" There Lies a Vale in Ida "
Greece with a car, a kettle and cameras. By Dorothy Una
Ratcliffe. (Eyre and Spottiswoode. r2s. 6d.) IT would be hard to devise a more exacting subject for a literary competition than that of a travel book to be written round a visit to Greece. The difficulties of saying something new of that country, of possessing the requisite scholarship
for appreciating the historical background, with a sense of proportion to prevent this scholarship from becoming a bore, of conveying the unique effect of the place on a traveller who sees it for the first time, and yet not indulging too grossly in the purple-patch, all make the undertaking per- plexing and perilous for the writer. For each of these particularities, well carried out, marks would undoubtedly be given, and there are many other aspects of approach that would have to be considered with care, in relation to what the reader wanted and did not want to hear. But the quality above all others that seems so frequently lacking among Hellenic wayfarers who commit their experiences to paper is Restraint; and, above all other qualities, it is the one that is most needful for the subject of travels in Greece.
Let it be said at once that neither Greek Earth nor News of Persephone rises high in this essential respect. They are written in widely different but equally unsatisfying styles; and, in spite of intermittent good material in each, neither book manages to achieve a sustained interest or much literary form.
Mr. Hopper's work is the more pretentious, and, on the whole, the more successful of the two. He was on a walking tour with a rucksack, and in shorts, a form of dress which had the effect of making everyone he met., suppose that he was a German, a misapprehension that might also arise from the
somewhat Teutonic creaking of his prose. The first part of his book deals with Athens, and contrasts the modern city with that of the past, making an attempt at the same time to analyse the position of Greece at the present day in Europe. He is not eminently successful in either of these aims, having little or nothing of interest to say about Athens that could not be gathered from a guide-book in a tenth of the time, and sprinkling his remarks on the economic and political situation with jaw-cracking sentences such as : " At least as much can be said of education, that is, a construc- tive and provident effort to build and shape the builders and shapers of the society and State of the morrow, as of society and the State: which, snapshotted at a moment of time, cannot but be transitory."
However, when he gets away from the metropolis and economics and into the Greek countryside, where he found his way to some out-of-the-way temples and towns, Mr. Hopper enormously improves. His adventures and explora- tions are more interesting, and his style, although never easy, loosens up considerably. He has some learning and a great enthusiasm for Greece ; but it may be questioned whether much is gained in any direction by transliterating proper names in such a way that " Socrates " becomes " Solcrates " and " Mycenae " appears as " Mykenai." Miss Ratcliffe (or perhaps it should be Mrs. Phillips) is not pompous in the manner of Mr. Hopper ; but she has literary failings of a scarcely less disturbing order. She is egotistical, gushing, and full of whimsies. She and her husband and Greek refugee mechanic toured the country in a car, cove:- ing a great deal of ground in all directions and having plenty of amusing encounters. But at times the author and her husband, " N.P.," would have conversations like this: " Can a woman, whose sympathies are naturally with Andro- mache and the other Trojan wives and sweethearts who lost their men defending Troy, properly appreciate Helen? Does she really deserve all the eulogies showered on her by poets through- out the ages?'
" ' She was very beautiful,' N.P. replied, lighting another cigarette. . . . 'Beauie charme eternel des hommes et des Dieux.'"
Poor "N.P."! Never throughout the Whole book was he allowed the last word, and more than once he is held up to ridicule for being plodding and Scotch and disliking Greek food. However, in spite of this, he seems to have been responsible for the photographs which illustrate the book, some of which are really excellent, and must have needed a great alertness on the part of the cameraman. It is only fair to say that News of Persephone sets out to be no more than a rambling record of a motor tour, so that it should perhaps be judged by less severe standards than Greek Earth, which claims to set Greece in some sort of political perspective ; but even so, there are moments when the obvious exasperation of some of the Greek peasants who were cross-questioned and photographed communicates itself to the reader ; but there were plenty of other peasants who made gifts of flowers, so that perhaps it is her own efforts to write winsomely that do Miss Ratcliffe an injustice, like Mr. Hopper's efforts to be sage. In short, there can be no doubt that the authors of both books thoroughly enjoyed themselves ; but to give an unselfconscious account of this enjoyment proved too great a
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