1936-11-14 — Page 20

16

BOOKS of the WEEK

edited by

F. G. H. SALUSBURY

DAYS OF CONTEMPT, BY ANDRE MALRAUX - (Published:by Gollancz, 6s.).

T

HE hero.of.this short, tragle novel is Kaasner, a secret Communist agent in Nazi Germany. His activities and identity are suspected and he is flung into a concentration comp, where he spends nine daya-daya of dazed contempt for the brutality with which he is tortured and isolated in darkness.

The police cannot prove that lie is Kassner. It they could, tio would be shot at once; but he has been very well furnished with fake papers and a false Czechoslovakian Identity.

#io is a valuable maan' lɔ his jarty he was arrested while ́cloaking the Mander of a fellow, worker for Com-- Fautisen: and he is,Velenced when comerulo sacrifices himself for bùn, and gives hituseflop na Kano a

By that time ICauter' can bardh widerstand what di fupprides Pa gightmare thaż dos tres Cont murrague, for Tisa Nate and child, for something thist Jurva tivates ing of life: ent (ù là ln the hillarnng uni of this nigtitmare-in this creation of hero confounded by ctreunustances List Die greatness of ttua hoort bien.

The author dedicates to work to "the German comrad who were macione fornië tú zake knowit what they had suffered and-what-ièvey-bac tubeld"; but it is superbly free from The tragedy of perseru. Propaganda. trate is painted in this worch, ni set as it choki te in no claiurately divanenie Jaminalitet.

You emerge from the caning with A Lift of torter khat has been very anptly You are let! stiera ized page by page. with no great luge for the suedigideals, te: still a deep, impression of th party vitailly-and that particular cft sain k. due to the auditor Art

Kasher'a chiet afflichon ut pride was not the cruel beating aud kicking sat made him faint, but fuka politary He feared Contbement in darkøVED,

adoras, and music saved tum from madness. Ile fiened a gused in the cOT- alder humming.

"Music There was nothing around Jim, kotling but a gromotrio hollow fa tie enormous rock, and in ihría hole a bit of flesh awaiting Sarture; but 11 this hole there would be Rasika Long en Bach and Belloven, 15 memory wha full of them."

EKO TO TĒJUMI152s muuto; fie relieves htt embilona in ita terms,

"itia mind was húrsting to a dimny race in pursuit of the images that aria- Eined is 1o. Ho must try to organlar this face, to bring it under the contest of bin will. When linkubin was in

entirely prison he would edit an imaginary urwasance crery day.... Imagna evoked, by the The feeling nimazio bad been merely spectación; he

NDL

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH. ⠀⠀ SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1996.

NOVEL with a

Load of Horror

D

2 L

Innig them to the rest of The whole problem of expštivity enaka tes de finantve."

IN

way to

The psychology throughout masterly I have a horror of music now," says Kasser after hits release........ and the book, na a whole, must be for raders [[ whatever politient per -Gustoa en awful and unforgettabir indictment of brutality,

THE COURT OF FAIR MAIDENS.

By Wilhelm Speyer

(Gollancz, 81. Gd.) 'OTHING could be further from

the mood of "Days of Con- tempt" than this romauce, by a German, of another, long doad Germany: yet each story is set, in a chaotic world.

of

The Europe of 1805, with the spirit of the French revolution persisting through the maraging tyranny Napoleon I, was as miserable nnd an desperately uncertain as it is today. The tiny Duchy of testhe-" The Court of Pair Maidens "—placed on the borders of Prussia, reflects a leisurely, pretty culture in much the ame way

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as the wealthy reirents of to-day. Both flourish in privileged com- partments.

It is dificult at the présent time, when the safely-cnich Bas been put "off" on every platol In Europe. to capture the frame of mind that welcomes a Intry sale. But, if you can do so, the effort will have been well worthi while for The Court of Fair Maidens."

It is at least as relaxing as a cruise-far cheaper, and Just an exciting-lo ve for a time in the atmosphere of an early 19th century petty ducal court; lo share in its rival Intrigues: to attend its love units: in a word, to be charined out of this mach world.

I have sold *}lve." because no weaker verb can convey Bpeyer's genius for creating characters and atmosphere. From the ancient Count Læserinski to the passionate child, Felizin, ail nro so real, all move among scenery so vivid, that you feel, after closing the book. that you have boen travelling in time. The echoes of their speech remain in your earn

It remains to congratulate the tratts. lators, Phyllis and Trevor Blewitt.

SECRET AFRICA

By Lawrence G. Green Stanley Paul, 188.) |

GREEN'S medley of African mysteries" and factual de- scriptions is to the usual kind of "travel" book what Edgar.Walince was to Conan Doyle. He moves fast and does his best to pack, a thrill in cach page.

It is all excellent entertainment, which is not to overlook the valus of Jils descriptions of gold and diamond 'minlag, and his account of the mass suicide of the False Killer Whales on the coast near Capo Town.

No one knows why these sea-going mammala neck death as they do, throwing. themselves through breakers until they are stranded to dle: Kudiy people endeavoured to lever some of them back into the water, but the whales would have none of it and doterminedly beached themselves

again.

In a chapter on medical mysteries he gives a queer account of native sur "gery on the Congo-

JT

The patient displayed a deep cut in the forearin. His friends' trad secured a number of large black phis, the most ferocious ants Africa One by one they placed the ants over the wound. Promptly each ant bit into flesh, drawing the gap- ing cut together. As cucli ant served its purpose. the body was removed,

An oasis in Central Asia from Peter Fleming's News from Tariary.

no that the wound was closed as Heatly as though a surgeon's needle and been used,"

Mr. Green, to my disappointment, can produce no sen-serpent, but he does the next best thing with a second-hand account 01 the mati- enting tree of Madagascar: and he hints that the Dodo, supposed extinct since 1881, may still survivo in in- accessible parts of Maurillua.

He deals with a tremendous variety of subjects-enakės, crocodiles, old Jegends, carious isolated peoples and tries, industries, education, social problems, diseris, foresta-all just o step aside from the beaten path. It makes a fascinating scrap-book, well

ilustrated,

F.G.H.S.

BABY GUIDE FOR MOTHERS

By the Quins' Doctor (Constable, 3x. (d)

in

DR. A. R. DAFOE, reasonably proud of his success ushering the Dionne Quintuplets Into the world and keeping them there, has issued a compendious guide for mothers.

It is written in a kind of public bed- side manner, the soothing solto voce giving place to the slogan language of the lecture hall and the advertise- inent hoarding

Here, for example, are some of the doctor's suelton headings: A Baby's Place is in the Home, Not at a Picnic; Diaper Daleliness for the Dog Days:

Thice Cocktails for Infont Cherubs; A Cerm can be a Man- Eating Tiger; A Baby is Both a Job and a Joy.

But the doctor in only making sure of getting his valuable advice across. As the parents of threo healthy babies (they came separately!), my wife and I went into consultation over the book. looked up the doctor's views on Crawl- ing: Diphtheria, Fatherhood. Glands, Influenza, Kissing (three references), and so on through the index, down to Weight, Loss of, and Xerophthalmia. and decided at the end that the book is a pretty exhaustive encyclopedia of baby lore.

We did think, though, that the worthy doctor assumes more leisure ou the part of the working mother than sho possesses (some of his advice would cause hoots of derision in the buck streets of Durham);-(hn't he is n-iCIA.... too pleased that the average number of children per mother in the Quins' neighbourhood is ten; and that (even If business is businesa) he counsels a httle too much dependence on the local medical practitioner.

The book is attractively produced and dotted with informal biographical facts about the Quins.

8. F.

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NIPPON YUSEN KAISHA King's Bullding.

ROUND ABOUT by

T

The Showman

THE happiest man in Society now is, undoubtedly. Tho Earl of Fishferry. He has made a triumphant return from the obscurity into which he was driven by the excessively wealthy Bir Jasper Tuppence.

Lord Plabferry was well liked for his selection of sporting stories; but, for some time, Bir Jasper's vivid eccounts of his early struggles-how, for example, he had to rise a tireo o'clock in the winter to walk ten miles to a quarry to pinch stones with which to kill an equally poor neizlibour's lion for dinner-have drawn The Town,

Earl's Discovery

JORD FISHPERIY was desperate.

Even als pet story of knocking a altting pheasant off his wife's toque with catapult fell flat. Finally he was inspired to look up his own family records for new ammunition, and wasE lucky enough to discover the forgalten diary of Watkyri le Warle, first Baron Fishferry. The outstanding Warte of the 16th century, and a man who could hold his own with any modern ganster. Society's verdict on the carl's medieval anecdotes in that blood will tell and Tuppence is nowhere.

Fighting Blonde Menace THE True Brown League of Drun- etter, with the motio, "Never any diye." has been formed to combat the Blonde Mennee to national sanity.

The League welcomes all shades of brown hair. Its first president is Miss Faith Rabbity, this year's Milk Cart and grand- Queen of Abbot's Bnarling: daughter of old Jarge Robulty. Why tle says) all this blonde business?

"I begged the reporters to describe C as the mouse-coloured, vivacious Milk Cart Queen." she aald, "but they and it had to be blonde or nothing. One even offered me an egg to break over any lend to justify the description. I threw it back at him, hitting, I may say, the Mayor.

"The Mayor has been behind me ever since."

PAT

MOAKIE, who has the reputation

of having been patted on the head by more celebrities than any other dog....*.

Yes, he in writing his autobiography. It will be called "A Dog's life."

Suite Memories

I MUST be a little out of sympathy

with the writing, because I And the myself irked Just a tie by masortion that "anyone who remem bera talk when it was most lun knows that there was a cleared table and the flicker of candle-light on silver and glass and the mellow, soft sense of time held still over n strip of polished wood and a bowl of now-picked roses.

A

Not the "most" fun, surely. Surely the most fim was when the gentleman called for the instalment on the polished table and the mellow, soft sense of time fell into the rose-bowl?

IRRELEVANCE

ATEST ideas in shock..." Well,

LATEST

Horget the rest.

The first were feet, and that, so far as I am concerned, is that,

Wags' Corner

"HIS"one" concerns Little Leslie and

the Kind Grocer, who was fond of his joke.

Said Little Lealle, "Plense. will you change this two-shilling plecr? *

Bald the Kind Grocer, with such a kind sinile. "And why do you want, It -changed?"

Cos mother thinks

Little Leslie. it's a bad 'un."

AS LIVELY AS A PUP-

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