WHAT LONDON IS READING

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21090, 16 July 1938, Page 12

WHAT LONDON IS READING

SAGA OF AMERICAN CIVIL WAR NEW LIGHT ON WESLEY

(Specially Written for "The Timaru Herald" by Charles Pilgrim) LONDON, June 9. Last week I referred to two short biographies on John Wesley. Now I must call attention to a couple of more ambitious works, which deal with the social and religious background against which the great Evangelist carried out his mission. They are “Wesley’s England” by J. H. Whitley (Epworth Press) and “England: Before and After Wesley” by J. Wesley Bready (Hodder and Stoughton). Both these books are the result of painstaking research; and they bring vividly before our minds the crude and uncivilised age in which Wesley lived and laboured. Dr Whiteley, while not in any way minimising the coarseness and immorality of 18th Century England, places alongside its horrors and cruelties the achievements of its musicians, artists and scholars. ' So that one gets from his pages a balanced view of Wesleyan times, when there was much of brilliance in the realm of thought and art to set against the general squalor and low tone of society. Dr Bready’s spirited book, as might be expected from the author who has written extensively on champions of social reform like Shaftesbury, is an out-and-out condemnation of the period in which Wesley was moved to action. In his view it was the Evangelicals, under the inspiring leadership of Wesley, who saved the English from the low depths of degradation to which they had sunk in the 18th Century; and he repeatedly insists with great conviction that the democratic and cultural heritage of the English-speaking peoples to-day—in all parts of the globe—is much more the result of the fiery crusade of Wesley and his followers than of the egalitarian theories engendered by the French Revolution. Ordeal in the Sou!hern Stales The American Civil War has been treated by novelists from many angles. Some have romanticised Southern character; others have made heroes of the leading men on either side; while others again have conceived of it a.s a vast dramatisation of supreme ethical issues. Mr William Faulkner, considered bv some critics to be the most important of present-day American writers, has ignored all these precedents. In “The Unvanquished” (Chatto and Windus,) he has resorted to the brilliant device of presenting the momentous days of America’s internecine struggle from the point of view of a high-spirited Southern boy of 15 years, absorbed in the stirring events taking place around him and swift to lend a hand, wherever possible, to the cause which his grand old feudalistic father has energetically embraced. Thus, it is not the comings and goings of important persons, or the swaying fortunes of the Confederates, that are held up to us. Big-wigs and battles do not occupy the front of the stage; but our interest is concentrated rather on the mobile reactions of a normal, alert adolescent, Bayard Sartoris—which reactions arc made all the more exciting lor w through being continuously reinforced by the observations and behaviour ot Bayard’s coloured foster-brother Ringo, who is the white boy’s constant companion. The ghastly Civil War and all it; strange implications are brought effectively, but indirectly, before ut

through the medium of Bayard and Ringo; and while it is only some of the side-shows and minor episodes that we actually witness, the grim titantic struggle is always lurking in the background to remind us that the exploits and feelings of the boys are part of bigger and more terrible experiences. There is a pulsing, throbbing rhythm running right through the book, which exerts a strong grip upon one's attention. Characters stand out with an intense reality; and one passes from episode to episode with keen expectancy. Perhaps this book will establish Mr Faulkner firmly with the British reading public. Ever since "Soldier's Pay" was published here he has been marked down as a writer of unusual power by the discerning, though his rather turgid and involved style has put off many people from reading him in big doses. In his present effort, however, he seems to have curbed some of his literary exuberance—to tile immense advantage of his art as a story-teller.

Certain of a hearty welcome from the large number of readers who have enjoyed previous novels from the pen of Mr Laurie Long, “Sea Dust” is of particular interest to this author’s following in the Antipodes. Dealing as it does with life in early Australia when convict ships regularly discharged their human freight at Sydney, Mr Long has availed himself of the ample scope for a fast-moving tale of adventure. Particularly well presented are his characterisations of James Lawford, the ex-convict. Bully Marshall, Abe Lazarus, and “Billie," the girl who rose from the convict gang to rule the crew of a South Sea trading schooner. The plot revolves round the adventures of Lawford, who finds gold shortly after he has received his discharge. Refusing to divulge the location of his find, he is threatened with imprisonment on a faked murder charro. Escaping on Bully Marshall’s sthooner, ire soon earns respect with his cracking stockwhip, and adventures in the South Pacific bring wealth and happiness to tire crew of the schooner, and just deserts to all who have' attempted to outwit them. As can be seen, “Sea Dust” possesses two distinct backgrounds, and both stand out as particularly convincing portrayals. The convict auctions in Australia, the efforts of the overseers to maintain peace, and the peaceful quietness of the growing sheep stations are counter-balanced by exciting trading life in the islands, mutiny, and intrigue among men of His Majesty’s ship Good Hope. All are deftly welded by the able pen of Mr Long to add another entertaining work to his already long series of bright and breezy sea tales.

Mr W. J. Grant, who toured New Zealand, spending some time in Dunedin, a few years ago when he ‘was editor of the "Rangoon Times,” is the author of a forthcoming book, “The Spirit of India,” to be published by Batsford. Mr Grant is a native of Strathspey, and spent many years in journalism in India. He has written two novels, and i.s now connected with a London publishing house. Jerome K. Jerome never managed to live down “Three Men in a Eoat—To Say Nothing of the Dog.” He always longed to be taken as a serious writer, but “Three Men” stamped him as a humorist in the minds of the many readers of that book—and that was that. Something similar happened in the case of Conan Doyle. Mr Hcsketh Pearson, in his reminiscences “Thinking It Over,” recalls meeting Conan Doyle, who was one of his early heroes, and admitting that, “although he had enjoyed Conan Doyle’s historical stories, Sherlock Holmes was his favourite character.” This roused the author: “ ’I loathe Holmes,’ he exclaimed, with a vehemence that drew everyone’s attention to us. ‘But why?’ ‘lf I’d never started on him my historical novels would have stood a chance.’ ”