(_BY MR. PUNCH'S STAFF OF LEARNED CLERICS._)
In _Forty Days in 1914_ (CONSTABLE), Major-General Sir F. MAURICE does
more than revive our fading recollections of the retreat from Mons and
the marvellous recovery on the Marne. A careful study of the German
documents relating to VON KLUCK'S dash for Paris has led the author to
form a new theory to account for the German defeat. Hitherto we have
been asked to believe that VON KLUCK'S fatal change of direction, just
when he seemed to have Paris at his mercy, was due to an urgent call
for assistance from the CROWN PRINCE. General MAURICE holds, on the
contrary, that it was deliberately adopted, at a moment when the CROWN
PRINCE'S army was undefeated, in the belief that the French Fifth Army
could be enveloped and destroyed, in which event "the whole French
line would be rolled up and Paris entered after a victory such as
history had never yet recorded." Thus, not for the first time, a too
rigid adherence to MOLTKE'S theory of envelopment proved disastrous to
the Germans' chances of success. It had first caused them to invade
Belgium, and so brought Britain into the War at the very outset; it
had next caused VON KLUCK to continue his westward sweep after Mons at
a juncture when a vigorous pursuit by his cavalry might have turned
the British retreat into a rout; and finally it caused him to execute
the notoriously dangerous manoeuvre of changing front before an
unbeaten foe, and to give JOFFRE the opportunity for which he had
been patiently waiting. The fact was that VON KLUCK did not think the
British were unbeaten. He could not conceive that men who had just
endured such a harassing experience as the seven days' continuous
retreat could possibly be in a condition to turn and fight. Not for
the first or last time in the War German psychology was woefully at
fault. Whether General MAURICE'S theory is correct or not, it is
most attractively set forth, and, thanks to the excellent; maps with
which the volume is provided, can be easily followed even by the
non-military reader.
* * * * *
There was at first a little danger of my being put off _Fruit of
Earth_ (METHUEN) by the uneasy manner of its opening chapters and a
style that it is permissible to call distinctly "fruity." Thus on page
5 J. MILLS WHITHAM is found writing about "an astonishment that nearly
smudged the last spark of vitality from a hunger-bitten author," and
a good deal more in the same style. But I am glad to say that the
tale subsequently pulls itself together, and, despite some occasional
high-falutin, becomes an interesting and human affair. It is a story
of country life, the main theme of which is a twofold jealousy, that
of the chronic invalid, _Mrs. Linsell_, towards the girl _Mary_, whom
she rightly suspects of displacing her in the thoughts of _Inglebury_;
and that of _Amos_, who marries _Mary_, towards _Inglebury_, whom he
rightly suspects of occupying too much room in the reflections of his
wife. In other words, the simple life at its most suspicious, with
the rude forefathers of the hamlet supplying a scandalous chorus. The
strongest part of the story is the tragedy, suggested with a poignancy
almost too vivid, of the wretched elder woman, tortured in mind and
body, morbidly aware of the contrast between her own decay and the
vitality of her rival. As to _Inglebury_ and _Mary_, the causes of all
the pother, they struck me as conspicuously unworth so much fussing
over; and, when their final flight together landed them--well,
where it did, I could only feel that the neighbourhood was to be
congratulated. But, as you see, I had by this time become unwillingly
interested. So there you have it; an unequal book, about people
unattractive but alive.
* * * * *
When the literary Roll of Honour of all the belligerents comes to be
considered quietly, in the steady light of Peace, not many names will
stand higher in any country than that of our English writer, HECTOR
HUGH MUNRO, whose subtle and witty satires, stories and fantasies
were put forth under the pseudonym "SAKI." I have but to name _The
Chronicles of Clovis_ for discriminating readers to know what their
loss was when MUNRO (who, although over age, had enlisted as a private
and refused a commission) fell fighting in the Beaumont-Hamel action
in November 1916. Mr. JOHN LANE has brought out, under the title _The
Toys of Peace_, a last collection of "SAKI'S" fugitive works, with a
sympathetic but all too brief memoir by Mr. ROTHAY REYNOLDS. Although
"SAKI" is only occasionally at his very best in this volume--on
the grim side, in "The Interlopers," and in his more familiar
irresponsible and high-spirited way in "A Bread-and-Butter Miss" and
"The Seven Cream Jugs;" although there may be no masterpiece of fun or
raillery to put beside, say, "Esmé;" there is in every story a phrase
or fancy marked by his own inimitable felicity, audacity or humour.
It is good news that a complete uniform edition of his books is in
preparation.
* * * * *
I can't help feeling that ISABEL ECCLESTONE MACKAY'S chief aim in
_Up the Hill and Over_ (HURST AND BLAOKETT) was to write a convincing
tract for the times on a subject which is achieving unhappy prominence
in America as in our own police-courts. A worthy aim, I doubt not.
One of the chief characters is a drug-taker; and as if that were not
enough another is "out of her head," while a third, _Dr. Callandar_,
the Montreal specialist, is in the throes of a nervous breakdown.
This seems to me to be distinctly overdoing it. It is the doctor's
love-story (a story so complicated that I cannot attempt a _précis_)
which is the designedly central but actually subordinate theme. I
have the absurd idea that this might really have begun life as a
pathological thesis and suffered conversion into a novel. The author
has no conscience in the matter of the employment of the much-abused
device of coincidence. And I don't think the story would cure anyone
of drug-taking. On the contrary.
* * * * *
_The Three Black Pennys_ (HEINEMANN) is a story that began by
perplexing and ended by making a complete conquest of me. Its
author, Mr. JOSEPH HERGESHEIMER, is, I think, new to this side of
the Atlantic; the publishers tell me (and, to prevent any natural
misapprehension, I pass on the information at once) that he belongs
to "a Pennsylvania Dutch family, settled for many generations in
Philadelphia." Which being so, one can enjoy his work with a free
conscience. It certainly seems to me very unusual in quality. The
theme of the tale is the history of the _Penny_ family, or rather
of the periodical outcrop in it of a certain strain that produces
_Pennys_ dark of countenance and incalculable of conduct. This
recurrence is shown in three examples: the first, _Howart Penny_,
in the days when men wore powder and the _Penny_ forge had just
been started in what was then a British colony; the next, _Jasper_,
involved in a murder trial in the sixties; and; last of the black
_Pennys_, another _Howart_, in whom the family energy has thinned
to a dilettante appreciation of the arts, dying alone amongst
his collections. You can see from this outline that the book is
incidentally liable to confound the skipper, who may find himself
confronted with (apparently) the same character tying a periwig on one
page and hiring a taxi on another. I am mistaken though if you will
feel inclined to skip a single page of a novel at once so original
and well-told. As a detail of criticism I had the feeling that the
"blackness" of the _Penny_ exceptions would have shown up better had
we seen more of the family in its ordinary rule; but of the power
behind Mr. HERGESHEIMER'S work there can be no question. He is, I am
sure, an artist upon a quite unusual scale, from whom great things may
be anticipated.
* * * * *
If neither book of short stories before me is what Americans call "the
goods," I can, at any rate, say that _Ancient Mariners_ (MILLS AND
BOON) does infinite credit to Mr. MORLEY ROBERTS'S imagination. These
yarns of seafaring men are salt with the savour of the sea and with
the language thereof. Of the seven my favourite is "Potter's Plan,"
which not only contains the qualities to be found in the other
half-dozen, but also has an ingenuity all its own. But perhaps you
will prefer "A Bay Dog-Watch," as coming home to the general bosom,
for it deals with a ferocious hunt after matches which recalls the
deadly days of the shortage. Of the five stories in Mr. WARWICK
DEEPING'S _Countess Glika_ (CASSELL) the best is "Bitter Silence."
Here the author deals with essentials, and gives us a tale entirely
free from artificiality. The remaining stories are marred by their
lack of naturalness; but Mr. DEEPING is never at a loss for incident,
and he can write dialogue which is often gay and sometimes witty.
* * * * *
[Illustration: THE PASSING OF THE COUPON. _Our Grocer_ (_gone dotty with
joy_). "SHE LOVES ME--SHE LOVES ME NOT--SHE LOVES ME!"]