ADDITIONS TO LIBRARY

Taranaki Daily News, 12 January 1935, Page 12 (Supplement)

ADDITIONS TO LIBRARY

COMEDY IN HIGH SOCIETY JAPANESE “NORTHCLIFFE’S” LIFE. MAN AND HIS HORSE SEE BRAZIL. The chief librarian of the New Plymouth Public Library reports the following books in popular demand:— General Literature. “T. E. Lawrence in Arabia and After,” by Liddell Hart. “Cobbers,” by Thomas Wood. “The Valleys of the Assassins and Other Persian Tales,” by Freya Stark. “A Man’s Life,” by Viscount Elibank. “A Time to Keep,” by Halliday Sutherland. “Famous Plays of 1J34,” collected. Fiction. “The Sun in Capricorn,” by Edward Sackville-West. “Skylighters,” by J. B. Morton. “Who Once Has Eaten Out of the Tin Bowl,” by Hans Fallada. “Rivers Glide On,” by A. Hamilton Gibbs. “The Taking of the Gry,” by John Masefield. “Bamham Rectory,” by Doreen Wallace.

“The Jasmine Farm,” by the author of “Elisabeth and her German Garden.” (Heinemann.)

This is a book of delightful comedy. It has all the shrewd analysis of temperament and of the effect of upbringing and class for which this author has achieved high reputation. It is a story of people in high society brought face to face with realities of life that apply to most humankind whatever their social standing, but in this book the verities that “Lady Midhurst” and her like considered almost unspeakable are, so to speak, rubbed into their faces by a person who has no scruples about the niceties of conduct.

There had to be tragedy in the background, of course, to make such a story possible, but the sorrows that follow infatuation ate not the main factors discussed, and even when they come into the narrative they are given a flavour of humour that is quite delicious. Into a week-end country party at one of the real old English “baronial halls” a select and well-chosen party were overfed with too many gooseben-iesl A writer knows his wdrk who from that simple, almost vulgar fact in such a patrician atmosphere can give an amusing description of the effect of indigestion or oversated appetite upon the most aristocratic' of temperaments. The Judge, the Bishop, the Cabinet Minister, the young man about town, the German Count, and even the hostess’ brother-in-law, Lord Midhurst, were all perturbed—in mind as well as body—by what they considered denoted abstraction on the part of Lady Midhurst leading to a flaw in the perfect arrangements that were the feature of all her entertaining. Their reactions, each after his kind, make most.amusing reading. Nor were the unwelcome gooseberries the only adverse element in what ought to have been a peaceful week-end. By virtue 1 of being the wife of Andrew Leigh, the adviser and. friend of Lady Midhurst ever since her husband’s death at the War, “Rosie” was one of the guests who disturbed for many people the even tenor of their ways, Rosie Leigh was the daughter of Mrs. De Lacy, a vivacious Widow who owned to a working acquaintance with the stage in her youth ahd to the burial of three husbands. Rosie’s beauty had won for her the taciturn Andrew Leigh when he was on leave fro:the trenches, and when the infatuation was over Andrew, well-bred but poor, began a martyrdom' that was enhanced by his love for Terry, Lady Midhurst’s only daughter. The De Lacys were true to type. Common, good-nature’, so long as they got their own way, proud of Andrew being a gentleman, bored stiff with his mannerisms and manners, they had allowed him to be Lady' Midhurst’s guest alone without any fuss. Something Lady Midhurst' sensed in regard to her daughter, though only a perturbing thought, made her insist upon Rosie being included in. her next week-end invitation to Andrew, and Rosie came, saw, and would perhaps have conquered if she had known better how to use her charm. As it was .die tried to assume an acquaintance with social customs gained from novels and her - mother’s advice. Her beauty made all the elderly men among Lady Midhurst’s guests anxious to show her attention, but Rosie’s manners were too crude for most of them, while she was bored to tears by what she called the idiocy of the old fools. Through a simple remark by Terry her infatuation for Andrew Leigh became known to his wife. Rosie told “Mumsie” on her return to the flat the widow shared with her son-in-law and daughter. Mumsie saw the financial possibilities of the situation more clearly than Rosie. Her efforts to develop them make up the rest of the comedy and good comedy it is, with just enough satire and tragedy to prevent it being absurd.

“The Nine Magazines of Kodansha,” by Seiji Noma. (Methven.)

This book, as the publishers state, is the auto-biography of a Japanese publisher who has become a power in the profession of journalism in Japan. The book is divided into two parts. The first deals with Noma’s boyhoood, adolescence, and career as a teacher. It is interesting as an instance of the upbringing of a well-bred, poor Japanese youth in the years when his country was emerging from a feudal system of government to acceptance of all that Western civilisation could supply for her development. Noma had evidently always a personality outstanding among his fellow-students. Sometimes it displayed itself in foolishness but the more meritorious side of his nature prevailed. He married happily and enjoyed his post as teacher at Luchu, but came back to Tokyo, where after some failures as a merchant, teaching at the University led him to publish his first magazine and to find his real niche in the social order of his country. Though the road to success had been found it was by :.o means an open or an easy one. Mr. Noma tells the story of his fights with circumstance and events with a simplicity that makes it very interesting. He lived through the chaos brought about by the terrible earthquake and fire in Tokyo in 1923, and though he lost neither his home nor his office buildings much of his capital invested in other undertakings had, literally, gon ’ up in smoke. Gradually success was re-achieved, and some of the most interesting chapters in the book are those which combine with the practical issues any head of the expanding business must deal with, the economic philosophy of one who has forced his way to the front in a country that last week claimed a mission to “save the world.” For that alone the book is wbrth reading, and worth thinking about. “A Rebel for a Horse,” by C. W. Thurlow Craig. (Barker.) This is the yarn of a rouseabout who got tired of a job managing a cattle station in Paraguay. So after a few adventures in that “Chaco” for which Paraguay and Bolivia are still fighting Mr.

Craig crossed the border into Brazil, as much, apparently because he thought his horse “Bobby” would like that country as for any other reason. In Brazil he found one of the innumerable local “revolutions” had begun. Mr. Craig sided with the insurgents and joined them as an expert machinegunner. He crammed many excitements and dangers into a few weeks, but though the insurgents lost, their gunner got away safely. He was, indeed, fortunate enough to accumulate another horse "Jenny” that he considered a worthy companion for Bobby. This is a yarn that depends almost entirely upon action for its interest and Mr. Craig gives that quality in full measure. He tells, whimsically, of the various people he meets, and he writes with some shrewdness of the potentialities of a little-known country. To those vh- love adventure and horses this book will anneal.