I? 
LAND & WATER 
January lO, 1918 
Books of the Week 
Through the Russian Revolution. By Claude Anet. 
With 34 illustrations. Hutchinson. 6s.net. 
Soldiers of Labour. By Bart Kennedy. With ten ilUis- 
trations by Joseph Simpson. Hodder and Stoughton. 
IS. net. 
A Lap Full of Seed. ByM.\xPLOWM.'VN. B. H. Blackwell. 
3s. 6d. net. 
Work-a-Day Warriors. Written and illustrated by LiEU- 
TiiNANT Joseph Leii. John Murray. 2S. 6d. net. 
Umpteen Yarns. By George Goodchild. Jarrolds. 
IS. 3d. net. 
Although Mr. Claude Anet only went through the 
/% earlier phases of the Russian Revolution, his book, 
/_% Throui^h the Russian Revolution , is an incredible story 
J^ JLof half a dozen revolts. .Mr. Anet, as correspondent 
of the Petit Parisieii travelled with Kerensky, with General 
Korniloff, and with M. Albert Thomas in that tour of hopeful- 
ness that preceded tlie military breakdown of Russia. He has 
given a striking picture of the memorable first of May in 
Petrograd, when what seemed to be all Russia marched in 
procession to commemorate the coming of liberty ; he has 
given yet more striking pictures of things as they were on the 
battle fronts of the south, where Roumania was ground between 
the upper millstone of her enemies and the nether millstone 
of undisciplined Russians. The book is a chaotic tragedy, 
dealing with the main -figures of the months that shaped 
the Russia of to-day— though " shaped " is hardly a fit 
word to use in connection with such a bundle of loose ends as 
is this Russia that Mr. Anet shows. 
The book is made up of Mr. Anet's impressions, which he 
recorded in the form of a diary, of which traces appear unaltered 
in these pages. In spite of having had his camera taken 
away on one occasion, when Revolutionary soldiers threatened 
to bayonet him, the author has managed to save some vividly 
interesting photographs for this book, portraits of Kerensky 
and Korniloff being among them, as well as views from which 
may be gained some idea of what that First of May meant to 
Petrograd. The tragedy of the book lies in present 
happenings ; in spite of the wild disorder of which this 
author tells, there was, at the time of which he writes, a hop(> 
that Russia might compose her internal troubles and take her 
place again in the fight for liberty ; the German agents had 
not then accomplished their work, and Russia promised to 
become " free Russia " in reality. But it is a book worth 
reading, and the portraits contained in its pages form a unique 
collection of the leading figures of last summer. 
Full tribute is paid to the men behind the lines in Soldiers 
of Labour, by Bart Kenedy, a shilling volume devoted to 
descriptions of the various industries contributing their energy 
to the war. " Dock-woUoping " miglit seem an unpromising 
subject for a writer, but out of the monotonous business of 
loading and unloading ships the author has managed to 
make a story in which the need for skill as well as strength 
on the part of the men is fully shown ; the sailor, the iron- 
worker, and the miner, all have places in this record, as have 
the young men who have gone out to the firing line from British 
industries, but the author has reserved for special mention 
the agricultural workers and their tasks. " Man must fight 
for his seeds in the battleground of tjie soil, If he were to fail, 
his portion would be death," is the text on which the author 
bases his chapters on food production — and there are plenty 
of object-lessons on this matter available at the present time. 
Mr. Joseph Simpson has contributed ten illustrations to this 
little book, which is a tribute to the workers out of uniform 
who are, equally with the troops in the firing line, doing their 
part toward victor}'. 
* * * * * 
In a recent essay, Mr. John Drinkwater has given a ver}' 
good definition of poetry, but, after all, the final definition of 
what constitutes poetry as apart from mere verse, lies with the 
individual reader. Max Plowman's work in A Lap l-'ull of 
Seed is a case in point ; most of the poems in the first part 
of the book leave the reader cold and very critical, for they 
reek of very young Oxford — plenty of form and very Uttle 
life ; but when one comes to the second part of the work, 
there is " The Goddess of War," already much quoted, ancl 
deservedly so, for it is a fine sonnet ; there is " Wlicu It's 
Over," which grips by its very simplicity : — 
" Young soldier, what -w-ill you be 
Wlien you're next a-bed ? " 
" Cod "knows what, but it doesn't matter, 
For whenever I think I alwa\s remember, 
1'he [Belgians massacred that September, 
And England's pledge — and the rest seems chatter. 
What if I am dead ? ' 
This is just a verse out of the pages— all too few— in which 
the author has left forms and trivial emotions, and got down 
to realities. Not that the earlier part of the work lacks beautx', 
for it is eminently graceful— but it lacks the strength of real 
feeUng, as if Max Plowman were merely doing exercises. 
Apparently tlie war awakened him to feeling. 
More simply, almost ruggedly, in Work-a-day Warriors, 
Lieutenant Joseph Lee has expressed the thoughts of the 
men in the fighting line. Especially are to be noted " Back 
to London," with its tale of how familiar things rouse the 
deep feeling that nothing in trench life could stir, and ".War,^ 
some reflections by Corporal Richard Crew of the Canadians." 
The corporal is made to talk in dialect, and his thoughts are 
set down jerkily, unevenly— just as he might have spoken them. 
Here and, throughout this slim book there is life, the weariness 
and humour, grim realism and fanciful description, and the 
liorror and sadness of the trenches. Among the verses are 
set black and white line drawings which prove that the author 
is artist as well, and one has only to read a dozen of his pages to 
understand that he is a poet in touch with life and its reahties. 
***** 
Mr. George Goodchild. editor rather than author of Ump- 
teen Yarns, has made a collection of those little stories which 
men tell to raise a laugh— such of them, that is, as would 
pass a censor of public morals— and, although in this collection 
there are, unavoidably, a number of chestnuts, yet there are 
many good things as well, and many new stories. Quotation 
is virtually impossible ; if one made a start, there would be 
no possible ending. " Most of it," says Mr. Goodchild, 
" is native humour of a kind noticeably absent in the armies 
of our AUies and of the enemy. The French have no such 
collection of anecdotes — they cannot see the humour of war. 
Where the poilu would cry " Vive la France !" Tommy 
would probably sing * Another little shell wouldn't do us any 
harm.' Real humour is exceedingly difficult to manufacture, 
and that is where the British soldier scores. His innate op- 
timism, mixed with his external discontent, gives' place to 
situations which at times are screamingly funny, and more 
so when the chief character concerned is at the moment 
sublimely innocent of the joke; only his after broad grin 
reveals the fact that he sees the humorous side." That he 
does see it is evident from this collection, which contains 
specimens of every shade and class of soldiers' humour. 
There are scores of good yarns, and the book has only one 
defect — -there is not enough of it. 
THE BRITISH 
FIRING LINE. 
A Portfolio of Engravings in Colour 
from Drawings made 
Ob the Western Front 1914-1917. 
BY 
Gapt. Ed. Handley-Read 
(Machine Gun Corps), 
With a Foreword by 
Hilaire Belloc. 
"T^HE Pictorial Records of the Great War 
■^ are few. It is possible and even probable 
that they will remain few. ... Of those 
who have attempted the task the artist whose 
work is here presented is among the most 
successful." 
From The Foreword. 
All particulars will be sent on application to ; 
THE PUBLISHER, 
" Land & Water," 5 Chancery Lane, W.C.2. 
