A LITERARY CORNER

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11438, 7 February 1923, Page 2

A LITERARY CORNER

(R.A.L.) “DAVID LLOYD GEORGE” Harold Spender. (Hodder and Stoughton.) A reprint in cheap form of Ur Spender's remarkable biography comes "ell after the turn in Mr Lloyd George’s meteoric career. Whatever Critics like the ‘‘gentleman with the duster’ ’ may say, the desire to learn all about this courageous personage from A to the letter his career has reached near the end of his appointed alphabet will be especially strong at the present moment. The time has not yet come for pronouncing final judgment on the career which has suijiassed in its width of interest the great Napoleon’s, though by no means in its importance and variety of achievement. The above “gentleman” has attempted the task in his brilliantly cogent style, hut the attempt was the cardinal error of his widelyread monograph. To help towards the final understanding, Mr Spender has added to his biography a chapter on the Near East, and the events bound up with it which preceded Mr Lloyd George’s fall from office. Students of these events—-and who throughout the world is not a student of them? —will read thi6 summary with interest and pleasure. If only for the useful light it throws on the at present unfinished course of the history, halting to-day at Lausanne on the brink of awful possibilities, this chapter ought to secure large sales for the book.

"SHAKESPEARE TO HARDY" (An Anthology of English Lyrics.) Sir A. Methuen (chosen by). Methuen and Co., 36, Essex street, W.C.. Loudon.) An anthology is a garden of flowers, and, after all, but a garden of flowers. Tastes differ about flowers, as about their arrangements. Therefore there will be many anthologies, a 6 one has to remember when a new one is offered. And there are so many Jlowers, as one can realise in the title “Shakespeare to Hardy.” Moreover, there is a literature of criticism, adulation, effort at utilitarian ascription,- increasing from day to day—read, for example, any literary publication—so vast that the guides to the culler of flowers are nearly as many as the flowers themselves. To this anthology of Sir A. Methuen there is an essay on the uses of poetry. It is a very learned essay, well versed in all the things said about poetry from the days of Aristotle, who treated poetry as a healer of the soul, to the many things suggested by modern fancy and the want of it; chiefly the latter. The author, u'ho writes with delicate humour, sets right a good deal of this confusion. His own opinion seems to me that we should “compare the poet in his light-giving powers to the linnet in Mr de la Mare’s poem” : Upon this leafy bush With thorns and roses in it, Flutters a thing of life, A twittering linnet, And all the throbbing world Of dew and sun and air By this small parcel of life Is made more fair. We do not think the idea could be bettered. As to the effect of thus “making more fair” on individuals much can be said, but the idea, is the keynote of all possible saying. The test of all anthologies is the combination of Truth and Beauty. It lire been applied with success here, for this is the tenth addition. In conclusion, it is well to say a favourable word for the selection of the alphabetical order of arrangement, which not only produces welcome contrasts, but avoids the monotony of periodic styles. “A KIPLING ANTHOLOGY” From the same publishers we have a voluminous anthology of Kipling lyrics. It is a fine selection of these lyrics which have made 'their mark for years and years. Despite the variety of subject and occasion there is a touch of monotony. _ A little weeding would have been judicious, i.e., the rejection of those little posies in which the author makes abruptness do duty for epigram, forgetting that epigrams have meaning.

“MY ESCAPE -FROM DONNINGTON HALL” Captain-Lieutenant Gunther Pluschow. (John Lane, The Bodley Head.) The escape is German; a. new item'in this kind of literature in which the escapes are all British, but the thrill is the same. The novelty of a man dodging the British police and living among the riverside haunts, and reading the newspaper accounts of the search for him is refreshing. The German officer does not, of course, like the British, hut he very fairly admits that they treated him very well. The escape is preceded by a very graphic and Intel esting account of the siege of Kiaocliow, up to the day before the surrender to the Japanese, when the Herr. Captain, the only flying officer in the garrison, flew away by order of his chief. This one feels to he a hit of war history from the German side which can be trusted. I “THE LUCK OF THE TOWN” Marion Fox. (John Lane: The Bodley Head.) A fine story full of live people which is made to owe its interest to one who has been dead about 2000 years. This is a Roman lady of much attraction liberated from her tomb by some excavating workmen. It is a little difficult to fill the thrills expected of you by the author, when she takes a hand in the affairs of the town which has grown over her tomb. But she brings hick to the town somehow, and all the rest is charming. “THE SMUGGLED MASTERPIECE” Edgar Jepson. (Herbert Jenkins.) From the same publishers we have this v very original story, the construction of which makes one rebel against the current saying that there is nothing new under tile sun. A plot without a flaw, in which two young people become involved in a contest between a wealthy stealer of masterpieces, an astute Italian Government agent, supported by official forces and detectives seeking the stolen property, and a clever millionaire with occult powers, living in a marvellous palace in ijondon, served by Oriental domestics elusive and relentless enough and strong enough to have come out of the “Arabian Nights,” who buys the stolen masterpieces and occasionally gets cheated—such a plot is very decidedly something new. Being very well told, the story has charm.

“THE ADVENTURES OF SALLY” P. G. Wodehouse. (Herbert Jenkins.) Sally is a lady of attraction, treated with respectful humour by Mr Wodehouse in his wonted manner in this story, which goes from first to last with the wit and point many readers have learned to expect from him. “SHIFTING SANDS” Mrs Patrick Mac Gill. (Herbert Jenkins) From the same publisher we have to acknowledge Mrs P. Mac Gill’s latest. It is a really good story, as Mrs Pat.’s stories usually are, in construction and depiction of character. It has also some of her defects of crudity of treat-* ment. It stands above anything she has done before by virtue of a strong character, a man of powerful physique and fine intellect who by pure example teaches the world what chivalrous, unselfish love is, how it seeks nothing but the welfare of the beloved, and how true and thorough it is. It is this giant of a man, contrasting with the lay figures of spineless mediocrity which crowd the minor novels of the day, which gives this book its great charm. “0.” K. N. Burt. (Australasian Publishing Co., Sydney.) Those who have read that fine novel “The Branding Iron” will know what to expect in “Q,” which is from the same pen. They will not he disappointed A Western “cowboy” captivated by an Eastern society star goes Ea6t to fit himself to citizenship by attending school. He is a real man. and gets to work in earnest, “three R’s,” globes, and the rest. There are rivals, society sarcasms and society plots, and much graft with many “grafters.” Tliere’s a strange, eventful family history in the old Eastern town in which tho Western “cowboy” is getting learning painfully, and the teacher who has taken him in hand is the sweetest little woman one could' desire to meet in fiction and would desire to meet in real life. The real man faces it all, matching his wonderful manhood with the civilised degeneracies. It is a great story. "THE MAN WHO COULD NOT SEE” Mrs F. Reynolds. (The Bodlov Head.) The eternal triangle is here aggravated by the fact that the man was blind when he was captivated by the beautiful voice and beautiful character of the woman he married who was not

personally beautiful. When he gets back his sight his love continues, a pretty woman persuades him that his wife had only married him out of pity. They elope, and then follows a fine story of love and constancy which, after the elopement lias fallen into the usual disaster, takes back the erring husband and reforms him out of hie physical and mental wreckage. This miraclo is made possible by the little child of the marriage and by the sym pathetic understanding kindness of an old friend who, though himself in love with the deserted wife, helps loyally towards the reconciliation. In the multitude of the sex triflings of the day’s fiction this hook is a rock of wisdom much needed. And tho artistry of the writing helps, too. “THE MOUNTAINS OF MOURNE»‘ Louise Mackay. (Jarrold, London.) Tho charm of these mountains,* unique in Irish scenery, the and sterling character of the people, * their life on land and witter, and t their old ways that are gone, are all ’ described admirably by this charming old lady’s graphic pen. It ia like reading a poem. “GEOMORPHOLOGY OF NJC ” Professor C. A. Ootton. (Museum, Wellington.) This is a text-book for “the fascinating study ct land forms.’ ’ How did the face of the earth get into the shapes so familiar to us ? Geomorphology deals with that question, and is therefore the close friend of geology and geography. Hutton was the first to make the connection with his suggestion—discovery might be a belter word—“that the origin of the surface forms, as well as of the rocks, is to be ascribed, not to sudden catastrophe—we ouote from the text-boot —“a miraculous event, but to the action of forces still in operation.” Playfair accepted this, and Lyell took it up to scientific level. How truiy the author text-book declares the science to ue fascinating is abundantly evident in its pages. For example, there are innumerable examples of rock and shore formation very clearly illustrated, manv from the neighbourhood of Wellington, some of them showing the results of the great upheaval in the earthquakes of IBST>. The examples, in fact, are taken all over New Zealand. The extent of tho Professor’s learning and the careful methodical style of his presentment of it, make this one of the best’ text-books extant