the orchestra. The relation of music to history is vigorously discussed. " Looking at Pictures "— by S. C. Kaines-Smith (Methuen, London). —In his preface the writer points out that it is necessary to emphasise the fact that a municipal gallery of pictures belongs to the people; that each individual possesses his own share of each painting. " You cannot expect to enjoy all pictures equally, simply because they are said to be great. There are many books that you will not care to read at all, and also there are many pictures at which you will never care to look. Count them out for the time being, and set to work to study the pictures that naturally attract you. ...Ha picture arrests your attention because it is ' beautifully dote ' and the most careful analysis and thoufdit fail to reveal to you any other quality, be sure there is something wrong somewhere, either with the picture or with you. . . . Beauty of colour may be almost a natural language with you, while beauty of form may be almost unintelligible to you as a means of expression." From this the author criticises the various schools of painting, pointing out that some of the " immortals " could be outdone in technique and style by many art students—in " cleverness " ; whereas " inspiration, aim, effort are what matter, and these are all sentiment." " Your knowledge need not be profound, or even minutely accurate, but your imagination must be sympathetic." He explains much when he states that " literature is our (British) natural art., and painting is no more to us than its servant. We have a portrait because we like to know what the man looked like, in order to complete our mental moving picture of his life."

FICTION. 41 The Forge of Democracy "—by Gabrielle Vallings (Hutchinson, London). —An exceliently-told story of war days, covering the outbreak of the war in Belgium and the upheaval of family life in England, disclosing the struggle in the mind of an educated German between what the war lords called patriotism and his own conception of friendship to England and passionate love for an Englishwoman. In tne woman the battle lies between loyalty to her country, for which her brothers are laying down their lives, and intense desire to fulfil her love for her chosen man. Add to this the Belgian maiden torn from her peaceful home, and dreams of bridal; to be ravished by a. drunken German soldier, her horror at being the mother of his child, her enforced dependence upon a prostitute, who by being the mistress of an enemy general, hi able to learn military secrets. Powerful ideas for a moving story! Ottilie van Eynden is a happy girl preparing her trousseau; Madelaine Gault is the English aristocrat betrothed to Siegfried van Gorwald. The Belgian girl's first horror is the discovery of her fiance killed by the roadside; then follows for her one terror after another. In the end she is discovered on the battlefront, her baby dead, the trench exploded by shell fire. She gives succour to Hermes Gault who is blinded. In London, while Madelaine is proclaiming her undying love for van Gorwald—German or not—he disappears, does some preliminary espionage work, then is discovered by the woman. Together they hide in an empty house while her brothers go to the front and she refuses to do war work. Then, while she is still defiant, she finds his espionage notes. Ignorant of their staleness, she is horrified, and takes them to the authorities. Collette, the prostitute, who has made use of General von Gorwald's attraction for her to secure protection for Ottilie van Eynden, demented until the birth of her child, has already supplied the address of the young German, and he is arrested and shot. Madelaine commits suicide. The author writes with great power; her dramatisation is vivid and her analysis very searching. " Rachel and Her Relations " —by Una L. Silberrad (Hutchinson, London). —From having passed her young days with a mother whe had more than once beea forced to evade thn attentions of the police—she was a fortune-teller —with a stepfather whose morals left much to be desired, and with an uncle who looked upon the wine when 'A, was red, Rachel decides to be a companion to two elderly ladies. " Very respectable," Bute agreed. " Respectability," he observed in a voice that made one think of rich plum pudding with rum sauce, "is an excellent thing in woman; there's nothing like it. Virtue, my dear, is an ornament to your sex, given 'em for a covering, as it says in the Bible." " Solid mahogany respectability," he opined. Rachel nodded. " Bills paid, meals regular, and the police—the men who con- j trol the traffic and hav*e a concert for which one takes tickets for the servants— and everybody goes to bed at ten o'clock." " Well," Bute allowed, " I've no particular objection to meals regular, but the rest •' " It's whaf I want," Rachel said. ''It sounds as if you were a reactionary." " I am the daughter of a parson," said Rachel. " There's one thing in favour of the job—the standard of those trying for it. It's not tremendously popular—it's; mostly the last resource of women over i 40. who can't possibly do anything else." How Rachel does succeed and does find respectable relatives and eventually a small fortune combine to make a humorous, pleasant tale.