A Literary Log.

Southland Times, Issue 19395, 8 November 1924, Page 11 (Supplement)

A Literary Log.

(BY

"IOTA."

THE OVERDRAWN AMOS.—In spite of 8 dozen precautionary measures, William J. Locke will be castigated for the buffoonery of Amos Burden, an Australian who enters the cultured air of the Cote d’Azur and acquits himself with all that elegance which our reading hrs taught us to associate with a bull in a china shop. Locke invariably selects picturesque figures for the principal parts in his comedies, and he has a decided taste for the quaint, but in the choosing of his hero of "The Coming of Amos’’ his hand slipped wickedly. The shrewd novelist, selecting his ground carefully, tried to protect himself against the critics - particularly those who still live in Australia —by telling the story through the personality of an exquisite of civilisation like David Fontenay, a painter who is an artist in portrature in spite of his A.R.A., and a man who could write footnotes to any standard work on etiquette to correct its revelations of vulgarity. David is 45 years of age, a worshipper of poise, of form and all the quaint things which go to make up the wonderful world of Gentle Society. In David’s refined eyes, the awkwardness of Amos would be exaggerated and Locke may put all the blame on to poor David, pleading that the outrageous emphasis which destroyed th’? reality of the Australian nephew was the fault of David’s high civilisation. The finer the porcelain in the shop, the more clumsy appears the bull, and so David will also be blamed because his mind actually refines the refined people of his set, thereby intensifying the effects of Amos Burden's blundering. Bur Locke cannot escarv? so easily’. David is himself, or part of himself and the clumsy portrait of Amos is Locke’s failure to understand the Aussie. Locke should travel slowly in the Empire, so that he need not take his types from the comic papers. The basic idea of "The Coining of Amos” and the plot generally is excellent. It has all the mild surprise of the Locke method and those diverting scenes he revels in, where we have finely wrought dramatics that are powerful without disclosing any pressure; it has the comforting atmosphere of culture and properly dressed beauty, of that admirable laziness which has dropped "haste” and “hurry” out of its carefully cherished lexicon. "The Coming of Amos” can claim all the virtues which go to make the Locke comedy except that of convincing the reader. Perhaps th?" trouble is that we are so close to the Aussie that we realise how wide of the mark Locke has gone, but whatever the case this novel is one of his disappointments. Amos comes blundering into the Fontenay household just as David has fallen in love with the Princess Nadia Ramiro ff, a Russian refugee who is ber.itiful and temperamental. Amos has been sent to David by his sister Dorcas, who went out to Australia as a missionary and developed into a rough chatelaine of the interior, running a big staiion single-handed and ruling the countryside with a rod of iron. On this station, so far from civilisation that Ames knows little of the war (lucky fellow!j, the hero is reared without any knowledge of Society on the Mediterranean Coast. Amos is not overawed by’ the delicacy surrounding him in his new home, and so Locke makes him stumble about in a manner that defies acceptance, even when all the preliminary conditions prepared by the author are allowed. The education of Amos forms the great part of the book, his education and the simultaneous love adventure with the Princess Nadia. Ramon Garcia, a nasty South American who dances divinely and is a blackmailer, supplies the tL.in. Amos, assuming the role of protector to the princess, chases Garcia in various parts of the world, but the principal duty of this jazz lizard and manicured crook is to enable us to reach the germ of Locke’s thesis, because the novel is really the unconscious battle between David Fontenay and Amos Burden for the Russian lady, and Locke’s statement of the way to win a woman’s heart. Broadly he goes back to the position of pitting the cave man against the civilised gentleman, and victory lies with the former, not on the score of youth but because Amos is prepared to offer his life without thought of the consequences for the protection of Nadia, while David, though not lacking in courage, prefers to exhaust all other possibilities before submitting to the ruffling effects of violence. Amos is the proper knight, ready to challenge the world and fight roughly in his crude suit of armour on his heavy halfdraught charger; David will manoeuvre his ladylove out of trouble, go down to the grave if necessary, but with that courage which hides itself behino a mask of lackinterest and with the superb cleanliness of social tennis. Amos the broadsword, David the rapier, and the former wins. There are some interesting people in the story in the minor scenes, particularly Dorothea, David’s step-daughter, and the bishop with whom Amos stays in England for a while. “The Coming of Amos” will have a host of readers and it will be enjoyed hugely, but it is not up to the standard of Locke’s best work, and my reasons for so saying I have given. ‘The Coming of Amos” is published by The Bodley Head, my copy coming through Dymock’s, of Sydney.

THE FLAMING FLAPPER.—Having run through thirteen large editions since its first appearance in 1923, “Flaming Youth” may be numbered among the ‘best sellers” of America and the United Kingdom. It is presented by Werner Fabian, its author, as a study of the modern young woman, set down with an impartial hand with the idea of holding a mirror up to the modern flapper. The scene of this novel is a fashionable country seat in the Eastern States and the people in the story represent the younger set m America’s smart society. One might gasp at the extraordinary incidents of “Flaming louth,” the astonishing challenge to even the mildest of the conventions by the harum-scarum young women who thoroughly deserve the criticism levelled at them by one observer who calls them “preearioßK virgins.” Ignorance runs side by aide with a knowledge of life undreamed of by their grandmothers, and fear to face reepoMibilitiee B associated with a determination to play with the most dangerous fire made available by the loose code of the day; but all the white these resiles, young women are seeking new sensations and throwing restraint to the wind. Sex in gay colours dominates the scene, but women, justifying S*. aw in a manner not anticipated by him, are the self confessed hunters, eager to learn and put into practice all the arts of the chare. “Flaming Touth” is interesting and daring and it is not exaggerated, even in its most sensational moments. It is written round the three daughters of Mona Fentriss, a beautiful woman who remained young when her children had grown to womanhood, and frankly sought the admiration of men. Her gay life causes her death, which is actually hastened on by an episode which should

have led to the divorce courts but for her colbose. Her death leaves Constance, Delia Mary and Patricia to fight the battle, assisted only by the existence of a rich, complacent and shadowy father, a good friend m Dr Robert Osterbout, and many male friends. Patricia, the youngest, is brutally frank in her determination to extract her idea of a “good time” from life and we see her deliberately going into sex skirmishes before her secondary school life is past. Her sisters are of the same type a id both marry the men they do not love, Constance as a result of an escapade which, had she been poor, would have put her into a reformatory for immoral girls, and Delia Mary, because her participation in a costumeless bathing party disgusts the man she really wants to marry. Patricia determines to make Cary Scott, a man of mature years and refined habits, her slave. Scott had loved Mona Fentriss, the mother, and Patricia actually finds him an easy victim, but Scott is married and a deadlock is reached. He departs for Europe and Patricia goes blithely into at least two love affairs of dubious merit. Then she agrees to marry Monty Standish, whom she does not really :.*ve, but Scott, freed by a divorce, arrives in time and she becomes his wife. p atricia is daring and startling but hardly Movable in spite of the author’s evident desire to convince us that at heart she is “pure gold.” She is a baby cynic and her only illusions are that the things she calls illusions are not real things. The Fentriss girls are part of an unhealthy tribe which unfortunately is spread wide in the world, a tribe wh’f-c bobs its morals when it bobs its hair. Tlrcie women are physically beautiful, but as promiscuous as cats, refined and decadent, and from them the race can expect very little. “Flaming Youth” is a warning to anyone who reads it soberly, but the greater part cf the audience will enjoy it for its frankness and daring. “Flaming Youth” is pubi-shed in the English edition by F nley Paul and Co., of London, my copy . ,mlng from Dymock’s of Sydney.

A CHARMING STORY.—After the unhealthy atmosphere of ‘ Flaming Youth.” it is pleasing to go to the kennels and listen to a good dog story. Many years have •ssed since Richard Harding Davis wrote "The Bar Sinister,” a short story of a bull terrier pup, whose mother was a black-and-tan of the gutter, and whose father was Regent Royal, a champion of his breed. The Kid, who tells his own story in the language of the ring, began as a fighting pup, but a happy turn of circumstance gives him a home at a kennels famous for its show ring achievements. From this r.nnnels, the Kid goes to a show and there defeats his own father for the championship. This is the simple story, but it is told by a master hand and it charms as much to-day as it did when it w?s first hailed with popular acclaim. “The Bar Sinister” is now published in an attractive cheap edition by Angus and Robertson, of Sydney, and it should make an effective gift offering. My copy comes from the publishers. A TRIBUTE TO LINCOLN.—The Gettysburg speech in which Abraham Lincoln sounded the call that has heartened the true lovers of democracy in all parts of the world ever since, is the basis of the effective little story by Mary Raymond Shipman Andrews, "The Perfect Tribute.” It is an episode in the life of the president, revealing him not as a man conscious of his own power, but as an idealist fearful that his limitations have injured the cause nearest his heart. The Gettysburg speech is shown to us as a thing of almost no preparation, with Lincoln, after its delivery, anxious to know whether he has really conveyed his message to his hearers. His answer comes from the lips of a Southern officer in a Federal prison, a young m?? who without being aware of the identity of his audience, praises the speech and the man who made it to Lincoln himself. If this were all “The Perfect Tribute” would be a poor thing, but fortunately it is a great deal more. In a few pages it illumines the president and makes him live, while in the dying Southerner the forces which made the south fight so bravely and so stubbornly are unveiled. This excellent piece of work is published by Angus and Robertson, my copy coming from the publishers. JANE AUSTEN’S HEORINES.—SmiIing and very much alive, sometimes half-con-cealing her grace beneath a veil of shyness, or cloud of melanchily, a young girl is invariably the heroine of a novel by Jane Austen. Around her there gravitates a .‘••mall collection of idle or useless persons, friends or relations, suitors who are to be taken seriously and others who can only be.laughed at, while across the background figures are seen to pass rapidly by, figures which have been dashed off with one stroke, yet always interesting, and sometimes deliciously comic. . . We may hear her debating with herself, she lets us know the secrets that she dare not formulate aloud, her opinions of those around her, the fluctuations of their opinions, in a word we -are made aware in her of everything by which consciousness prepares for action, renders it possible, then inevitable. Emma, Elizabeth and Fanny think aloud before us and thus we receive involuntary confidences about things which no one would ever suspect. . . . Living in surroundings which vary only very slightly, resisting outside influences with the different powers of different characters and personalities reacting according to the law of her temperament and of her natural bent, each heroine gives us a fresh attitude. . . . The fact is that in spite of the very subtle shades of difference which give Emma Woodhouse and Anne Elliot a rather higher social rank than Elizabeth. Bennet or Elinor Dashwood, the heroines of the six novels belong to the same class, that of the “gentry.” And what is still more significant, they belong to the same moral family, represent and express the same feminine ideal. There is no doubting that they belong to their period, as much by their clothes as by their mental processes, their prejudices and their scruples. They wear the fashions of a certain epoch —even more—of a certain year with a discreet elegance which has exactly the right note. ... In 1798 they read Cowper,

and are astonished that anyone can hear the verses of their favourite poet without deep emotion. They discuss the theories of picturesque beauty and of rcmance in the styles erf Mrs Radcliffe: in 1814 they acclaim the valour of the Navy, speak of Mr Scott and Lord Byron, hesitate as to whether they prefer Marmion to the Lady of the Lake, and can quote the beauties of the Giaour or of the Bride of Abydos. But though much of their charm belongs exclusively to their own day, the freshness of their beauty, the upright and noble moral character of their souls, their force of per-

sonality belong to all time.—Leonie Villard, in “Jane Austen.” Translated by Veronica Lucas. CHIPS FROM THE LOG.—A biographical sketch of the Talmadge Sisters famous in the movies—Norma, Constance and Natalie —is being written by their mother. General Swinton, first official “Eye Witness” in France during the war, one of the originators of tanks, and author of the most brilliant, war stories of recent times, “The Green Curve” and others, is still busy preparing material for Mr Lloyd George’s longpromised book on the war. Lady Clifford, wife of Sir Hugh Clifford, who is the new Governor of Ceylon, was formerly Mrs Henry de la Pasture, the wellknown novelist. Her daughter by her first marriage is Miss E. M. Delafield, also a popular writer. From the Morning Pe«t: Concluding sentence from a North London schoolboy’s essay on the Duke of Wellington: “And when the Duke died he bad a lovely funeral and it took eight men to carry the beer.” Sir Rider Haggard’s latest novel, “Queen of the Dawn,” a love-story of Ancient Egypt, will be available shortly. One of the events of the closing days of the auction season in London was the sale of the Blake books in the collection of Mr B. B. McGregor of Glasgow. “The Songs of Innocence,” twenty-eight leaves, 1789, and “The Songs of Experience,” twenty-two leaves, 1794, brought the highest price, £760. This item once belonged to Isaac Disraeli and was sold by his son, Lord Beaconsfield, at Sotheby’s in 1882 for £B5. Six immortals of the French Academy— Ma uric J Donnay, Eugene Brieux, Rene Doumic, Henri de Regnier, Rene Boytesve and Joseph Bedier—in a recent session devoted to considering the admission of new words to the official dictionary of France turned down “bluff” but admitted the verb “to blackball,” which in French becomes “blackbouler.” Wallace Irwin, whose second serious novel of the American scene, “The Golden Bed,” is now selling, is already at work upon his third, which discusses the question of divorce as a deteriorating force in society, “Lew Tyler’s Wives” having been his first venture into the new field. Mr Irwin complains that it is hard for him to break away from his reputation as a humorist, earned with ‘Hashimura Togo” and light fiction. Compton Mackenzie is planning a book which will easily surpass all his previous performances in this direction. It is to be in seven volumes, as follows: 1, “Alien Corn”; 2, “The Apple of Discord”; 3, “The Dark and the Fair”; 4, “The Heroic Symphony” ; 5, “The Molehill”; 6, “The Mountain”; 7, “The Olives of Home”. The general title is sufficiently comprehensive—- “ Life and Adventure.” If the project materializes Mr Mackenzie will have easily established a “record,” so far, at all events, as fiction written in English in concerned.