How to Write. By Stephen Leacock. (The Bodley Head. 8s.
6d.)
MANY authors, including the symbolist Mallarme, have written eloquently about that dread of the blank page, which prevents their beginning to write, an inhibition not yet sufficiently explored by psychologists. The most practical idea in Mr. Leacock's book suggests that this demon be out-witted by jumping into the middle of the subject and returning later to the beginning—except for geniuses, he decries the Keatsian belief that unless writing comes as naturally as the leaves on the tree, it had better not come at all. He also scarifies another writer's myth that a little-known environ- ment is bound in itself to be attractive, and that a story set among the head-hunters of Borneo is ipso facto more entertaining than it would be in Manchester or Ohio. Apart from the section on hurhour—Mr. Leacock's own speciality—his advice is not very electrifying. He has some gibes at the historical novel and his- torical dialogue—rather a dead horse, this—and cautions the novice against bad language and the laughable asterisks which often re- place it. Unfortunately, some of the examples of success in narra- tive or expression which he chooses do not inspire one with confi- dence in the master's taste.
Previous page
