(_By Mr. Punch's Staff of Learned Clerks._)
In the war-after-the-war, the bombardment of books that is now so violently
raging upon all fronts, any contribution by a writer as eminent as Lord
HALDANE naturally commands the respect due to weapons of the heaviest
calibre. Unfortunately "heavy" is here an epithet unkindly apt, since it
has to be admitted that the noble lord wields a pen rather philosophic than
popular, with the result that _Before the War_ (CASSELL) tells a story of
the highest interest in a manner that can only be called ponderous. Our
ex-War Minister is, at least chiefly, responding to the literary offensives
of BETHMANN-HOLLWEG and TIRPITZ, in connection with whose books his should
be read, if the many references are properly to be understood. As every
reader will know, however, Lord HALDANE could hardly have delivered his
apologia before the accuser without the gates and not at the same time had
an eye on the critic within. Fortunately it is here no part of a reviewer's
task to obtrude his own political theories. With regard to the chief
indictment, of having permitted the country to be taken unawares, the
author betrays his legal training by a defence which is in effect (1) that
circumstances compelled our being so taken, and that (2) we weren't. On
this and other matter, however, the individual reader, having paid his
money (7_s_. 6_d_. net), remains at liberty to take his choice. One
revelation at least emerges clearly enough from Lord HALDANE'S pages--the
danger of playing diplomat to a democracy. "Extremists, whether Chauvinist
or Pacifist, are not helpful in avoiding wars" is one of many conclusions,
double-edged perhaps, to which he is led by retrospect of his own trials.
His book, while making no concessions to the modern demand for vivacity, is
one that no student of the War and its first causes can neglect.
* * * * *
It is not Mr. L. COPE CORNFORD'S fault that his initials are identical with
those of the London County Council, nor do I consider it to be mine that
his rather pontifical attitude towards men and matters reminds me of that
august body. Anyone ignorant of recent inventions might be excused for
thinking that _The Paravane Adventure_ (HODDER AND STOUGHTON) is the title
of a stirring piece of sensational fiction. But fiction it is not, though
in some of its disclosures it may be considered sensational enough. In this
history of the invention of the Paravane Mr. CORNFORD hurls a lot of
well-directed bricks at Officialdom, and concludes his book by giving us
his frank opinion of the way in which the Navy ought to be run. It is
impossible, even if one does not subscribe to all his ideas, to refrain
from commending the enthusiasm with which he writes of those who, in spite
of great difficulties, set to work to invent and perfect the Paravane. If
you don't know what a Paravane is I have neither the space nor the ability
to tell you; but Mr. CORNFORD has, and it's all in the book.
* * * * *
A stray paragraph in a contemporary, to the effect that the portrait of the
heroine and the story of her life in Baroness VON HUTTEN'S _Happy House_
(HUTCHINSON) is a transcript of actual fact, saves me from the indiscretion
of declaring that I found _Mrs. Walbridge_ and her egregious husband and
the general situation at Happy House frankly incredible. Pleasantly
incredible, I should have added; and I rather liked the young man,
_Oliver_, from Fleet Street, whom the Great Man had recently made Editor of
_Sparks_ and who realised that he was destined to be a titled millionaire,
for is not that the authentic procedure? Hence his fanatical obstinacy in
wooing his, if you ask me, none too desirable bride. I hope I am not doing
the author a disservice in describing this as a thoroughly wholesome book,
well on the side of the angels. It has the air of flowing easily from a
practised pen. But nothing will induce me to believe that _Mrs. Walbridge_,
putting off her Victorian airs, did win the prize competition with a novel
in the modern manner.
* * * * *
Mr. ALEXANDER MACFARLAN'S new story, _The Inscrutable Lovers_ (HEINEMANN),
is not the first to have what one may call Revolutionary Ireland for its
background, but it is by all odds the most readable, possibly because it is
not in any sense a political novel. It is in characters rather than events
that the author interests himself. A highly refined, well-to-do and
extremely picturesque Irish revolutionary, whom the author not very happily
christens _Count Kettle_, has a daughter who secretly abhors romance and
the high-falutin sentimentality that he and his circle mistake for
patriotism. To her father's disgust she marries an apparently staid and
practical young Scotch ship-owner, who at heart is a confirmed romantic.
The circumstances which lead to their marriage and the subsequent events
which reveal to each the other's true temperament provide the "plot" of
_The Inscrutable Lovers_. Though slender it is original and might lend
itself either to farce or tragedy. Mr. MACFARLAN'S attitude is pleasantly
analytical. It is indeed his delightful air of remote criticism, his
restrained and epigrammatic style queerly suggestive of ROMAIN ROLAND in
_The Market Place_, and his extremely clever portraiture, rather than any
breadth or depth appertaining to the story itself, that entitle the author
to a high place among the young novelists of to-day. Mr. MACFARLAN--is he
by any chance the Rev. ALEXANDER MACFARLAN?--may and doubtless will produce
more formidable works of fiction in due course; he will scarcely write
anything smoother, more sparing of the superfluous word or that offers a
more perfect blend of sympathy and analysis.
* * * * *
_Susie_ (DUCKWORTH) is the story of a minx or an exposition of the eternal
feminine according to the reader's own convictions. I am not sure--and I
suppose that places me among those who regard her heroine as the mere
minx--that the Hon. Mrs. DOWDALL has done well in expending so much
cleverness in telling _Susie's_ story. Certainly those who think of
marriage as a high calling, for which the vocation is love, will be as much
annoyed with her as was her cousin _Lucy_, the idealist, at once the most
amusing and most pathetic figure in the book. I am quite sure that Susies
and Lucys both abound, and that Mrs. DOWDALL knows all about them; but I am
not equally sure that the Susies deserve the encouragement of such a
brilliant dissection. Yet the men whose happiness she played with believed
in _Susie's_ representation of herself as quite well-meaning, and other
women who saw through her liked her in spite of their annoyance; and--after
all the other things I have said--I am bound, in sincerity, to admit that I
liked her too.
* * * * *
You could scarcely have given a novelist a harder case than to prove the
likeableness of _Cherry Mart_, as her actions show her in _September_
(METHUEN), and I wonder how a Victorian writer would have dealt with the
terrible chit. But FRANK SWINNERTON, of course, is able to hold these
astonishing briefs with ease. Here is a girl who first turns the head of
_Marian Forster's_ middle-aged husband in a pure fit of experimentalism,
and then sets her cap with defiant malice at the young man who seems likely
to bring real love into the elder woman's life. And yet _Marian_ grows
always fonder of her, and she, in the manner of a wayward and naughty
child, of _Marian_. Insolence and _gaucherie_ are on the one hand, coolness
and finished grace on the other, and, although there are several moments of
hatred between the two, their affection is the proper theme of the book. As
for _Nigel_, he is impetuous and handsome, and falls in love with _Marian_
because she is sympathetic, and with _Cherry_ because she is _Cherry_, and
also perhaps a little because the War has begun and the day of youth
triumphant has arrived. But he does not make a very deep impression upon
me, and as for _Marian's_ husband, who is big and rather stupid, and always
has been, I gather, a bit of a dog, he scarcely counts at all. _Marian_,
however, is an extremely clever and intricate study, and for _Cherry_--I
don't really know whether I like _Cherry_ or not. But I have certainly met
her.
* * * * *
Mr. Punch has pleasure in calling attention to two small volumes, lately
issued, which reproduce matter that has appeared in his pages and therefore
does not need any further token of his approbation: to wit, _A Little Loot_
(ALLEN AND UNWIN), by Captain E.V. KNOX ("EVOE"); and _Staff Tales_
(CONSTABLE), by Captain W.P. LIPSCOMB, M.C. ("L."), with illustrations, now
first published, by Mr. H.M. BATEMAN. Also to _A Zoovenir_ (Dublin: The
Royal Zoological Society of Ireland), by Mr. CYRIL BRETHERTON ("ALGOL"), a
book of verses which have appeared elsewhere and are being sold for the
benefit of the Dublin Zoo.
* * * * *
[Illustration: _The Fool._ "GOOD MASTER CARPENTER, I AM IN GREAT NEED OF
WIT FOR TONIGHT'S FEAST. HAST THOU ANY MERRY QUIP OR QUAINT CONCEIT
WHEREWITH I MIGHT SET THE TABLE IN A ROAR?"
_The Carpenter._ "NAY, MASTER FOOL, I HAVE BUT ONE WHICH I FASHIONED MYSELF
WITH MUCH LABOUR. IT GOETH THUS: 'WHEN IS A DOOR NOT A ----?'"
_The Fool._" ENOUGH! THAT JOKE HATH ALREADY COST ME TWO GOOD SITUATIONS."]