Evening star., 1934-12-16
VIEWS AND REVIEWS.
THE GEORGIAN SCENE. A Literary
Panorama. BY Frank Swinnerton.
New York: Farrar & Rinehart.

1 fdIlOTdIlld. by TId1lA 0WAAAiCl VOA1s
New York: Farrar & Rinehart.
IN 70 ONE Of Thackeray's -Four
| M Georges" gives his name to
| VI this scene of Mr.. Swinnerton
i Y but the popular reigning mon
arch of England, George v.
The book is a survey, with running
comment, Of the British authors still
living, or only recently dead, who seem
to Mr.. Swinnerton worth writing
about. As a writer Of prominence
himself, he personally knows most Of
them, but he says in PREDATORY note
that whether he knows them or not,
he adopts the modern usage Of in
| formal address and speakes Of SHAW"
or "Belloc" or Rose Macauley" with
out any "Mr." or Miss" His method
of criticism is equally informal and
in not hampered by fear of enemies
he may make. 1t is certain that, In
mingling commendation and caustic
! structure, James Joyce, in whose
ulysses" he finds only ."hotch-
potch"; Compton Mackenzie, whose
work shows the effect Of his Oxford
generation, which adored 'romanti-
cized decadence"; David Garnett, who
leads readers to expect significance
which is not there, and many others
will not altogether like what he says
about them. Those who are omitted
from the book altogether will prob
| ably like that even less.
Mr.. Swinnerton's method of min
| olive xx,;%y, ~ rriticicy,, cEatnhas ~
personality and appearance, some
merely swift flashes, others more lei
surely, results in series of delightful
literary and biographical essays, which
together justify his subStitle of "lit-
erary panorama" H. G. Wells is
described as "a great sufferer of fools.
He is so kind that one has but to be
simple and receptive to evoke his af-
fectionate consideration. But he is
very impatient of the long story or
the aggressive or pompous manner"
Katherine Mansfield he found EN-
chanting" in her beautiful idol-like
quietness." OF Hugh Walpole he says:
He is less simple than any other
writer I know. His cheerfulness and
good nature, which are perfectly nat
ural to him, his impulsive friendliness,
his wish to establish sincere relation
ships with those whom he likes, are
enmeshed with many reserves and dis
| trusts, with shrewdneSS and good
sense and another trait which vague
| ly decipher as power to shut his
mind to unacceptable aspects of life.
He is capable of great loyalty, ardent
championship, candor; and at the
same time bottomless suspicion, eva
siveness and deep trouble of spirit"
The literary estimates of Mr.. Swim
merton are as sagaciouS as the per-
sonal. He has no love for Bloomsbury
and its assumed intellectual superiority,
the home of what Desmond Mac
Carthy calls alert. original men and
women" but Mr. Swinnerton calls "ill-
hammered and pretentious dilettanti."
Among the literary residents Of
Bloomsbury are Bertrand Rus
sell, who has "a great dislike
of parents, schoolmasters, police
men and judges-an Of whom rep
resent for him embodiments Of au-
thority," and Virginia Woolf, whose
books are constant twitter Of words
and notions They specialize in
disconnectedness." Mr.. Swinnerton is
equally satiric over "the modns" and
their devotees, some Bloomsburyites,
others extending farther afield. Mase-
field, he says, "is not the idol of really
'modn' people. He has become Poet
Laureate, which fact in itself despite
his predecessor) is enough to ALLEVIATE
opinion" D. H. Lawrence, about
whom "the muss" has been largely
due to the popularity Of psyche
analysis, is given long sketch, both
appreciative and negatively critical.
"His effect upon the young has been
great; his effect upon the old has
often enough been that of nausea"
But the temptation to quote further
from The Georgian Scene" must be
checked.
ULYSSES S. GRANT. The Great
Soldier of America BY Robert r.
Mccormick. New York: D. Apple
ton-Century Co.
THE Personal Memoirs of U. s.
Grant" much of which was writ
ten during Grants last illness, is the
autobiography primarily Of soldier
who had learned how to deal with
facts and situations, expected and un-
expected, on the battlefield. who was
not at home in politics. This study
of Grant by Col. Mccormick, pub
Usher and editor Of the Chicago Tri-
bune, himself man of military ex-
perience, is concerned only with
Grant the soldier. the genius who as
commander in chief of the Federal
Armies saved the Union. Col. Nc
Cormick does not ignore the belittle-
ment of Grant in many quarters in
recent years; he faces and in true
military fashion does battle with
this injustice to his memory
due in part to unconscious political
sentiment, but also to malicious and
deliberate design" Partisans still
moved by emotions provoked by the
, Civil War, he says, are, according as
their sympathies are liberal or aristo-
cratic, devotees of Lincoln or Lee.
Grant, a democratic hero, has been
overshadowed by Lincoln, but he was
Lincoln's chief dependence and was
as great in the military field as Lin
coin was in the field Of statesman
ship.
I'm war everything Is shrouded in
fog" but results cannot be explained
away even by theories Of accidents or
orders of the oponents gone astray or
by any other tricks" of "wishful
thinking" So it cannot be explained
away that Grant was never defeat
ed and that he compelled the
capitulation of ten fortresses, five
armies, and eventually of the entire
hostile government" Col. Mccormick
plunges directly into the military Ca
reer Of Grant, with his graduation
from West Point three years before
his baptism of fire at Palo Alto" in
the Mexican War. Resignation from
the Army was followed by eight un-
successful years of civil life. Then
the outbreak of the Civil War broughr>
,, him back into the Army as an officer
of volunteers. His success, so spec
tacular as to be almost a military
miracle, is common knowledge. Col.
Mccormick does not relate the whole