NOTES AND REVIEWS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 205, 23 May 1908, Page 12

NOTES AND REVIEWS.

"Under-the Shadow of Dread: A Drama." By R.T.H. Whitcombo and Tombs. The receipt of a volume of blank-verso drama by a New Zealand author inspired us with the most dismal uneasiness, at -the samo time as it : was an agreeable change from tho inferior verso that some peoplo insist upon getting printed. "'lf one desires, to fail' conspicuously in atithorship, ho' can select no safer way than the writing of '!a play. Tho author of the volume under notice unhappily illustrates 1 this truth. He has selected for his subject the Danish invasion of England, in tho time of Alfred tho Groat — an attraotive period for a competent writer of romances, but one rather difficult for treatment in a historical play. Shakespeare did not attempt the subject, and "R.T.H.," rushing in where Shakespeare feared to tread, has not succeeded in showing that the.man' of Stratford missed an opportunity. 'He has succcedcd, however, in his handling of tho archaic manner. But his characters arc mere lay. figures, with a groat i dearth'of frosh ideas behind their '■ swollen and pompous dialogue. "Tinman," by Tom Gallon. Ward, Lock, and Co., Ltd., London. 3s. Gd. Perusal of this latest and quite characteristic novel by Mr. Tom .Gallon causes renewed I wonder at Mr. Punch's exclamation: "Hero's' anothor Dickens!" Hero is certainly a,good story, but .with licne of Dickens's .power as a creator of character, none of his humour, none of his easy and abounding f-un. Fortunately, the story of is engrossing enough to put odious comparisons out of tho reader's mind. It has two heroes, two heroines, and threo villains, and thoy keep' things going - in the best - sensational style from. beginning to end. An unusual featuro of tho plot is a blank interval 0f,20 years, while tho hero is in prison. When ho conies out, the events of tho earlior time are acted over again by the younger set of .hero, heroine, and villain, with' assistance from the survivors of Part I. This repetition of tho struggle between good and evil, truo love and falso, cm almost the samo terms, helps to create that scjiso of, overmastering fato, and of passions akin to fato, which is perhaps the strongest feature of tho book'. It is a novel that would dramatise well. Indeed, it would be a better novel if.it wore less like a play. We have received"Tho Land o' the Leal: AVlio WToto.it?" by A'. Crichton (Mills, Dick, and Co., Dunedin); "The Mother," by Eden Philpotts (Ward, Lock and Co., per.S. and W. Mackay); "Political Fingerposts," by H. D. Bedford (Dunedin "Evening Star"); '.'The Lamp of Psyche," by Johaauios Andersen (Melbourno: T. C. Lothian) ; "The Mosquito," by W. J. Rainbow (Molboulne: Lothian); "Quinton's Rouse-about," by E. S. Soronson (Melbourno: Lothian) ; "An Old Man's Darling," by Lucas Cleove (Unwin's Colonial! Library); "Moods and Melodies," by Mary Fullerton (Lothian), Notices of these books will appear in a future issue. " Belioving in Australia, pur message shall be a cheerful, and therefore an invigorating one," says tho editor of "Mind and Body" (Melbourne: Lothian) 1 in introducing some now features that make this, little morithly a really bright and attractive periodical. To the extracts from old and new authors there are now added a , number of original articles, comments, vorses, and paragraphs. The change -i? pleasant, and promises to convert "Mind and Body" into a most useful combination of heavy philosophy, brightly treated with lighter things. Everybody ought to like this, littlo paper—poots, '_bookfellows, vegetarians,- - solemn. people, frivolous folk, ■lovers of the simplo life and the ■ punchingball, and oven philosophers. There is something for everybody who. thinks,; excepting the politician, who, of course, grows towards doing without thought. Tho. suggestion may be made that " Mind and Body " is not exactly tho title to attract tho. readers for whom , tho publication is intended; it is exactly the titlo that will frighten away everybody but the dull peoplo, who liko their reading heavy. :

: " Mind and Body," the Melbourne monthly, states that Mr. Hubert Church, of this city, is about to publish in Melbourne a now volume o£ his verses.