Evening star., 1933-10-07
THE LIBRARY TABLE
BY SARAH C.. BOWERMAN.
ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE
TWENTIETH CENTURY. BY ]. w.
Cunliffe. New York: The Macmil-

Adh w.
The older histories Of English litera-
ture stop, with an air Of finality, with
Thomas Hardy, George Meredith and
Rudyard Kipling. OF course, they must
stop somewhere, or become mere lists
Of names and dates. Twentieth CEN
tury literature may at sone time in the
future be co-ordinated with the liter
ature Of the past and be profltabay IN
corporated in q developmental volume
from the Anglo-Saxon chronicle to H.
G. Wells. At present 1t Is too volumi-
nous and miscellaneous to be so incor-
porated There has been too little time
for digestion and assimilation on the
part of critics. DR.. Cunliffe, professor
Of English and director emeritus of the
School of Journalism, Columbia Uni
versity, has in this volume given q
valuable unbiased survey of the accom-
plishments of the new age" in litera-
ture, taken by itself, without too much
consideration for relations with the
past. The Victorian age, as the imme-
diate predecessor Of the twentieth GEN.
tury, and leaving many survivors to be-
come leaders in the present era, Is
treated only as regards its influence In
the first two chapters. Victorian sur
vivors are Rudyard Kipling, whose col
ors are too glaring" and whose psy-
chology Is superficial" and j. M. Bar
rie, whose magic touch has ennobled
and endeared the common things OF
life, and his fancifulness has rarely been
completely divorced from common
sense"
When DR.. Cunlife leaves behind the
survivors Of Victorianism and makes his
selections. from the throngs Of twen-
tieth century writer's. OF those who are
likely to be accorded permanent place
in literature, he leaves some room for
criticism on account of sins of omission
George Bernard Shaw, Joseph Conrad,
Herbert George Wells, John Galsworthy,
Arnold Bennett ano Lytton Strachey
are given chapters to themselves. The
chapter ON the Irish renaissance in
cludes Yeats, Synge, George Moore,
Lord Dunsany and Sean OCasey The
Georgian novelsts chosen for especial
attention are D. H. Lawrence, Hugh
Mackenzie, Aldous Huxley and Vir-
ginia Woolf. While among the Geor-
gians, Dr. Cunliffe might well have CIV
en- more than passing pention to that
perfect piece Of fiction characterization,
"All Passion Spent" by Victoria Sack
ville-West, and some mention to that
almost surprising successor to Samuel
Buffers Way OF All Flesh" These
Lynnekers. by j. D. Beresford. Glenn
ence Danes name does not appear at
all, yet her two novels, The Babyons'
and "Broome Stages" are by many crit
les judged to be among the best Of
twentieth century novels. The chapter
Essays, Journalism and Travel dis
cusses the work of w. H. Hudson. Ed
mund Gosse, C. E. Montague, H. W.
NevinSon, G. K. Chesterton, Bertrand
Russell and T. E. Lawrence.
Some Of DR.. Cunliffes judgments
about individual authors are interesting
but disputable. He believes that 1.-The
popular conception" of D. H. Lawrence
as 'tormented and driven by the demon
OF sex has been shown to be completely
erroneous" but that "he is no longer
read, first. because he does not tell q
straight story, and, secondly, because
he calls upon the reader to do too much
hard thinking" OF Aldous Huxley he
says: He can only exploit his power
destructively or as a means to exceed
ingly witty entertainment" Virginia
Woolf is trying to force into the novel
which has hitherto depended for its in
terest mainly upon its narrative frame
work. an intellectual content it is not
capable OF conveying. She is certainly
much more at her ease in such critical
essays as are included in the first and
second Common Reader or such flashes
OF original wit as Mr.. Bennett and Mrs
Brown and "A Room of Ones Own"
The point of view Of DR.. Cunliffe is that
OF the conservative literary critic. He
mentions only In passing that idol of
the modernists. James Joyce, and
speaks of his depressing lucubrations. I"
His estimates are moderate and bal
anced and show understanding, if not
approval, Of the more revolutionary
forms Of twentieth century literature
The photographers at the ends of chap
tiers. including lists Of the works of the
authors mentioned and lists of critical
works about them, are Of value to the
student.
DARK HAZARD. BY W. R. Burnett
New York: Harper & Bros.
A woman of Puritan ancestry who
has. either Intentionally or inadvert-
emily. retained the principles of her
upbringing should be careful not to
marry an instructive gambler. Such is
the conclusion of Mr.. Burnett's story
OF the conflict of two opposing person
alities, so far as Jim Turner and his
wife Marg are concerned. But we
suspect that Mr. Burnett is much more
interested in the racings dogs and espe-
cially in Dark Hazard. sJim's sleek
Jet-black greyhound. who looks weak
and fragile compared with Timber
Wolf. the huge Australian dog. but al
la
Round Robin. his last rival. behind
and reaches the rail Dark Hazard does
not belong to Jim then, nor for a long
time afterward Then one day Jim is
shocked to see the beautiful dog run
ming in hurdle race with the ham
burgers" the broken-down old dogs
and the ill-tempered, untrainable ones
the "riffraff of dog racing" He buys
him for $25 and sneaks home with
him shamefacedly, for he knows how
Marg feels about his owning dogs. about
his frequenting the race track, about
his gambling
Dark Hazard is the most profound
sentiment of Jim's hard-boiled mind
He means much more to Jim than Mare
does. To Jim he Is always the beautiful
miraculous, swiftly running. easy victor
the paragon Of the race track. He Is
the one ideal of Jim's life and. believ-
ing that his past can be revived, jim
re-trains him and races him at the
Reuterdahl greyhound farm. where he
is an easy winner. Jim's pride and con-
fidence are restored and the tempta:
ton to race Dark Hazard for money
becomes acute. He is resisting 1t be-
cause of Marg, but she has discovered
that he cares more for the dog than
for her and their son. So in the hour
of the dogs victory. there is human
defeat. Marg's need for a steady life
with a regular pay check and security
for herself and her child, can never be
reconciled with Jim's Unborn gambling
urge. Ozark Hazard" the September
choice of the Book of the Month Club
will appeal both to doglovers and to
those who appreciate "life's little
ironies." Mr.. Burnett is himself the
owner Of a racing greyhound, War Cry
which holds a worlds record. Mr.
Burnett's former novels are Iron Man,
Little Caesar" and THE Giant Swing.
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