New Penguins
A South Sea Diary. By S. W. Powell.—Escape to Switzerland. By G. R. de Beer.— The Island of Captain Sparrow. By S. Fowler Wright.—Within the Tides. By Joseph Conrad.—La Franc Guerriere. Choisir par Lewis Thorpe. (Penguin Books. 9d. each.)
THE book at the top of the above list is by far the best of this new batch of Penguin books. It was first published in 1942, and if any reader possesses a copy of that first edition (I do not know who the publisher was), I will buy it from him at a reasonable price, for it is one of the truest and best books of its kind I have ever read, and the author, whose only book it is as far as I know, must be a re- markable man. It is a picture of real life drawn with a depth and sincerity far beyond the reach of the majority of writers. It is also a vivid description of the South Seas, not as viewed through the deceiving glasses of that incorrigible literary romanticist and man of honour, Joseph Conrad, whose " The Planter of Malata "—the first story of Within the Tides—is, in my opinion, utterly bogus, but as in the sober eyes of truth they most assuredly are. A South Sea Diary is a profound and moving book, that rare sort which, once read, will never be forgotten by the adult and discriminating reader. Incidentally, it is also a love story, as Conrad's " The Planter of Malata " is, and those who would like to compare a. true love-story with a skilful fiction-writer's romantic falsification need only read the two.
The Island of Captain Sparrow is an excellent boys' adventure story, but it does not quite live up to its splendid beginning. The writer does not seem to know what is important or interesting and revels in a multitude of anti-climaxes. He has also an opinion of his own intelligence that is unseemly high, and results in his holding up his story at the most critical points in order to air opinions that even a German professor would find boring. Escape to Switzerland is rather fun to read, although it will exhaust eventually all but the most persistent seekers after miscellaneous information. However, if you want to know where Moriarty fought with Sherlock Holmes, where Brahms composed the Double Concerto for Violin and Violoncello and where Matthew Arnold met Marguerite this is the book. La Franc Guerriere is a French anthology of war literature. It begins with the Chanson de Roland and ends with extracts from writings about La Grande Guerre and La Guerre Mondiale, and is a very thorough and exhaustive piece of work. W. J. TURNER.
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