SOME RECENT FICTION.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1693, 8 March 1913, Page 9

SOME RECENT FICTION.

A Fine Story of War. A dutiful and devoted daughter of Virginia, Miss Mary Johnston, has employed lier undoubted abilities as a novelist in. relating the story of .her native btate in succeeding stages of its history. Jro those fino historical romances, "By Order of the Company" and "The Old Dominion succeeded "Lewis Rand," in and political, and to-day the author gives us the second "• vol-nme-the firrt was "The Long lioli, published a couple of years or so ago—of a trilogy dealing with the part played Ly .the Southern States, and. moro particularly by Virginia and the Virginians, in that' colossal, fratricidal struggle known as the American Civil \\ ar. In Lease Firing" (Constable and Lo.; per .George Robertson and Co.) tho author displays the same brilliant gift or picturesque presentment of'battle scenes clinch has made "The Long Roll" almost a classic in its own'particular genre. There is not, it is-true, so all-prominent a leading figure as that of tho heroic Stonewall Jackson, although a new hero, of almost equal fame, General Lee, occupies a foremost placii on the crowded stage, but in all the qualities of vigorous narrative, of dramatic, stirring passages, and ' poignantly pathetic pictures of human sufl'erln.?» 4 le story '15 again almost bewildenngly rich. Ths action of the story commences at Vicksburg, and thence to the final scene where the Confederate Gov- ; eminent is compelled to leave Richmond 1 to the triumphant Federals, we have a long series of brilliant, war pictures. As in "The Long Roll," there is a subsidiary love story, that of Edward Gary, a young Virginian planter, who, far froih his home, meets on the banks of the Mississippi Desirce Uaillard, a Louisanian beauty of miixed French and English ancestry. It is a slory which, ending, alas, in tragedy, is'replete with fortune, but after all it is merely incidental. The veal : interest of the novel lies in its record'of the superb struggle of the Southerners against +Uo legions of the North, tlie'unfailiug gallantry, the passionate devotion to their cause, of the Virginians of all ranks, of all grades in the social'scale. The render is not always amidst the Sturm and Drang of the actual fighting. He sees how the outlying settlements are affected, how the women and children lived and suffered, and prayed, and wept, far from the actual clang and clash of arms; how the politicians plotted, how some big men, tried in ..(lie fiirnaee, failed, whilst men of "no account" came to the front and shone by sheer fores nf natural moral gallantry and unquenchable patriotism—the story is a veritable cyclopaedia of (he war. Ifow terrible, hoiv in certain of its details postivel.v fiend,ish in its cruelty, was that war, Miss Johnston makes only 100 sadly clear. Hut amidst flie records of carnage, of suffering almost too dreadful lo l.e set down in sober print, there are passages of striking beauty, passages which deal with deeds of gajlnntrr 1 htm wliiieh none nobler were ever set down in history. Portrait studies of great commanders, of Grant and Lee. and uianv others, display Miss Johnston's power of vividly picturesque, characterisation, and it is. too. a special and admirable feature of Iho slory (hat, its author has paid almost equal allenton fn I he- rank and file as to the office''?. "C'e.a=e Firing" i« a story which cannot but add to iU au-

thor's already well-established reputation. It was a happy thought to add an excellent map, reference to which must greatly assist the reader in following the movements of the contending armies. Sarah Grand's Latest. It seems a long time since \\~c liad a new story from the pen of the author of |The Heavenly Twins," but in "Adnam's Orchard" (Heinemann, per Geo. Robertson and Co.), Mrs. Grand has given ns a novel well worth waiting for. Jts portentous length—it runs into COO and odd images—may affright those \vlio prefer their fiction in small doses, but, ior my own part, I would not have it one page shorter. The story is primarily that of an experiment in petite culture, carried out in aJi Knglish village by the son of a yeoman farmer, but in reality it .is not merely a novel, but a sociological study of great interest. Round Adnarn Pratt and his orchard experiment, are grouped a small liost of people in varying grades of society, from a real live duke and a delightfully unconvenuoual duchess, down to hedgers . and ditchers, villago wastrels, and city wasters, Adnain, the son of a well-educated, well, indeed nobly-born German mother, from whom he inherits a romantic temperament which curiously contrasts with the sturdy British practicality of his rather, has a step-brother who is his very antipode in character. The younger brother is naturally well bred, well mannered, generous, tolerant, a true gentleman. . The elder is a mere veneered hog, churlish, suspicious, jealous, and, on occasion, dishonest. Adnam's experiment is described in great" detail, but for me the interest of Mrs. Grand's "quite notable book is tho rich varietv of.its characterisation, and its singularly comprehensive analysis of English rustic life. The problems of country life, the lack of decently paid employment, the dearth of cheap dwellings for the labourers, . the too frequent inefficiency of the older type • ,™. rmei ' an< l landowner and tho selfish iiidilterence of the vulgar plutocracy, which 15 gradually elbowing out or buy--1?* ' m P° V€ rished aristocracy—all tins Airs. Grand deals with courageously, it, perhaps, as some may think, in rather ' too cocksure and combative a mood of i criticism. But the book is full of telling character sketches, full, too, of pas- °? an( l wisdom, sufficient for, half dozen ordinary novels. The wealth of incident, the generosity of food alike for entertainment aud thought, is quite astonishing. And yet there is clearly more to follow, for when we reach the last page Adnam Pratt, his experiment a failure, is going forth undaunted into a wider world, with what possibility of future adventure before him only those who read this excellent novel, can fully estimate. The general note of Mrs. Grand's now story is almost gravely serious, but one character at least, the impishly mischievous Lena Kedlock, evokes pleasant memories of the fun we used to enjoy with the famous "Twins." If, like M. Holland, Mrs. Grand is going to attempt a Jean Christophe scries of stories, we only hope that the Adnam of tho t books to come may find his gravity again challenged by another young lady as amusing as the sprightly Lena. Mrs Grand's book is sure to arouse adverse as well as favourable criticism, but tlie general verdict must, I think*, be one of approval. * • s .

A Yorkshire Story. There is a distinct flavour of Cranford, plus, too, a suggestion of Barrie's dcifghtlul studies of the good folk of Thrums, in Mr. Riley's "Windyridgo" ('Herbert Jenkins, per George Koocrt=on). Announced as a new novel by a new writer, "Windyridge" was, I believe, at first put down as the work of a lady, but it is now known that the novel, which has already gone into a fourth, edition, is the-work of a Yorkshire gentleman, the son'of a ivell- | known Bradford woollen manufacturer. The story, which has- for its background a little village oil the edge of a Yorkshire moor, is supposed, however, to be told by a lady photographer, with private means, •who, tiring of London lite, makes her homo in a little cottage at Windyridgo, and occupies her leisure in studying ami chronicling the quaint customs and habits of her neighbours and the villagers generally. . The result is a series ot quite delightful character sketches, something, as I have said, in the. vein of those which made Mrs. Gaskell's.name famous. There is a love story, the heroine finally marry-ing-an elderly squire of intellectual taste's, but 'to most readers the charm of the book—and a distinct charm of its own cannot be denied it—lies in the portraits of the villagers. A more pathetically beautiful study of a homely old villager lias probably never appeared in English fiction than that of the heroine's landlady, a blunt-spoken, but emineutly sensible and warm-hearted old Yorkshire woman, whom the visitor from London playfully calls Mother Hubbard. - Not even in Mr. Barrie's books is a truly pathetic incident more delicately liandleil than in the scene where the old ,'ady—for a true lady she is in all Silt mere social station—passes away. There is, of course, same dialect in the story, but it is iiot overdone. The general tone is religious, but here, again, is no obtrusion. "Windyridge" is not only a very clever, But in its own way, a very beautiful story. The British Spinster En Voyage.

1 hough not up to the high standard of the author's previous books, uotably that series of poignant and pungent studies of South African life anil character, contained in his curiously named' "Vrov Urobelaar's Leading Cases,'' Mr. Perceval Gibbon's new book, "The. Adventures of Miss Gregory" (J. 51. Dent and Co.; per George Robertson and Co.), appeals to a larger public, and will 'win Mr. G:bbon many new friends, to whom the strong psychological interest of "The Vroiv," and of his other book, "Salvator," did not perhaps appeal. The author now relates the adventures in various out of the way places—Beira, the Cliiude region, and the Moroccan hinterland—and also in certain European cities, of a certain,elderly, weTi-to-do British spinster, plain of visage, almost repellantly masculine in manner, but gifted with a double sharo of commonsense. an indomitable pluck, and a tenacity of purpose quite remarkable. Miss Gregory goes through the world, not seeking adventure, but quite able to r ; se to the occasion wheu a helping hand is needed, or rascality' is to Ire conquered. Often is the elderly maiden in a tight corner, but she never fails to emerge with honour. Written originally, I assume, for serial publication, the stories of Miss Gregory's adventures are perhaps a trifle disjointed, when considered as a 'whole. But taken separately they make capital reading.