Evening star., 1934-08-12

rural England, for literary ana
/ VI beauty-seekinR ladies who love
/ a TO dream IN the homes Of
poets and watch the sun SCI
over old castles, this Journey Of J. b.
Priestley. He set out in the Autumn
Of 1888 to visit average England. omit
ting the picturesque places carefully
selected by writer's Of the usual travel
books and frequented by tourists. His
Is really a sociological travel book. He
visited the big cities, London excepted,
the industrial areas, and watched the
people at work and at play and loung-
ing against walls or sitting on door
steps, unemployed. Everywhere he
! talked to any one who would talk
to him and IN this way he found out
what good many were thinking about
the life England offers her people.
At night he would continue the talking
with the men in pubs and then would
shut himself up in an uncomfortable
box Of hotel room, lined with hideous
wall paper and unfurnished with
running water, and thump his type
writer. He hopes that this is book
"of considerable social significance, /"
! and it Is
/ Mr.. Priestly went first from London
TO Southampton by bus, and comments
that II the proletariat has only q
small amount Of money in its pocket
it can now travel with the luxury Of a
satrap. From Southampton his route
took him to Bristol and Swindon. the
| Cotswolds, Coventry, Birmingham md
the Black Country, Leicester and Not
;ingham. the West Riding, the potter1es
Of North Staffordshire. which is Ar
mold BENEFITS Five Towns" country;
| Lancashire, the Tyne, East Durham
and the Tees, Lincoln and Norfolk,
| and back to London. Southampton
he found mot a bad town." but one
which has not been able to "hve up
to those great ships it harbors," Bris-
tol surprised him, a native Of the West
Riding, because, though provincial
industrial city, 1t is not "a dirty nine
teenth century hotch- -potch, not merely
an extended factory and warehouse,
| but q real city with q charm and a
dignity of its own" The Cotswolds
he calls "the most English and the least
| spoiled Of all our countrysidesl" Cow
entry he found seething with the
motor industry, q town which has
managed to come out on top" from
the thirteenth century to the present
time, because 1t has changed its In
dustries to keep pace with the times;
even the men in the pubs talked moth
| ing but gears and magnetos. In the
West Riding he was able not only to
observe but also TO make comparisons.
He has never lived there since 1914,
and he found the old prosperous wool
industry, whose evolution Phyllis
Bentley has so graphically described
| in Inheritance" swept away. Such
prosperity as is returning is on much
smaller scale than formerly. Each
place of visitation, with its surround
| ing country, is described in its present,
| but IN the light of its past. And then
there are all the casual conversations
with the people met In busses, hotels,
restaurants. factories, shops. on the
street.
We read and hear continually that
England has moved farther along the
road to economic recovery than has
the United States. Mr.. Priestley's
| impressions on his journey confirm
this Judgment, though he makes no
| such comparison. He is concerned
only with England; readers may draw
their own conclusions. The industrial
| North OF England lags farthest be-
| hind in the returning prosperity. But
Mr.. Priestley emphatically states that
| he Is no economist and refuses to at
| tempt to explain either the depression
/ wnawe ~ m17fNh haG
come. He finds England still land
Of liberty, where he was able to ask
any questions and receive any answers
without fear of secret police. Even
| Mr.. Bernard Shaw, who appears to
! favor iron autocracies, has continued
his residence in q country where ne
can say what he likes to the next
| interviewer" England is the country
! for him, Mr.. Priestley concludes. and.
| though a holiday In Tuscany would
| be preferable to one In the Black
| Country, he would choose West Brom-
wich to live in rather than Florence.
I'VE have led the world, many time
before today, on good expeditions and
| bad ones. We can lead it again We
! headed the procession when 1t took
what we see now TO be the wrong
turning, down into the dark bog OF
greedy industriahsm, where money
and machines are Of more Importance
! than men and women. 1t Is for us
| to find the way out again, into the
| sunlight" The same delightful, re-
Elective and clever, essentially essay
style which has given such pleasure to
1 tfrri1 q
Good. Companions" Angel Pave
ment" and "Faraway." makes every
episode and observation Of English
Journey seem unique.
MODERN AMERICAN PROSE. Edit
ed by Carl Van Doren. New York:
Harcourt, Brace g. Co.
HERE Is the book for the cruise or
1 to read in bed at the end Of the
day on a motor trip. We suspect the
Literary Guild had something OF the
sort in mind when it made this an
thology its August selection In one
plump volume of 900 pages are ex-
tracts from the work of so modern
writer's, including IL episodes from
| well-known novels, 4 noveletteS,
short stories, s sections from notable
biographies, 10 portraits of persons,
| 10 sketches Of places, 8 studies in
literary criticism and play, What
Price Glory?" Selections are never
anything but q substitute for a COM
plete work of literature A digest of
magazine articles does very well for
the reader who will never have time
| or inclination to read the articles
themselves. So an anthology, especi-
ally such a well-edited one as this, is
next best to all the originals from
which it is drawn. And it does have
the advantage of convenience, when
perhaps only one book may be packed
in the luggage, or pickup" reading
is needed to suit mood. Here almost
any mood may be catered to.
A peculiar value attaches to this
anthology, also, as representing the
prose literature Of our country dur
ing the years between the World War
and the new deal. Opinions differ
about the uualitv Of the literature