ADDITIONS TO EVERYMAN’S

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27505, 27 September 1950, Page 2

ADDITIONS TO EVERYMAN’S

The Natural History of Selborne. By Gilbert White (No. 48). International Modern Plays (No. 989). Everyman’s Library. 4s 6d. Gilbert White’s Natural History of Selborne is one of the kindliest of all books, and it is good to receive this old friend in a modern “ Everyman’s ” binding. This gentle country churchman observed Nature with a keen but respectful eye, and his description of the bird life in his county have a poetic beauty that still has power to charm the reader. International Modern Plays contains five plays which have had a significant impact on the modern drama. The first is August Strindberg’s “ Lady Julie,” with . which is printed the introduction which, has come to be described as “ the manifesto of naturalism,” though at the time “Lady Julie” was written so many “manifestoes” were proclaimed by earnest young intellectuals that all have now little more than an antiquarian interest. Gerhard Hauptman’s phantasy, “Hannele” and Jean Corteau’s “The Infernal Machine” were both written to explore new possibilities of the drama, and “ The Life of the Insects,” by the Capex brothers remains one of the mbst remarkable social-political allegories ever presented on the stage. The fifth ,s Luigi Chiarelli’s "The Mask and the Face,” a “ grotesque ” of inverted values which was Italy’s first contribution to the modern form of drama.