31 MARCH 1928, Page 18

Messrs. Kipling, Galsworthy, Bernata Shaw and others` ate finished and

dead Tor a dhcat in Scrutinies, a foolish sYni- Posium Wishart, 'Ts. 6d.). Mr. Edgell Rickword, with his lugty bravoS (Messrs. Garman, McGreevy,'Holnis; etc.); have annihi- lated their reputations: in EL. lofty preface Mr-. Rickword promises. us other assassinations. It is difficult to take the Volume quite seriously. Undiluted abuge, often of the most puerile sort, is not criticism, and it 'contains* little else: Indeed sometimes' the 'suspicion arises-whether A is not a homt, a trap to catch critics, for Mr. R. Graves, *hose task it is to kill Mr. Kipling, must be " trying it on " when he tells us that since 1886 (sic) it has been a commonplace that he-is no Poet, and that he was the author of " Land of Hope and Glory." But apparently the book is intended seriously as a whole; and we must try to take as serious Mr. D. H. Lawrence's remarks about Mr. Galsworthy. - This-is a matter for regret,- since we have been accustomed to consider Mr. Lawrence as a writer of talent and of a certain artistic fastidiousness. But this chapter, revolting in taste and indecent in expression, is no more criticism than are • such sentiments as " Billy is a Fool," -scrawled up by gutter-snipes. Mr. Lawrence. (whose humour was never his strong point) takes it upon himself to tell Mr. Galsworthy how he should have written the Forsyte chronicles if he wanted to produce a great work (such as, we suppose, - Young Women in Love) without the faintest perception of how funny that is ! Or is Mr. Lawrence's contribution the crowning joke of a ludicrous volume ?

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