i8 
Land & Water 
August I, 19 1 8 
The Reader's Diary 
Recent Novels 
THE reputation of novelists is a curious matter. 
Mr. Marmaduke Pickthall has never been the 
happy subject of a boom ; and it is only rarely 
that a reviewer admits any knowledge of his 
previous work. But his reputatioil, propagated 
almost entirely by word of mouth, is quite secure ; and his latest 
volume. Oriental Encounters (Collins, 6s. net), will certainly 
add to it. For here he describes, "fictionally," in the form 
of what he calls "a comic sketch-book of experience," the 
manner in which he gained that knowledge of the Near East 
which afterwards made the subj ect of his novels. The picture 
he presents of the very young Englishman riding through 
Syria, attended by his two loving companions, Rashid, the 
e.x-soldier, and Suleyman, the wise dragoman, is undeniably 
captivating. They hunted tigers (or possibly pole-cats, 
for they saw no beast at all), they attempted, unsuccessfully, 
to purchase land, they interfered with the course of justice, 
joined in all the festivities of the country, and had, in short, 
an unmitigated good time. The book expresses, perhaps 
even more freshly and youthfully than before, Mr. Pickthall's 
zest in the life of the East and his whole-hearted appreciation 
of Oriental standards and manners. It is as near as we have 
had recently to a picaresque romance; and it is written 
with a colour, vivacity, and humour which make it a pure 
delight to read. 
The case of Mr. Leonard Merrick's reputation is even 
odder than that of Mr. Pickthall's. It cannot be said that 
no one has ever boomed him, for the attempt has been made 
again and again ; and now here is the first volume of his 
collected works, Conrad in Quest of his Youth (Hodder and 
Stoughton, 6s. net), with an introduction by Sir James 
Barrie, and the rest of his novels are to follow with intro- 
ductions by Sir William Robertson Nicoll, Mr. H. G. Wells, 
Mr. G. K. Chesterton, Mr. Granville Barker, and other 
similarly distinguished authors. I have read Conrad with 
very great pleasure. It deserves much that its introducer 
says of it. Conrad's attempts to revive his childish friend- 
ships and his childish love affair and the first great passion 
of his youth are admirably described ; and the final episode 
m which youth suddenly returns to him unsought, is prettily 
imagined and set out. The book shows spontaneity, ease 
and vivacity in writing, and certainly a considerable gift for 
the invention of incident. Mr. Merrick deserves popularity 
;md It IS difficult to understand why he has not had it. But 
what this very miscellaneous cloud of witnesses (from which 
I regretfully note the absence of Mr. Bernard Shaw Mr 
George Moore, and Mr. Sidney M^ebb) is getting so excited 
about I simply cannot make out. For it is rather an exag- 
geration to call Mr. Merrick a great writer ; and it is difficult 
to make out what Sir James Barrie means when he calls 
him ' the novelists' novelist." But I trust that the new 
edition will secure for Mr. Merrick the success he deserves 
Among novels which do not pretend to be of the earth 
shaking order. Mr. P. G. Wodehouse's stories have always 
held a distinguished place; and his latest, Piccadilly Jim 
Jenkins 6s. net), attains his usual standard of light-hearted 
farce. To attempt to explain the plot would be like para- 
phrasing a musical comedy ; and I desist. The book con- 
tains geniuses and baseball fans, millionaires, kidnappers 
and o her crooks, an explosive that doesn't explode, and a 
sophisticated miUionaire's child, who is willing to be kid 
napped if his abductors wiU "go fifty-fifty" with him. It is 
''°.?k'1\^^- J^' Man from Trinidad (Hutchinson. 6s 
net) by the author of The Pointing Man. just fails to be a 
leads him at the wrong moment to go all out for atmosphere 
instead of blood. Nevertheless, the tale of the s ufs S 
Hirose and his wretched victim has thrills and reaches an 
e.xcmng end in that paradise of the sensationalist, a low bar 
n Port Said. The Gun Brand, by Mr. J. B Hendrvx 
(Putnams 7s. 6d. net), is a tale of blood and villainy in the Far 
But whv v'^.'f '" "^''^^'' ^"^"^"^^ °^ d-ths per chapfer 
But why vvill heroines in these books persist in rusting the 
Them" 't!":\:V'^'T' *^" ^^^ '■^^^- l°»g^ t« 'hake 
fn th 1 f \ ^ ^"^ ^^"^ heroes never shake them when 
m the last chapter, they are in a position to do so? ' 
Essays in Reconstruction 
Mr. A. E. Zimmern, author of that brilliant book. The 
Greek Commonwealth, a member of the Round Table group, 
and a power in the Workers' Educational Association, is both 
a scholar and a modern inquirer ; and he brings to the study 
of the subjects treated in Nationality and Government (Chatto 
and Windus, los. 6d. net), a close acquaintance with the 
problems both of the ancient world and of our own. He is, 
that is to say, a remarkable product of the new humanisrn 
and one of the men who are triumphantly disproving the 
charge of infertiUty which is now- ceasing to be levelled at 
classical studies. It is, therefore, not surprising to find that 
this attitude towards the problems which distract us to-day 
is at once determined, thoughtful and dispassionate. I have 
no space to analyse the contents of a book which ranges 
from German Culture and the British Commonwealth to The 
Control of Industry after the War, and from The New German 
Empire to The Universities and Public Opinion. But it is 
possible in a few words to comment on the remarkable pene- 
tration and the great and effective intellectual detachment of 
Mr. Zimmern 's essays. He has achieved, for example, the 
really useful feat of making Prussianism appear a coherent 
and even, in some respects, an admirable philosophy of life 
a philosophy which sees man " a slave to impulse and caprice^ 
to bodily need, to the buffetings of an imperious need" and 
which gives h^m "the freedom that the angels know, the 
freedom which consists, not in indi\'idual initiative or decision 
or assent, not in the achievement of self-chosen purposes, 
but in the perfect service of a righteous and-revered authority.'' 
And this appreciation of our enemies' point of view makes 
the ensuing vindication of the British point of view only the 
more striking and telling. This is, perhaps, argument of 
an order a little too high for the generality ; but it is the 
sort of thinking which, at one or two removes, perhaps, does 
exercise a very powerful influence on public opinion and action 
For this reason it is to be regretted that Mr. Zimmern's doc- 
trine of nationaUty, which occupies much space in this book 
lies a little open to misinterpretation. He deprecates with 
some warmth the poUtical doctrine of narionahty, refers to 
the arrogance, the sacro egoismo, into which this is converted by 
subject nations when they are liberated, and argues that the 
state should not be made co-extensive wth nationahty, but 
that, by cultivation of their own 'national sentiments' and 
customs, different races should find it possible to live side by 
side within the same poHtical bodies. I do not think, however 
that he overiooks the fact that we are deaHng at present 
with subject-races whose ^ self-expression has been harshly 
turned from open cultivation of non-political narional feehng 
into secret political agitation ; but I do think that he fails 
to allow for the probability that such a diversion of energy 
exacerbates national feehng and makes any form of 
satisfaction but political independence very unattractive to 
it. I think, that is to say, that in his detached desire to bring 
out a neglected aspect of the abstract problem, Mr. Zimmern 
has missed a detennining factor in the existing problem. I 
think, too, that his views on this point may even do harm • 
but there is no doubt that the widespread study of his book 
as a whole wUl do much good. 
A Soldier's Meditations 
Mr. Coningsby Dawson is one of the writers, who, having 
served in the trenches and taken his wound, is at hberty to 
speak weU of the civilian spirit behind the armies ; and per- 
haps the most striking passage in his Glory of the Trenches 
(Lane, 3s. 6d. net), describes the soldier's reaHsarion of this 
spint all along his journey from the casualty clearing station 
to a London hospital. But he writes of other things as well. 
His book IS, in fact, a series of meditations on the experiences 
which have befallen him since the beginning of the war, from 
his first refusal to enlist to the moment when he found himself 
contemplating his return to the front fine after being wounded 
It IS with the spirit of the men and the meaning of events 
that he deals rather than merely with reminiscences, but 
reminiscences drive honae the result of his reflections ; and he 
lias produced a book with queerly vivid patches and pictures 
tnat are oddly alive, a worthy successor to his earUer and 
popular. Khaki' Courage. 
Peter Bell. 
