RECENT FICTION EVELYN WAUGH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22398, 20 October 1934, Page 4

RECENT FICTION

EVELYN WAUGH

"A Handful of Dust." By Evelyn Waugh (Chapman and Hall). • " Nothing Hid.” . By Archibald Marshall (Collins). * , • “ Crooked Cross." By Sally Carson (Hodder and Stoughton).- “ Pelicans in the Sky." By Harold Baldwin (Murray). “Psalmist of the Dawn." By Mary Marlowe (Endeavour Press). " Never Give All." By Denise Koblns (Mills and Boon). " Inside Outl " By Geoffrey Ludlow (Harrap). " Death Comes to Fanshawe." By James Corbett (Jenkins). " Cowboy ’ Idaho.” By Paul Evan Lehman (Ward, Lock, 4s). “ Ex-Rustler." By Frank C. Robertson (Wild West). . (Each 7s unless otherwise stated.) Evelyn Waugh’s New Satire There was not much doubt about Evelyn Waugh’s almost devastating superiority among the delineators of London’s Bright Young Things. He is responsible, though it is hardly fair to blame him, for all the witty, pretentious, superficial and usually boring novels in which the fatuous follies of the cocktail set are depicted by peers’ smart daughters to-day. But most of these youthful writers failed to realise that the wit and brilliance expended by Mr Waugh upon the inconsequential subject of parties

and promiscuity was not approving. Mr Waugh’s “Vile Bodies” is detached, not impartial or laudatory. He looked on London’s night-club society and found it amusing perhaps, unedifying always. _ If there was any doubt in his two previous satires of his personal view' —room for doubt may have remained, since Mr Waugh’s, satire weapon is the rapier, not the bludgeon—it must be dispelled by “A Handful of Dust.” Mr Waugh has now declared himself unequivocally. He has finally manifested his conviction that the wages of uselessness and polite depravity are futility. Brenda, the yojmg woman who turns before our eyes from a healthy, attractive wife and mother into a neurotic, sex-crazy parasite, is no figure of fun. Neither is her husband, who, anxious only to devote himself to his family and his Gothic-towered.country estate, is made the sport of her sensation-seeking mania. This is not to say that Mr Waugh has lost his sense of humour. “ A Handful of .Dust ” is a comedy—sometimes an uproarious comedy—and we are scarcely conscious, while we read, of the cruel precision with ■which the author is stripping the ’ garments of glamour from his characters and clothing them in the drab stuff of reality; w r e are hardly aware how surely he has drawn the characters themselves, as we smile at their ludicrous mannerisms and exaggerated conceits. But we must give to Mr Waugh the credit for moving ua to an emotion distinct from laughter when he describes the death of John Last, and’ once the concession is made, there is no longer any need to pretend, that he is merely clowning. The divorce proceedings, the comic-tragic episodes in the Brazilian jungle, whither the scene suddenly shifts, are Still very funny; but poignant, searching and bitter as well. With this book Mr Waugh comes to maturity as a satirist. It might be said, as a stylist too, for his technique is suited to its particular purpose,, his economical narrative and pertinent dialogue have the same graphic "sure-' ness as. a line drawing .by John. The Author .

Evelyn Waugh, who will be 31 this month, was . born in London; He is the younger son of Arthur Waugh, who was for many years head of the publishing firm of Chapman and Hall, and the brother of Alec Waugh, ,the novelist. He was educated at a small school near London and at Hartford Collegp, Oxford, where he was Senior History Scholar., After spending a year, studying;art,, am other' yekr as‘ a school teacher, and nine months in studying London’s smart set, he published in 1929 “ Decline and Fall,” a novel, which was -hailed’as setting a new fashion in humorous books. Next year came “ Vile Bodies,” which established him as a significant, caustic spokesman, for; and upon the younger generation;. He has written, in addition, a life of Rossetti (his first and least successful book), and three travel volumes. His recreations arc “eating, drinking, drawing, and travelling,” and his chief aversions “ love, conversation, the .stage, writing, and Wales.” He. has experienced marriage and divorce. Recently he joined the Roman Catholic Church. Nothing Hid *’

Against the sparse directness of Evelyn Waugh’s statement place a novel by Archibald Marshall, and the reader has the essential difference between, the post-war writer and the novelist in. the Victorian tradition. Mr Waugh could not be imagined speaking of the angler’s basket as containing “ silvery treasure ” when he meant trout, but Mr Marshall can —and does. Yet in “ Nothing Hid,” Mr Marshall’s theme is murder—relieved, of course, by a pleasant and high-minded love romance—and his pen is bent mainly towards revealing the character of a coldhearted, calculating murderess. The plot is cleverly evolved, and the characters, with the exception of the woman herself, possess that solidity and essential virtue which are common to the people in Mr Marshall’s books. By skilfully directing the reader’s prejudice against a man who is not quite a gentleman, and showing him in an unfavourable light compared with the assured socially impeccable'residents in the English country district, Mr Marshall prepares the stage for a trial scene which is of absorbing interest. Yet when - the revelation comes at last the reader has been prepared for it, or has anticipated it, and does not feel that any violation has been done to his discernment. “ Nothing Hid ” depends too much on plot to permit of further elucidation, but it can be commended as an interesting, not sensational, study in the psychology of a murderess. Nazi Germany Miss Sally Carson’s , “ Crooked Cross ” presents an intimate study of some of the more particular effects of Hitlerism in Germany as they touched family, life and relationships in the early; days of the regime. Here is no political or social estimate of Nazism, but a plain and simple account of the reactions to it of the Klugers, kindly and tolerant people, aware that they were Germans, and, whatever they thought of it, proud enough to be so, but not at all well-informed concerning the drift of national politics. This is a first novel and a good one, for while there is no story to speak of._ the author demonstrates in striking fashion how modern polities, no less than the cruder regimes of hundreds of years ago, might become a matter of life and death to the humblest-citizens .when they are dominated by proselytising tactics of the kind employed by Hitler’s disciples. An attempt has been made to draw an analogy between the swastika, the crooked' cross of Hitler; and the Christian cross. This is done more by implication than by actual comparison, and for that reason is the more effective. The suggestion that stupiditv and insensibility have risen to the lop in the Hitler Reich to the almost complete extinction of the finer qualities of German patriots and administrators is very strong throughout the book, which leaves the impression that the author :s firmly convinced in her own mind that

many .of, the most -frenzied Nazi‘nationalists,. dazzled; at first by the vision of i a national revival, discovered the fallacy of Nazi policy before the party had beta in power 12-mouths.' She never asserts as much, ibut in allowing events to speak for themselves she produces a very cogent argument. ■ This, curiously enough, appears to be the method’of attack which most critics of the Nazi rule have been content to- adopt. It has been noticeable in several ..outstanding-ebooks on the subject lately, and in -none more than in Eeuchtwanger’s “The Oppermans.”

The Call of the North The power which the Canadian Northwest possesses of drawing back those who have once done battle with its wild forces forms the basis of a capital first novel in " Pelicans of the Sky.” Eoger Thornewill, for whom the restrictions of city life in England proved too irksome, had found his way into the great North-west and become hardened by its rigours when the war intervened and he enlisted. Invalided home, he marries, and, for his wife’s sake, tries once more to bear with city life, but the attraction of Saskatchewan proves too strong, and back he goes with his bride. There is much, however, in the rugged wilds that is too elemental for a city-bred girl, and it is not until she has temporarily deserted her new home that its call becomes as clamant for her as for those of less sheltered upbringing.

Island Calm Lord Howe Island, with a communal system that is little short of perfection, provides the background for “ Psalmist of the Dawn,” one of the most sympathetically written novels to come out of Australia recently. It is to Lord Howe, with its mere handful ,of population and complete absence of industrial troubles, clannishness, uncharitableness, or disease that Roger Anderson, a Macquarie street specialist, goes,, at the height of his career, when impending blindness makes it impossible for him to continue in practice. Here, where all is beauty, opportunities occur for being useful in ways of which he would never previously have dreamed, and he finds a, renewed strength with which ( to fight the darkness which is daily creeping upon him. It is a gallant and at times pitiful effort which he makes to conquer impatience and despair at the imminence of the shadow, especially when he meets a woman whose presence threatens to disperse Anderson’s island calm, but the reader who expects a happy ending should be more than satisfied.

Late Wisdom Pat Fleming, an over-exuberant young woman, puts all her eggs into one basket where Tim Mallory is concerned, letting love for his youth and good companionship blind her to the fact that he is selfish, indolent, and shiftless. After marriage conies disillusionment, slowly at first, but none the less surely, and it is only when affairs have reached an impasse that Tim opens the gate to Pate happiness by deserting her in favour of another woman. Considering Tim s nature, most people will consider this a more fitting climax than the fatal accident which would otherwise have been the inevitably happy ending. ” Inside Out ” Raymond St. John Clitheroe. unfortunately, had a small yellow patch in his grey matter, and sorrowing relatives paid a large sum to maintain him in, a private home. A burning desire to entertain a pretty girl in the Berkeley grill room, however, spurred Raymond on to escape, and his adventures in the big world make “Inside Out” an amusing first novel. The story is written in. a breezy style, well suited to the nature of the plot, in which the reader accompanies Raymond in his impersonation or an Australian bishop, a secret service agent, and a famous American picture director. Girl Agent Elsa Craig, who is attached to the Secret Service ■■Department,' is sent on a mission to Ireland' and Paris, and carries with her a- private resolve as well-r-to avenge the murder of her brother. Her dual purpose leads; her into dangerous contact with a veritable nest of enemy spies and traitorous Britons, but she emerges successfully to receive the thanks of her country and. a romantic declaration from the" right man. "Death Comes to Fanshawe” is an incredible but lively thriller.

** Cowboy Idaho ” Clint Hollister, a cattleman who married late- in. life, loses his young wife at childbirth, and ■-so embittered does he become that he abandons his own son. John Endicott, a neighbouring rancher, takes the child home to. his wife..-and ;,they bring him up as their own. This is the beginning of a range War for water' between the two_ cattlemen. 1 Todd Hollister stays with his foster parents until he reaches the age of 15, when he runs away to. make a place for himself in the world. Ten years go by. and 1 then Todd returns, determined to win ‘the. respect. of' a father he' has never * known. -How he brings peace and justice to the warring- ranches, wins the respect of' his father and the love ,o£ ,Nan<;e Endicott, is vividly told in^thie‘story I 'of’the West. Reformed Rustler '■* ;■

“Cigarette Johnny” was an - expert rustler of- horses until,' in dramatic’-cir-cumstances, he met Kate Branley. Then he found that it is. easier to. enter upon a criminal career than to leave it, especially when, as is the case ■in “ ExRustler,” Kate happens to bp trying to solve a series of crimes in which Johnny’s ex-associates are concerned. But in such novels as this Wrong cannot remain enthroned for ever, nor True Love be long denied fulfilment. V. V. L.