NEW BOOKS

Southland Times, Issue 25673, 16 May 1945, Page 3

NEW BOOKS

A NEW ZEALANDER’S ESSAYS

TIMELESS WORLD, by M. H. Holeroft. The Caxton Press in conjunction with tlie Progressive Publishing Society, 9/-. (Reviewed by W. DOWNIE STEWART) Each successive book that Mr Holcroft writes makes me more enthusiastic in my belief that he is in the first rank of New Zealand writers, and that' his work has only to become better known abroad to win high recognition. I cannot offer an opinion on his novels, as I have not come across that side of his work. But as a writer of literary essays and critical studies he shows an astonishing maturity of judgment, combined with a most felicitous style that serves to give exact expression to his thoughts. The present volume contains the author’s collected essays, written between 1933 and 1936, to which he has added a lecture on “The Portrayal of Character.” . It would be impossible in a brief review to mention, even in outline, the many subjects dealt with in. this volume. But all the essays are interesting and original, and show that the author combines many of the qualities of a poet, a creative artist and, a philosopher. His opening essay on “Climate and Literature” would, in my opinion, take a high place in any collection of essays in any country. In it the author discusses the effects of the climates of England, Russia, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand on the literatures of these countries. In writing about England he says that the prose of Meredith and Hardy is never separated from poetry, and the same may be said of Mr Holcroft’s own writing —as when he deals with “the mystic colours of the English countryside, shadowed by cloud or fading in the long summer twilight,” or when he tells us of “the summer nights of liquid shadow, when the woods awake . and moonlight is over the fields . . . winter evenings, when the trees stand patiently in mist, or frost is on the hedges . . . spring days, tom between sunlight and breaking cloud, and vanishing in rainy dusks.” INFLUENCE OF PHILOSOPHY In another essay the author discusses the craftsmanship of Conrad as “the destined source of new things in literature.” For this purpose he makes a study of “Nostromo” and deals especially with the women characters of the story. In such studies Mr Holeroft enjoys the advantage of having studied philosophy, and this seems to give a solidity and background to his work that too many of our writers lack. In fact Mr Holeroft has never allowed his wide reading to displace his own duty to think for himself in these days when, as he says, “for the mass of people, news has taken the place of thought.” Some of the essays deal with the works of authors I have not read, such as Charles Wells, who wrote “Joseph and his Brethren,” and Manzoni, who wrote “The Betrothed”—a work described by Mr Holeroft as “perhaps the greatest historical novel in any language.”! But even if the reader is ignorant of the books dealt with he feels that he can with safety rely on the conclusions reached by so competent a critic. Space will not permit me to mention the author’s views on Dean Inge, Gogol, Flaubert, Amiel, Coleridge, Keats, Arnold Bennett and other writers, and his lecture on “The Portrayal of Character” would require a special article by itself. In his essay on Rainer Maria Rilke he gets me out of my depth. Where he finds perfection in Rilkes poetry, I can find nothing but a mosaic of words with little or no meaning. But as I am in the same plight in reading much modem poetry readers would be safer to trust Mr Holeroft s judgment than mine. Viewing the book as a whole, I think it will come to be regarded as a New Zealand classic and will greatly enhance Mr Holcroft’s growing reputation. I hope it will meet with a wide demand. The printing and make-up of the book reflect great credit on the Caxton Press.