Evening star., 1949-07-03

Mr.. Standish is a writer of
which he knows very we'll indeed,
and his new novel is high-proof
entertainment. 1t is not what is
known as a light" book, which
people were supposed to read in
hammocks in an era when they
had hammocks. On the other
hand, Elephant Walk" can hard
ly be called profound. 1t has lit
erary faults. but certainly it is
more interesting than lot OF
novels of greater pretense and
more solemn purpose.
Like Somerset Vaughan, Mr..
Standish writes of Englishmen
transplanted in exotic regions.
Though Mr.. Standish lacks the
Vaughan artistry of expression
and skill at Characterization, the
author of Elephant Walk can
evoke atmosphere and ways of
life. While the Englishmen and
the one Englishwoman and the
native major domo who people
this novel are pretty we'll typed,
there are two unusual and dis
tinctive characters.
In His Path.
One is the house known in that
region of Ceylon as the Big Bun
galow, the mansion of teakwood
which the elder Carey built on a
mountain overlooking his immense
domain of coffee plants back in
the middle of the last century.
Years after he was laid to rest
under the cairn in the front yard,
the bride, whom his son George
brought out from England, found
that the teakwood palace was not
a home. designed to serve those
who dwelled in it. but a nlonstrous
thing which demanded service
and obedience from those who
dwelled in it." Ruth learned she
could never be happy in it. despite
its army of servants, Its Oriental
luxury.
The other remarkable character
is a bull elephant, which nurses
for decades a dull resentment
against the Big Bungalow and
against it's builder. He placed it
souarely across the elephant
walk" the trail which the beasts
had used for ages and which the
natives always HAD respected. 1t
was, too. the builder, Tom Carey,
who stood his ground, fired and
brought down the bulls father
and captured his mother when
they charged the half-built bum
galow. The natives warned Tom
that no good would come of dis
regarding the implicit treaty be-
tween them and "the elephant
people"
Sinister Roles.
Both the Big Bungalow, whose
owners called it Elephant Walk
and the bull elephant play sinister
roles in the drama that carries the
family through the period of the
First World War.
The ending suggests Hollywood
rather than life, but will please
readers who contend that there's
enough in life that's depressing
without having to find such things
in books. Mr.. Standish's writing
is marred at times by cliches like
''heart-rending" and pale and
drawn" But he has turned out,
Just the same, fast. taut narra-
tive, with a colorful impression OF
Ceylon. Elephant Walk" is the
July selection of the Literary
Guild.
o. HENRY: THE MAN AND
HIS WORK
BY E. Hudson Long. UNIVERSITY
of Pennsylvania Press; S2.75J
This biographer observes justi-
fiably that o. Henry has been
blamed for his imitators and lis
only now beginning to emerge as
the humorist, craftsman and So
cial historian that he is.''
In the early 1900s, as Mr.. Long
points out. the o. Henry technic,
or what it was imagined to be,
became so popular that the short
story was standardized. Cor
respondence schools were born.
from which aspirants to quick and
easy money we're urged to try
literature" Mr.. Long adds:
The approach to writing was
presented as wholly mechanistic;
forgetting O. Henry's talent,
teachers of the short story in
structed their students in the
manner. So we'll had this manner
been established by the original
that many imitators did achieve
q lucrative market with his
methods"
Some writer's under this in
fuence, like Edna Ferber, Fannie
Hurst and Irwin S. Cobb, did pro-
duce capable stories, the biogra-
pher comedies. but "the writer's
with nothing to say could only
repeat the mannerisms Lacking
skill, they overworked the sur
prise ending and repeated the
formula until it became Ynechan-
ical."
Unfortunately, the formula
persists to this day Few stories
appear in the big-circulation
magazines that fail to fit a Ger
tain mold. The surprise ending,
which editors now call the
snapper" is almost a requisite.
Mr.. Long contends that while
these trick endings often are cheap
and illogical, o. Henry's endings
were not tricks, but the valid and
IL