Parsifal. By T. W. Rolleston. Illustrated by Willy Pogany. (Harrap
and Co. 15s. net.)—Mr. Rolleston is known as one of the broader-minded of the modern students of Celtic poetry and myth. His rendering of the legend of Parsifal and the Holy Grail, chiefly based upon the twelfth or thirteenth century source of Wolfram von Eschenbach, brings out in his heroic couplets the theme of redemption and self-sacrifice as well as of knightly purity. It is here "presented by Willy Pogany," that is to say, it appears with some twelve lines or less lithographed in italics upon each wondrously decorated grey page. There is great beauty and imagination in the artist's work, though it sometimes errs on the side of affectation. There is real suggestive mystery, but here and there, as in the pictures of buildings, there is an exaggeration of weirdness, to say nothing of anything so prosaic as architectural construction. Mr. Pogany may urge that the castles were never supposed to be built by human hands. It was a mistake to give to Parsifal, when unarmed and in his later years, the unmistakable traditional lineaments of Christ. However, it is an ambitious work "presented" with success.
Previous page
