RAMPOLE ISLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20058, 22 September 1928, Page 7 (Supplement)

RAMPOLE ISLAND.

A WELLS lAN ALLEGORY. Hie mind of 11. G. Wells is a centre of intense . thermal activity. Always bubbling and seething, it manifests itself, sometimes in sulphurous fumes of denunciation, sometimes in glittering geysers of fancy, or again in awe-inspiring eruptions of sheer genius. Delighting to falsify the prediction of those who declare it a spent torce, after a period of comparative quiescence it bursts through the crust of convention in some new place but with all its pristine onergy. " Mr. Blettsworthy on Rampole Island" tells the story of young Arnold Bletts worthy who, sent to England after the death of his roving father, finds a happy home in the house of his uncle, a benevolent country rector. Sheltered in this prosperous Victorian household ho envisages the whole world as a secure and kindly place ruled by well-meaning princes potentates and powers. " Queen Victoria, simple and good and wise, and rather the shape of a cottage loaf with a crown upon it, sat highest of all, not, 1 felt, so much a yucen and Empress as a sort a vice-deity on earth." Thus after the regulation public school Blettsworthy passes on to Oxford, and here ali the fair edifice of belief in iho essential decency of human nature comes crashing aboui his ears. Betrayed in love and in friendship he suffers a severe nervous breakdown and under medical advice seeks a cure by taking passage m a cargo vessel belonging to one of his numerous influential connections. From the first the voyage proves another disillusionment. One is almost relieved when ship wreck puts an end to the hideous happenings on this floating prison. Locked in a cabin by the treachery of Lho captain when abandoning the ship, Blettsworthy goes mad, and when the ship drifts upon the coast of Rampole Island he is rescued by the natives and so begins another chapter of his eventful history. " How he did at last escape in a strange manner from the horrer and barbarities of Rampole Island in time to fight in the Great War, and how afterwards he came near returning to that island for ever" — all these things aro related with detail as exact as a photographic representation and without regard for the possiblo squeamishness of his readers. The surprise of the escape is managed m masterly style and must not be spoilt by premature disclosure. Yet was it an escape after all or is not the whole world Rampole Island looming through the mist of illusion ? This blend of imaginative romance, stark realism, political philosophy and prophetic inspiration bears its author's signature on every page. It will delight some readers and disgust others. It will weary none. The cover design by Sir William Orpen, may be a symbolical representation of the super-man of the future gazing with interest and amusement upon the barbarities of life as it is to-day. On the other hand, it may not. " Mr. Blettsworthy on Rampole Island," by H. G. Wells (Benn).