Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-25
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

just as all the living world loves a
| lover, so all the reading world loves a
love story.
One of the best of these, and GER
tainly one of the newest, is THE Mid
; night Bell" by Patrick Hamilton, a
young Londoner, who, according to no
less an authority than Hugh Walpole,
was intended by the Almighty to write
| novels"
This story comes to America under
the imprint of Little, Brown g. Co.,
bringing with it Dickensian flavor,
so called largely because the writing
world Is going back to the master
The swing toward the literary style
OF Charles Dickens as yet is not pro-
nounced, but there has been enough
OF 1t recently to make it sure. Another
outstanding instance is Priestley's 1.-THE
Good Companions" issued last Autumn.
so far the Dickens influence is not
large and is shown rather in a decided
and broad humorous twist to descrip-
tons. 1t is as If writer's were Begin
ming to tire themselves of too much
realism. naturalism, call 1t what one
will. Whatever it is, it may be seen to
the full in Hemingway's "A Farewell to
Arms.")
More and more, writer's are coming
to see that maybe Dickens was right,
after all, when he managed to extract a
Dit OF fun from almost everything he
saw, from almost every person he de-
scribed. He knew that man is humor-
Gus animal and wants to be amused
even in his sadness.
X 4 y X
An example of the Dickensian touch
is found in the following description of
The Midnight Bell" a London public
house of the sort which left America
with the saloon.
Those entering the Saloon Bar of
The Midnight Bell from the street."
our author says. came through a large
door with fancifully frosted glass
pane, handle like dumb-bell, brass
inscription Saloon Bar and Lounge, >
and brass adjuration to Push. Any
one temperamentally so wilful, careless
or incredulouS as to ignore this friendly
admonition was instantly snubbed. for
THIS door actually would only succumb
70 PUSHING. Nevertheless hundreds of
temperamental people nightly argued
with the door and got the worst of it.
Given proper treatment, however, It
swung back in the most accomplished
way and announced you to the Saloon
Bar with a welcoming creak."
mat, as every one will admit is
Dickensian. One cannot imagine sin
clair Lewis writing that paragraph anv
more than Theodore Dresser. Those
gentlemen take their art too SERIOUSLY
Even as young men their faces have the
same look which that of Dickens wore
after he became a Success.
Young Patrick Hamilton, with the
world before him, looks upon the sordid
side of his London with a humorous
eye, ana the reader finds that this same
numor, while not obscuring the harsh-
ness, makes it easier for him to bear.
we wish more novelists would think
about their readers. No matter how
1ond seeker of vicarious experiences
novel reader may be, ordinarily he
Goes not care for an excess. He would
IKE Aolas "L'Assommoir" better If the
scene IN which little Lala is beaten
were left out. It would be lust es
good story. Mr. Hemingway's "A
Farewell to Arms" would be better. one
Is inclined to think, If the last sad
scenes were not quite so sad. We pre-
dict that Olive Schreiner'a STORY of
An African Farm" in which the hero
Inc similarly dies in childbirth. will
live countless years after "a Farewell
to Arms" Is forgotten, solely because it
possesses a touch of sentiment which is
lacking in Hemingway's admittedly
best work
kindness, good humor-if an author
can hold these below the point of
mawkishness, he has something which
the novelist without them would give
his literary life for.
Consider Mr.. Hamilton's description