A STUDY IN EVIL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22000, 5 January 1935, Page 9 (Supplement)

A STUDY IN EVIL

NEW HUGH WALPOLE NOVEL

A new novel from Mr. Hugh Walpole is always welcome. He has steadily consolidated his position as one of the leading novelists of the day, developing all the time his range of talents and of sympathy. With him there is none of the " cleverness-at-all-cost " technique of the moderns. He develops his plots precisely and tells his stories in words which are invariably right. " Captain Nicholas," his latest book, can best be described as a study in evil. There is no suggestion of the Grand Guignol touch of the " Portrait of a Man With Red Hair," but rather a symbolical handling of p. modern spirit of passive dishonesty. He sets the stage with a London family of several generations qnd various relationships and shows a glimpse of happy and companionable home life. Then into their midst he thrusts the inevitable black-sheep, the Captain Nicholas Coventry, who has roamed the world for years, living on his wits and women. His most powerful weapon is his charm and Mr. Walpole, with real brilliance, has succeeded in portraying that charm as something sinister. His Captain Nicholas at once ingratiates and disintegrates. A thief and blackmailer in a gentlemanly way, Captain Nicholas uses family secrets as his stock in trade and, with the art of a confidence trickster, proceeds to upset the life of every member of the household. The whole thing is carried through with such subtlety and such a remarkable sense of character that the story never loses interest. Mr. Walpole is not afraid to recognise spiritual forces and to clothe them in language of rare beauty. The result, in all, is a book of lasting appeal. One could pick it up after first reading in the almost certain knowledge that Nicholas, Fanny and others would again come to life and that one would find new thoughts to make a second study worth while. " Captain Nicholas," by Hugh Walpole. (Macmillan.)