REVIEWER IN DISREPUTE

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19663, 24 August 1935, Page 18 (Supplement)

REVIEWER IN DISREPUTE

Some English Comments. Authors who double the parts of publishers, readers and reviewers 'have come in for a good deal of criticism lately. The following, which appeared ir. the 11 Bookseller,” is typical of the criticism which has (been appearing. For a reviewer to criticise, in a supposedly impartial newspaper, the books he has already recommended for publication strikes me as just about as farcically improper as for that paper to reproduce the publisher’s blurb in the guise of an independent opinion. The publisher and his reader are equally concerned that the book they have combined to shall succeed. How is it possible, then, for that reader to write, as a reviewer, an impartial critical estimate of the book?

Even if he actually did such a thing he would get into immedi ite trouble with his other 'employer—the publisher. But it is unlikely in the extreme that be will attempt it. He may, of course, tell the truth, as far as it suits him. But will he tell the whole truth? And is It not obvious that in matters of opinion no one can possibly tell what is the precise truth about that reviewer’s dispassionate judgment after he first read the manuscript?

Unoonsoiouely Influenced. No power on earth, not the sternest conscious self-control, will prevent that reviewer from unconsciously enthusing about the book directly his vanity and his reputation are concerned in its success. All the good points will gradually undergo a process of reinforcement, by a little unrecognisable degree every time be thinks about them, possibly quite without bis own conscious recognition, until the way lie expresses 'himself on publication day, six months after the first reading, will compare with what he first thought in precisely the same way as Lite feelings of a fond mother for her absolutely -perfect 'little tootsy-wootsy baby compare with those of her friends, to whom it appears rickety, bad-tempered, and ugly. Going a (Step fui’tlier, and assuming that this Infant has been entered for a baby show’, can we assume that its mother will .point out to the judges such defects as she herself has been forced to recognise? Will she draw their attention to the fact that its teeth are irregular and badly shaped, that there Is a slight cleft In its palate, or that its chubby little legs are far more flabbily fat than they ought to be? She will not.

And in the same way it seems to me unlikely that our reader-reviewer will candidly point cut to his readers every defect in his ugly duckling. At the worst he will introduce some phrase which, suitably shown, can be quoted in the advertisements. As an illustration, to those who have read Adrian Alington’s new novel, there will immediately spring to mind the bitter but incautious comment, “A masterpiece of futility,” which ultimately served to introduce to Its millions of readers a book which was simply and effectively quoted In the advertisements as “A masterpiece'. ...”

An Excellent Rule. Sir Bruce Richmond told us at Bournemouth that his famous weekly had one rigid rule: hooks by authors personally known to the reviewer, or with whom he had any kind of connection, must be returned for the attention of someone else. An excellent rule this is, and it is the only rule that the book trade should tolerate. Some may ask, of course, why publishers should worry? They want to sell books then good luck to them. But it is all a question, as usual, of taking the longest view. In the long run it cannot pay the good publisher to submit to unduly eulogistic reviews of bis competitors’ indifferent novels. To start with, it diverts business from his own books to others which do not deserve it, and, later on, when the public become alive to the position, they cease to halve trust In reviews at all, and the genuinely enthusiastic reviews of the genuinely firstclass stuff are passed over or discounted with a contemptuous shrug. In either case the market Is prostituted to the demands of the mass production merchant.