Revolt of Youth

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23009, 9 April 1938, Page 4 (Supplement)

Revolt of Youth

By L.B.

•jpT is to be hoped that there are I not many parents like the *"*" Master of Chetwynd, Murray Galbraith, otherwise youth would have every reason for a flaming revolt against its elders. The theme of the book is the conflict between a, 'selfish, arrogant man, whose heart is set on becoming the head of a small provincial university, and his children, whom he expected to arrange their lives so that his ambition would be gratified. Rosamund, the doctor, must remain at home unmarried and pay her contributions in to the family exchequer in return for her father's sacrifices. His son Stephen must marry the daughter of a rich and influential neighbour. There is another daughter, but she does not play an important part in the story.

Professor and His Family

Naturally they resented being regarded as investments for their parents old age and revolted, though somewhat tardilv. Stephen ran off to sea and his subsequent adventures make good reading. though somewhat straining one s credulity.

Rosamund eventually married instead of remaining to pay back the money expended on her education as expected by her father. Plainly, the author, in working out her story, was struggling between the requirements of fiction and her observance of life. Life won on points; though it is a little difficult to think of the father, Murray Galbraith, as being anything but a type found only in books.

Miss Bnines. however, can tell a rather ordinary story with a good deal of skill, and her quick, deft- touch' makes her characters living people.

"The Master of Chetwynd," by Joy Baines (Harrap.)