THE GOLDEN WINDMILL, AND OTHER STORIES, by _Stacy Aumonier_
(The Macmillan Company). For some years Mr. Aumonier has been quietly
winning an important place for himself in English letters by his
admirable short stories, and this place has been fittingly recognized by
Mr. Galsworthy, among others, during the past year. Eight of the nine
stories in the present volume seem to me as good as stories written in
the traditional technique can be, and I regard this book as only second
in excellence to the volumes of A.E. Coppard and Katherine Mansfield of
which I shall speak presently.
MORE LIMEHOUSE NIGHTS, by _Thomas Burke_ (George H. Doran
Company). It is a wise counsel of perfection which says that sequels are
barred, and I do not believe that Mr. Burke has chosen wisely in
endeavoring to repeat the artistic success of "Limehouse Nights." Apart
from "The Scarlet Shoes" and "Miss Plum-Blossom," this volume seems to
me to be second-rate, and I feel that Mr. Burke has already exhausted
his Limehouse field.
ADAM AND EVE AND PINCH ME, by _A.E. Coppard_ (Alfred A. Knopf).
I have endeavored elsewhere to express my opinion of "Adam and Eve and
Pinch Me" by dedicating this year's annual volume to Mr. Coppard. I
believe that he ranks as an artist among the best continental writers.
He sees life as a pattern which he simplifies, and weaves a closely
wrought fabric which is a symbol of human life as seen by a
disinterested but happy observer. His range is wide, and if he presents
the uncommon instance of a man who has absorbed all that two men as
different as Chekhov and Henry James have to teach, he brings to this
fusion a personal view which transmutes the values of his masters into a
new set of values. To do this successfully is the sign of a fine artist.
DEAD MAN'S PLACK, AND AN OLD THORN, by _W.H. Hudson_ (E.P.
Dutton & Company). Mr. Hudson's devoted readers have long known of the
existence of these two stories, and have regretted that the author did
not see fit to issue them in book form. The first story is a short study
in historical reconstruction equal to the best of Jacobsen's work, while
"The Old Thorn" ranks with "El Ombu" as one of Mr. Hudson's best two
short stories. The volume is, of course, a permanent addition to English
literature.
TOP O' THE MORNIN', by _Seumas MacManus_ (Frederick A. Stokes
Company). Mr. MacManus's new collection of Irish tales has ups and downs
like a Galway road, but his ups are very good indeed and show that he
has by no means lost the folk imagination which made his early books
rank among the very best of their kind. I can specially commend to the
reader "The Widow Meehan's Cassimeer Shawl," "The Bellman of Carrick,"
and "The Heart-Break of Norah O'Hara."
BLISS AND OTHER STORIES, by _Katherine Mansfield_ (Alfred A.
Knopf). I have no hesitation in stating after careful thought that Miss
Mansfield's first book of short stories at once places her in the great
European tradition on a par with Chekhov and De Maupassant. This is
certainly the most important book of short stories which has come to my
notice since I began to edit this series of books. I say this with the
more emphasis because, although her technique is the same as that of
Chekhov, she is one of the few writers to whom a close study of Chekhov
has done no harm. Most American short story writers are bad because they
copy "O. Henry," and most English short story writers are bad because
they copy Chekhov. Chekhov and "O. Henry" were both great writers
because they copied nobody. I hope that the success of Miss Mansfield's
book will not have the effect of substituting a new model instead of
these two. Mr. Knopf is to be complimented for his taste in publishing
the best two volumes of short stories of the year. It is a disinterested
service to literature.
A CHAIR ON THE BOULEVARD, by _Leonard Merrick_ (E.P. Dutton &
Company). It is unnecessary at this date to point out the special
excellences of Leonard Merrick. They are such as to ensure him a
tolerably secure position in the history of the English short story. But
it may be well to point out that the vice of his excellence is his
proneness to sentimentality. This is more evident in Mr. Merrick's other
volumes than in the present collection, which is really a reissue of his
best stories, including that masterpiece, "The Tragedy of a Comic Song."
If one were to compile an anthology of the world's best twenty stories,
this story would be among them.
SELECTED ENGLISH SHORT STORIES (XIX AND XX CENTURIES), edited
by _H.S.M._ (Oxford University Press). This volume has the merit of
containing in very short compass twenty-eight stories by English and
American authors, not too conventionally selected, which would form
admirable texts for a short story course. It includes stories by Mark
Rutherford and Richard Garnett which are likely to be unfamiliar to most
readers, and if taken in conjunction with the previous volume in the
same series, provides a tolerably complete conspectus of the development
of the short story in England and America since 1800.
ORIGINAL SINNERS, by _Henry W. Nevinson_ (B.W. Huebsch, Inc.).
It has always been a mystery to me why Mr. Nevinson's short stories are
so little known to American readers. His earlier volumes "The Plea of
Pan" and "Between the Acts," are eagerly sought by collectors, but they
have been permitted to go out of print, I believe, and the general
public knows very little about them. To nine out of ten people, Mr.
Nevinson is known as a publicist and war correspondent, but it is by his
short stories that he will live longest, and the present volume is one
more illustration of the place which has always been occupied in English
literature by the gifted amateur. The stories in the present volume all
lead back by implication to the golden age, and if Mr. Nevinson's mood
is elegiac, he never refuses to face reality.
IRISH FAIRY TALES, by _James Stephens_ (The Macmillan Company).
We think of Mr. Stephens primarily as a poet and an ironic moralist, but
in the present volume a new side of his genius is revealed. It might
seem that too many writers have attempted with more or less success to
reproduce the spirit of the gray Irish Sagas by retelling them, and we
think of Standish O'Grady, Lady Gregory, "A.E.," and others. But Mr.
Stephens has seen them in the fresh light of an unconquerable youth, and
I am more than half inclined to think that this is the best book he has
given us.
SAVITRI, AND OTHER WOMEN, by _Marjorie Strachey_ (G.P. Putnam's
Sons). Marjorie Strachey has presented the feminist point of view in
eleven short stories drawn from the folklore of many nations. Her object
in telling these stories is a sophisticated one, and I suspect that her
success has been only partial, but she has considerable resources of
style to assist her, and I think that the volume is worthy of some
attention.
THE THIRTEEN TRAVELLERS, by _Hugh Walpole_ (George H. Doran
Company). Mr. Walpole has collected in this volume twelve studies of
English life in the present transition stage between war and peace. He
has studied with considerable care those modifications of the English
character which are noticeable to the patient observer, and his volume
has some value as an historical document apart from its undoubted
literary charm. While it will not rank among the best of Mr. Walpole's
books, it is full of excellent _genre_ pieces rendered with subtlety and
poise.