THE BOOKSHELF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20596, 21 June 1930, Page 32 (Supplement)

THE BOOKSHELF.

THE CREATIVE ARTIST.

HARDY'S LATER YEARS.

The contrast between Thomas Hardy tho man, and Thomas Hardy the imaginative writer, is sufficiently unusual to add .. to the interest of oven the slightest biography of him. " The Later Years of Thomas Hardy " companion to an earlier , volume—: details tho latter half of his life, and is written by his second wife: It is full of his notes, which are at once simple and profound, full, too, of his intuitive comments on people and events, and, most, interesting of all, it contains many notes concerning his own writings. Strangely enough," this book," while holding so much of the real Thomas Hardy, is entirely lacking in the intimate details of his personal , life, a fact which seems even to add to, rather than detract from,' its importance. So true is tho book in essentials that the reader's comment on finishing might very easily resemblo Thomas Hardy's own remark concerning Augustus John's portrait of himself: " I don't know whether that is how I look or not, but that is how I feel."

It is amazing to realise that the author of such books as " Toss" and Jude," tho author of tho " The Dynasts," a man of so much power, should l'n appearance bo almost timid and certainly unimprcs' sive—" just like anybody's grandfather " as he himself once remarked. Yet it is. good to think, that, in spite of his genius, ho was ever a simple country man, used to country ways, which helps to explain perhaps his amazement at tho storm with which "Judo" was received. His characteristic sensitiveness was deeply hurt by tho hysterical attacks against his alleged immorality and impiety. '"How styangc,'.' he said, " that ono may writo a book without knowing what ono puts into it, or rath'or the reader reads into it." The hostile reception of those novels caused him to turn to poetry. But he had wanted to bo a poet in the beginning, and had for many yoars kept alivo his instinctive urgo toward poetry, half in secret.

Hardy's first poems, as ho expected, wero coldly received by the critics, who felt ho had takon up poetry at tho eleventh hour, and who for tho most part failed to understand the cunning irregularities of his verso. Once ho gives himself . up to poetry, tho notes'in his. book becomo rarer, and tho latter half of tho volume is filled out with tho many honours which were conferred upon him, "deepened hero and thero by charming memories of his early life. Spoaking about ambition, ho remarks that as far as' ho could remember, his was to havo some poem or poems in a good anthology like Tho Golden -Treasury. To tho last ho could novcr understand the charges of pessimist which was constantly held. against him—any moro than he understood the many who wero fond of charging him with postulating a malignant and fiendish God. His view was that ncitlior chanco nor purpose governed the universe, but necessity. Thomas Hardy died at the ago of 87— his ashes wero interred with stately ceremony in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. A casket containing his heart was taken to the church to Stinsford, where it was his personal wish to bo buried' among his ancestors. " The Later Years of Thomas Hardy" (1892-1928)," by Florence Emily Hardy (MacMillan). AN ARMCHAIR HUNTER. PURSUIT OF THE UNICORN. When Alice had dealings with tho unicorn, in her practical way ehe first of all camo .to a working agreement with it that each should beliovo in th« other. A hunter named Latter had sufficient faith in it to man an expedition to Tibet, where ho just failed to run it to earth. Mr. Odell Shepherd devised a still better way, for fio hunted it up and down tho British Museum. Ho has recorded his adventures in a book called " Tho Loro of tho Unicorn," whiclr traces tho beast in myth and legend beginning 2000 years ago, when it camo out of tho mysterious East, assumed religious garb, appeared in the .Bible, entered King's Palaces, and .lives to this day in tho Royal Coat of Arms and in old-fashioned nursery rhymes. Mr. Shepherd disarms his opponents by quoting chapter and verso to, prove that tho unicorn never existed. Ho lays these peoplo low in turn by telling of people who havo 6een the animal with their own eyes, with a horn varying in length from a cubit to ten feet, in shapo from a rhinocerous to an antelope. Kings have havo always drunk from its horn, which has, tho virfcuno of giving warning of poison. The canny Scotch ,were tho first to incorporate it in the royal coat of arms.. James I. brought it to England, and there this creature, whose very existence is doubtful, supplanted the bull, greyhond, boar, and dragon, arid proudly took his placo alongside tho lion in perpetual warfare. His presence in the English coat of arms is the subject of a rather caustic. story told by a traveller to a ring of awestruck natives. It seems tho unicorn ha 3 the trick of scooping a hole in soft earth with its horn to drink; When it has satisfied its needs the rest of the animals may follow, which the traveller suggested was Britain's method of Empire building! Tho unicorn's rcligkas significance is derived perhaps from its usual method of capture, by using a maiden tied to a tree as a decoy, when the unicorn, attracted by the aura of chastity, laid its head in her lap. The book is an excellent example of the delightful ramblings the thoughts of a well-stored mind take under the gentle stimulus of tho thoughts and theories of other scholars down tho ages. " Pursuit of tho Unicorn," by Odoll Shophcrd (Allen arid Unwiu). JEW AND GENTILE. " GIVE UP YOUR LOVERS." Mr, Goulrling, in his " Give up Your Lovers," takes tho ago-old and difficult theme of lovo between Jew arid Gentile. Ho takes for his hero, Phillip Massel, tho sensitive and .intelligent son of a poor Jewish teacher, and introduces him into tho sympathetic cultured household of Mrs. . Manning, a widow with three children, Sho grows fond of Phillip, and makes him ono of tho family. Ho fulls in lovo with Ruth, tho daughter of the house. Tho impossibility of marriage being brought homo to tho lovers, Phillip says goodbye to Ruth and goes home to live with his father. Tho latter half. -of tho book concerns itself entirely with Jewish life. It is undoubtedly the most convincing half of the story. Phillip's father, a patnarchial Polish Jewy who truly loves his son even if ho is unablo to understand hirn, is excellently drawn, as . is Avrom Farber, a Jewish pedlcr who is to marry Hannah, Phillip's sister. Tho book ends on a con veutional note. Phillip's father is dying, the main obstacle to tho marringo is removed and tho lovers como together again. Ilowover, so convincing wero tho earlier arguments against such a marriage that tho reader closes the book with moro than a qualm for their future happiness. .. . " Give np Yoiuf Lovers,'? by Louis Gouldins (Heinsmann).