Cambridge Anthology. Edited by Peter Townsend, with an Introduction by
E. M. Forster. (Hogarth Press. 12s. 6d.) THERE is nothing in this collection of short stories and critical essays by various hands to suggest that anything very new or• different is being written at Cambridge. The level of competence in short-story writing would seem to be high. At least three of the contributors would undoubtedly be writing for magazines, if these existed today. The methods alternate between those of the scorpion and the lizard ; some deliver the true Maupassant sting in the last paragraph ; others slip away incon- clusively leaving their tails behind them. One or two are experimental, in the sense that they imitate that sort of ill-knit ancedote that for many years now has been labelled the " experimental story." The object of the experiment is, no doubt, to test the reader's patience. Two stories, however, will reward him or her for one or two such disappointments in this book : a powerful piece of social realism, " Death in Johannes- burg " by M. M. Carlin ; and a longer tale that displays the effect of the change of climate on a simple character, " Riumi- fore " by Duncan Forbes. The critical articles are rather slight. J. M. C.
Previous page
