Fiction Brett Young's Gift Book

Sadism-Or The 'Sin Without Its Peer
Portrait of a Village, by Francis Brett Young (Heinemann, 8.s. 6d.) Morwyn or the Vengeance of God, by John Cowper Powys (Cassell, 7s. 6d.) They Come, They Go, by Winifred Peck (Faber and Faber, 7s, 6d.) Brother Klaus, by Maria Dutli-Rutishauser (Burns, Oates and Washbourne, is. 6d.) The White Owl, by A. M. P. Smithson (Talbot. Press, 5s.) The Cleft Stick. By Walter Greenwood, with drawings by Arthur Wragg. (Selwyn and Blount. 10s. 6d.).
Reviewed by FRANCIS BURDETT Portrait of a Village is an attempt by Mr. Brett Young to depict for the reader the ideal village such as it might be imagined by a romantic lover of the countryside or the harassed inhabitant of a modern town fiat. In a distinguished and restrained prose such a village, situated in Worcestershire and so removed from modern traffic that its principal street is cut by a stream, is described in detail.
There is an aristocratic lady, distinguished, aloof but all-pervading in her influence. There are the less distinguished inhabitants of the other important house, who wage a doubtful battle to assert their social importance. The inn has its place. and the Church is not overlooked, though shown as a rather forlorn hope. Inevitably one or two oddities have their niche, but the true villagers are relegated to a nebuIons background.
Portrait of a Village is a sentimental and affectionate, or possibly merely nostalgic, prdtinctIOn that is beautifully printed and enhanced by some very attractive engravings by Joan Hassal. It is obviously an admirable Christmas gift for these in a difficulty. * In Morwyn or The Vengeance of God, Mr. Powys has described the sort of hell that conforms to his own tyrannous, as he himself tells us, conscience and makes allowance for his own loved frailties.
For him the one sin worthy of the name
is conscious cruelty. pleads for sensuality, exalts it in his own maniacal (Mr. Powys' ' vocabulary is curiously catching) way, and utterly condemns sadism whatever its manifestation. To him its worst and most common form is present when it is indulged in the name of science. Scientific vivisectors, who plead the advancement of truth and the prolongation of human life as their justification, are represented as the most depraved, abandoned and vile figures in human history and modern life.
God, by Mr. Powys, is replaced by the "System-of-Things " that is slowly evolving the conception of pity and mercy. Hell is a place where men may do as they please and, since the one sin is the enjoyment of pain in another creature, whether human or animal, they continue in hell to gratify their passion.
In spite of much that is rather horrible, such as the constant harping on physical desire and a shallow judgment on religion, it is, I believe, the sincere attempt of a
harrassed and tortured mind to evolve some scheme of retribution satisfactory to itself. For me, as undoubtedly for many, the atmosphere it generates is more distressing than useful; it is like being enclosed with a maniac in a very confined space.
Mrs. Peck has had the happy idea of taking an English country rectory, St. Mary Luce, corrupted into Simmery, and tracing its history through specimens of the various incumbents that inhabited it. She has a shrewd eye for the. characteristics of the changing centuries and though hard. as I think and hope. on the .fox hunting parson of the eighteenth century, is admirably sympathetic to those of the nineteenth.
Nothing could be more appealing than The Rev. Cuthbert Frame-Saint 185(73, and the children of the parson who succeeded in 1883 arc a delightful and lifelike lot. The modern incumbent is shown as energetic and pushing even though it appears to be just pushing for pushing's sake. The weakest chapter is the sentimental description of the departure of the dispossessed monks, drawn as picturesque but useless survivals.
The President of the Swiss Republic has written a Foreword to the historical novel, Brother Klaus. It deals with the life and times of Blessed Nicholas of Flue, 141787, Patron of Switzerland. It tells of his life as a farmer, of his wife and numerous children, of his achievements as a soldier and statesman. We are shown the troubled times in which he lived and his struggle to preserve a just peace and to fight unworthiness and corruption wherever it was to be found. At the height of his prosperity and power he forsook home, renown and comfort to lead an incredibly hard life as a hermit. We are made to see the splendour of the Alps amidst which he lived and to understand the simple, pious people who inhabited them. Though an austerer presentment would have been snore attractive yet the book deserves to be read for the information it gives about this heroic saint who is so little known, at least, in England.
The White Owl describes how the powers of a fourteenth century Irish witch descended from mother to daughter until modern times. It is a simple and rather superficial tale, but told with sincerity and a conviction that the subject has its own importance today.
In The Cleft Stick Mr. Greenwood has collected fifteen stories that were written when he was one of the " unemployed." He received the dole, but he worked hard, as this volume proves. The stories deal with incidents in the lives of the very poor in the North of England. They show a keen observation and grimly and powerfully portray the characteristics of some of those who live perilously near starvation.
Nothing is idealised and the perhaps inevitable brutality of some of the incidents and figures is starkly drawn. Few of the characters are attractive in themselves, and no attempt is made to make them so. What the author has wanted to do, and has admirably succeeded in doing, is to reveal the intolerable poverty that pre vails in certain parts of England. The volume is profusely illustrated and Mr. Wragg's drawings reflect perfectly the spirit of the letterpress.