REVIEWS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 71, Issue 291, 8 December 1928, Page 13 (Supplement)

REVIEWS

BRIGHT EYES OF DANGER.—A John Foster story of the days of Scotland when Highlands and Lowlands were “in battle array,” and that romantie figure in history—the Young Pretender—had his armies out against King George 11. Edmund Lalton, tho hero, tells of his adventures in those troublous times; of his ride from the border to lhe Lothian; of his quest on the Moray Scasboard and his personal dealings with tho Young Pretender. As tho title suggests, tho tale tells of uanger. and of intrigue, at a time when disloyalty was rife, when a man d(re not trust even his next door neighbour. There is a pleasing lov 6 theme which portrays to a degree the chivalry of those olden days. A stirring story indeed, which will appeal to those interested in Scottish history My CO py from the publishers, Messrs W. and R. Chambers, Edinburgh.

SECOND CHILDHOOD.— Many general readers who have long wondered what is the matter with certain modern novelists will bo gratified to hear that some light may possibly be thrown on this problem by one of the papers read recently to the British Association. In it was mentioned the ease of “an Oxford graduate and novelist” who thought, he had mumps, but who under psycho-analysis, was found to be suffering from a “vivid memory of early childhood.’’ On another ocasion his emotional crisis proved to be tho result of early recollections of teething. J his suggests an entirely new line of literary criticism: “Mr Herbert troop s new novel is remarkable at once for its deeply significant handling of sexual aberrations and chickenpox. The key-note of infantile paralysis is finely struck in the first chapter, and from there onwards the handling of Roxana’s unfortunate passion f Or her

great-aunt i§ plainly and effectively derived from a subsequent attack of*German measles. Roxana herself is a figure of stark and tragic beauty; adenoids ami incipient epilepsy are equally indicated in the author’ s masterly development of hep character. Traces of whooping cough are to be discerned in the climax of this deeply penetrating study of modern life, and it may ba that the earlier removal of the author’s tonsils would have turned his attention to musical comedy.” A DICKENS-THACKERAY SQUIB. Now that the-limelight (however distorted) is being turned on Dickens again, does anyone know anything as to the authenticity of a squib attributed to Macaulay, but no ono that appears among those preserved by his nephew in the biography? Its ascription to Macaulay rests on the word of Shirley Brooks, who gave it to Hardman and declared that tho story of it was that “a young lady asked the historian what he thought of the two great writers of fiction of the dny, to which, he replied at once; Touching Thackeray and Dickens, wf dear, Two lines sum up critical drivel One lives on a countess’ sneer, And one on a milliner’s snivel.” ” Is there any evidence for this going back farther than Shirley Brooks or are we to suspect that Brooks himself wrote the quatrain and fathered it on Macaulay, who, by tho way, was an admirer (within certain limitations) of Dickens as man and author}