The sun., 1919-03-16
"The Song of the Sirens"
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cal novels presenting the life of Para
quay and of ancient Rome, now turns his
talents TO the short story. In this new
volume, The Song Of the Sirens, he brings
together dozen narratives of far eoun-
tries and the dim past Here he is less
successful, for in short tale it is more
difficult to rccreate remote scenes and in
cidents than in a novel, where there is
more time in which TO reproduce the at
mosphere at it was.
The incidents in these studies seem
veraeious and such as might have hap
pened long ago, or at least more than or
binary scholarship would be required to
point ont anaehronisns. But the dia-
logue is in various cases ineOnsistently
modern. II isn't likely that a daughter
of antique Greece would speak of her
father as Daddy and dear old Dad" or
call her lover "You awful child" The
conversations have the colloquial eharae-
ter of present day speech, as where Caesar
sneers at Clodius, You'd be philandering
around my wife if you dared. You, ready
to risk anything, let alone everything, for
her sake" And again, he calls him you
ninny" In the same story Pompey's
wife remarks, "One never does the sight
seeing that is easiest" But perhaps Mr..
White seeks modern equivalents for
Roman slang.
In every respect save in dialogue the
verisimihtude is convincing The de-
scriptions are vivid and each detail of life
is impressive.
The preface is the most interesting part
of the book, for here the author analyses
his dream life, showing the genesis of the
narratives in the collection. Their dream
origin gives them a peculiar imaginative
power, together with all unsubstantialty
White says:
"A day dreamer have been from boy
hood, haunted, no matter what my task,
by imaginations, mostly approximating
some form of fictitious narrative; imagi-
nations beyond my power to Danish and
seldom entirely within my power TO alter,
modify or control.
Besides, | have in my sleep dreamed
many dreams which after waking could
remember; some dimly, vaguely or
family; others clearly, wildly or in
tensely. A majority of these dreams have
been such as come TO most sleepers, but
minority have been such as visit few
dreamers.
Sometimes | wake with the most dis
tinct recollection Of picture, definite
and with multitude of details. Such
was the dream, on the night of February
II, 1906, in which 7 saw the vision on
which is based the tale of The Song of the
Sirens; saw it not as a painted pie
ture, but as if had been on the cross
trees of a vessel under that intense blue
sky, gazing at the magic islet and its por-
tentous occupants. The dream was more
marvellous since there was nothing in lit
erature or art suggesting anything which
l beheld in that vision of the two living
shapes"
Some of the stories possess considera-
bic dramatic force, as The Fldmbea,t
Bracket, concerning which the writer
says:
,"Often ] wake with the sensation of
having just finished reading book or
story. Generally / can recall the form
and appearance of the book and can al
most see the last page, size, shape, quality
of paper and kind of type, with every
letter Of the last sentence.
Such 4 dream was that from which [
woke sluddering, tingling with horror of
the revelation at the end of The Flam-
beaa Bracket, with the last three sentences
of il, word for word as they stand in the
story, branded on my sight. Yet L was
not able to recall in its entirety the tale
I had Just read, for in the dream the
whole action took place on the window
sill, and what was said and done there dis
closed all that had gone before and i'm