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189 SHEILA KAYE-SMITH: AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WRITINGS ABOUT HER By Paul A. Doyle (Nassau Community College, State University, N. Y.) The following bibliography contains all critical studies and the most Important reviews about Sheila Kaye-Smlth which I have been able to locate, except those references which too casually or briefly mention her work. Also useful for Information about Sheila Kaye-Smlth, but not abstracted In this secondary bibliography, are two of her own books: All the Books of Mv. Life and Three Ways Home. Incorporated In this blbllograpïïy are all annotations which have appeared In earlier issues of ELT and which were gathered by Professors Gerber and Temple, and Marie T. Tate [Mrs. Paul Farr], Agatha, Mother M. "Sheila Kaye-Smlth of Sussex, An Appreciation," Catholic Library World, LXXV (Nov 1943), 35-37, 50-51. SKS "never Invents plots, because life Is her plot." She Is a realist and an expert In describing rural scenes. She Is not pedantic like Galsworthy, and although she possesses a Hardylike sadness, there Is nothing of his hopelessness nor despair, nor of his "arrogant, deterministic philosophy." Some of her writing Is truly eloquent, and she deserves applause for her "magnificent Intuitive power." Allen, Fletcher. "Sheila Kaye-Smlth In and Out of Fiction," Literary Digest International Book Review, II (Sept 1924), 726-27, 733. SKS is a participant and not a spectator in life. She "rebels against the Idea of a women being secondary to any man in the affairs of life." Her ability to turn out "»dramas of the soil'" from the "staid," "stodgy" suburban area she calls home Is "a tribute to her genius." A further surprise Is her own "slim elegance," a "delicacy of touch and subtlety of method" found In her personally as well as In her stories. She borrowed little from other authors, choosing "to discover" for herself. A small part of Sussex "Is the background of Sheila Kaye-Smlth's art," not the entire Sussex Downs, but the area Inhabited by the marshmen, "who fight for life and sustenance with the damp, heavy air of the marshes, with Its lowlands and dykes" - perhaps accounting for the gloom of her characters. The End of the House of Alard "has recaptured for us a particular phase, the passing of the English country squires from the old farms and territories." In this book she seems to show "at least, strong leanings toward Catholicism, Anglo If not Roman." Allen, Walter. "Her Vocation Was Reading," New York Times Book Review, 27 May 1956, p. 10. All the Books of M£ Life Is a "blbllography " of her life as a reader. The two forms into which her reading fell seem to be "that which explores the relation of man to God on the one hand and fiction on the other." A dual concern with novels and the "things of the spirit" did not, however, prevent her "comments on novels" from being "unremarkable " and "not always accurate." Allen, W. Gore. "Sheila Kaye-Smlth: A Convert Novelist of Britain," Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Fifth Series LXIX (June 1947), 518-28. SKS was initially attracted to Catholicism by emotion; she possessed the "hovering Intelligence of Newman." She came 190 to believe "that Canterbury may encourage good people to be better; It does not encourage average people to be good." Her books are uneven; some are "Intuitive, powerful, abiding"; other works contain only puppets. Little England has been underrated by critics; this novel Is a meaningful portrait of the "little people" of England. "The very slight lowering of quality" [In her later work] "Is accounted for by age and that weariness with which apologetics do seem to fill the human spirit.» Arns, Karl. "Sheila Kaye-Smlth," Zeltschrift ftir Franzosischen und Englischen Unterricht, XXVI:4 (1927) ,~2o"8-79. SKS Is closer to Hardy In bringing man and nature Into artistic unity than most "local color" writers influenced by Hardy. Here also Is a masculine power. She does not have the specialized powers of Hardy and others. In her work all aspects of experience come together - what emerges are powerful characters like Joanna Godden. The End of the House of Alard Is SKS's most alive postwar...

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