Mr. Bennett Looks at Life The Savour'. of Life. By
Arnold Bennett. (Cassell. 6s.) Tnxsu " essays in gusto ", glitter like the author's many- faceted and brilliant personality. He goes into Westminster
Cathedral and writes about it hi his best Five Towns manner (such a stimulating shower, after the lyricism of Mr., Belloc in Seville) ; or he will give the doctors a piece of his mind and grow slightly mystical, although in a guarded way. There is nothing, we niust remember, that Mr. Bennett dislikes more than obscure writing ; it is strange therefore that we shOuld find hini acclaiming Miss Sitwell as a major poetess.
• His view of Henry James is as understandable as it is un- favourable. " I will admit that he knew everything about
writing novels • exetpt how to keep my attention." In this connexion it is-interesting to compare Henry James on young atithois with Mr. Bennett on the same subject. Her-els-Henry
James writing of The New Novel, 1914
" feel it ,not to be-the paradox it may at the first blush seem that- the state' of the novel in' England at the present time is virtually very much the state of criticism itself ; and this, more- over, at the- risk perhaps ,of. some added appearance .of perverse remark, by the very, reason that we see criticism so much in abeyance:SO' far as we miss it' altogether how and why &et; its state " matter, and why and how can it and should it., as 'an absent force, enjoy, a relation to that constant renewal of our source of fiction which is a preSent one so far as a force is a force at all ? The-relation is this in the 'fewest words : that no equal outpouring of matter into the mould of literittire; or what roughly passes for' such, has been'-noted to live 'its life and maintain 'its flood, its level at least of .quantity and Amass, in such free and easy independeace• of critical .attentioh."..
If the reader.can make head or :tail .of. this at. first -sight. he
must
be wise. turn to Mr.. Benneft's
chapter on the same subject, and let him say frankly which is the more coherent, infornuitive, or useful. The giants are still with us.
There is a most amusing 'chapter on our distressing and absurd adherences to the weights of troy and avoirdupois, and another on European hotels, where the author observes that visitors who are senseless enough to bestow tips in a country where a percentage for service is added to the bill, should be chained to the plinth of a statue in the Place de ha Concorde. We heartily agree with him. In a chapter on .films, Mr. Bennett tells us that thutotal of his earnings in the film rights of seven of his books and plays is £6,400, and that on one occasion he worked for three months for. the Famous Players Lasky Co. for £1,000, " a sum which I. could have
earned in a month at my ordinary work." • • ; - In a chapter reviewing three authors who have attempted to elucidate Einstein occurs a refrain " It is disfigured by misprints, which seems odd for a scientific work," and we mist echo this observation in applying it to Mr. Bennett, for an author who reckons his royalties by -tens. of thousands- of pounds should have someone to see .he did not write " indig- nation" for indigestion and "Imitations of Immortality" for intimations—or is this a joke One can be amusing without being inaccurate. - .
• This is very good journalismno more or less. As the basis of good conversation is the act-of giving, so the fouhdation of good writing is to make the reitilcr• think; or anywaythink he -thinks. Mr.-Bennett is an adept-at-that and has given-Us a double cocktail of-conceits and persiflage ; its chief ingredient is wisdom and ithas a good taste. ^ • • -
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