Fiction
Isabel. By Gerald Gould. (Gollanez. 75. 6d.)
MR. GERALD Goon's first novel teems with the many interests of a vigorous and distinguished mind. It reveals him as an idealist and a romantic—I hasten to say that in my vocabulary these are terms of praise, the more so in Mr. Gould's case since the qualities exist because of, and not in spite of, a behind-the- scenes acquaintance with most aspects of twentieth-century civilization. In Isabel Mr. Gould sees Women as a broad, steady river, upon whose generous surface men, like petty craft, fuss, make trouble, and are borne along, pretending all the time to be self-propelling, if not actually to direct the river's course. The book is the story of Isabel and her sister Rosamund, of the men they married and the men they loved, and of the world of finance and letters in which those men moved. " Can't you though ! " replied Bunthorne, when one of the ladies in Patience protested that one could not be in love with two people at once. Mr. Gould echoes the reply gravely and with conviction. Not only was the egotist Arthur Benion unable to decide between Isabel and Rosamund, but Isabel herself said "Yes," in all sincerity, to a number of men. She had so much to give that no one could receive it all.
To summarize Mr. Gould's packed plot would leave no room for anything else. I must content myself with the briefest -■-e,tinie of the earlier (and better) part. Isabel and Rosamund .,kelton grew up in Hampstead, with Arthur Benson as their close friend. About 1921, Arthur and three of his friends, of whom the most important was Sir Leonard Lake, the financier, seeing which way the world was going, started a new weekly. One Oliver Heyday, a clever old wreck of sixty-five, became its literary editor. Oliver fell in love with Isabel, and Young Oliver, his son, became engaged to Rosamund. Both °livers married, the elder promising to give up drinking for Isabel's sake. Young Oliver was taken on as private secretary • by Sir Leonard Lake. Old Oliver resumed drinking, and was induced by Isabel's father, a nasty, shoddy business man, to let slip a business secret of Sir Leonard's with which his son had most imprudently trusted him. Old Oliver collapsed and died ; Arthur, wanting Rosamund, but unable to get at her, came to Isabel with lies and melodrama and was accepted by her in spite of them.
This is only half the story, and the second half details Isabel's life with three other men. It will be seen that Mr. Gould's first novel, like most good first novels, is too full. So afraid has he been of writing an idle paragraph that he has hardly allowed his mind and hand to relax. Every chapter is super-charged with vitality. Love is the theme, love pond, cred, discussed, felt deeply, and all at such a pitch as to compel us to judge Isabel by the highest standards. By these standards, we ought, I suppose, to scold Mr. Gould for insisting on showing us all the qualities of his mind and the diversity of his knowledge in a single book. We ought to point out that in the second part the energy is a little dissipated, and we learn less about Isabel—if only because we have learned so much before. Yet the book is such a stimulus to the imaginatiOn, and provokes so much thought, that we cannot wish it other than it is. On this evidence, Mr. Gould may become a great jnovelist. Actually, he has - given us a twentieth-century
miracle play, compact of knowledge, imagination, and wit, bUt a little too studied, and a little too bound tip by its own pre- occupations to allow the characters free play. He must learn to relax, and, instead of knowing all about his characters," to be content to learn from them.
Both Miss. Storm Jameson's book and Mr. Neil Bell's are studies-Of marriage, and both Consider it from the woman's point of view. The husbands are equally unattractive, though Miss Jameson's Hervey begins by. loving hers : but Hervey had more vitality than poor Beasie, and finishes victorious, whereas Bessie puts her head in a gas-oven. Each book is long, crowded, and vigorously alive. Mr. Bell is harsher, less patient, and more inventive. Miss Jameson, with her greater experience, controls her story better and avoids a shift of interest which Mr. Bell takes,' a little awkwardly, in his stride.
Hervey Vane marries a mean-minded and pretentious school- master named Penn, and her early married life consists in moving from cheap lodgings in one town to cheap lodgings in another. Her impetuous, obstinate temperament is soon at odds with his. Nasty bit of work though he is, this is not all his fault, for, like so many of hei type, she has little imagination and little tact when anything opposes her instinctive desires. Even his treatment of her when her child is coming does not make her stop loving him : he is hers, and her nature will not allow her to admit that she has chosen wrong. When the baby Richard comes, however, she is able to transfer all her love to him ; and finally she leaves Penn to take up a post and make money for her son. The book is a long character study in action. Hervey, compact of opposites, is as good as any- thing Miss Storm Jameson has done, and that, as a large public knows, is saying a great deal.
Mr. Bell is a healthy portent. He has genuine creative vigour, never-resting imagination, and an exuberant relish for detail. His characters get out of hand almost at once, and run away with hint, to our great delight, and, apparently, to his. All he nee& is experience and control. Bessie did not love
• Simey when she married him, and the honeymoon did not make her_ Iffaltina ow better, though it dulled the edge of her- repulsion; and she had four children in quick -succession; When Simey's unpleasant employer commits suicide, Sid, an old friend, comes to them as alodger, and BessieiS sedtieed by, him without being aware of the occurrence. Simey thrashes Sid, who disappearS: BesSie has twins, which are soon fol- lowed by a child of Simey's. Simey's business prospers. The interest now shifts to the children. Tough branches of the parent tree, they burgeon, wither, and drop off appropriately. The first son and a daughter had died within, two days of (Hie another. A son and daughter go to Australia, another daughter becomes a prostitute, and the twins are killed in the War. Finally, when the immensely prosperous Simey takes Bessie back for a simple-life rest to their first home, Bessie commits suicide. As a story, this' might be worth little ; but Mr. Bell's zest for sheer narrative, and the vigour of his char-. asters, carry it to triumphant success. His talent is like a river in flood, making even lumber move and do its bidding and he gives promise of really great achievement.
The Bud and the Spring is a simple story of a boy's child- hood and adolescence. Little Eugene Barrett comes to St.' Damien's, a big orphanage school staffed by Brothers, at the age of ten. He is shy, sensitive, loyal, and altogether likeable. The story falls into two parts, one describing his life at the school, the second his beginnings in a big Dublin bookseller's.' The first part is most beautifully done. I cannot guess how Miss McHugh has _so unerringly penetrated 'a chapter of. altogether masculine life, except by means of an imagination far beyond the ordinary. How little need be said about adolescence, when the words chosen are right ! How easily, in a single encounter or even in a gesture, can a delicate and sensitive artist convey what takes the ordinary descriptive writer his whole book ! When Eugene gets to Dublin, I think that Miss McHugh's touch is not quite so clear,'-and the texture of her writing is looser—but only by contrast with the first part. The Bud and the Spring, considered coldly as a novel, has its weaknesses, its uncertainties of temper, and its loose ends ; yet it is one of those rare books which one honestly feels privileged to have read. The character-drawing is clear! and firm, and Miss McHugh makes us realize that sweetness and light need mean no loss of power or of truth.
L. A: G. STRONG.
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