NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15750, 17 November 1916, Page 3

NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

RECE2TT riCTTON. BRITAIN'S DEATHLESS AEMT. It may soetu a sweeping statement, hut we think it may fairly be said that "The I irst Seven Divisions."' by Lord Ernest Hamilton, late of the 11th Hussars, is the most important, and in many respects the. most int-er-estLn:; book whirb ypt. bppn published dolling Tciv.h t.hr arlnal fighting in the jjreat. war. It is a. record of toe dorngf. of tie First, British Expeditionary Force in vhe fighting from Moils to Yprrs. It is the frf-t time -that. tJie story has been told ■='> lyord Hamilton having had aciccss to manv reports inaccessible to others, and liaririg had his work read by the ofßcer comrnandinn; one of the finest brigades. That ,t will make the heart of ever Briton glow with patriotic pride gtws without saying. It is nowproved beyond all question even by otir enemies that Ixsrd French's "contemptible little force" was tho finest army for it** size tho world has ever seen. It, may be that we shall not look upon its like again. It represented aJI that wa.s best iu picked professional troop?, and it may he that, in future England may roly principally, if not solely, upon her citizen armies. Tho saddest thought abont it is that as an army it hap cease.d to exist. As Lord Ernest. Hamilton remarks, "The First Expeditionary Force is 110 more. The distinctive names and numbers of tho units that composed it- still faco one from tho pages of the Army List; but of the bronzed, cheery men who sailed in August, 1914, one-third lie under the soil of France sjkl Flanders. .Of those that remain, some have been relegated for ever —and of a cruel necessity—to more peaceful pursuits; others—more hopefully convalescent —are looking forward with eagerness to the day -when they will once more be fit to answer the call of duty and country." Tho glory of their' heroic deeds will never fade. Small as they were compared with the great armies of the enemy, time after time they apparently achieved the impostribte, by successfully standing up against overwhelming numbers, and so saved not only the cause of the Allies, but the cause of civilisation. The retreat from lions will always be remembered in military history as showing qualities of pluck and tenacity which are as much worthy of grateful remembrance ap the most brilliant victory could be. Individual instances of heroism are so numerous in these thrilling pages that any one chosen at random will do as well as the rest.- Take for example the incident in which Major Yate, of the. King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, won the V.C. at L© Cateau.

"His company had been in the second lino of trenches during tho bombardment, and had suffered terribly from the enemy's shell-fire directed at one of our batteries just behind. When tHo German infantry came swarming u]> ill the afternoon, thero ware only nineteen sound men lefb in the company. These nineteen kept up -their fire to tho last moment, and then left the trench and charged, headed by Major Yatc. Thero could be but one result. Major Yato foil severely wounded, and his gallant band of Yorkshiremen ceased to exist. It was the Thermopyla? of B Company, 2nd K.0.Y.11L This battalion lost twenty officers and six hundred men during the battle, and was probably the heaviest sufferer in the sth invision. It stuck it till the last moment, and the enemy got round its right flank."

Subsequently Major Yato foil wounded into the hands of the enemy, and was killed on Septomber 21st, while attempting to escape from Torgan. Incidentally Lord Ernest Hamilton clears up one mystery which caused a good deal of comment in the earliest days of the war. General Sordet, who was at Avesnes with three divisions of cavalry and was appealed to for help at a time when the extrication of Sir Horace Smith Dorrien's force seemed impossible, did come to their assistance and did great and gallant work although not on the morning of the 26th, when he was most urgently required. iQn that fateful day, .we are told. Jus horses were ridden to a standstill, and he could do nothing. The defence of Ypres and the stand made by the sth Division at and around Givcnchy when the Kaiser, with 750,000 men, tried to break through to Calais, will bo ever memorable in the history of war, and the peril from which we were saved on those qceasions was extreme. As Lord Ernest Hamilton points out, if the attempt to break through either at Ypres or La. Bassee had succeeded, the littlo British force would either have been wippd out or hopelessly disgraced m the eyes of its Allies. In either case the prestige of England would hare received a rude shock, aud with a German base established at Calais we should have been in imminent danger of losing something more than prestige. ''Many of the regiments engaged," says the author, "were technically annihilated." Their officers wont; their N.C.O.'s went; they were worn to the last Stage of physical exhaustion by sleeplessness and by unceasing digging and fighting. And still they held on. There were no 'hand-uppers' among these men from Britain." Again... the 7th Division's performance daring ite throe weeks east of Ypres, will live in history. Many other units had, by the second half of November, lost as heavily in officers aud men as had the twelve battalions of the 7th Division —in one or two cases oven more heavily : but the losses of these had been ' distributed over three months; those of the 7th Division were concentrated into three weeks. "There is something particularly stirring,' says Lord Ernest Hamilton, "in the thonght of this small force, beaten back step by step, as fresh and fresh troops were, hurled upon it day after day, arm yet never turning its hack to the foe, never beaten, never despondent. and never for a moment failing in the trust which had been imposed upon it." For the work done by England's professional army at the outlet of the «"ar, humanity, we believe, will have reason to be equally grateful. . . Mcauwhile every lover of tlte Empire should thank God that we had these brave men to stand up against the enemy in our dire>t hour of peril. Wp strongly commend this work to onr readers. (London: Hurst and Rlaekott Ltd.. Paternoster House. E.C. Christchurch: Messrs Whitoombc and Tombs.')

VTTTH THE FRENCH. Amonr, the American war correspondents. Mr Richard Harding Davis stood pre-eminent for his knack of ingratiating himself with the military authorities, his faculty, therefore, for securing. information, and the great skill ■with which he presented it. These qnalitie-s an? evident, in his last' book, entitled "With the French in France and Salonica,' 1 readers of which will be moved to fresh regret that, such a gifted vrriter is now no more. It was written during the three Last months of 1915, and the first month of this year in the form of letters from France, Greece, %Serhia. and England. The writer visited ten or twelve sectors of tho French front, and was also on tho Franco-British front, in the Balkans. All he saw. he tells us. served to strengthen liio admiration for thf

French army and as individuals and as a nation for the French people, and to increase his confidence in the ultimate success of their armies. Mr Harding Davis is a great. ""Westerner," holding thg t the war would be over much sooner were, all the fighting concentrated. in Europe, and as far as. possible on the Western front. He is obviously a . great well-wisher of Allies, and "hi? very plain-spoken remarks about the action, or warn, or action, of President Wilson, and the unpopnlarity of his country in every part of Europe, must have required a £ood dnal nf courage for an American journalist to write, and for American newspapers to print. There i&_ 3 gentle strain of humour running through all Mr Davis's writing which makes it. very pleasant, to read them, and this book is in his most attractive style. ("London: Duckworth and Co., Covent Garden : Chnr.tehnrch : Whitcombe and Tombs).

ANOTHER. •'SAPPER" BOOK. Admirer*, of "Sergeant. Michael Cassidy. RJL." and "The Lie.ntenant and Others," by "Sapper," will welcome another book from the same pen entitled "Men, Women, and Guns?"' These sketches and talcs 01 the war arc very vivid, very interesting, and. as in "Sapor's" previous books, the humorous element prevents the reader from at any time feeling unduly depressed by the grimmer realities touched upon. The only fault wo have, with "Sapper" is that, while his setting is accurate, he. givf S perhaps a little too much play to his imagination. If ho is not quite as convincing as some other writers, however, he is always entertaining. His best character study, "Private Merrick, Company Idiot," is absolutely true to life, and the humour is infused with deep pathos. (London, Hodder and Stoughton: Christchurch, L. M. Ifitt- and Simpson and Williams).

RECENT FICTION. In "The Key of the World," a new writer, Dorin Craig. makes a promising beginning in fiction. The scene of the story varies from the wicked world of society lifo to simple anrl iayllic country life (as novelistg seo it), down in Somerset. Lord Trevengarth. dies unlamented. leaving a note for his father to say that-, in order to spit© the noble .family. he lias left an heir to the earldom to be brought up as a rough country lad amongst boorish peasants. The heir reclaimod proves a fine Somerset youth, "tremendous in physical strength and power, but simple as a child in his dealings with tho world." The effort to domesticate a nobl© savage who speaks tho truth, pines for a faithful, hut self-sacrificing, milkmaid loft, behind, and goes out to amuse himself on the ancestral estate by ploughing, is given up at. last for excellent reasons: the moral being that to lose a titlij and a family, may sometimes mean gaining "the key of the world." (London: John Land's Colonial Library, 2s 6d.)

The motive idea, of Ahasnerns, the Wandering Jew passing through our modern world, and reviewing to-day's problems by the light of his long past, might have been worked into a most impressive novel or play. In "Ahasuerus," this theme is treated by Charles Brumm in a discursive style which is neither dignified enough for the allegory, nor compact enough for a good, modern tale. Some chapters there are which havo the nocossary charm of directness and purpose. Others arc vagne declamations; others too crudely realistic. It is a curious effort, and if the author is hardly successful in what he emphatically" calls "a novel," ho deserves credit for attempting a fine plot, and also for his generous scheme of devoting all profits from the book to tho benefit of Belgian refugees. (London: T. Werner Laurie, Ltd.,. 2s 6d.)

A young man has. been injured in a colliery accident, and lies at the point, of de^tli.' To him enters a strange ana desperate young -woman, who declares that in order to secure five thousand a year and safety from a scoundrel's blackmail,, she must be married at once. He consents to a death-bed ceremony, and Lady Violet Vayne becomes the wife of Raymond Wilson —really Raymond Brandon, and a millionaire's son in disguise! Now complications begin, and mysteries all the more perplexing because there is another young man in the story who not only bears an extraordinary likeness to the true Raymond, but makes use of his reported death to usurp his name. Also, of course, the true Raymond does not- die. He recovers promptly, and falls in love at first sight with quite a different young woman. So there is a sequence of romantic events,- related by Miss Mario Connor Leighton, under the title "The Man "Who. Knew All," and forming a volume quite up to the 7isual standard of Miss Leighton''s works. (London; John Long's Colonial Library. 2s 6d.)

A now story by' Marguerite Bryant, author of •"'Christopher Hibbault, Roadmaker," bears as title the heroine's pretty name, "Felicity Crofton." The reader must be prepared to fare the unusual fact that when two attractive persons are presented in the first chapter it is the mother, not the daughter, in -whom wc are to be chiefly interested. '•'Mndre' 1 (a sobriquet by which she is addressed, "with annoying- frequency), is, special providcnce for all the less noteworthy young people who surround her. Inveterateiy youthful herself, 6he assists everyone's matrimonial happiness, and even achieves the exceptional grace of being more than half in love with her own son-in-law! The one fault in the position is that while developing the brightness of this particular star, Miss Bryant rather ncgjltected her minor characters, nnd so has failed to make them sufficiently alive. (Christcburrli: Simpson and Williams. Ltd. 3s 6d. London: \villiam Hcinemann.)

Princess Catherine Radziwill's war novel, "'Because it was Written." i R the direct outcomc of a visit to the Russian lines during the present war, and stands dedicated to the memory of her only son, who fell in action against the Prussians, ''and to all who, like him. gave their lives for the cause of Liberty, Justice, and Civilisation." The book gives a highly interesting picture of things from the Russian point of view. Many of its incidents are vouched for as true —the terrible stories of Marie Therese. Hendrik and the Marianne Yreux. as well as Ihe horrors of the so-called battle of Tannenberg, when two Russian Army corps. betrayed into impassable marshes, were fired at even as they sank into their grave of mud. The love story itself i« set amidst the Russian fighting, and it is the progress of the war which unites some hearts in life and sonr.' in death. The book is, ir. iac-t. described most accurately by Princess Radziwill as "a record." "The tale of several lives 'typifying, no doubt, countless others) that were ranch*, in the-maelstrom of war. whirled hither and thither, some lost in the process, others brought back again to the starring point, bruised and broken, ypf purified by experience, made beautiful by sorrow.*' (London: Cassell and Company. Ltd. Ohnstehurch: Simpson and 'Williams, Limited, 3s 6d.)

A simple, homely romance of the Canadian "V\ est. full of ontdoor interest and of tho spirit of Empire-building, is offered to us in Mr Robert Stead's new novel. ••'The Homesteaders." How a newly-married couple go off to take up new land far West; how" they build their first hut. and plough their first, acre, and deal, by degrees, with all the difficulties of prairie life, is told with a great deal of simple force and skill In the. second half of the book we find the settler grown rich; and are shown that what was happy, voluntary work in his youth, becomes a task bevond bearing to children compelled still to slave on. for their father's gain, whpn the zc=t. and demand of poverty i.-, gone hy. Some sensation are less convincing: though designed to teach

that father the error of his ways. Robert Stead has a straightforward style 3nd an appreciation of natural beauty—both good qualities for a novelist. especially when dealing with primitive themes. (London: T. Fisher Unwin, Ltd., 25.) . BRIEF NOTICES. While attention is now rightly being given to the existence of the social evil with. a view of warning the. young against the dangers thai beset them, we are gla/l to see an effort, oil the constructive lines of holding up for imitation positive ideals of sex relationship. With this end in view A a valuable little series, of pamphlet*; putitled 'Marriage. and Morality: Papers by Various Authors," has just been published. The first, "Successful and Unsuccessful Marriages." by Mrs Creighton, wife of the late BisJiop of London, is beautifully written, very helpful, and sets exactly the tone- in which such questions should be. treated. .3. Harmony of Body and Soul,' 1 by Gemma Bailey, continnes on the same lines, and this is followed by "Purity,"' by A. Herbert. Gray, and "In Praise of Virginity," by Alma lv. Pagett. Mr Gray's pamphlet is especially adapted to the use of growing lads and young men. (London, Longmans, Green, and Co.. 39 Paternoster R<ow, London. Price. 3d each, net). Mr John Buehan has written a clear and concise account of the Battle of Jutland, illustrated by photographs, a.nd this is published by Thomas Nelson and Sons, Ltd., at thn popular price of 3d. •'War Work for Boys and Girls,'' by George Mallory, is a suggestive little paper, which urges a closer study of history and the duty of thinking about the F/mpire ,-jiid what, is best for it in the future. (London George Allen and Unwin, Ltd., 3d net). Two excellent additions to Messrs Hodder and Stoughton's cheap library of fiction are "The Witness for the Defence," by A. E. W. Mason, and "Secret. Service," by Cyril Townsend Brady. (London : Hodder and Stoughton, price, one shilling net).