LETTERS FROM OXFORD

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22172, 27 July 1935, Page 9 (Supplement)

LETTERS FROM OXFORD

A GIRL STUDENT'S OUTLOOK Many illusions are shattered and many interesting realities substituted for them in the letters from Oxford included in Barbara Silver's newlyreleased novel, " Our Young Barbarians." The letters, which are written with engaging frankness, simplicity and exuberance, carry their writer from humble beginnings as an immature " fresher " at Oxford to tho completion of her university career, which leaves her, if a little sadder, nt least a very much wiser young woman. It is natural that though our lieroino is not the " ink-stained undergraduate," whose presence in tho sacred precincts of. the university the men students are so apt to resent, 'our chief interest lies rather in the picture of student life conveyed by the letters—not so much tho clamorous and inspiring aspect of it as the common round of trivialities which make up the average day of the average student. Joyous escapades in the colleges, in tho "digs," on the river, in the city; love affairs, both frivolous and sincere, well spent vacations and even better spent " French leaves " are intermingled with spasmodic bouts of hard work.

A vivid impression of the history and geography of Oxford is subtly conveyed by casual and unobtrusive references and allusions, and one gradually heconies familiar, and even friendly, with famous buildings and beauty spots with which one's previous acquaintance has been all too formal and remote. Most striking of all is the comparison given, perhaps unconsciously as far as the writer is concerned, of different values of time in an institution such as this. First, the students themselves, coming and going in a constant stream liko water through a mill; secondly, the " fixtures " of Oxford—dons, tutors, principals—who seem, in the eyes of tho ever-changing student population, to bo gathering the same moss as Oxford's monumental stones; and thirdly, the university itself, steeped in history and tradition, age-old, yet ageless, and indifferent to time and change.

" Our Young- Barbarians," by Barbara Silver. (Macmillan.)