Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-05-30

Several correspondents who fepose
confidence In the judgment Of this col
| umn have asked for our selection OF the
best Of the recent novels"
This Is an easy one to answer, fol-
we have read but four since Christmas
and each and every one Of them, In our
Judgment, is Of extra merit.
They are 1.-THE water Gipsies," by A.
p Herbert; 1.-THE Good Companions" and
Angel Pavement" by j. B. Priestley,
and THE Square Circle" by Denis
Mackail
These four novels have two distin-
gushing features in common. They are
all by Englishmen, and each one ID
longer than the general run OF modern
novels.
The English are taking the novel
writing crown away from America
| which Is more or less as 1t should be
some Of US think, for the English are
the English, after all.
Our language, in other words, origi-
! mated with them, and somehow they
seem to know how to use 1t just little
bit better than their cousins across the
Atlantic.
We hope nobody will think this Il
spoken 'agin" Americans or things
American, including novels.
The truth is, as we see it-and nc
one can see truth in any other way
| that a booklover cannot find today -four
as good novels from the pens Of Afneri.
cans.
Only one of these books is new. ir
the sense of book newness, THE Square
Circle" which preferably had been
! entitled "Tiverton Square" as 1t prob
| ably was in the English edition.
Newness or oldness has nothing to dc
with a good book, or, rather, with the
enjoyment Of booklover. A good book
is timelesS and is just as good nexl
year as this-f you haven't read 1t.
| X
This quartet of novels Is plotless ir
the old-fashioned definition Of plot
as a necessary ingredient in fiction
writing. Emile lola began the fashion
half century ago, with books almost
totally plotless.
Charles Dickens nicholas Nickleby'
and William Thackeray's Vanity Fair
had plot, and plenty Of it. Perhaps the
reader can recall how the English
teacher" in high school explained al
about the threads Of the narrative
and so on.
You will find precious few threads Of
plot in the four novels recommended
here Plot. in the mechanistic sense
has given place to plot, in the life sense
In other words, these writer's, as sc
many modern novelists, have let living
be its own plot
| *
| It Is not exactly a new conception
| but always it strikes the reader with
the force of a discovery, when he wakes
up to the fact that the book which hi
has enjoyed so much in the reading
Is practically devoid of the old-time ne.
cessity, a formal and authoritative plot
Life after all, Is the great plot ant
| each and every reader recognizes a!
much, in his saner moments, or JUS
after he has finished such splendid
piece of writing as The Square Circle,
, for instance.
There is a plot written into every
group of human beings by the Master
Writer of the Universe. The writer WHIT
sees this plot best Is he who photo
graphs it with words.
Words are his carnera-or should II
be cameras. ye critically ninded?-anc
with 1t Tor them he takes the mos
telling pictures of all.
Let no misguided person, however
| imagine that all one has to do to sci
up as a novelist is to tell what happent
to some imaginary person casually him
self and other imaginary persons
(cften his friends).