OLD BOOKS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20366, 21 September 1929, Page 6 (Supplement)

OLD BOOKS.

BY M. A. r.VItKEB

With tho passing years many an old treasuro of the bookshelf is slipping away from sight. Some books havo a surprisingly long life, we might wonder why; nthers seem to get foi gotten all too soon by tho public and tho printer, and wo see them no more. Zangwill's " Merelv ilary Ann " is ono such gem that wo rarely sco in the bookshop nowadays. In this little masterpieco of everyday lifo drudgery is cleverly raised to a pinnacle of supremo art. Tho cleaning of ono's own homo is a task which might or might not bo con genial for an hour or two after break fast. Personally, 1 can find considerable enjoyment in moving about tho house leaving behind mo a wako of cleanliness—provided I may wear gloves all tho time: and fortunately in theso days of modern conveniences housework can largely be accomplished without soiling the hands. Indeed, thero is considerable graco in the housekeeper's daily round, at any rate from a bachelor girl's point of viow. But the cleaning of other people's homes, in the way that other people wish, and whether you want to or not, is a very different story. It is a kind of heroism that deserves tho sincerest appre ciation and recompense.

In these days of enlistment and now methods much of tho gloom is being dispelled from this sphere of toil. But Zarigwill's " Merely Mary Ann " was tho typical pitiable piece of London drudgery of that tiron

On the opening pago, we find her Lancelot stepping gingerly around her jvs she scrubs the front steps, " her faded Sink dress showing liko the quivering ide of some crouching animal," and from that moment until tho day when Mr. Lancelot faces her across tho abyss of his own aristocratic poverty with the question: "Is it true? Is it true that you have come into two and a-half milliop dollars?" And she replies: "Yes, sir, and I've brought some tea." !Mary Ann never ceases to be " Merely, tho uncomprehending but trustful " London drudgo. But when her slumbering intellect does stir itself, the startling directness of hor remarks prove too much lor even a baronet's son, and when she finds that her sudden fortune is likely to separate her from Mr. Lancelot and tho cleaning of his boots, tho faded spark of her soul flickers up with a vory inconvenient brilliance At the end wo find her again answering the call of circumstance as implicitly as she had been accustomed to nnswer bells, and she drives ono day at last, in tears, to tho affliction of two and a-half millions dollars and her own " nors-end-kerridgo." So realistic is " Merely Mary Ann " that ono feels sho must surely have been taken from life, just as K. Mansfield drew from life her pen sketch of " Ma Parker." Ma Parker was a well-known personage who lived in Wellington many years ago. Ido not recollect ever having seen her myself, but she was certainly a charlady of extraordinary qualities, who seems to have left behind her a decided /record in her own sphere, and through the pen of K. Mansfield she will go down to posterity with the classics. " Merely Mary Ann, " if you have not rpad it, and do not possess it. is a gem that should certainly be acquired before it is too late.