describe the amorous episodes in
'Tono-Bungay.' I cannot copy and I cannot summarize the loathsome tale of
George Ponderevo's engagement and marriage and divorce. Nor can I speak of
his intrigue with a typist, and of the orgy of lust described at the close
of the book...." Now, there is not a line in the book that could not be
printed in the _British Weekly_. There is not a line which fails in that
sober decency which is indispensable to the dignity of a masterpiece. As
for George's engagement and marriage, it is precisely typical of legions
such in England and Scotland. As for the intrigue with a typist, has
Claudius Clear never heard of an intrigue with a typist before? In
faithfully and decently describing an intrigue with a typist, has one
necessarily written a "Justine"? And why "orgy of lust"? Orgy of
fiddlestick--if I am not being irreverent! The most correct honeymoon is
an orgy of lust; and if it isn't, it ought to be. But some temperaments
find a strange joy in using the word "lust." See the infuriating
disquisition on "Mrs. Grundy" in "Tono-Bungay." The odd thing is, having
regard to the thunders of Claudius Clear, that George Ponderevo is
decidedly more chaste than nine men out of ten, and than ninety-nine
married men out of every hundred. And the book emanates an austerity and a
self-control which are quite conspicuous at the present stage of fiction,
and which one would in vain search for amid the veiled concupiscence of at
least one author whom Claudius Clear has praised, and, I think, never
blamed--at least on that score. I leave him to guess the author.

TCHEHKOFF

[Sidenote:_18 Mar. '09_]

One of the most noteworthy of recent publications in the way of fiction is
Anton Tchehkoff's "The Kiss and Other Stories," translated by Mr. R.E.C.
Long and published by Duckworth (6s.). A similar volume, "The Black Monk"
(same translator and publisher), was issued some years ago. Tchehkoff
lived and made a tremendous name in Russia, and died, and England recked
not. He has been translated into French, and I believe that there exists a
complete edition of his works in German; but these two volumes are all
that we have in English. The thanks of the lettered are due to Mr. Long
and to his publisher. Tchehkoff's stories are really remarkable. If any
one of authority stated that they rank him with the fixed stars of Russian
fiction--Dostoievsky, Tourgeniev, Gogol, and Tolstoy--I should not be
ready to contradict.