1948-09-04 — Page 11

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Robert Tredinnick's RECORD REVIEW

Sparkling hands

TWO new records that

wides

women.

upperl

זין 41

will inve mte bay

Litolf' Seherzo, fra his Cons certo Symphonique, is played by Mourn Lympany, with the Philharmonia Orchestra comlu feri The balance Stanskind by Walter

are first rate, KiK! recording Moura Lympany has a lightness of touch that makes the pionu sparkle, (1MV C 3703.)

d

Strauss,

HE IS SMOOTH

der's

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH;

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER, 4, 1948,

GEORGE MALCOLM_THOMSON_ reviews the new I

books

The light-hearted murderess

OONER or later you will

reud "THE IDES

OF

MARCH," Thornton Wil. new novel (Longman's Green, 9/8).

You will read it because it has sonra above the a quality which superficial obstacles to popularity.

it That is to say, you will rend because its grace, its tenderness, its

over wisdom, its wit triumph

a novel

somewhat unconventional method of presentation.

Here is

which fh:: atn extraordinary bitter-sweet favour, produel of deep feeling, the out-

the

come of practized art

The Idies of March" in no simple. tale, it is a book for grown-ups. that interest Its themes are Diosé hdults.

Love, Polities. Power. The toys- pernality. Happiness, tery Human genius,

in

THIJRNTON WILDER-born In Wisconsin, Frew up

U.S. Was China. His father Consul-General in Hongkong.

very bad teacher. For he assumes "The Ides of March" Is un his-

and torical story it is the most that everyone is vibrant with moral life, Cleopatra is therefore one of his modern novel in the world.

fullstre

It is Laid in Ancient Rome, and it mlight

hist as well be lat! in the twentieth century capital of any Rictatorship, or semi-dictatorship.

..

"She is lying. Intriguing, intem-

and a

light-hearted mer prastes dernas,"

Caesar adds that she is "too wise The story is presented in the form

to be geulisted by vanity, loo strong dneyments. 41 of a collection of

whleh may sear off the to be content with ruling." revier mare limid readers (and oh, what And it derives they would misst). from this curious form a topicality Ciano's 14t 14,

us say. Day.

which evetils describes alleged to happen in Rome during the last few months of the life of Julius Caesar.

are

In particular, it deals with

oulenge

perpetrated

The second rerural almost Iamily affate: It presents Lily Pons with an orchestral accompaniment conducted by her husband. Andre sacrilegiam

She is Voices of during the Mysteries of the Good Kostelanetz.

These rites, both sacred and Goddess, Spring by Johann

WELF celebrated in though it occupies two sides of and obscene,

every secret by the Vestal Virgins and by 12 inch record it is worth

udies of the highest Ronan aristo- groove. (Columbia LX 1087)

cracy, Picture their hurrer when a man is unmasked in their midst --ca The rather slender selection of nsan, too, of the worst character

bus beet songs by basa augmented this month by a record-TOUGH the mind and the pen of Ceasar, the story ponders the Zealand-born New from

nature of the Homan religion. For Oscar Natzka. lies ecompanieil by Hubert Greenslade in Granville this was a time when elugated men Bantock's setting of Captain Harry could us longer credit the grossness Morgan, and with Allen Ford play- and superstition of the old cults. ing cello obligul, a

smoothness Mussenoi's Eerie. The and clarity of Natzka's voice are Joy. (Columbia DB 2420.)

FOR

Bingers

version

of

rinus

ALS

us well Carsie elief priest dietator, writes to his friend Tur- explaining why he decided, after all, not to abolish religious observances

which

considers

is ner

SINATRA AGAIN、 But Beautiful. from the Hope-

to Rio, Crosby pieture, Road

from sung to an accompaniment Axel Stordahl and his orchestra by Frank Sinatra, who bucks the re card with My Cousin Louella. The accompaniment to this last number is given no credit a pity, because

imaginative it Is (Columbia DB. 2423.)

and

stylish.

A dance band record to hear is made by Vaughan Monroe and his orchestra playing Dance, Ballerina Dunee. and Ma-la-lani-papa-don,

the best This

version of the CHEMY Ballerina number to date. ED. 1298.)

childish.

"I must be certain that lo na cor- of my belug there logers the serognition that there is a possibility of a mind in and behind the universe our minds al which influences shapes our actions. If I acknowledge the possibility of one such mystery. all the other mysteries come floodttig

back."

The book contains, as one of its most brillant and amusing episodes. the state visit to Reme of the Queen

Egypt. Cleopatra, pupil t mistress of Chesar.

aract

For Caesar is a teacher; it is f sort of fury in him. But he is a

SECONDARY theme in the story Anally fatal in the polgatatat, love of the puet Catullus for Clodia. o lady of the highest fashion and the basest life.

Clodia, the most reckless society woman who ever disgraced herself

with a gladiator, 'is revealed, at last, as the most pathetic as well as the most reprehensible of her sex.

As for Caesar, his letters have the of restlessness and the acuteness Kenlus. His judgments have

ol

Life has used her shamefully, amazing pregnancy. Here it in the She

hertell 011 life. triumph of the book-is no simple revenges

is "man of action," with the limitations "Hatred In Belf-hatred. Clodia locked with Clodio in eternal of that type. Here is one full

self-questioning, of deep Insight, of loathing." Caesar alone she respects, regrets, even of disgust.

Indeed while plotting against him.

Above all,

the "The Ides of March" is concerned with the kies of March, with the plot against the Dictator. which in no sooner stamped out in it flares up In one place than another, and which, in the end, the strikes down the greatest of Romans in the name of the Republic which is, in fact, already dead.

It is dead, not beenuse Caesar has sted it, nor because the spirit of freedom is dead among the Roman people, but because Rome has burst

the

This is a Caesar who is magnetic, about whom already legends are gathering, like vultures. Or, if it is not Caesar himself, it is ane both profound enough and prac

leal enough to convinge us that he

Caesar. could

Wilder's Cleopaten might likewise polluclan be that eminent female and energetic enchantress. And this tragle lover-eculd he not have written the poems of Catullus?

have drawn convincing potituits not only the geographical but also Tor such wertigs is ar nehleve- political bounds of the city mont. To have given them thoughts republic. It has become a world to think and words to utter which convey the impress of greatness is These momentous and Inspiring even more remarkable. empire demanding an emperor. themes.

these actors of such com- manding stature and complexity, are presented on this stage in a series There are of personal declarations.

memoranda letters. diary extracts. from officini files, and so forth.

They vary in style and from the love letters of Catullus to the writings of Caesar. Catallus to Clodia is full of the most tormented pathos, plangent with reproach and denunciation:

content

pity for you, will never feel This horror has no room for pity, Some great intention for the world's anil enlightenment stirred in you was poisoned at the source."

ADMIRABLE NEWCOMER

TO DETECTIVE FICTION

NOBODY can feel much sor-

over row

the moment this. From Just of when Mrs Tilling lelephones the potive to say, "Somebody's done in steadily Miss Pewsey," Mr Murray interests and frequently amuses his

Max

the death Angela Mason Pewsey, Murray, author of THE VOICE OF

THE CORPSE (Michael realers, Joseph, 88. 6d.), does not even pretend to feel any,

He discloses a debonair style. He condescends to wit. He even takea the trouble to pump life and indivi indulget duality into his characters. In short, For Miss Pewsey hus

audience as if they he treats his kens of fun which are rarely popu Incon unearthed

were intelligent human beings and tra She her.

Height species of literate loudhound about her

fo venient secrets

way from clue bours, and has then sent them letters stuffling their

clue over a desert of bad prose. threatening exposure.

So when some unknown benefac- feys ups and hits Miss Pewsey over the head with a blunt Instrument, while she, is sitting at the spinning wheel and at the very moment when she has reached the top note of an old folk song, there is nothing but rejoicing is the village of Inching Rinsud.

For your true detective story en- thusiast the advent of Me Murray punk Joy. "Yes." they will say. will bring no particular cause at their horrible pipes. ut is a

But at what

polnit did very well. you guess who had dour it?"

In the case of one reviewer, the A fair number of its inhabitanta answer is-on pake seven. A fluke.

But it is one of the en either no doubt. motives

Murray possess substantial

crime or for dearing things about Mr for eremuakiting the

that he has underrated the wishing the criminal well.

to five power of this render, And is Max Murray's jol take his readers an a paperchase Experience may make him more Let us hope that it will after the

What is 50; murders"

cautious.

the high spirits of Mr Murray has written a detective not difte

nimirable And what, pray, is su exell- story. ing about that?

letion.

VIGNETTES OF LIFE

FIDIDN'T?... YOU DID! I DID NOT?

'YATTATA- YATTATA

"BLAH! BLAH!

EXC.

FIND THE MAN WHO WISHES HE WERE HOME IN BED...

(AND HAS BEEN WISHING IT ALL EVENING.)

DON'T YOU KNOW NOTHIN'?

LOOK AT

THIS SHEET!

EK.

arweather

deduc-

an

fletective

DEFENSES!

There are also a score of lesser Marc Antony, "for ever figures.

because 18" Rome's West End playboy, who publicly Insults Cleopatra he has fallen in love with her. How exquisite in its melancholy the let- ter in which bis mistress, the aor describes the Inel- tress Cytheris, dent;

"In the liter, Mare Aniony Inid sobbing his head against my car, and repeating my name à hundreci clearer times. There could be no farewell."

And Caesar's silly wife Pompeia. how well she gives herself away in her pushing letters to Clodła, whom she is enamoured.

HERE

of

then, is Old Rome, sense of awe.

its

Its

the

115 folly, tremendous

tension. Here Is Serpent of Old Nile, as complicated a minx as ever toyed with a cabinet

uf Rome, embodied greatness of poisons. And here is the human

who does Caesar,

not love

less energy that creates without inspire love but diffuses a passion tever."

In

nor

Ile works in darkness, each step mon bindfoldi- he takes is that of a

he ed. We watch, fascinated, as draws near to the abyss.

LIBRARY LIST

• Two Lovely Starts. By Liam Haberty Cellencz. GA, 221 pojma.

Teich sasani stories

which have the sings of life and the rhythm of poetic sprech Plet a mestura ni nathema ned i gleet of rowdy hranou

+

*

A Hard Winter. By Raymond Queneau Lehmanni, be 6d. 120 Duges. Novel When books and judged by weight this one will ne neglected. That wit be a mistake It h a delicate study of a cantankerous Frenchman's love for a young gid in the Havre of 1916 Something out of the ordinary.

*

* * © Mathilde, By Leonard Frank. Pater Dam, 10%. 6d. 204 pages. Novel, it is called "a happy

and a love story

modern fary-lale." It is about ■ Swiss miss It is a little too sweet for me

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