NOVELS.
BURIED ALIVE.*
THE author of this very entertaining work is not the Arnold Bennett who writes of The Grim Smile of the Five Towns, but rather the Arnold Bennett who delighted his readers with that brilliant study, A Great Man. The present book— also a study of the character of a man—does not equal A Great Man in construction and plan, but it perhaps contains an even cleverer strain of social satire. Let it be at once granted that the story is frankly impossible and extravagant, but as an ingenious vehicle for satirising the social life of the twentieth century it must be very highly • Burled 4liso. By Arnold Bennett. Lode*: Chapman and Ball. [C4.1
praised. The hero is Mr. Priam Fan!, a painter with a command of his art very difficult to match among contem- porary artists. His painting is that of a master, and his style individual and original. So convincing, indeed, is Mr. Arnold Bennett's description of the artist's powers that nothing but his astounding choice of a subject for the picture which made his fame will deter the most knowing connoisseur among Mr. Bennett's readers from believing for the moment in the fame of his puppet. Mr. Fern, however, is afflicted with terrible shyness, and lives as a recluse, known to no one. So shy is he that when his valet, Henry Leek, dies suddenly, and the doctor believes the dead man to be Priam Farll and the live man to be the valet, the artist does not disabuse him. Mr. Arnold Bennett achieves a "palpable hit" at con- temporary journalism in the following description of the reading by Priam Farll of the accounts of his projected funeral in the daily papers :—
"The voice of England issued on this occasion through the mouth of the Sunday News, a newspaper which belonged to Lord asing, the proprietor of the Daily Record. There was a column in the Sunday News, partly concerning the meeting of Priam Farll and a celebrated star of the musical comedy stage at Ostend. There was also a leading article, in which it was made perfectly clear that England would stand ashamed among the nations if she did not inter her greatest painter in Westminster Abbey. Only the article, instead of saying Westminster Abbey, said National Valhalla. It seemed to make a point of not men- tioning Westminster Abbey by name, as though Westminster Abbey had been something not quite mentionable, such as a pair of trousers. The article ended with the word 'basilica,' and by the time you had reached this majestic substantive, you felt indeed, with the Sunday News, that a National Valhalla without the remains of a Priam Farll inside it, would be shocking, if not inconceivable. Priam Farll was extremely disturbed. On Monday morning the Daily Record came nobly to the support of the Sunday News. It had evidently spent its Sunday in collecting the opinions of a number of famous men—including three M.P.'s, a banker, a Colonial Premier, a K.C., a cricketer, and the President of the Royal Academy—as to whether the National Valhalla was or was not a suitable place for the repose of the remains of Priam Farll, and the unanimous reply was in the affirmative. Other news- papers expressed the same view."
The burial duly takes place in Westminster Abbey, though the feelings of Priam Farll, who contrives to find his way to the organ loft, are very nearly too much for him, and he makes a serious disturbance. The rest of the story is extremely diverting. Priam Farll marries a woman best described in the author's own words : "She could have been nothing but the widow of a builder in a small way of business well known in Putney and also in Wandsworth. She was every inch that." With her Priam Farll lives a perfectly contented life in Putney till the loss of her money, by sending him again to the easel, makes him discover that his genius is not dead within him. He paints for some years, while a noted connoisseur, who has recognised his style but thinks it an imposture, makes a fortune by buying his works through a small dealer at a low price and retailing them in America as genuine "Priam Farlls." The action brought by the American to discover what he thinks is a fraud is described at full length, and the refusal of Priam Farll through his obstinate shyness conclusively to prove his own identity is made abso- lutely convincing. The book is a brilliant example of the author's skill in whimsical satire, and it may be safely said that there is not a dull page in the whole volume.
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