SPECTATOR- COMPETITION No. 179

Report by Horace Wyndham Readers of bygone best-sellers have often wondered what their authors would have thought of these books if they, instead of the professional critics, had been allowed to review them. Competitors who shared this pardonable curiosity were invited to give the opinion of their own works that would have been expressed by any one of the following: Dean Farrar (Eric, or Little by Little), Sir Hall Caine (The Christian), Oscar Wilde (The Picture of Dorian Gray), Ouida (Under Two Flags), Mrs. Humphrey Ward (Robert Elsmere), Marie CoreIli (The Sorrows of Satan).

The practice (except in the Sunday papers) of authors reviewing either their own or their friends' books is frowned upon. Yet it may be argued that this is unreasonable, since authors know much more about their work than anybody else. All they can do, however, is to write to the editor (generally more in anger than in sorrow) complaining that an adverse criticism they have received in his columns is "unjustifiable."

It is even on record that a poet was once sufficiently unpoetical to dub a reviewer "a louse on the locks of literature"; and Swin- burne's opinion of Emerson ("expressed," he claimed, "in language of the strictest reserve") was even more uncomplimentary., Ouida had a lofty belief in her merits. She is said to have complained that her Under Two Flags had not been adopted by the War Office as a text book for budding field-marshals at Sandhurst; and Mrs. Humphrey Ward would have registered justifiable annoyance if anybody had labelled her Robert Elmere as "light reading."

Scott is said to have felt no diffidence in reviewing his own books at times, as also did Wilson and Lockhart and Lamb. "They did no injury to the public," says a chronicler, "for they merely approved of what they felt well assured was worthy of notice."

After these examples set before them by their superiors, lesser lights need not stay their hands. Nor have they done so.

With a view to giving critics a lift (for which they were not properly grateful) Dean Farrar says in his preface that his avowed object in writing Eric, or Little by Little, was "to achieve the vivid inculcation of inward purity and moral purpose." A failure, however, has to be recorded. Boys will be boys; and this one so far forgot himself in a moment of pique as to call an usher "a surly devil." Thereupon a shocked playmate remonstrated. "Oh, Eric," he sobbed, "that is the first time I have heard you swear." After this outbreak it is not remarkable that Eric came to a bad end.

As I quite anticipated, a considerable number of entrants warmly supported the idea of authors reviewing their own books. It would have been enough to give examples of the results, and thus keep within the bounds of the competition. Neglect to do so has led to several otherwise promising efforts being discarded.

Oscar Wilde, being the easiest author to parody, attracted most entries. He was run very close by Marie Corelli, whose "Turkey carpet style" is well reproduced by L. Marshall Scott; also good touches from H. Morcom Taylor, and C. B. Clarkson. There was only one entry concerning Mrs. Humphrey Ward, and two for Ouida.

Officiating as Rhadamanthus, I have decided that the first three to pass the judge's box are R. Kennard Davis (E2), D. I. Beaumanoir Hart (£1 15s.), and G. J. Blundell (El 5s.). Very highly commended (proxime accesserunt, as they say in the Classical Fifth at Borstal Academy) I place Allan M. Laing, Timothy White, Findlay Murdoch, and A. M. Sayers.

PRIZES

(R. KENNARD DAVIS)

Dean Farrar on "Eric, or Little by Little"

Here is movingly depicted the tragic downfall of a schoolboy of noble nature, who, exposed to the perils of evil companionship, sinks gradually in the slough of profanity, debauchery and dishonesty until, compelled to flee from the scene of his shame, he creeps home to die!

The dangers of school life are portrayed with unflinching realism. Some may consider that the foul oath ascribed to Eric (who describes a master as a "surly d-1") should not have been allowed to sully pages intended for innocent readers; but Sin, to be combated, must be faced in all its vileness. The book gives an accurate picture of boy nature, by one who knows his subject through and through. May the Youth of our fair land, with blooming cheek and ruddy lip, take warning in time of the insidious wiles of the Powers of Darkness!

(D. I. BEAUMANOIR HARQ Ouida on "Under Two Flags" A writer of supreme genius has given the world a masterpiece which will delight her innumerable admirers. The Household Cavalry and Life Guards will long cherish the memory of its hero, Bertie Cecil, "Beauty" of the Brigades! Living in gorgeous luxury in his Knights- bridge apartment, adored alike by Princesses and the perfumed darlings of the demi-monde, "Beauty" abandons all to save • a beloved brother from disgrace. Joining the. Foreign Legion, he meets Cigarette, the Legionnaires' gay and dashing mascot, equally at home dancing the can-can or galloping an Arab stallion across the desert. After thrilling adventures, saved by Cigarette from a firing-squad at the cost of her own life, "Beauty" returns to England and weds the Lady Venetia, a being of glorious purity, whose exquisite hands and tiny feet recall irresistibly the ethereal attractions of Ouida herself.

It is all—in the argot of Cigarette and the Army of Algeria— "smashing!" (G. J. BLUNDELL) Dean Farrar on "Eric, or Little by Little" This little work, obviously the fruit of leisure hours spent away from the pursuit of more onerous, but not, surely, more necessary or more uplifting tasks, is informed with a moral purpose. Whatever beauty, whether of language or of construction, that might be thought to attach to the work, is, therefore, largely .adventitious, and may be said merely to subserve and to underline, as it were, the moral lesson set forth in its pages. Not that the author is blind to the worth and usefulness of the beautiful. On the contrary, diligent and prolonged study of the classic authors has imbued him with a love of that exactitude of language and that harmony of form which must be sought in a work that has any pretensions to be considered as literature; and it is obviously as a contri- bution to our national literature that the author has conceived and composed Eric, or Little by Little.