Hugh Walpole: An Appreciation

The essay praises Hugh Walpole's gifts as a novelist, emphasizing his fusion of inner psychological forces and vivid external description, and argues that his work sustains a quality the critic calls magic. It surveys several novels, noting fresh perception, lyric passages, and resistance to prevailing materialistic trends, arguing that his characters remain both provincial and universal. Close analysis focuses on The Golden Scarecrow, describing its premise of childhood memories of a serene existence, its avoidance of cheap sentiment, and its vivid London settings such as March Square, while highlighting themes of innocence, accident, and pity tempered by resentment.