Books in Brief

Der Seekrieg: The German. Navy’s Story, 1939-1945, by Vice Admiral Friedrich Ruge (U. S. Naval Institute, $5.00). Admiral Ruge has produced a quite readable and exciting account of the little-known battle for the Atlantic. It is little known to us because we have considered it of comparatively minor importance. But from the German point of view it was, in retrospect, decisive. In two wars, Germany was a naval power of great importance which made erratic but sometimes brilliant use of its fleet. But neither Imperial nor Hitlerite Germany was ever, like Britain or the United States, a sea power. Never did the land-locked mind of the General Staff properly assess the value and/or danger of the sea in strategy. It is not too much to say that the price of this strategic seasickness was defeat. It was Anglo-American sea-power that made the countless German victories lead always away from victory. As Churchill noted, the British Navy could not alone win the war—but it could lose it. Without the nullification of this great British advantage, the Germans could not eliminate their most implacable enemy. Not even, like Napoleon, by invading Russia. There is in this melancholy recount an important lesson for us: Russia is a land power, building a formidable navy. As a sea power, are we not paying too little attention to ours?

Corruption, by Nicholas Mosley (Atlantic, $4.00). Henry James once cautioned novelists against overfilling what he called a character’s “vessel of consciousness.” There is just no story to tell about over-interpretive characters whom nothing can bewilder. Mr. Mosley, who has gained much from James stylistically, has not profited from this advice. When Mosley’s Robert Croft begins his quest for Kate, he is laden so low with “consciousness” that he must sound the depth of each personality he comes across. Some are too shallow to arrest a reader as long as they do him. Several others—notably Kate’s son Julius—are deeper objects and justify the expert Jamesian probing. J. l. WEIL

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Der Seekrieg: The German. Navy’s Story, 1939-1945, by Vice Admiral Friedrich Ruge (U. S. Naval Institute, $5.00). Admiral Ruge has produced a quite readable and exciting account of the little-known battle for the Atlantic. It is little known to us because we have considered it of comparatively minor importance. But from the German point of view it was, in retrospect, decisive. In two wars, Germany was a naval power of great importance which made erratic but sometimes brilliant use of its fleet. But neither Imperial nor Hitlerite Germany was ever, like Britain or the United States, a sea power. Never did the land-locked mind of the General Staff properly assess the value and/or danger of the sea in strategy. It is not too much to say that the price of this strategic seasickness was defeat. It was Anglo-American sea-power that made the countless German victories lead always away from victory. As Churchill noted, the British Navy could not alone win the war—but it could lose it. Without the nullification of this great British advantage, the Germans could not eliminate their most implacable enemy. Not even, like Napoleon, by invading Russia. There is in this melancholy recount an important lesson for us: Russia is a land power, building a formidable navy. As a sea power, are we not paying too little attention to ours?

Corruption, by Nicholas Mosley (Atlantic, $4.00). Henry James once cautioned novelists against overfilling what he called a character’s “vessel of consciousness.” There is just no story to tell about over-interpretive characters whom nothing can bewilder. Mr. Mosley, who has gained much from James stylistically, has not profited from this advice. When Mosley’s Robert Croft begins his quest for Kate, he is laden so low with “consciousness” that he must sound the depth of each personality he comes across. Some are too shallow to arrest a reader as long as they do him. Several others—notably Kate’s son Julius—are deeper objects and justify the expert Jamesian probing. J. l. WEIL