BOOKS AND LIFE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21999, 4 January 1935, Page 12

BOOKS AND LIFE

PUBLISHER'S ADVICE

DISCERNMENT OF READERS

STEADY IMPROVEMENT SHOWN

[by telegraph—own correspondent] WELLINGTON, Thursday

"There is a steady upward movement in the public taste where reading is concerned," said Mr. Jonathan Cape, head of the London book publishing firm of that name, who arrived in Wellington by the Marama yesterday. "People always like a little of what T call nonsense," he said, "but in recent years there has been an extremely largo increase in the numbers of readers. A multitude still reads its 'tripe' and 'tosh,' but, on the other hand, more of them than ever are taking an interest in good books and writers.

"The advice I gave when interviewed in Australia was that authors should write about life as it is, and not make an elaboration of artificial situations which have no real relation to life. Because that sort of thing is fairly prevalent in a good deal of reading matter, it has brought about a corresponding attitude toward books on the part of some of the reading public. They have come to want books that have nothing to do with life as they know it. "You hear, consequently, the common expression, 'He talks like a book,' aud of many people saying, they want something to take them out of themselves. So many novels are purely an artificial thing and not definitely something that is part of the warp and woof of life, a quality that should be their biggest value. To show the reality behind appearances should be the object of writers, and not merely to create a sense of illusion." Most Successful Novels To those who thought the prevalence of "escape literature" had been brought about mainly by the war and the conditions that followed it, Mr. Cape said he would reply that, in his opinion, it had been present even before the war. Now, however, there was a tremendous movement in the other direction. Tho books that had been most successful recently were those that told of valid problems and experience. The novels most successful nowadays had a much closer reation to life than thoso of 2o years ago.

Autobiography now was coming into its own. This form of literature was of good value so long as it was not a "piece of exhibitionism." Also increasing in popularity were books on personal experiences and on social questions.

When asked about the type and number of books by British authors that were read in the United States, Mr. Cape said the reading there moved in waves. At one time the American novel would seem to be in tho ascendant in the United States, and then might come a wave when books by English writers, often published simultaneously in Britain and America, would have a turn of the greatest popularity. "Broadly speaking," he said, "any good' book, whoever its author, gets a large reading public on both sides of the water. Development in Translation "In these days the country of origin of a book, so long as jt is well written, makes little difference to readers. Translations are becoming more common than ever, and the most important translators themselves are taking their work very seriously. It is work for a good writer, and actually many authors are taking it up. They are finding that, for their product to be artistically satisfying, tho book must be not only a translation, but done into English. It should be able to stand on its feet as a work in English, and not merely as a foreign article. "Tho ideal method, *in my opinion, is for two persons to work together on a translation, one to make the literal English rendering, and the other to do the 'rendering into English.' That is done now to some extent, but it is possible in the future that it will be the method used frequently. Hie translator must be free to use a definite sense of style. He must himself be a writer." Mr. Cape intends to stay in Jsew Zealand for about two weeks. He is making a world tour and will return to London by way of China, Japan and the United "States.