Books Reviewed

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 665, 17 May 1929, Page 14

Books Reviewed

NEW LIGHT ON TOLSTOY r?OUNT LEO TOLSTOY, the Russian novelist, social reformer and philosopher, once said that his best autobiography was to be found in the letters he wrote to his cousin, Countess Alexandra Tolstoy. The correspondence between the two is among the most Interesting in literature, and is certainly the most interesting of modern times. The first letters were written in 1857, and the last in 1903, so the great years of Tolstoy’s life—the years of happiness, and spiritual unrest —are all adequately covered. Correspondence, if embarked upon in proper spirit, is a most revealing form of writing, and the recently published sfelection of letters that passed between Tolstoy and his cousin is of incalculable value to Tolstoy students. Count Leo cast reticence aside in writing to the woman whom he affectionately called “grandmother” (she was 11 years his senior). In these letters it is possible to observe the complexities of his nature, and in a measure to solve them. The cravings of his artistic mind are insistently stated, and he tells often of his spiritual and physical efforts toward perfection. He never wrote affectedly, and he never struck poses, because having sincerity in him, he had to write always from the heart. Countess Tolstoy’s part in the cor- . respondence is much more than that of a grateful recipient of letters from a genius. She appreciated the novelist's point of view in most things, and, having held many important charges at the Imperial Court during four consecutive reigns, she had much to give him in exchange for his chronicled introspections. The letters should be studied by all who feel interest in Tolstoy’s work. “The Letters of Tolstoy and His Cousin, Countess Alexandra Tolstoy (1557-1003).” Methuen and Co., London. Our copy from the publishers. The Prince of Pirates Though the nation he founded was the Kingdom of the Oceans, with he himself invested in Imperial robes, Hogarth, Lord of the Sea, was but a Prince of Pirates. By what other name should the twentieth century describe a man who calmly planted a great crescent of impregnable floating fortresses across the seaways of the North Atlantic and from them levied toll on the maritime commerce of the world? Mystery ships, pieced together in the great shipyards of I Europe and America, these colossal j sea forts cost the riches of Golconda ; to create. But what was the cost to a man who, having found a meteorite encrusted with diamonds, had so begun a career that placed the keys of the world’s commerce within his hands, and made the great diamond interests of de Beers a sideline that he absorbed as he swept upon his conquering Way. It sounds over-coloured and perhaps overdrawn when the salient features of “Lord of the Sea” are sketched thus baldly, but it is nothing of the sort. This picturesque work written by Mr. M. P. Shiel 20 years ago still stands as a triumph of imaginative writing. Its lucid processes are expounded in most arresting prose, in terms that sometimes glitter with the hard sparkle of the diamonds that form a keystone of its theme. Hogarth’s feat in escaping from imprisonment within a huge bell is one of the most original concep- | tions in modern fiction. Even the j lightning he commanded to do his j will. The final betrayal, worked by ! the sinister characters who beset his I path, sends him to the fulfilment of a !

noble purpose. No longer Lord of the Sea, Hogarth is still a great leader of his people and a benefactor of mankind. In expressing this achievement the final chapter of Shiel’s remarkable book rises to lyrical fervour. In “Cold Steel,” first published in 1899, Mr. Shiel has written a romance set in the swashbuckling days of Harry the Eighth in which Queen Katherine, Anne Boleyn, Cardinal Wolsey and the King himself appear as characters incidental to the tale. It is a fine story, well told. “Lord of the Sea” and “Cold Steel*” Victor Gollancz, Ltd., 14 Henrietta Sti'eet, Covent Garden, London. Our copies from the publisher. The Smell of Bitter Almonds We are familiar with the murder committed at the midnight hour in a country lane, the quick killing in a railway compartment, the mysterious silent shot in the theatre, the gruesome slaughter in the doss-house, the “refined” poisoning in the Park Lane drawing-room, the grim struggle for supremacy in the depths of a submarine. The writer of the mystery story these days has a hard task to find a new way to kill off his pivotal character. Stilettos. automatic pistols, gunpowder, broken glass, skean-dhus and snake-venom —all the stock-in-trade of the complete murderer —have been exploited. Mr. T. L. Davidson, therefore, has not struggled to find an exotic death for his victim. He has chosen a laboratory as the setting for a dark deed and cyanide (with its sinister odour of bitter almonds) as the means of effecting it. But the method of administering: the fell dose Is distinctly original. One doubts If Holmes, working from the slightest of clues, would have been able to astound the bovine Watson in this case. Dr. Blythe, toxicologist, is instrumental In detecting the crime and its author in “The Murder in the Laboratory.” Only a toxicologist could do so, and a police inspector is foiled and thwarted and thwarted and foiled in the traditional manner. There is a raciness about this story, however, and a freshness in its telling that places it in a class far above the stereotyped detective tale. The novel, incidentally, was awarded second’ prize in a competition promoted by the House of Methuen for the best detective story. “The Murder in the Laboratory ” Methuen and Co., Ltd., London. Our copy from the publishers.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED _ “Vriddhi”—A monthly Hindu-Eng-lish news magazine. Editor: Dr. I. H. Beattie, M.A. Published in Fiji. Address: P.O. Box 235, Suva. “Aussie.”—May number. Devoted chiefly to the doings of the redoubtable Mrs. Grundy. Another good New Zealand section. “First Prayers.”—A manual of help for parents in the instruction of their children in prayer. By John Oxenham and Roderic Dunkerley. Methuen and Co., Ltd., London. Copy from publishers.