One Hundred Best Books Part 6

Now and again--and what praise could go further?--there are little touches of clear-cut realism, of that kind which has a mystical background, which actually suggest some of the lighter and more idyllic work of Goethe himself. The book has genuine wisdom in it, of a sort superior to any philosophical system, and one feels at the close the tonic and soothing effect of a powerful moral influence, sweetening and refining one's general reaction towards life.

97. VINCENT O'SULLIVAN. THE GOOD GIRL. _Published by Dutton & Co._

This admirable work of art is not known as well as it deserves either in England or America. It is a work of genius in every sense of that word, and it produces on the mind that curious sense of completeness and finality which only such works produce.

Mr. L.U. Wilkinson--himself a writer of powerful achievement--says of "The Good Girl": "It does what I have always desired should be done; it reduces 'atmosphere' and 'nature' to their proper subordinate place. It wastes no energy. It focuses one's intellect and one's emotion. It creates characters who resemble none others in fiction. It is imaginative realism of the highest level of excellence."

The complex figure of Vendred, the hero of the story, the evasive provocative Mona Lisa-like portrait of Mrs. Dover, the extraordinary and stimulating art with which her husband is described, the agitating and tragic appeal made to us by Vendred's child-wife, the unfortunate Louise--all these together make up one of the most absorbing and unforgettable impressions we have received for many years.

Of Mr. and Mrs. Dover in their relation to one another the following pa.s.sage reverberates through one's mind:--"They would sit opposite one another silently, criticising with a drastic pitiless criticism. This in itself showed where they had arrived; for faith has to be shaken before there is room for criticism, and if love survives the criticism of lovers, it is altogether different from the love they began with.

Lovers can be almost anything they choose to each other and still be in love, but they cannot be critical. That is blighting."

Perhaps the most tragic thing in the book is the letter written by Louise to Vendred when the luckless child discovers her husband's intrigue with her mother:--"I came to you in the middle of the night last night because I was afraid of the wind. The fire was burning and I saw. I am gone, you will never see me again."

The last scenes of the unfortunate girl's life--indirectly described by the ruffian who got possession of her in Paris--produce on the mind that sickening sense of the wanton stupidity of the Universe which fills one with hopeless pity.

The author of this book must have a n.o.ble and formidable soul.

98. OLIVER ONIONS. THE STORY OF LOUIE.

"The Story of Louie" is the last and finest volume of an astonis.h.i.+ng trilogy--the first two volumes of which are named respectively "In Accordance with the Evidence" and "The Debit Account."

The mere fact that in the midst of our contemptible hatred of "long books" this excellent trilogy should have appeared, is an indication of the daring and originality of Mr. Oliver Onions.

Mr. Onions is one of the few modern writers--along with Hardy, Conrad and James--who is entirely untouched by political or ethical propagandism. His trilogy is a genuinely creative work of a high and exclusive order. The manner in which, to quote Mr. L.U. Wilkinson again--"the whole prospect is, as it were, strained through the character of one or other of the leading persons is in itself a proof of this writer's fine artistic instinct." The way in which all the leading persons in the book stand out in clear relief and indelibly print themselves on the mind is evidence of the value of this method.

And what masterly irony in the contrast between "Evie" for instance as Jeffries sees her and "Evie" as she is seen by her rival Louie!

Nowhere in literature, except in Dostoievsky, has the ferocious struggle of two women over a man been so savagely and truly portrayed as in the great scene in "Louie" between that young woman and Evie when the latter visits her in her rooms.

Oliver Onions' humor has that large and vigorous expansiveness, touched with something almost sardonic, which we a.s.sociate with some of the very greatest writers. There is always present in his work a certain free sweep of imagination which deals masterfully and suggestively with all manner of sordid material.

99. ARNOLD BENNETT. CLAYHANGER.

"Clayhanger" with its sequels, "Hilda Lessways" and "These Twain,"

makes up an imposing and convincing trilogy of middle-cla.s.s life in the English Pottery Towns. To these books should be added "Old Wives'

Tale," "Anna of the Five Towns" and all the others among this writer's works which deal with these Pottery places he knows so superbly well.

Outside the Five Towns Mr. Bennett loses something of the power of his touch. He is an interesting example of a writer with a definite "milieu" out of whose happy security he is always ill-advised to stray.

But within his own region he is a powerful master. No one in modern English fiction has treated so creatively and illuminatingly the least interesting and least romantic strata of human society which is perhaps to be found in the whole world.

And yet he endows this paralyzing bourgeoisie with astonis.h.i.+ng life.

One turns back from much more exciting literature to these ignorant, conceited, restricted and undistinguished people.

One turns back to them because Mr. Bennett shows one the tragic humanity, eternally and mysteriously fascinating, to be found beneath these vulgar and unlovely exteriors. Nor when it comes to the problem of s.e.x itself is this writer less of a master. Never has the undying conflict, the world-old struggle, between those who, in the Catullian phrase, "love and hate" at the same time, been more convincingly brought into the light than in the relations between these uninteresting but strangely appealing people.

Arnold Bennett's knowledge of the Five Towns gives to his work a background of significant congruity whose interaction upon the characters of his plots has the same kind of weight and portentousness as the interaction of Nature in the books of Mr. Hardy.

Such a background may be in itself materialistic and sordid, but in the imaginative reaction it produces upon the characters it has the genuine poetic quality.

100. OXFORD BOOK OF ENGLISH VERSE.

This is by far the best anthology of English poetry, its only rival being the first series of Palgrave's Golden Treasury. Those interested in the work of more recent poets and in the latest poetic "movements"

in England and America would be wise to turn to Putnam's "Georgian Poetry"--two series--and "The New Poetry" by Harriet Monroe, published by Macmillan. The compiler of this selection of books feels himself that the most poetical among the younger poets of our age is Walter de la Mare and of the poems which Mr. de la Mare has so far written, he finds the best to be those extraordinary and magical verses ent.i.tled "The Listeners" which seem to come nearer to giving a voice to the unutterable margin of our days than any others written within the last ten years.

The following pages contain an alphabetical list by author of the One Hundred Best Books, also the t.i.tles of other books recommended in the text by Mr. Powys. The numerals following the t.i.tles of the books refer to the number given the books in this list, while the prices attached thereto are the Publisher's list prices. If sent by mail or express it is necessary to add the cost, which is usually about 10 per cent, of the price.

G. ARNOLD SHAW, PUBLISHER GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL, NEW YORK

THE END

REMINISCENT OF DOSTOIEVSKY

WOOD AND STONE

A ROMANCE

By JOHN COWPER POWYS

This is an epoch marking novel by an author "who is dramatic as is no other now writing."--Oakland _Enquirer_.

In this startling and original romance, the author turns aside from the track of his contemporaries and reverts to models drawn from races which have bolder and less conventional views of literature than the Anglo-Saxon race. Following the lead of the Great Russian Dostoievsky, he proceeds boldly to lay bare the secret pa.s.sions, the unacknowledged motives and impulses, which lurk below the placid-seeming surface of ordinary human nature.

It has been reviewed favorably by all of America's princ.i.p.al newspapers, as the following extracts from press notices will indicate:

BOSTON TRANSCRIPT: "His mastery of language, his knowledge of human impulses, his interpretation of the forces of nature and of the power of inanimate objects over human beings, all p.r.o.nounce him a writer of no mean rank.... He can express philosophy in terms of narrative without prost.i.tuting his art; he can suggest an answer without drawing a moral; with a clearer vision he could stand among the masters in literary achievement."

CHICAGO TRIBUNE: "Psychologically speaking, it is one of the most remarkable pieces of fiction ever written.... I do not hesitate to say that a new novelist of power has appeared upon the scene."

EVENING SUN, New York: "Mr. Powys, master essayist, comes forward with a first novel which is brilliant in style, absorbing in plot, deep and thoughtful in its purpose."

PHILADELPHIA PRESS: "It undoubtedly will set a new mark in literature of the contemporary period.... Mr. Powys' style is the style of Thomas Hardy."

PHILADELPHIA RECORD: "Every page is a joy, every chapter a fresh proof of Powys' genius."