Short Stories
Outside Eden. By J. C. Squire. (Heinemann. 7s. 6d.) IT is not an accident that one of Mr. Squire's publications was called Tricks of the Trade. He knows them all : and the title could well be applied to the volume of short stories before us, many of which are actually concerned with trade—and tricks—of writing. It must be said at once that they are excellent reading. Perhaps the most amusing in this kind is the account of how the editor of a popular and expensive magazine was bluffed into paying an enormous price for a story he did not want, and how, in the end, matters were squared between him and the young high-brow author whom he had so improbably encountered. There is much satire and much sense in these stories, which will make wholesome reading for the aspiring -writer. Others in the collection touch a deeper note. There is an adroit handling of the plot supplied recently to a number of authors by the perspicacious Mr. Fothergill, and in The Alibi Mr. Squire presents us with a story which experts in detection have praised, and which the non-expert can praise as a workmanlike piece of writing. Yet over the whole collection hangs, it must be confessed, an air of disappointment, the sense that a prodigious talent
has somehow been dissipated in pages, which, good as they are, are not enough to show for it.
The omnibus volume of Mr. Arlen's short stories reveals him as a considerable writer with intolerable -mannerisms which he is rapidly shedding. It has been the fashion to decry his work, but it is often both subtle and witty. " The Shameless Behaviour of a Lord " is excellent in its kind, and even beneath the stories with the greatest burden of
tinsel something real will often be found, as in the telephone message at the end of " Portrait of a Lady on Park Avenue." Mr. John C. Moore is very good company. His stories are lively, vigorous, ingenious, and well contrived. The one
thing that at present they lack is distinction of mind. The comment is not unfair, because Mr. Moore shows signs of taking himself seriously, and aims at being more than the good entertainer he is. Such a piece as " Alma Mater," commonplace throughout, shows him up rather badly.
Mr. Rhys Davies is considerably below his form in the tales here collected, which are shallow and morbid. Ladies in love with polar bears, and the stabbing of homicidal swans, are topics which need much better handling than they here receive if they are to interest the normal reader, and the influence of Lawrence, though diluted, is strong. Mr.
McPhee's stories, on the other hand, suggest not so much Lawrence and water as Lawrence and a rather heady brand of South African alcohol. This is the more to be regretted as lie shows himself to be an author of real and individual talent. " A Little Storm " and " Virgins " are not the work of a negligible writer.
Mr. Quennell's stories are very sensitive, alert, and thoroughbred. In sustained achievement, his volume is much the best of those under review. His mind touches life at ninny points, and he has that essential mark of the poet, the genuine gift of inquisitiveness. The two long tales are beautifully done, as is the title story, though the latter might perhaps have been strengthened if Fred's sister had not in so many words expressed her continual demand for sympathy. In " Climacteric," however, the balance between suggestion and statement is perfectly adjusted, and the incident of the five-pound note is a heart-rending expression of the eternal embarrassments of youth.
In The Furnival Book are collected the stories which were issued separately in limited editions over a period of three years. Most notable are the contributions of Mr. Hanley, Mr. Bates, and (once out of three times) of Mr. O'Flaherty. Best of all, however, is Mr. John Collier's " Green Thoughts," a story which in originality, ingenuity, and neatness of finish supplies everything that could fairly be demanded.
Full Score, a collection of twenty-five stories by almost everybody, is a higgledy-piggledy assortment well worth the money.
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