LITERATURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3494, 22 February 1921, Page 54

LITERATURE.

BOOK NOTICES. “The Seven Wives of Bluebeard, and Other Marvellous Tales.’' By Anatole France. A translation by L)r B. Stewart. London : John Lane. This volume forms one in the series of the complete works of Anatole France translated into English by various writers, and edited by the late Frederic Chapman and James Lewis May, price 7s 6d net a volume. The “other marvellous tales - ' are “The Miracle of the Great St. Nicholas,” a version of the legend of The Sleeping Beauty,” and one of the story of the search for a truly happy man, the wearing of whose shirt would cure the sick king. Bluebeard here appears in totally different guise from that familiar to generations of children by Charles Perrault, tire famous seventeenth century adapter cl old-world fairy lore. Here Bluebeard appears as the victim, and is finally murdered by his seventh wife and her brothers. One may assume that the writer’s intention is to satn lse the modern fancy for traversing verdicts of history and whitewashing his° torieal criminals. Satire directed against human institutions and human nature itceef_ is plentiful, but neither original nor bri.hant, while the author has chosen to follow greater satirists like Rabelais and Swift m sinning against decency and good feeiing. The merely ordinary reader of common sense and fortunately still common preference for the clean and wholesome, if by chance he turns over these pages, will be disposed to wonder how Anatole X< ranee has achieved his wreat htorary reputation. But in the iong° list of his works there are some, as °“The Clime of Sylvestre Bonnard,” which may oe commended to the ordinary reader. Ine complete edition of France’s works interests professed literary students only. I ity that a fine literary style should so often bo devoted to give- shape to mean thought and unwholesome feeling. J-he Little House. By Coninsbv Dawson. With illustrations by* Stella (i Langdale. London : John Lane. “I, the little house, tell this story. It was lived within my walls; not a fine is indented, and it was I, by my interfering. wno brougnt about the happy ending? 1 ' thus opens the story. But does the little house really teli it ? It seems to the reviewer that the author’s scheme jf houses and furniture that talk and come m as tne deus ex machina at critical episodes for the human actors is a superfluous bit of machinery framed to introduce a nice but quite- ordinary little story, and that this machinery is constantly run" mug down and being forgotten while the human beings take charge in the ordinary way. The little house is an old one standing m a fashionable square near Hyde lark. It is left empty and open on the night of a German air raid, and in it t--ke refuse "the little lady” of the story, who lias lo~t her nusband in the war and her two young children. Thither also comes

ail American officer, who seems a heavensent protector to the lonely, scared little . I. v - hen the alarm lias subsided the visitors go their ways, but the little house later forifts the background for the continuation of the storv. The background—-

thnt is all ; the characters talk "and explain themselves, and the author impersonally supplies information and reflections as in other stories. The idea of the inanimate things of a dwelling becoming participants in and sympathetically record mg die joys and sorrows of the human tenants would require something of the genius of a Hawthorne to be successfully de\ eloped. The illustrations are more successful than the narrative in conveying the atmosphere proper to the writer’s 'coif c option.

“The Dippers." By Ben Travers. London: John Lane. The title suggests something to do with the sea, but is in fact tile name of two professional dancers, Mr Hank P. Dipper and his wife, who are engaged to perform at the country house of Lord Mellingham, a very vulgar nouveau riche. °HanK Dipper misses his train, and his wife is in a state of desperation over the threat ened failure of their programme, when a stoutish, niild-looking, middle-aged gentleman is ushered into her room at Lord Mellingham's as the missing man. This is the highly respectable and excessively good-natured Mr Talboves, a solicitor, who, returning from a visit to a country cnent, has also missed his train, and been picked up by the chauffeur sent to meet Mr Dipper. Mr Talboves, who possesses genius of the first order for blundering and getting himself into predicaments, fails to explain himself, and thus is taken to Lord Mellingham’s as Mr Dipper. His good-nature induces him to consent to Play the part of the latter that the Dippers may not be disappointed in the prestige and profit to accrue from their performance. This outline will indicate that the story is a comedy—a farcical comedy, and an, exceedingly amusing one. Nearly all the characters are at cross purposes all throughout, except Mrs Tavis-

tock, the sincerely attached fiancee of the blundering Mr Talboyes, a very attrac-tively-presented character, who does her best to save the very awkward situations •produced by Mr Talboyes’s incongruity vith his assumed personality and bv the belated arrival of the reaß flank. Mrs Dippers manners are as modern as her -dances, but she is absolutely ingenuous, puzzling as her ways are to the not very up-to-date Mr Talboyes. The book is certainly one of the most humorous of recent production ; the situations are excessively comical, and the dialogues will keep mostreaders in fits of laughter all the time, j The verbal encounter between the old Scotch porter ar. J Talboyes, when the latter loses his train is a specially excellent bit of humorous writ ing thrown'in gratis. The author has shown himself possessed of rare capacity in light comedy, and his forth- | coining story, “A Cuckoo in the Nest, ’ I will be awaited with iively anticipation. '

- Brief Mention : Some Works of Note.— All admirers of R. L. Stevenson will be interested in the lately published life of hj.s wife, by Nellie van de Grift Sanchez (Chatto and M indus). This gives a deal of information about the author during tire years of his married life, and enables die reader to make full acquaintance with a woman of rare personal charm, the perfect helpmeet of her gifted husband. in the Shadows, ' by H. G. ells, and "The Practice and r iheory of Bolshevism” are two books that alf interested in world politics and social theories must desire to read, and both are published at the moderate price of 6s. Mr \veils has good to say of the Bolshevlsts, less than 5 per cent, of the total population of Russia, but strong through their possession of a real faith and spirit. In the face of gigantic difficulties thev are trying to rebuild a new Russia amoim the ruins. We may quarrel with their principles and methods, . . . but it is no good pretending that there is no creative effort in Russia at the present time." Jyotn ilr \\ ells and Mr Russell have lately visited Russia. The stay of the former was limited to a fortnight, but Mr Wells has the capacity to accomplish in the wav of both observation and production as much in a fortnight as most men could in tin ice that time. It has been represented tpat Mr Bertrand Russell’s observation of the working of Bolshevism has led him to renounce his communist theories, but this is a mistake. His doubts, he sav’s, are not as to Communism itself, but as to the wisdom of holding a creed so firmly as to be willing to inflict wide-spread misery tor its sake. He still holds that the world s hope lies in Communism, and amidst the present disorder and misery in Russia one may feel, he says, “the spirit of creative hope, seeking to sweep away the incumbrances of injustice and tyranny and rapacity, which obstruct the growth of the human spirit, to replace individual competition by collective action, the relation of master and servant bv free cooperation.” .“The People of Destiny,” by Sir Philip Gibbes, is a study of the present relations and feeling between Great Britain and the t nited States, and a fervent plea for friendship between the two nations. Mr Gibbes sees in the present condition of Ireland the greatest obstacle to such friendship. “There will never,” he says, ‘‘be real friendship between England and :ne United States until the national aspirations of the Irish people are somehow satisfied and so long as our character in .he world is blackened bv this stain upon uu- good fame.” The book also delivers he result of Mr Gibbes’s personal observa.ion of present social and economic conditions in the States. “I he Group Mind,” by Professor Wiluim M'Dougal, F.R.S. (Cambridge Psvhologicnl Library), studies the psychology )t men m their social associations. It 7s vorthy the attention of readers who hav» nme knowledge of psychology, and who re interested m the Question how far such ihrases a 3 “the groun consciousness,” “the ‘■•id of the people” are justified by’fact.