1933-09-11 — Page 5

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MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1933.

LITERARY NOTES

SCOTTISH

LITERATURE

An Historical Survey.

Scottish literaturo, unlike En- glish, has been the subject of an

few treatises that the appearance of a new one, entitled "An Histori-i cal Survey of Scottish Literature." by Agnes Mure Mackenzie, M. A.. Is an event of Interest

Dr.

Mackenzie, whose survey covers the earlier and richer half! of that field. has written a lively book full of pride in the finer

Twelve Monarchs In Exile

Remarkable Pageant Of Unhappy Kings

ROYAL “MUSEUM PIECES ”

(By Anthony Praga.)

"Kings in Exile."

By Dr. Otto Ernst.

Jarrolds, 18/-.

achievements and the European contacts of Scotland, personal

"For God's sake, let us sit enough to make one forget its con-

derable learning, and enlightenest the ground

in its method of attack.

Barbour And His "Brus," Her chief end has been to sketch

In the background; of history, lack-HEN

W

Shakespeare

wrote.

THE CHINA MAIL.

KEY BOOKS

OF BRITISH

AUTHORS

From "Eric" To "Man And Superman."

NOVEL PUBLICATION BY MR. DENIS ARCHER

Mr. Denia Archer.

came

Over A Chunk Of Crockery

A Crime Story.

"At Ten Faces"-by Charles G. Booth, Hodder and Stoughton. London, 78. 6d.

邋

judgment of Cresseid any fore- noise of that company has pase Bulgaria, that mind instinct with chosen. And in the case of Addi- ters, an American born and bred,

The body of Schastien Durand In found on the floor of his antique Something of a novelty in book-shop. It is obviously murder: for] making is Mr. Andrew Block's "Key found under his body, he has been though a challenge to a duelis) Books of British Authors, 1600-shot in the back; and while clutch- 1932," which has been published byfed in his hand is an undischarge One may nakijed pistol at another chalk mark What is a key book? but Mr. Block ten paces away lies a used pistol. That it is murder in cold blood Nothing will turn her from her does not give us any clear definition; there is no doubt, but each of the purpose. Nothing is ever likely he says, "a work becomes a key people who had a motive for mur to make her purpose fruitful. book, and there is an end to it." der had an "alibi,” ka But she goes on, a woman whose Joseph Conrad does not upon unique prayer is for power.

Mystery Drama. This Is the ground plan upon Still she keeps her royal pre-

within the scope of this volume be-which Mr. Booth has built his "And tell and stories of the death tence about her. Still in the cause he is not British, and Henry story-with for central pillar of kings."

shadowy and diminished gran James, Mr. Belloc, and others are coverted piece of sculpture, a Phi- deur of royal shibboleths does barred for the same reason, writes the devil how a chunk of crockery dian head. As he says: "it beats that he had not in mind she strive to maintain a simul-Allan Monkhouse in, the "Manches can get hold of a man's common. ing which one tends to regard the

acrum of Court life. poots of a country as so many iso-the sad procession of discrowned

iter Guardian," She is defeated. The world

sense." And so he proceeds to lated phenomema, even less com-rulers who, as it were, have died

has moved beyond her, as it has

One of the earliest names given junravel the mystery, creating intri prehensible than men of genius before their bodies. need be, writes R. K. in the "Man- Now, in this book of Dr. moved beyond so many men and is that of Mr. Lascelles Abercrombie, guing situations and scenes of al most dramatic power. As it turna chester Guardian.“ She succeeds. Ernst, comes a pageant of such women who have mistaken a whose key book is given as

"The out, the person to whom the crime best before 1560. What she has to unhappy monarchs, the tale of crown for the stuff of life.

Sale of St. Thomas," which he is traced is not any of those whom Bay about Barbour and his "Brus" imen who are to-day

She belongs to the past, and museum

published in 1911. I think it is a motive pointed. But the solution is illuminating and she handles pieces-the waxworks of vanish- the ghost that she follows is the

future,

beautiful poema, but it would have)

is not reached till two more per- the Makars well she does not in-led royalty.

And there is Ferdinand of been interesting to hear. why, it in and they are interesting charac sons have come by their death- cidentally, distas or in Henryson's; And what we know after the shadowing of the censorious spirit ed is an epitaph the way of high cunaing,

|son's "Catʊ" one does not get much Chinese girl and her doddering which she is quick, to discover a kings is marked by gravestones.

flies, he loves gardening. He help from the opinion of a critic that husband, a thoroughbred Celestial hundred years later.

Consider that figure who in

atill deep in worship of his ancès- One regrets that she has so 1914 el. ged the throat of death cost his people sacks of difficult "his English lies liquid on the palate tor.

gold because, he desired to grow like a realy happy port." Hittle time to linger over auch-Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Myslie Ten Ceremony. things as Ballender's

captivating Millions died because of his lotus flowers on the ponds of his

palace.

A MIXED BAG.

How many Hong Kong readers translations and none to mention, word; and now he chops wood

Key books appear to have been,

have heard of the mystic tea cere- Romancer. Spalding, whose noble account of in a Dutch forest, a peaceful old:

written by a great number of people man who contemplates suicide may mony of Japan? It is said that "A the execution of Stratford must be man who would not dream of When in 1915 he was being of no importance, and it may known to many,

being late for breakfast.

besieged both by the Allies and gratifying to find themselves listed the cup and take bis life.".

be drink tea with his friends, break He regarded the Creator as the Central Powers, he at last de- with Reformation Period.

his private valet; and insisted on sided-and decided wrongly to Names forgotten or half-remember-eye of the Tea Propaganda Board:

Shakespeare and Milton. Dr. Mackenzle will probably es-i!

And here in something far the. trange many people fully conscious being a hero to Him.

throw in his lot with Germany. ed crop up: here is Grace Aguilar "Not until they properly appreciat-] It cost him his throne, but with her "Home Influence," a story ed the aesthelle virtues of tea He chaved as if Christianity not his pleasure. After the war, published in 1847 which had some would tire American people attain of that were part of the German lan he insisted on the payments for vogue fifty years ago but might be to a rich and ripe humanity."! movement. When Catholics waste gunge, and acted as though which he had obtained the permitted time belabouring the mulerance of Potsdam were the headquarters guarantee of the Prussian Gov. Here, too, is Canon Farrar with his now to expire gently. of the new Jerusalem. Protestants it is the old game of

ernment, and exacted the last "Eric," surviving with a sort of The pot calling the kettle black, The It took four years of immen farthing,

ironical fame, and the author of to prove him He was, the Reforma surable bloodshed

and is, for all his "Bootles' Baby," which was praised more one asks how far wrong, and even now he has not cunning, a romancer, a figure of by Ruskin.

Mr. Donald Maxwell is an active the facile explantion it provides learned his lesson.

regal pose, a man who believes G. P. R. James, Harrison Ains- man, both as artist and us author, Exiled, powerless, old he still in cabulistic mysticism, keeps the ghost of his fallen necromancy

in worth, Charles Lever, and Captain and he has two books coming along. majesty about him, and refuses the aid of powers from beyond written key books without being and Its pictures he is also doing in and divination by Marryat are all here and they have One is a "Domesday Book of Kent," to look at a world that has pass the world. Now he lies gravely aware of it. ed beyond his dreams.

In some │fl).

саве the coloured clay tiles. The other, is an The tale of his all but insane' But the birds still flutter in propriety: of course "The Rosary" hamshire."

[books take their places with obvious exploration of "Unknown Bucking- MILLIONAIRE PRINCE vanity is well told by Dr. Ernst. the once royal enges, the lotus is right for Mrs. Barclay, "Paradise

of what was ugly and savage in the Reformation by her frankly unsympathetic treatmen

more one considers tion the

for the collapse of Scoltish letters

and for other untional shortcom-

ire since then will hold water.

OF PUBLISHERS Death of Mr. Cyrus, Curtis.

age of 82..

Vanity.

fight better, than any other man

alive.

abject.

He loves birds, he loves butter-

Take now that brave figure

HARDY'S AND WELL'S,

Wilhelm. in his own estima- flowers fall on tion, could talk hettes, play bet the demons are yel silent to his Tale" for Bennett, "Abraham Lin-| the still waters, Lost" for Milton, "The Old Wives', ter, sing better, preach better. call.

coin" for Drinkwater, "The Shrop- He is left only with pomp and shire Lad" for A. E. Housman, and the memory of majesty. His vanity was fed by a group

"Vanity Fair" for Thackeray. of sycophants as cynical as they Alfonso XIII. of Spain. He was key books are these may be included Without being quite clear what Mr. Cyrus Hermann Kotzschmar were untruthful.

laking from the moment of his without hesitation. Curtis, the millionaire head of the He was encompassed by a birth, being a posthumous child- too, is all right for Dickens, and "Pick-wick,"

one of the most outstanding figures: "Yes, Men"-mean souls whose weak that his mother made it a Projudice" may pass, Curtis Publishing Company, and crowd of what Hollywood calls, And he

was a weakling-so perhaps Jane Austen's "Pride and In the American newspaper world, whale object in life was to make life-work to keep him alive. died recently in Philadelphia at the themselves comfortable by being But the young king developed, grew strong, grew to be an adept Mr. Curtis was the owner of the Not a breath of criticism, not at healthy sports.

Mr. Block might have told us why "Saturday Evening lost," a week 4 word of reality, ever passed. Then came his wedding day, remain in some doubt as to Brett "Tesa" is Hardy's key book, and we ly paper founded by Benjamin their lips. They existed only to in 1906, when he married an Young's "My Brother Jonathan," Franklin in 1728, and of other all the cars of the Emperor with English Princess. They threw Mrs, Woolf's "Voyage Out," Brig- publications which have penetrated ibney-a polson of soft words flowers into the royal carriage house's "Garside's Career," in millions to every quarter of the that nourished megalomania.

and great bouquets that famed in the Phillpotte's "The Human Boy." world. At the time of his death The blood of legions paid for southern sunlight.

There may be reasons for all these he was chairman of two separate that insane Indulgence.

One of those bouquets contain-boing classed as key, books, but we companies, the Curtis Publishing

ed a bomb. It burst in the road- don't hear what they are. Company, which owned the "Sa- And at last, in the dark hour way, killing horses and turday Evening Post," the "Ladies' of defeat, Wilhelm realised that And the new Queen of Spain perhaps, his finest novel,

men. Mr. Wella's "Tonq. Bungay" is, Home Journal" and other mag.

The must fly or die. A storm was found her shoes all bespattered Stevenson's "Treasure Island"" laid and azines; and the Curtis-Martin News-brewing in the place of kings, a with fresh blood. The King es-the foundations of his fame, but papers Incorporated, the owners riot of broken patience was caped with his bride. these two books seem to have been of the "Public Ledger" and the fermenting in the hearts of what At last came definite revolu-chosen on' quite different grounds.

was left of his people,

"New York Evening Post."

Fly Or Die,

tion, and with it, flight.

That Bradshaw Time-tables

It is significant of Mr Curtis's

In a rainy dawn, he stepped Yet Alfonso declared in that should be selected to the case of Mr. enormous success that in 1922 the

into a train (with cases of grim instant of defeat, "I am George Bradshaw seama right and advertisement. revenue of his ma-'

wine loaded into the luggage the King of Spain and of all proper, but one wondera Whether Buzinos, exclusive

of his daily van), and went into opulent Spaniards. I do not renounce a "Coningsby or even "Sybil" in not newspapers, exceeded £15,000,000.

exile in the land of a small and single one of my royal rights."more representative of Disraeli then The foundation of Mr. Curtla's peaceful nation fortune was thres cents, with which. Now he is me than seventy: Eleven of his exiled colleagues Block in his estimation of the im- A brave man, and a gentleman. "Lothair." I should differ from Mr. ha bought three newspapers from he still cuts down dumb and form the material of this calm portance of Glesing's "Henry, Rye- boy anxious to get rid of his friendly trees, as once he cut and excellent book, Read there craft"; surely his great work, was stock, and promptly sold for thrics down dumb and loyal men. of the dim light that now beats in his novels of the "Grup Street"

4

what he paid for them:

LIFE OF FAMOUS EXPLORER.

Such characters do not change, upon ruined thrones, "

even when their teeth are drawn

and their claws blunted. They

are not of the stuff of the great!

king Charlemagne, who had the|ALA NEW JOURNAL! love of God in his eyes, and healing on his lips,

period. I wonder why "The Jew of Malta to Marlowe's key book; it hav somé fina spreches, but it pales be- fore the brutal grandeur of "Tam- burlaine,

BRAW'S PHILOSO

“Topulation? Vol 1 No. 1, Jone, Consider that woman fanatic Antarctic Epic Recalled. for royalty and power, the ex-win) za 6de Fo

>> 1983.5: (Goörge Allen and Un- Оде Empress, Zits of Hungary, Tas problems of population led or why No name is more honoured in the She passionately loved her to World Conference at Geneva cho epic of Antarctic exploration, than husband. She was early left, ain, 1927, after which an Interna that of Edward Adrian Wilson, the widow. She has eight children, tional Union for the Scientific In- friend of Capt, Scott, and of that Now her one absorbing tie vestigation of Foghlation Problame

gallant gentleman Capt. with life is the restoration to the was formed, In 1982

throne of her ancient country Committee

Wilson

as the naturala, her son Otto,

"the artist and the man, has been She insor

written by Mr. G. Se

publikad by Tohn

blended decy

berole action

with Septt on the return Trom the South Ps

1. and win planned, liter

Int⋅ Populatio

MR. D. MAXWELL'S TWO BOOKS

AIR-CONDITIONED THEATRE

ANNOUNCING

SITSON MA NOTED CHINESE VIOLINIST.

ACCOMPANIED BY

HARRY ORE

WELL-KNOWN LOCAL PIANIST WILL APPEAR ON THE STAGE

FROM

THURSDAY, 14th SEPTEMBER.

អ៊ឹង

PHOTO SUPPLIES.

Films, Plates Papers, etc. Developing Printing and

Enlarging.

AT 24 HOURS SERVICE,

|_ Trial Order is Bolicited

THE KWONG KWUI CO., LTD. 74, Queen's Road Central, Hong Kong,

* Tel, 22170.

It's a good cigarette!

Three Castles

CIO