Evening star., 1927-10-22
THE LIBRARY TABLE
By the BookIoper.

II
ton" accepts as fairly we'll chosen
that English authors list of "the
dozen books, or poems, or passages OF
literature most likely to be chosen by
common consent, as those which have
established themselves definitely as a
national possession or influence" as
follows: The authorized version of
the Bible; Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Prog
ress'; the tragedies and histories Of
Shakespeare; the poems of Milton;
some of the earlier sonnetS and some
of the odes of Wordsworth; the great
hymns of the Wesleys and Watts and
CoWper; the social poems Of Burns;
THE Pickwick Papers of Dickens;
De Foes Robinson Crusoe"; Gray's
"Elegy in a Country Churchyard" y;
Boswell's Life of Johnson" and Sir
Walter Scott, especially THE Heart
of Midlothian"
The Saturday Reviewer then pro-
ceeds Ito draw up an American canon
which should include, not the most
American books, but, in Mr.. Barker's S
own category, the books which have
most influenced Americans and are
most definitely national possession"
His canon, which follows, would, of
course, be in addition to the English
canon, because it is part of our Eng
lish heritage: "The Autobiography
of Benjamin Franklin; The Declara-
ton of Independence; Irving's rip
Van Wrinkle" and "The Legend of
Sleepy Hollow; Hawthorne's "Scar-
let Letter." "The Misunderstanding
Tales of Cooper; Emerson's essays
and lectures; Mark TWains "Huckle-
berry Finn; Edgar Allen Poe and
Longfellow. The editor adds: "If
there is to be a later addition it must
be Sinclair Lewis. His books, like
Bunyan's, Dickens, Shakespeare $,
have given names to the language.
They are not time-tested, but it seems
probable that "Babbitt at least will
stay among the few books of which
all reading Americans will be con
scious and which most Americans will
read" Mr.. Lewis gets canonized
rather early in life! How will he en-
joy the sainthood thus thrust upon
him?
A novel Of femininity, of spinster
femininity, without any Freudian com
plexes, but with a sufficient heart
problem, is f. Fl. Youngs 1.-THE NAL
let's" Miss Caroline and Miss Sophia
Mallett are ripened spinsters, COM
Portable and satisfied with their life in
their country home, having no unsat-
isfed or suppressed desires and recol-
lecting but vaguely the limited emo
tions of their youth. Their step-sister
Rose, much younger, has started on
the path of spinsterhood traditional in
the Mallett family, but has met an OBJ
stacle to tranquility in the form of an
old lover, married to an invalid wife,
who demands friendship and sym
pathy from Rose. She responds meas
uredly, but is always calm, sane, en-
tirely restrained-a Mallett. Then ar
rives Henrietta MalIett, a niece, not
at all a typical .Mallett. She threatens
to disturb the serenity of the spin
sters' retreat with her vanity, her
jealousy, her imagined love for
Francis, the lover-friend of Rose.
Through the wisdom of Rose the
tangle is Strengthened and prospects
are bright for the happiness of all.
In "The Lands End" recently re-
published, the late w. II. Hudson,
independent naturalist. describes that
long arm of West Cornwall which
stretches out into the Atlantic. Not
only the wild, rocky cliffs of the
coast interest him, but also the almost
treeless moors extending back inland;
not only the picturesqueness of the
land, but also its life--flowers, birds,
people. He finds in this not very
fertile region countless wild flowers,
many of them rare, as well as the
beautiful rusty bracken and golden
L. H. Oh
serves at Lands End white-winged
and black-backed gulls and gannets
flying high and low over the waves,
ravens haunting the cliffs, and, back a
little from the coast, wrens, thrushes,
redwings and numerous other small
birds. Cornish types of men and
women, chiefly old, but some of them
young, stimulate his powers Of de-
scription.
X X X
Anthony Trollope, dear to many
readers who love a comfortable, long
novel of English country life in the
days before heavy war taxes and
democratic legislation broke up so
many of the old estates with their
leisurely way of existence, has found
new appreciator in Michael Sad
leir, well known English novelist. In
his biography Anthony Trollope, a
Commentary" he calls Trollope ''the
Voice of an Epoch" He says: "F'or
indeed, and to a peculiar degree, this
mid Victorian period is Trollope's Pc
riod. He is the articulate perfection
of it's normal quality and in his books
lives the spirit of it's dominant class
"a spirit kindly and ardent; a spirit
at once gay and thoughtful; spirit
as sympathetic to individual distress
as it was Indifferent to class suffer-
ing" Trollope's novels jog along at
as easy pace as did his horse when
he Travelled over Ireland in the postal
service. He never considered that
they were works Of genius, and frankly
wrote them, at the rate Of so many
pages a day whether sick or well, at
home or abroad, because he needed
the money. Many commonplace, self
satisfied people crowd his pages, but
they are SO human that a reader who
really likes Trollope feels about his
personages as about the inhabitants
of his own home town. Trollope's
best novels are in the two serieS-the
Barset, or cathedral town, series and
the parliamentary series. In the first
are 1.-THE Warden" "Barchester Tow
ers," 1.-THE Claverings," "Dr. Thorne,"
"Framley Parsonage" THE Small
House at Arlington" and 1.-THE Last
Chronicle of Barset." In the second
are "Phineas Finn" "Phineas Redux"
and "The Prime Minister"
X X * X
The British cartoonist of the World
War, Capt. Bruce Bairnsfather, has
written some of his impressions of
the war in Garry on Sergeant" Illus
trated by his own cartoons. He tells
how he began to draw his cartoons,
when he was lying in the mud of the
Ypres trenches, just to relieve the in
ward pressure of his temper. After
being twice wounded, Bairnsfather
was appointed staff artist of the Brit
ish forces in France and sent about to
froxat