THE BOOKSHELF

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22356, 29 February 1936, Page 9 (Supplement)

THE BOOKSHELF

ROMANCE AND HUMOUR ATTRACTIVE FIRST NOVEL A love story—not a simpering, pink and white, love's young dream; but a sophisticated story of modern intelligent people, very foolish people sometimes, very human always, which yet makes love seem very beautiful. "See How They liun" is . the puzzling title Mr. Jerrard Tickell has chosen. It seems to be a first novel, but it proves Mr. Tickell to be a born storyteller. Nicola, an Austrian girl, came over to England in a famine train, all covered with labels. Her father, Colonel Lenke, was ill and poor, and jumped at the chance of having his only daughter brought up in something like her own station. She is met at tha station by Peter Conroy, an Irishman, and his aunt, Kathleen, Peter being very remote and unimpressed. But Peter, sacked from his job, is sent off round the world for a number of years to find himself and grow up. He returns, meets Nicola at a bathing pool in the early morning, and is very much impressed indeed. It is here that Nicola behaves as only people in books do. For Peter has decided, surprisingly enough, to stand for Parliament, and Nicola, as much in love with him as he with her, is willing to do anything for him except spoil his career by marrying him. Then the colonel enters the story. He is desperately ill and greatly in debt to an Austrian count, who is very charming and full of laughter. The colonel's happiness can only be achieved by Nicola marrying the count. So Nicola, hungering for Peter, sacrifices herself and is unhappy. Then Aunt Kathleen, unashamedlv wicked and wholly delightful, the deus ex machina of the story, takes a hand. To tell more would be to tell too much, but it is very romantic and impossible. And yet—is romance impossible even in these wide-eyed days? Lovely things do happen and why not this? If romance is not enough there is low comedy in Captain Allsopp, a character of almost Dickensian spaciousness. and Aunt Kathleen—there is not nearly enough of Aunt Kathleen. She is so wise and wilful and "fairy-god-motherish." Most certainly we will have Jerrard Tickell on our side. "See How They Run," by Jerrard Tickell. (Heinemann.)

SPINSTER'S STORY

A REALISTIC PICTURE

The author's personality is often the determining factor in a novel's success. Whether he wills it or no his individuality permeates his work, and makes a friend of the reader, or an enemy, or, as is frequently the case in modern novels, is so stereotyped that there is no contact whatever.

M. Barnard Eldershaw in "The Glass House, portrays a realistio picture of a spinster of _ thirty-five—Stirling Armstrong. She is one of twelve passengers on a Norwegian cargo boat voyaging from Antwerp to Australia, Readers are already a little bored bv the sea voyage type of novel, which has become too familiar of late years, but M. Barnard Eldershaw has nothing to fear on this score. She writes with inspiration and freshness of vision which knows nothing °l banal. Her chief character is a shrewd sophisticated Australian spinster.

The passengers and selected members of the crew share the story. All are seen through the eyes of Stirling Armstrong, the spinster, and to add to the amusement the author writes an imaginary story round each passenger. This feature mars the technique, for although it makes amusing contrast to the eventually revealed true history, the action of the story is held up, and in consequence the rhythm is broken. It _ is, however, the revelation of Stirling Armstrong's personality which makes the book. Most readers, spinsters of thirty-five especially, will agree that it_ is deliciously revealing and communicates a great deal of feminine pleasure. The question which teases is of course whether this attractive personality is Barnard, or is it Eidershaw? Whichever it is, she is a woman of parts, an authoress who proves herself to have both imagination and a sense of humour. "The Glass House," by M Barnard Eidershaw. (Harrap.) GREAT CAESAR MISS BENTLEY'S LATEST

In "Freedom, Farewell," Miss Phyllis Bentley has written a life of Julius Caesar. It is a long, slow book, but extraordinarily fascinating. The shadowy figure of Caesar of the Gallic wars remembered from schooldays is now amplified and made unforgettable by the author's lucid statement of historical fact.

There are no imaginative flights, no purple passages, merely the clever manipulation and development of one character against a social and political background of remarkable vividness. The story opens with the youthful Caesar in flight from the wrath of Sulla the Dictator. He is a member of the Popular Party, who seek by fair means or foul to wrest the government from the handful of patrician families who manipulate elections for their own ends. Caesar is young and idealistic, a Roman who dreams of saving the Republic.

The course of his life is traced through long years of political upheaval and war, and his experience of life and people does much to mould his character. He learns to yield honour to advantage, to bribe, corrupt, manoeuvre, to achieve his ends. He finds it necessary to take men's freedom that they shall be free, and having worked tirelessly for twenty years ho becomes Dictator of Rome.

Ho realises his jjearest ambition only to find that ho has lost all capacity for the enjoyment of his position. Miss Bentley writes slowly, with fullness and with sympathy-. The development of Caesar's personality is fascinating, while the social and political life of the Roman Empire is revealed with the intimacy and vividness of the contemporary scene.

"Freedom, Farewell," by Phyllis Bentley, (Gollancz),