Fiction
By L. A. G. STRONG
The Night Watchman and Other Longshoremen. By W. W. Jacobs. (Hodder and Stoughton. 7s. 6d.)
Fanny Penquite. By Edith Saunder. (Oxford. 68.) The Nymph and the Nobleman. By Margery Sharp. (Barker.
6s.)
Country Dance. By Margiad Evans. (Barker. 7s. 6d.)
Night Flight. By Antoine de Saint-Exupery. (Harmsworth. 6s.)
Short Lease. By Yvonne Cloud. (Harmsworth. 7s. 6d.)
GENERAL interest in literature, especially among the rising generation, has never been so high at any time since the War as it is to-day. From my own experience alone, I could name dozens of young men, at public school, university or elsewhere, who are passionately interested in modern literature. The only drawback is that some of them, as is natural, interpret the term rather too fiercely, and are inclined to exclude from consideration any authors who have met with a widespread measure of popular approval. If I thought there was any chance of their listening to me, I should recommend to their consideration several authors of whom they know little or nothing, and whom they regard, if they think of them at all, as outside the pale. I should tell them of a writer named Eden Phillpotts, whom they probably know merely as author of The F6r.ner's Wife, but whose Dartmoor novels prove him to be a major novelist, and whose Human Boy stories are as true and as funny as anything that has been written about school life. I should bring to their notice two books by another 'writer, a Mr. H. de Vere Stacpoole, whose The Pools of Silence and Garryowen, each after its kind, will make a good showing in any contemporary company. I should remind them of a novelist called Maurice Hewlett. I should further- more claim their serious attention for a writer whom they know better than any of these, Mr. W. W. Jacobs. The claim would be reinforced with an omnibus volume of his short stories which has just appeared ; even though it omits several of his best. There is no worthier inheritor of the Dickens tradition than Mr. Jacobs. I do not return to his work on receipt of The Night Watchman, for the simple reason that I have never left it. Twenty-five years ago, when I was recovering from an attack of measles, someone beguiled the tedious hours by reading aloud to me At Sunwich Port. I shall never forget the joy of that discovery. Whole passages of dialogue remain clearly in my mind to this day, including the remarks of Mr. Wilkes when a well-meaning acquaintance told him that his appearance suggested that he had lost a shilling and found a halfpenny. I have not, alas, re-read either of these novels for a very long time, but Mr. Jacobs' short stories have never been far from my hand. When you come to think of it, what better story of its kind could there be than " A Change of Treatment " ? The contents of the omnibus are limited to five volumes, and this story is not included. Neither is " A Black Affair," another of my favourites (though I have never quite got over a soft-hearted sorrow for the fate of the second black cat). I miss also the tale of the unbelieving skipper whose crew converted him to the Salvation Army, and the story of the drunken engineer. Still, there are just as good stories in the volume before me, no fewer than fifty-seven of them. " The Constable's Move " is one of the very best, a story as ingenious in construction as it is funny. The only serious objection to Mr. Jacobs was made to me by a schoolboy, himself a novelist's son. His stories are all the same," said my friend. " They're all about a woman getting the better of a man." The criticism is much too sweeping ; yet, if Mr. Jacobs has a subject-formula, this it is. Still, he rings the changes on it so adroitly that few will complain. In his way, and subject to limitations in which he is perfectly content to work, Mr. Jacobs is a master.
Nothing could be further from the spirit of The Night Watchman than Herr Frank's The Singers, yet it too is frequently shot with humour. The pattern of the story is complicated. Five citizens of Wfirtzburg, whose businesses have all been swept away in the slump after the War, and Who are reduced to varying degrees of poverty, decide that the only thing they can do is to form a vocal quartet and try their fortunes. The odd man, who has no ear for music, is to go as their impresario. The early chapters describe their environment, and their laborious efforts to acquire the necessary four dress suits. Then, at once, the current of the story is thickened. An old money-lender is murdered, and one of the five is suspected of the crime. To round off the story, and provide a tender pastoral note in Herr Frank's symphony, there is the love story of Thomas and sixteen- year-old Hanna, an idyll into which the post-War world thrusts its ugly forger. The most impressive part of the story is the sense it gives of the apathy and demoralization behind all these people, whose world has collapsed but left them alive, and obliged to continue living among the ruins. Because of its complicated pattern, which Herr Frank does not quite succeed in resolving, The Singers lacks the direct impressive- ness of Carl and Anna ; but it is an interesting and compelling picture upon a larger canvas.
Next come three illustrated stories. Fanny Penquite was a little girl who started out for a walk in a Cornish village one summer afternoon in the year 1892. She went along, surveying her neighbours and thinking her thoughts, until a runaway horse put an end to all her worldly activities.
" For a hundred years Fanny lay in the deep earth, in the rustio churchyard always full of thick shadows, wild plants, and the sound of water rushing. Every summer flowers floated in the air, and in the autumn dandelion clocks rose from their hollow stalks and drifted into the church. For a hundred winters, while the sun circled round the side of the sky and half the village lay in shadow, and for a hundred springs, Fanny slept in the dense, warm soil of the churchyard where watercress and other useful herbs and wild strawberries grew."
Then the Trump sounded, and Fanny arose. The descrip- tion that immediately follows is a brillant piece of imaginative writing. It is all in keeping with the qualities of Fanny's 1892 outlook, yet it has the unexpectedness of a dream, which is able to surprise the mind with adaptations and re-arrange- ments of conscious knowledge. When the Judgement comes the kindly intervention of a neighbour decides that Fanny shall be among the saved, and she passes into a blessed existence which almost entirely satisfies her, though it still has faintly unexpected elements, and which completely satisfies her as soon as memories of earth have faded. The story, which is extremely short, is more than a tour-de-force, and the author's own illustrations enhance its curious and individual charm. The Nymph and the Nobleman is cep ally attractive in its different style. A little French ballet-dance r misunderstanding the invitation of an English milord, comes light-heartedly with him to England and finds to her horror that he has intended marriage. For a while she languishes in his cold country seat, then puts on her ballet-dress for the last time and dances off to heaven. It is a delightful trifle, showing another side of Miss Sharp's talent, and the illustrations by Miss Anna Zinkeisen are of remarkable vigour and beauty. Country Dance relates a Welsh country tragedy, mostly by means of the diary kept by the murdered girl. Miss Evans's writing has feeling and distinction, though she has still a great deal to learn about the handling of a story. There are four illustrations in colour. by Miss Peggy Whistler.
M. de Saint Exupery follows M. Paul Morand with a story of the air. Night Flight, which has been liberally padded to achieve novel size, is a storm with two centres. One, which is physical, involves Fabien the pilot, who meets his death in a cyclone ; the other, which is moral and emotional, involves Riviere, superintendent of the whole American night service, " a night-warden whose charge was half the world." Fabien's tragedy is heightened by his wireless communication with the world beneath. He can talk with safety, but he cannot attain it. Meanwhile Riviere has to carry on. Inhumanity is his job. Night Flight is excellently but a little too expertly told -by which I mean that the devices employed are not all literary.
The plot of Short Lease might be termed a quartet with variations. Laura is married to Andrew. Paul, who has a way with women, takes Child House on a short lease. He attempts Laura. Andrew's half-brother does his best to prevent the conquest, but dies. Laura yields to Paul. An old friend of Paul's turns up, and Andrew falls in love with her. The end of the story is purposely left inconclusive, but the characterization is good and the dialogue natural and amusing.
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