Reviews: Unsigned

66. and astonishing evocation of the Jerusalem and Palestine of the dim past;" HjJIL J1ND F/JlEVJELL a "comical and endearing picture of Dublin literary life at the time of the teeming Irish Renaissance." Ratcliffe, S.K, "George Moore's Burial," NJ1TION (NT), CXXXVI (22 Feb 1933), 20506 . Reports of GM's funeral, ' attended by only a handful of writers and artists ; few great names present, which is perhaps due to '60 years' quarrelling. During service no mention of GM's life or work; no mention of GM's name. Anglican liturgy for a man from Catholic family was inappropriate. J1S an author of "imaginative autobiographies," called in Dublin "Irish comic fiction," GM" is without parallel. Raymond, E.T. "Mr, George Moore," OUTLOOK (Lond), XLV (27 Mar 1920), 348, 349 (cartoon by Edmund Dulac); rptd in LIVING AGE, CCCV (8 May 1920), 353-55. JXthough GM "is an admirable craftsman, his weaknesses are precisely those which most flourish in the freedom which he claims." He would have written no worse had he not been "always a Sadducean spectator on the verge of things." His earlier novels are like "chemical treatises,"'in which detail is "jotted down with the aloof curiosity of the vivisectionist," Read, Herbert Edward. "Pure Poetry," REJ1SON .JJD RORXiTICISM: ESSj1YS IN LITERJJlY CRITICISM. Lond: Faber & Gwyer, 1926. Pp. 59-66. Concerned primarily with GM's theory of pure poetry. Mentions incidentally that ESTHER W.JTERS "has no inner conviction of necessity, like R1DJJIE BOV JRY, no intelligent significance, like L'EDUCaTION SENTIMENTALE," Reid, Forrest. "The Novels of George Moore," WESTMINSTER REVIEW, CLXXII (Aug 1909), 200-08. Generally favorable criticism of GM's novels from A MODERN LOVER through THE LJiE, GM is not sufficiently appreciated. His fiction covers "a wider area of life" than that of·his contemporaries, and, though he can be crude and is too concerned with sex, he is "always interesting and always sincere," His narratives are "models of'construction," and at his best, the movement of his stories is "rapid, strong, and unceasing." His"style, however, is unsatisfactory: "At its best it is modern impressionism, at its worst glaring journalesec" A MODERN LOVER is "admirably composed" and "brilliantly promising," A MUMMER'S 1XFE, "full of the noise and bustle of life"; in the analysis of Kate Ede, "nothing is shirked, nothing is vague." SPRING DJ1YS and A DR.RJ IN MUSLIN are not'as good, but show "wonderful knowledge of middle-class life,," MIKE FLETCHER, very unpleasant and perverse. But thenall GM's characters "are lacking in charm, in distinction, and most of them, morally, are altogether too undeveloped," ESTHER W.XERS is best of these novels ; it is "the result of an absolutely sane vision of life." "Nothing is heightened, nothing emphasized for the sake of tragic effect." Better thpn Hardy's TESS, EVELYN INNES is a'"colossal failure," THE LJKE is better, but the story is over-simplified, and "there is too little life." /Not a profound article, but discriminating and interesting^/ REVIEVE: UNSIGNED APOSTLE. "George Moore's Daring"'Dramatic Travesty of the Gospel," CURRENT LITERATURE , II (Oct 1911), 423-24^ THE JXOSTLE is "the most audacious if not the most blasphemous revision of the gospels ever attempted in print"1—but the blasphemy arose from the fact that GM, sealed off from the public, lived inside the world of art, where a re-arrangement of the Christian story could take place "without even a thought of irreverence or malice or even bad taste," .......... SPECT.'XOR. CXXXI (4 Aug 1923), l60. Refs to GM's 1911 scenario (THE APOSTLE) and its'development in THE BROOK KERITH (l9l6) and in extended revd ed (1922). THE BROOK KEPXTH is GM's "most perfect achievement" and "the most perfect of imaginative prose writings since R1JlIUS THE EPICUREJ1N." THE APOSTLE is "a study rather than a play"; it is a "reverie," 67 ^VE. ATHENAEUM, 25 Nov 1911, p. 659. AVE hardly justifies the anticipatory excitement. "The satire is mild, the laughter friendly and innocuous." GM occasionally lacks reticence. Yeats, Lady Gregory, George ñussell, John Eglinton are more or less sympathetically treated, but Edward Martyn is the real hero. The object of ridicule, pity affection, indignation, he remains...