Show I I. I Distinguished Books Few in 1928 Author and Critic Finds No Outstanding Works During During During Dur Dur- ing Year Says Thomas Hardys Hardy's Death Means I End of English Literature L By CARL VAN VANDOREN DOREN Author Editor and Critic NEW YORK YORI YORK The The The year 1928 hason has hason hason on tho the whole not been so striking striking striking ing as 1927 In the number of particularly particularly particularly par par- outstanding books pro pro- Hardly a single book booc has swept the world of readers so that all of them no matter what their ordinary tastes have felt obliged ed to read it as they read Trader Horn or The Bridge o of San Luis Ret Nor has there been any striking striking- shift shUt in public taste w which can be easily eastly observed A few changes chang however do appear to be taking place and the year 1928 has hiLs carried them along along- One of these changes not yet et very far along Is In the fashion of biography BIOGRAPHIES PROMINENT For the past eight or ten years ears all ll sorts of writers no matter what their special gifts AUts or preparation have been scampering scampering- through h history history history his his- tory looking for conspicuous figures about whom they could write books which would prove pro that the good g and great were not what they had long long- been thought No doubt Lytton set sei the fashion with his Eminent Victorians and his Queen Victoria But whereas where where- a as was really learned In Inthe Inthe inthe the subjects which he ho chose and wrote with the greatest precision he has been imitated by writers who have havo written loosely All An that many of them have really tried to catch from him was his iron Irony and that the they have frequently turned Into tiresome sarcasm or conventional conventional conventional conven conven- c cynicism CHEAP BIOGRAPHY PASSING The publication lon of another book by Lytton Elizabeth and Ess Essex x ought to call the attention of ot the public to tho the great at difference difference differ differ- ence nce between the work of or the master master mas ones ter and his followers There Thero are already Igns that the dreadful type of writing known as biography is passing out of favor I It is to be hOJ hoped d that favor may likewise be withdrawn from front Ignorant Ignorant ignorant Igno igno- rant and cheap biographies The year 1928 has probably no nomore nomore nomore I more distinguished books to show in fiction than Aldous Huxley's Point Counter Point and Herman Melville's Shorter Novels The first of these may be considered the most modern book boo of the year In that It represents represents' a a group roup of characters who live in what is known as the most modern fashion and who Have tile the most modern thoughts about themselves and their fate fates It Is almost a complete mirror mirror mir mir- of o advanced opinion and be behavior behavior behavior be- be havior In the present Even when manners ch change as they presumably presumably ably will this book will wUl remain a brilliant picture of the strange strang-e life o ot of the postwar generation INTERESTING NOVELS Melville's Shorter Novels on the other hand were all written many years ago and in a sense be belong be bc- long to no particular time what what- ever over The discovery of one of them and the reprinting reprinting- of or the others must be regarded as Important facts In the history of fiction But Dut these particular short novels are Interesting Inter Inter- esting without reference to the age which produced them or which 1 brought them to life lite Th The year ear 1928 which saw the death of of Thomas Hardy and consequently consequently consequently con con- the dramatic end of an era of English literature has s seen n something something- else not quite so dramatic dramatic dra dra- matic or so easy to detect Thatis That ThatIs Is the gradual g rise of the feeling that George Bernard Shaw has said mo most t of what he had to say and that much of ot that now seems not particularly exciting SHAW A TEACHER Shaw himself having alwa always s said ho he was a teacher first of all al will not regret that his principal los Ici- essons es- es sons bons have been cither r learned or elre elfe decided against t by the public It Is nevertheless interesting to realize that a good many ninny of pt Shaws Shaw's plays s now seem hardly more applicable to the present age than do most of Thomas Hardys Hardy's early et novels if It Hardys Hardy's poetry has succeeded his novels in favor or that tha l is only because Ul poetry I is likely o to bo be more moc uni universal uni- uni I versal than novels or comedies 1 |