Shaw — "The Chucker-Out," by Allan Chappelow (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 355 slowed down by the writer's tangled prose, and the book becomes difficult to read. And this is unfortunate. Brown clearly has a feeling for his subject and can provide shrewd insight into Moody's poems and plays. But he can also become overwhelmed by his own poem analyses and lose perspective in arguing his own belief in Moody's greatness. Although Brown seems not sufficiently knowledgeable about American drama to assess Moody's contribution to that period of significant change which separates James Herne's Margaret Fleming from O'Neill's early plays, he does place Moody effectively among the poet-dramatists of the period. More specifically, he shows Moody drawn "to the drama for a form adequate to the demands of his experience" in life. For all of Moody's plays Brown explores his sources of inspiration, his moods, and his problems in composition ; and he presents detailed plot commentary. Moody's difficulties with The Masque of Judgment, which was at first rejected by his publisher, are recounted in detail. Although The Fire-Bringer is certainly a better play, it is not, as Brown declares, "a better poetic drama than any that had yet been written in America." His discussion of The Great Divide is much more satisfying, and would have been better had he included the plot of The Sabine Women, an early form of The Great Divide, and provided details of the changes that he says were made. Information on the early drafts and revisions of The Faith Healer are also missing, yet it is with this final play by Moody that Brown does some of his best work. Seeing "biographical dimensions" in this play, he equates its theme - flesh vs spirit - with Moody's own life and struggles. It is a revealing and well formed evaluation. For the determined reader who must too frequently struggle through a discouraging prose style Estranging Dawn proves that Moody was much more committed to the drama and theatre than is generally recognized. It also shows in convincing fashion that his prose plays reward the attention of the drama historian or critic in America who ventures to read anything written before 1915. WALTER J. MESERVE Indiana University SHAW - "THE CHUCKER-OUT," a biographical exposition and critique by Allan Chappelow, with a Foreword by Vera Brittain. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1969.558 pp. £3.75. This book has been on the market for the past four years, but it is not the sort of work that is likely to become dated. Its virtues will continue to be attractive and useful, though I'm afraid its faults will not cease to be annoying. The title, a bit artful, is one of those that need explanation. The author took the now-familiar last photo of the 94-year-old Shaw, showing him leaning on his cane outside the door of his home at Ayot St. Lawrence. Actually he was bidding his guest goodbye, but when Shaw saw it he entitled it "The Chucker-Out." Chappelow, using the picture as frontispiece, applies the phrase metaphorically to the whole of Shaw's ideological house-cleaning process. 356 BOOK REVIEWS Chappelow had earlier done a pleasant and revealing study called Shaw, the Villager and Human Being, in which he brought us the comments of the villagers and non-literary associates of the great man, many of whom had probably never seen a Shaw play nor read a Shaw preface. In the present book he collects a wide range of fugitive writings and speeches with the expressed aim of trying "to assist toward a better understanding of Shaw by clarifying Shaw's paradoxical character and attitude to life." Actually it is an enormous potpourri of things that vary widely as to their value and interest. It includes replicas of the complete list of Shaw's famous printed postcard replies, as well as the expected articles and speeches on parenthood, education , literature, marriage, sex, socialism, war and peace, and the revision of the English alphabet. Shavians will find some choice items included, but no ideas that are not expressed (better, for the most part) elsewhere. Among the choicest is his verbatim speech on...