BOOKS and BOOKMEN

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16202, 27 November 1926, Page 10

BOOKS and BOOKMEN

“GILBERT AND SULLIVAN." A FAMOUS PARTNERSHIP. “Certainly it was due to D'Oyly Carte’s faith, to his sure instinct as an impresario, and even more to his pertinacity, that the famous partnership, so productive in popular enjoyment, came into being," writes Mr, Godwin in “Gilbert and Sullivan," and this is true. Nor did ho lose by it. Good Oiings pay, and Carte left £240,000, more than double Gilbert’s fortune, and more than four times Sullivan’s. Just now, when these operas aro again drawing crowds in London, and when the younger generation are showing their good taste by loving the wit and sweet music as much as the the generation they were Written for (states the London Daily Express). Mr. Godwin's critical appreciation will be of wide interest. Gilbert was a born Victorian in his disinclination to deal at first hand with a problem. He held a mirror to the times, but, as the author of this book remarks, it was not so much a distorting mirror as a topsy-turvy one. By standing the world on its head in “Trial by Jury" and “Pinafore," Gilbert was able to ppint his jibes so that- they hit, but. hurt not. As to the music, he himself owned to being “quite unable to apptecjhte high-Class music,’’ and ho did not often, become enthusiastic over Bui)lvan’s work. These two made a highly successful union. Mr. Godwin calls the result whisky and soda. In reality, it was more like oil and water.

Two facts stand out as characteristic of this book, and the author is much to be congratulated on them. One is its fairness, the other its enthusiasm. The latter was to be expected. After all, why write a book if you are not keenly interested in your subject? But that alone has too often been found to subvert the required sense of just proportion, the . realisation of failings which must curb delight in successes. Mr. Godwin is honest and thus has given his book a more than ephemeral value; for this frank reasoning will have the effect not only of stimulating the initiated; but of winning over the coldly calculating opponent.

A GALSWORTHY PLAY.

“Escape," by John Galsivorthy. The author describes this as “an episodic play, in a prologue and two parts." There are threo “episodes" m the first part, and six in the second. The scene of the prologtio is in Hyde Park, London. Matt Denant (who served as a captain in the war), has an altercation with a plain-clothes policeman, who wants to arrest a young woman for accosting him. Denant gives him a blow on the jaw, which fells him, and in falling the policeman strikes 'his head on a rail. Two other policemen arrive on the scene, to find Denant leaning over the body trying to restore animation. But t'ho man is dead, and Denant is arrested, tried, and sentenced to six years’ imprisonment for manslaughter. Thereafter wo see him on the prison farm, Dartmoor, picking up potatoes in a heavy fog, in company with other prisoners. Under cover of the fog, ho decides to make a bolt for it, jumps the wall, and escapes. A huo and cry is immediately raised, and wo then follow the escapee in a series of adventures, most of them of an exceedingly humorous naturet as, for instance, when lie enters the room of an inn through the window at night and hides under the bed, to find in the morning that the bed is occupied by a very atttractive woman, who, after the first shock, gives him food and helps him to get, away in her husband’s old Burberry, with fishing basket, rod, etc. A little later he encounters a picnic party, and, after exchanging views with the members thereof on the subject of the escape, which has aroused the whole countryside, he surprises them by snatching up some of the “scraps," and jumping into a Eord enr belonging to one of the party, and driving off in it. Finally, with Farmer Browning and others hot on his heels, he takes refuge in a church, and his scene with the parson (who was a padre in the war days, and who is now torn between a sense of his duty to society and his sympathy for a suffering fellow mortal) is the best in the play. The pursuers enter the church in search of the escaped prisoner, and the parson adroitly parries their questions. Then there is a tense moment, as the farmer puts the question: “I’m askin’ yu on yure honor as a Christian gentleman whether or not rn’vo zcon the escaped convict?" Before an answer is possible, Denant steps out from his hiding-place, saving, “Certainly, lie’s not. . . I surrender. ’ ’ Then, turning to the parson, he adds: “Forgive me. sir. Ouglit’nt to have come in here. It wasn’t

playing cricket. . . It’s one's decent self one can’t escape.”—Angus and Robertson are the publishers.

A TEN-ROUND CONTEST,

(By Ronald Campbell)

Those yarns of bouts between amateurs ami professional “pugs,” with one or two contests in which “duels’' are concerned, will appeal with irresistible force to all lovers of the ring, the atmosphere of which is vividly suggested, the author having the skill to conjure up each “scrap” in a very realistic manner. Several of the bouts relate to the fighting experiences of a certain “Professor Ben Barlow,” who, at intervals of instruction at his boxing academy regales his pupils with descriptions of his great fights in which lie participated in various parts of the world. They are “great,” both in the manner of their telling and their dramatic surprises.*—Messrs Cassel and Co. jre the publishers.

“GLIMPSES THROUGH THE .VEIL.” CLERGYMAN'S GHOST STORIES. COPENHAGEN, October ” One of the best known Danish clergymen, Dean Martcnscn-Larsen, has just published a book “Glimpses Through the Veil,” in which he deals with ghost phenomena. The old castle of Dragsholm is said to be especially rich in apparitions. Among the prisoners in the castle was Hothwell, the husband of Mary Queen of Scots, )\hilo Count Carl Moltke from Nerager was once visiting Dragsholm and was sitting talking with the owner, Baron Zytphen-Adder, there wore sounds, so it is said, as if a carriago-and-four were entering the castle yard. Count Moltke rose and told the baron that apparently they were going to have visitors, but tho baron replied: “Don't heed that; nobody is coining.” Up to the present day many people assert that they have heard the carriage, greeted by barking dogs, and the inhabitants 'declare that it represents the arrival of the ill-fated Rothftdl. ... ji

UNQUENCHABLE FIRES,

(By Joan Sutherland)

“He hadn't very much chance of great happiness. A genius never has. The scales must be evened up .somehow. ’'

“A woman is always proud of a man's trust.”

The outstanding character study in ! this exciting story is John Ingram, an actor dear to New York despite his wild escapades. John, already in love with Paula, an actress, promises his wife Lillian, who is subject to recurrent fits of madness, that when she has another seizure ho will give her a fatal sleeping draught. The happens, his tyfe dies. Warned by the nurse who had attended Lillian that he must not marry again without unfolding his secret to his future wife, John breaks with Paula, goes off to California, where ho shows great heroism and returns to New York, to make a tremendous hit as Othello. Paula and he meet and, though she is now engaged to another, she agrees to marry John because she is in terror of violence at lus hands. John repairs to a chapel—to return thanks to the Deity. —Messrs Cassel and Co. are the publishers.

WHEN MOTHERS INTERFERI

THEME OF A STRIKING NOVEL,

Mr. Warwick Deeping, author of “Sorrell and Son,” the novel of English life which has been tho best seller in England and America for two years, has written a new novel which critics declare to be his best. The title is “The Stolen Son.'' The theme finds an echo in every street. It is the fight of a young wife to keep possession of her husband when his proud mother, who is actively hostile, schemes to bring him back to her own home.

LOVE OF BOOKS,

Piscussinb the love of books in a recent issue of the Daily Mirror, a writer claims that most of tho evils of civilisation would be cured if we could make the love of books and read-

me universal., “Did not Pascal lone asro remark,'' he savs, “that nearly all G-.p terrors of existence would never have come upon men had they been nnnfPTi* to sit onietlv —with a book — In- the fireside.? The difficulty, no ,-Ui’M is whether von can teach a love of reading. Tt seems to be inhorn in the true book-worm, as to come upon him frnin within as an insmiraGen. But. then, there it is—other »>p-.pie call him book-worm: wonder at him; and sav that hooks are not ‘life.’ T ifo is motoring motnr-bicvcling 'ndth nv without nil!ion) telephoning, firing, rushing about strn< ts. meeting pup,. fall-inn-, coort end. everv now and fhen making war. The hook-mP-cmc ell thnf. So people tell him that he doesn’t ‘live.’ ”