LITERATURE

Otago Witness, Issue 3352, 12 June 1918, Page 53

LITERATURE

BOOK NOTICES. " The Green Mirror." By Hugh Walpole. London: Maximilian and Co. (Cloth, 55.) Mr Hugh Walpole's latest novel is a careful, conscious character study, each delineation standing out with extraordinary clearness and vitality. It depicts the constant struggle between the Old and New Generations—the past with its traditions and prejudices, and the present with its persistent urge onwards and outwards towards fresh ideals and experiences. This theme is worked out in the experiences of a British family, the Trenchards, who, whether in town or country, live a self-absorbed life indrawn upon themselves, taking no account of outer influences of any kind; careless of, indifferent to, the outer world, so that the children's very earliest sense of morality had been that there was a Gad, the Trenchards, and the devil; t; fc the devil wished very much to win the Trenchards over to his side, but that God assured the Trenchards that if only they behaved well He would not let them gc—raid for this Troy had burnt, Carthage had been razed to the ground, proud kings driven from their thrones and humbled to the dust;' plague, pcctilence, and famine had wrought their worst. . . . The Trenchards were, indeed, a tremendous family, and it was little wonder that the. Heavenly Powers should fight for their alliance. Not to be a Trenchard was to be a nigger or a Chinaman. . . . The Trenchards had never been conceited people—.conceit implied too definite a recognition of other people's . position and abilities. To be conceited you " must think - yourself abler, more interesting, richer. handsomer than someone due —and no Trenchard ever realised anyone else. He was. That was enough. Into this all-sufficing family comes—on an oocasion of special ceremony, the grandfather's birthday, and from the midst of, a London fog—a stranger from Russia — a young man, Philip Mark, who has had wide and unusual experience of life during a long residence in Russia. He promptly falls in love with the eldest daughter of the house, and she with him, to the indignation, disgust, and amazement of the family, who had always expected Katherine jto marry into the clan and be, with her husband, absorbed into it. Philip resists this assumption, and a silent, persistent, long-continued struggle is the result. As in all Mr Hugh Walpole's work, the psychic element plays an important part in this tale. " The Green Mirror " hangs over the chimneypiece in the most-used family sitting room. "It took into its expanse the whole of the room, so that, standing: before it with your back to the door, you could see everything that happened behind- you. The mirror was old and gave to the view that it embraced some old comfortable touch so that everything within it was soft and at rest.'" In some mysterious way, it seems to hold the family together, so that the whole of it, with its many ramifications, "were all inside the mirror—embedded in that green, soft, silent enclosure. . . . From the security of that mirror thoy looked out upon the world. . . . Inside everything, outside nothing. from irodde the house could the mirror be broken—surely then thev were secure." Even more mysterious and psychic than the mirror is the phantasm of a living women—once loved by Philip, but who no longer loves him, though she is unwilling to resign him to another woman.

This " ghost" appears to be raised by the intense, thought concentration and curiosity of Philip, Katherine, and other members of her family, as -well as by the woman herself. The ghost is not seen, though its inimical presence is distinctly felt and overheard, but the hearing seems to be internal, and in no "way dependent on physical sense. It is as though the very spirit of the woman, mocking, derisive, taunting, aggressive, *=aid to herself: '" It would be amusing to bring him back to me. Not that I want him. I should be boved to death if I had to live with burs again. But just for the humour of it. He was always v.o weak. He will come if I call him." And the haunt beErin.s: In the middle of some work or pleasure Katherine would start, halffrightened, half-excited, cott-ojouk that someone w T as behind her watching her. She would turn, and in the first flush of her glance it would seem to her that she caught some vanishing figure—the black hair, the thin tall body, the laughing, mocking eyes. And then with a little shudder of dismissal she ~ would banish the phantom, summoning the admirable Trenchard common sense to her aid. . . . Anna, no longer a suggestion, no longer a memory, but now a vital, bodilv presence, was urging Philip. Her' power over him was not in the least, because he was still in love with her—he loved only Katherine' in all the world.—but because of the damnable common sense of what she said. Suddenly there came to them all the idea that the hall door had been opened, and then centlv closed. " Hid someone come in?" asked Mrs Trenchard. "T thought I heard the hall door." "I'll go," said Katherine. They all waited, their heads raised. Katherine crossed the room, went into the hall, paused a moment, then turned back to the heavy handle of the door. The door swung back, and the lovely summer night swept into the house. . Katherine waited. Then slip came back, shutting the door softly behind her. Had someone entered? Was someone there with hor in the half light whispering to her, " I'm in the honso now, and I shall stay so long as I please, unless you can turn me out"?

Mr Walpole calls his book, ." A Quiet Story," and, though it was written before the war, and embraces the period just antecedent to it, it yet in some way foreshadows the great world struggle so close at hand. He cannot feel it to be oldfashioned, since into its very text is wrought that "love of England which has in many of us so triumphantly survived the changes, catastrophes, and victories that have shaken into ruin almost every other faith we held."

"Common-sense Hints on Plain Cookery." Compiled by the Cookery Teachers' Association of New South Wales. Sydney: Angus and Robertson. (Paper; Is net.) This is a companion volume to the " Common-sense Cookery Book" compiled by the same association, which explains " all methods of preparing food." The present volume is not a book of recipes. It tells how to select the best ingredients, how to compound them, and how to get the best results in cooking them, it is really a "cook's companion." It tells how to clo it, gives the reason wlij, and so contains in concise, simple English the gist gf a whole course of cookery lessons. It informs the house-wife not only what to do, but what to avoid. Thus under the head of "Jelly" (to take an example at random) she is told: 1. Measure the liquid, allow one cup of sugar to one cup of iiquid. 2. Put the liquid on to boii in a shallow pan. 3 Allow it to come to the boil, and boil 10 minutes; then add the sugar (bat do not stir it), ■ skim beiore adding sugar if necessary. 4. When the sugar nas dissolved and the liquid is boiling again, try a little to see if it will set. 5 To try, drop a very iittle on a cold , plate and stand it in a draught or on ice to see if it will set. 6. If good fruit is. used it should jel instantly. 7. There is more danger in over-boiling than in under-boiling. 8. If over-boiled, it will not set, it will be too dark in colour, and will be of the consistency of treacle. Store in a light, airy place. Dark and damp places incline to mould. From this example it will be seen how thoroughly practical is the information given, which extends to almost every cookery problem, such as the choosing and treatment of meat, fish, poultry, game; also left-over meats and vegetables; hints on reheating and stewing ; rules for cooking vegetables; how to make gosd wholetome pastry; the causes<>of failure in making cakes, pastry, etc. ; besides giving a thousand "tips" for ensuring success in preparing soups, sauces, salads, seasonings, puddings, jams, and other foods. It is, in short, the only book of its kind, and deserves its title of " companion " to every book of culinary recipes. It is also intended as a guide to students in the domestic science course, and young homemakers in general will find it invaluable. Tne proceeds are to be donated to the Red Cross Society.

"Soldiers Two." By Chrystal Stirling. Sydney: N.S.W. Bookstall Company (Ltd.). (Is.) This is a pathetic war storj-. Most of it is told in the form of letters from a man who went, like thousands of others, "not because he had to, but because he thought he ought to." They are the letters of a man who loved his home and his wiie, and yet was haunted by another love, another duty—the love of freedom and the dutv of fighting for it. There was something to be done, and he felt that he must "do his bit." Here are inserted also some letters of his wife's, living, like thousands of other women, watching, waiting, working, enacting the brave soldier at home, so that in the truest and deepest sense the two are one, united in the great sacrifice to which so many thousands of our fellow-countrymen and countrywomen are ' called.