DAYSPRING. By Michael Cape-Meadows. (Holden.
6d.)—The Death Watch was-.one of the most remarkable . . first novels of the spring, and Mr. Cape-Meadows now gives us 'another original and powerful story, in which a vein of poetry and mysticism is again conspicuous. Hugh Messinger is a hypersensitive visionary. While at Oxford, he meets, while punting one early morning, a girl Who satisfies his dream of the ideal. She passes out of his immediate life, howeyer, and, returning home nerve-shattered after the - War,_he nearly succumbs to a passing lust for a pretty young 'widow. But he is saved by his own philosophy and by the sympathetic understanding of his mother and a priest. Seeking relief in solitude and meditation, Hugh goes sailing in East Coast waters, and one night in Ipswich he meets :the Cambridge girl again. She is now a prostitute ; but Hugh marries her and redeems her by his own love and faith. The story has obvious defects. Some of the incidents are improbable, and Hugh's wife is never clearly -delineated. She -is a puppet, whose function is to supply a peg for the ' author's moral. Equally, however, Dayspritag has rare meritS. . It is written with fine spiritual insight and sincerity ; it hiss . many beautiful passages ;• itareflections on religion are always frli",iind stimulating, if sometimes a little too explicit ; and In Thigh himself and his delightful mother Mr. Cape-Meadows Juii7cfeated two living and memorable characters.
Previous page
