JOSEPH CONRAD AND HIS BOOKS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 55, 11 April 1914, Page 3

JOSEPH CONRAD AND HIS BOOKS.

Mr Clement K. Shorter," in "the '' Sphere,'' warmlypraised Conrad's latest book, "Chance," now procurable here in Methuen's Colonial Library. "To me," says Mr Shorter, " 'Chance' is one of the best of Mr Conrad's books. so much brilliant characterstudy, there are so many types that he knows, even types of the vulgar order, that one could hardly have expected this .writer, a Pole by origin, to have come iu contact with. A Gissing might have described tha kinsman of Flora de Barral, whose family give her so dreadful a life, and there are many things in 'Chance' that only a great novelist could have pictured. Again,, what a perfect style it is! To think that when I first' met Mr Conrad some twenty years ago lie spoke in broken English! Even then he wrote the language to perfection, and the writing hi 'Chance' is dazzling in its clarity and correctness'. Yet it is more musical to< say, 'She lived among them a passive victim,' than to say, 'She lived amongst them,' but that is hypercriticism with a vengeance. I do not admire the sentence, ' She did know how to defend herself from their importunities, insolence, and exigencies.' It is correct, of course; but a good writer will always avoid mixing his. plurals and singulars in this way. It is true, moreover, that the sailor, Marlow, talks as no other sailor other than Mr Conrad ever talked in the world's history, talks well-nigh like an archangel, in fact. But then Mr Conrad is entitled, to picture himself in this manner. To .me, in any. case, Mr Conrad's 'Chance' is'a glorious, book,''"