Current -Literature
AUTHORS-AT-ARMS
By C. P. Hawkes
The author of this book has selected six English writers who by their own will or the accident Of fortune indulged in • military service during some part of their careers, and has written a series of short biographical essays on this aspect of their lives. He has quoted on his title-page the saying of Calderon : " Sword and Pen are at best alternative weapons, jealously incompatible ; the same hand seldom succeeds at both." One is inclined to wonder whether there is much profit to be derived from studying the accidental juxta- position of these incompatibles. Mr. Hawkes' six authors are Steele, Gibbon, Coleridge, Landor, Scott and Byron. Of these only to Scott was soldiering so important that it played a part in his spiritual make-up and was relevant to his literary work. For the rest, one feels a mild interest in observing the antics of fish more or less out of water. But it is impossible to escape the impression that Authors-a1-.4rins (Macmillan, 7s. 6d.), though pleasant light reading, is a rather superfluous work. Mr: Hawkes writes easily and well, and it is to be hoped that he will employ his undoubted talents for biography in a more important book.
Previous page
