Library Review

McCOLVIN, L.R.

1934 Library Review

doi: 10.1108/eb011973

WHEN broadcasting began many librarians thought that wireless would make people read less. We were wrong. On the contrary, as a nation we are reading very much more than ever. This may seem a sweeping generalisation, but I have been a librarian in touch with all kinds of readers, booksellers and publishers, in different parts of England, for more than twenty years, and I find evidence to support this statement in all directions. We have found ourselves living in a world that is unsettled, changing. We've begun to ask questions about ourselves, our fellow creatures, our environmenteverything. And, in increasing numbers, we've turned to books for the answersnaturally, since books are the store houses of facts and ideas, and, because of their limitless range, they can offer something to all types of seekernot only knowledge but pleasure, comfort and vision.

MAUROIS, ANDR

1934 Library Review

doi: 10.1108/eb011974

TIMES of war or revolution, or indeed any periods of stress and disturbance, are definitely unfavourable to the activities of the artist. Under such conditions, the production of outstandingly good literature is consequently rare. This salient fact must be clearly borne in mind before one can hope to arrive at anything like a true estimate of the value, to date, of the twentieth century literary output.

DRINKWATER, JOHN

1934 Library Review

doi: 10.1108/eb011975

I AM one of those optimists who do not believe that there is anything very seriously amiss with the modern theatre. It is certainly very much alive, and has triumphantly confounded the critics who predicted that the advent of the talkies would deal it a death blow.

RUSSELL, J.A.

1934 Library Review

doi: 10.1108/eb011976

OUT of the chaos of war and the further burdens immediately peace broke out came at least one glorious birththe German novel. 1870the German nation 1919the German novel. Superficially, the antithesis is not without truth at no time could it be said that prewar Germany kept pace with its Gallic and English neighbours in achieving great masterpieces of fiction the prewar German novel, indeed, was popularly about as nonexistent as drama in Scotland or poetry in France. Nor, where it did exist, was its form other than merely plastic,the conventional novel of manners, for instance, if it was really desired at all, seemed continually to be eluding Germany. Prewar novel writing Germany, in a word, was a complete paradoxGilbertian and Chestertonian at the same time for the very theories which might have been requisitioned to account for this strange phenomenon seem themselves of an almost contradictory nature.

NAIRNE, CAMPBELL

1934 Library Review

doi: 10.1108/eb011977

I have come to the conclusion, a Scottish novelist told me recently, that no novel is worth reading. His wife heartily agreed with him. She was quite definite in her preference for a good biography.