i6 
LAiNU & WATER 
iNovember 29, 1917 
Books of the Week 
Prose Papers. Hy JniiN Drinkwatir. Klkin ?'atlio\vs. 
(K n.i. 
The High Heart. By Basil King. Chapman and Hall, hs- 
The Rayner Slade Amalgamatioh. By J S Imik ukr. 
(■.(■(irgc Allen and I'nwiii <^s 
The Gulf. Hv High E. Spr.NDER. (Collins 5^ ) 
E. A Novel. " By Jii.ian WiNCKtr-v. John I-ong. 6s. 
HIMSELF a poot, Mr. John Drinkwater makes 
rather large claims on behalf of poetry as a factor 
in everyday life. " We artists have the world to 
light, "he says in his introduction to Pyo.'?? Papers. 
;mi(1 he follows it np by "if the world is to be renewed, it 
will be renewed by lis.'"' This may be so, but such a way ol 
putting it is rather reminiscejit :of the unheard-of yersiher 
who remarked—" Shakespeare is dead, and Byron is dead 
- and I'm not feeling vctv well myself." . -i. 
With this as a preparaton- grumble, we cannot but admit 
the value of thejse Prose Papers.' There is much sanity and 
new thought -for the . majority— in the one entitled The 
Viiluenl I'oetrv in Education, aiid, when one comes to .Mr 
1 )riukwater's critiques of his kind, there is real educational 
\alue. ^ Thest- range from Philip Sidney to St. John Hankin, 
and include the Brontes, .-iTupert .Brooke, : and Theodore 
Watts- Dunton, while even Chaiicer is given a paper which 
might with advantage have been longer. " His song was the 
spring-note of. our verse, and into it lie freely wove spring 
only of all the moods of nature," says Mr. Drinkwater— 
thereupon he proceeds to prove the' statetnent. 
We learn, ill process of reading these essays, that their 
author does not claim that the world will be renewed by poets 
only, but by artists in the largest sense of- the word, and 
thKreat we acquit Mr. Drinkwater of the apparent egotism 
of his introductory dedication. Many of the prose papers 
which he has included in this volume tirst appeared as reviews 
of collected editions, and the like, but they are well worthy of 
preservation in more enduring form. The volume might 
liave been named An I nt rod action to Poetry, for in it a 
seeing man has set down his views of what constitutes poetry, 
and although material-minded folk may differ -with him 
over some of his conclusions, most readers will thank the 
author for giving them a clearer conception of values as 
applied to this " highest form of verbal art." 
* * , ♦ * * 
Since the Canadian point of view is not too well realised, 
c\en yet, in many quarters, sucli a novel as The High Heart 
by Basil King (Chapman and Hall, 6s.) is to be welcomed, for 
in it a Canadian woman expresses just how the Dominion 
f.els with regard to its place in the Imperial scheme. The 
days have gone by when Canada was regarded as a dumping 
jilace for wastrels,' but tliere is still— especially in the United 
States — a feeling that the lasj of the wastrels may still be 
found north of the border, as is shown in t!iis well-told story. 
Alix, the very attractive heroine of the novel, resents the 
.American point of \'iew, and her experiences among the 
dollarocracy make very good reading ; her fight with Howard 
J., the financial magnate who does not want his son to marry 
jier, is epic, while the wa}' in which she disposes of Howard 
J.'s son after forcing the father to recognise her, makes a 
iitting' anti-climax. There is satire throughout the book, 
well-deserved satire, and Basil King has a pretty turn of 
humour which Ughtens his work from first page to last. And, 
lest it should be deduced that the book is all in lighter vein, 
it may he said tliat few passages in modern fiction can show 
more vi high purpose than the concluding scene. 
* Hi * « « 
The Ravner-Slade Amalgamation, by J. S, Fletcher (George 
Allen and Unwin, 6s.) is a detective story of the conventional 
type, but is at the same time such a good detective story that 
it merits more consideration than the majority of this class of 
work. A certain .-Mlerdyke lands from a continental business 
tour at Hull with a package of jewellery, and the next morning 
lie is found dead in his room and the jewellery is missing ; a 
Concert singer of no small repute loses her jewel case at the 
same time, witli all its contents, and the first dues to . the 
mystery that appear all lead to nothing. Puzzle, find AUer- 
dyke's irmrflerer and the missing jewels — Allerdyke's cousin, 
a hard-headed Yorkshireman, finds the puzzle practically 
insoluble, as do sundry others who try their hands at amateur 
detective work. ■* 
The author has struck the right note in that he has not 
allowed the personalities of his characters to obtrude too 
iniicli- there is no Watson in the story, nor is there a Holmes 
worth speaking of, but there is a network of circumstance in 
which the would-lie discoverers of crime are partly helped 
and partly hindered by coincidences. Not that one's bejief 
is strained by improbabilities, but the development of the 
story is on the lines of actual life, the people interested are the 
IX'ople we meet every day, and if any reader should object to 
four murders in tlie course of one book, well, the first one 
made the other three inevitable. It js almost impossible to 
guess the solutif)n to the puzzle anywhere short of the last 
forty pages ; one may suspect, but cannot be sure. And, 
since a great number of people always enjoy a good detective 
story, there should be a large public for this book. 
> *• * m ■ * !tii 
Mr. Hugh. Spender, in his latest book .T/(f Gulf (Collins, 
5s. net), .has taken for the mainstay of his plot what is rapidly 
becoming a commonplace — the attraction that may exist 
between German man and British woman, or vice-versa,, and 
the various troubles that arise from .such. a situation. With 
considerable courage, the author portrays a good German, a 
man who hated the barbarities of his countrymen in Belgium, 
and was so un- Prussian as to prefer death to committing out- 
rages himself, even under orders. Stihi! he was Prussian, and 
therefore it is difficult to believe in him — in this is evidence of 
the detestation of all things Prussian that will remain for the 
rest of the world after the war. Dramatically, the author 
pictures happenings in Belgium in the first days, and the 
chief \alue of liis book is in the way it helps to keep alive 
the memory of how Germans hacked through a neutral 
country — for any work that stimulates that memory is of 
\alue. It is very obvious that Mr. Spender knows the average 
Cierman fairly well, and his picture of that being- is not a 
pleasant one. But the book deserves a wide circulation. 
* * * * * 
A novel with the laconic title E. by Juhan Winckley (John 
Long, 6s.), gives one to think. There is in it a touch of Frank 
Danby, and, since the author is American, it is also slightly 
flavoured with the R. W. Chambers style, but not much. 
Then there are blots on construction, such as apostrophes to 
the " gentle reader," and remarks about " our heroine " 
which would fit better in a penny novelette — and with it all 
the book is worth while, for the autlior has drawn a picture of 
the rich American and his and her ways with fidelity and 
insight. There is, as the publisher claims, more than a touch 
of genius about the book, and perhaps when the author has 
outgrown his liking for (Hches he will count among the fore- 
most American novelists. Perhaps, for there is a good deal 
to outgrow. "E" is diminutive for Edith, an only child of 
ill-assorted parents, and the book is her history as far as that 
history is likely to be interesting. . The main charm of the 
book consists, not in its heroine, but in the remarkably diverse 
group of people who surround lier — her father is a very fine 
character study, and her friend Eloise is another. We look 
forward with interest to tlie next work of this author, and 
hope to see in it manner as good as matter, and also, without 
any change from the habit of calling spades by their proper 
names, a trifle more regard for the jeiine fille and her needs. 
The book is clever, and its merit outweighs its blemishes. 
:lt :(c s!c 9): a): 
Links ifiih the Past, a well-produced book issued by the 
Eagle and British Dominions Insurance Company, deals 
mainly with the history of insurance, but at the same time 
contains a mass of interesting information, since the business 
of the old-time Eagle Company affected many well-known 
people — Dickens, Charles Reade, Macready, and Mark Lemon 
were among the earlier clients, the list of whom also includes 
notabilities of the country, from Oueen Victoria downwards. 
The accouhts given of fire engines and firemen of a century 
ago, of the connection of the theatres with the Eagle company, 
and of curious claims and awards, make excellent reading; 
while the illustrations, many of which are reproductions of 
old prints, form a fitting complement to the text. Perusal 
of this volume will convince the reader that insurance is 
far from being a dry business of figures, and that in the 
> history of sucli a company as the Eagle there lies an unsus- 
pected fund of romance. 
coccl.es 
WIND-SCREENS 
,&W»NDOW5 
[ ^y ^^^ T 
' THE ONUY ^ 
SAFETY GLASS 
