WHAT LONDON IS READING

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21186, 5 November 1938, Page 12

WHAT LONDON IS READING

“DEATH OF THE HEART” TRAGIC DISILLUSIONMENT (Specially written for "The Timaru Herald” by Charles Pilgrim) LONDON, October 7. Miss Elizabeth Bowen’s new novel, “The Death of the Heart” is not intended for those rapid readers who delight in a gallop through excitement. It is the simple tale of a young girl’s tragic disillusionment told with all the subtlety which characterises the author’s works. The young girl, Portia, comes full of innocence and vitality to a home of worldly-minded and inert people. Portia’s tragedy is to fall in love with a thoroughly detestable young man, Eddie. In her youthful self-aban-donment, she becomes almost part of him. She keeps a diary into which she pours the whole of her heart’s longing only to find that her most intimate and sacred thoughts have been passed round the family for their weary amusement. Gradually the girl discovers the utter unworthiness of the fascinating Eddie who easily makes love to any woman who presents herself. She runs away for comfort to Major Brutt who is almost as indeterminate and ineffectual as nearly all the other characters in the book. In the end she is taken back to her home by Matchett the maid who is devoted to her and about the only one of the whole lot to possess any force of principle. As will be seen, there is very little plot, but out of a slight story Miss Bowen has managed to create a great and moving tragedy. A child’s heart is killed in the midst of a, heartless crowd. The crowd itself has been cleverly drawn. It is modern with all the weary cynicism of the age. Those around her cannot understand Portia’s singleness of purpose or why she makes a tragedy out of what is to them a commonplace adventure. Miss Bowen has written one of the most remarkable novels of the year and has received the highest honours of critical award. Art and Love In "The Younger Venus,” Miss Naomi Royde Smith has written what she admits in her preface to be a quiet story of “pre-armament days”; of a time when the world went along gently without any thought of catastrophe. The heroine is Susan Adderley whose photograph strongly suggests the Botticelli Venus. Susan’s mother lets their country house to Anthony Frome, a novelist who sees the photograph and falls in love with it. By happy coincidence, Susan has fallen in love with Frame's novel, “Simonetta.” Inevitably she and Anthony mete and are already lovers ben fore their meeting. Needless to say there is i a thoroughly happy ending. Miss Royde Smith gives us a world of romance and delight. There is the quiet English countryside, not many years ago and yet very far away. “The Younger Venus” contains characters who entertain, not the least Simon, the first husband of Mrs Adderley, a gentleman without morals but with a tongue and behaviour of no little charm. To adapt Mr Shaw’s distinctions, one would place this amongst pleasant novels. The Old Firm Mr Horace Annesley Vachell has Witten a great deal in his time and has created at least one notable character in Joe Quinney, dealer in antique furniture. The furniture dealer is an old man by now, but he is not yet dead. He has a partner, Josephine, his grandaughter, and “Quinneys for Quality,” is mainly concerned with the doings of Josephine. The granddaughter is worthy of the firm. The different chapters are different adventures in which she shows her knowledge and metal. She can even tackle old Quinney himself and is up to any kind of fake however cunning or plausible. In the long run she is up to becoming a mother which she does in a thoroughly efficient manner. Thus we leave Quinney as a greatgrandfather. It is difficult to say how those who do not already know Quinney and his quaint ways will take to Uris volume of what are really short stories. Almost certain it is that readers who became acquainted with the old firm a quarter of a century ago will rally round it now for the sake of old times. The quaint remarks may be like echoes from the past, but there is always something satisfying in meeting an acquaintance whose company we have enjoyed from the days of our own youth. Passion In the Tropics Miss Elizabeth Garner has provided a large measure of atmosphere in “A Flying Fish Whispers.” A young woman finds herself in the West Indies, subject to all the hot atmospheric pressure of the tropics. She has been disappointed in love and has left Palis full of desperate disillusionment. In the West Indies she meets Derek Morell, a planter married to an unromantic Scots woman. Directly the young woman sees Derek, she has no doubt about her feelings towards him. She is seized by an intense physical desire which sne has no intention of checking. She is quite frank about it even to her brother who sees no reason for dissuading her. But in spite of her passion she has a conscientious sensitiveness which reacts against Morell’s harshness to the natives. That sensitiveness saves her from the logic of her desires. It is clear that the author well knows her tropics and the effect of the tropic atmosphere on men and women. The pictures are convincing and alive; the writing is carefully contrived and the chief characters are really men and women. German Culture In these days, when modern Germany is occupying so much attention, interest will lie in “Rocco, the Life and Times of Prince Henry of Prussia, 17261802,” by A. E. Grantham. Mrs Grantham has given us a picture of the early days of German, or rather Prussian culture. She shows us the Court of Frederick the Great at Potsdam and the Palace of Rheinsberg where Frederick's brother Prince Henry, lived. The author evidently finds it full of charm and manages to convey its charm to the reader. Copied more or less closely from Versailles and the ornate elegance of the French Court, it has impressed her as an agreeable form which survived the upheaval of the French Revolution. Perhaps, Mrs Grantham’s eye is too easily contented with the surface of things, but she has at least given us a picture of Rocco, elegant and instructive in these days of more massive development.