The Vanishing East

Abstract

THERE are several different ways in which to write of foreign countries, and Mr. Fielding Hall, who knows his Burma as thoroughly as it can be known by a European, has chosen the psychological point of view and the philosophical method. He had already broken ground in this direction in his “Soul of a Nation,” and one hoped that the fascinating study afforded by that book was to be continued in the present one, which deals with the Burmese in their transition stage. The hope is not altogether fulfilled. An author must not complain if his work is always measured by his own highest achievement, and, although “People at School” is an interesting and suggestive book, it is disappointing after the “Soul of a Nation.” It is, as the author confesses, made up of chapters written at odd times, and the result of this method is a certain amount of repetition and some contradiction, while the style is so jerky and broken as to become fatiguing; but, when these criticisms as to manner have been made, one is still aware that the matter of the book is unusually good and interesting. So much has been written of eastern countries that it is no small achievement to give an unhackneyed rendering of so familiar a theme—and Mr. Hall is never conventional and at the same time is always faithful to life.

A People at School.

By H. Fielding Hall. Pp. viii + 286. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1906.) Price 10s. net.