NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18900, 15 January 1927, Page 13

NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

UNKNOWN SOUTH AMERICA. On the Trail of the Unknown. By G. M. Dyott, F.B.G.S. Thornton Bnttenrorth.

So many better hooks have been written about South America, one by Mr Dyott himself, that it is not easy to put this one in its proper place without over- or under-praising it. From tho point of view of interest only, it can bo honestly and even warmly commended, since Mr Dyott is a daring traveller, and has made wonderful and little-known journeys. As a story-teller also he is natural and bright, and not over-loaded with science. But when so much has been said, it is difficult to add anything further in the way of praise, except to say that he has made good use of a very good camera. His mountaineering attempts were only moderately successful, and in his account of them seem rather pointless and ordinary, while the cream of his knowledge of the Indians has been skimmed in the took we have already had. His most valuable pages—it is a question of taste whether they will also seem the most interesting—are those which he perhnps regards himself as padding, unheroic accounts of drab days spent waiting nl' some forest or river station for drunken, strayed, or deserted carriers. BACK TO FERNROOT. Kative Diet. By Ettie A. Bout (Mrs F. A. Homlbrook). Wm. Helnemann, Ltd. This is an extraordinary example of: the lengths to which a capable mind will go, or be dragged, when it hitches itself to a fixed idea. Tho very first sentence contains an absurdity: Natives such as the Ancient New Zealand Maori habitually took food for life and health; civilised peoples frequently take food merely for amusement or enjoyment. To the extent to which it is Iruo that anybody takes food "for life and health" that person misses life and health. A healthy animal, as the original Maori- was, eats when he is hungry and has something to eat —fruits or roots, flesh, fish, or fowl, grain, nuts, or raw blubber, according to his latitude,, soil, and water. •. Nor is it in tho least remarkable or significant that the Maori called all really nourishing foods, if. he did, HA-0 or Breath-foods. We degenerates also, whom it is the purpose of this book to get back to fern-roots and sow-thistles (sometimes, mercifully, converted into beer), distinguish between good foods and bad, and go further than one quality, and one specialised label, in our classification. But Miss Eout, who has carried out a really interesting piece of research, and then vitiated it by • twisting it to preposterous uses, really thinks , that, the Maori ate fern-root and sea-weed .by conviction, .and that if the Homeland' aB well as our own Dominion were alive to its highest interest it would cultivate a taste for fern-fronds and dahliaroots and grow all its food, at home. However, her book has received the blessing of Sir Arbuthnot Lane, who writes a brief but' commendatory introduction, and' her.publisher has per-, mitted'her to .load it with, footnotes directing the reader to other books of her own containing "fuller details" of this or that practice or custom; A PROMISING BEGINNING. Blindness. By Henry Greon. J. M. Dent and Sons. For a first novel, or any novel at all for that matter, "Blindness," by Henry Green, is. .a .remarkable,..book. Perhaps' it is because of his .own youth, that tho writer shows such an uncanny insight into tho mind of an adolescent bov, but one seldom finds such faultless, brilliant psychology. Mr Green makes no attempt at plot, but on the apparently flimsy foundation of -a clever and rather unconventional public schoolboy's being blinded he builds up an elaborate study, of the ensuing modification in the victim's mental; outlook. ■ The first, forty pageß are whtt*u in the form of an occasional: diary kept by the boy before the accident, and this part' is remarkably effective, perhaps because it is autobiography. ' Mr 'Green shows traces of the influences of his elders, notably the Russian School of Dostoievsky and Turgeniev, from whom his dramatic effects seem especially derived, hut his style is, also reminiscent of- Dorothy Richardson, ■without, her .studied impressionism. One.is tempted to regard him as a new influence in the course of the modern novel.- ■

AN AUSTRALIAN SCHOOL STORY. The Human Pedagogue. By E. G. Jennings. Australian Authors' Agency. Though hundreds of school stories are written every, year, those having any enduring qualities still number only four or five. Most writers fail by not deciding whether they are writing for grown-ups or for boys, and that is tho fault in "The Human Pedagogue," an attempt by an Australian, Mr K. G. | 'Jennings, to give the Australian school a place in literature. '■' The book is too obviously a retrospect, and the author is too often side-tracked into general discussions, which, ■ though' illuminating, are not likely to appeal to a-boy. The story itself, on tho other hand, may grip a boy though it would bore most older persons. It is, of course, worth reading as a description of the peculiar features of school life in Australia — its democratic spirit and its amazing vitality. (Through Kobertson and Mullins.) AN ISLAND MYSTERY. Tho Moving House of Foscaldo. By Oharlos Chadwick. Cassell and Co. Islands always sound mysterious, and Charles Cliadwick has shown judgment in choosing a" small, scmi-desertcd island off the coast of France lor the scene of his excellent mystery book "The Moving House of Foscaldo." The storv' is told by a landscape artist who, finding all his usual haunts overrun by ■fellow craftsmen, wanders off in search, of pastures new, and, coming across the island, sees limitless possibilities tor his work. Ho makes a studio of a' curious old windmill on the edge of the cliffs, but soon finds himself involved • in a'.scries of hair-raising adventures. Mr Chadwick has been very successful in his handling of the old revolutionary mystery, while his style is easy, and free from the sensational tricks usually employed by "mystery" novelists. (ThTongh \Vliitcombe and Tombs.) LIGHTENED BY HUMOUR. Forth Smuggler. By Edmund Vale. Nelson and Sons. Fortunately for the novelists whose creative work takes the form of inventing mysteries which they .tortuously unravel, the demand for such reading b increasing, provided a book succeeds in holding the attention, gives enough thrills without being unpleasantly vivid, and gets away from the beaten track. Just such a one is "Porta" Smuggler," by Ermund. Vale, wellknown for his short stories in "Blackwood's Magazine." The characters are well-drawn, but among them. the.man Bremner. stands out.as an artistic piece of, work. He has a quaint Puck-like sense of humour, which brightens the book consWerably, while Mb detective

instinct is almost as well developed as any in modern literature. An old Welsh farm makes -.a suitable background. MYTHS ANCIENT AND MODERN. Mantis. By Ethelreda Lewis. Hodder and Stougbton. The publishers define this book as a "profound and impressive novel," perhaps because something unusual had to be said about it, and there was nothing else that could have been said even with advertising truthfulness. Most of the characters are utterly unlike novelists' normal creations—they seepi to have stepped out of a book of Celtic folklore—while the writing' is almost "as strange. The action nearly all takes place in. a, deserted part of. Africa, to .which an eminent scientist has been 'sent to collect, for the entomology section of a famous London museum.' The mixture of ancient Greek' and Irish mythology, with the curious strain ofmysticism running' throughout, will perhaps persuade some- ; readers that they are enjoying themselves. (Through Whitcombe and Tombs.)