SOME RECENT FICTION.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1710, 29 March 1913, Page 9

SOME RECENT FICTION.

FLORA.ANNIE STEEL'S LATEST. ■ Mrs. Flora Annie Steel, whoso fine Indian novels, "Un ,the Face of the Waters" .andi "Tho Potter's Thumb" were so .much' admired, returns in her latest story to the study of far bygone Indian, history. In a previous novel, "A Prince of Dreamers," she dealt with tho romantic career of the great Mogul Emperor, -Akhar. She has now gone still .lurcher .back, and in "King Errant" (iieinemann, per licorge Kobertson and Co.) lias woven a clever admixture of his- 1 ' toryland.romance, the hero oKwhich is isaliir-ud-dih Mahomed, commonly called Bahar, Emperor of India,. the first of the dynasty which; says the author; "wo misname the Great Atogliuls." Bahar, according to Airs. Steel, was "at ono and ;the same time poet, painter, soldier, athlete, gentleman, musician, beggar, and the king." . He' lived, says the author, "the most adventurous lite a man ever lived, in tho end of the fifteenth, tho beginning of the sixteenth centuries; and he kept a record of it." Ill's. Steel has utilised this record (an English translation was published in 1905), and by a judicious admixture of fiction has succeeded in writing, a story which is singularly alive with everyday, human interest. Indeed, if I have a fault to find with a book which in certain of its passages—especially it.s descriptive passages—is almost brilliantly written, it is that the author -is at times a trifle too much given to attributing to. .her characters conversional colloquialisms which have ratlior too modern a savour. This, however, is perhaps a good fault, for in a story of this kind an inclination to what Stevenson would have called Indian "tushery" would be expected from most writers.. Ono of the best episodes in the book, that of .Bahar's marriage to Mahaam (who was to be t<y him what Ayesha was to Mahomed) has no counterpart .in Bahar's true history, being purely fictional, but is none the less conceived iii, the ti-uo' spirit of romance, antl very charming. Mrs. Steel's book should find many' readers, some of whom may perhaps care to know*' that in "The Rulers of India." series (Oxford University Press) there is an excellent monograph on Bahar by Stanley Lane Poole which consists very largely of extracts from the Emperor's actual memoirs.

TWO NEW AMERICANS. Maud Howard Peterson's new story, "Tlie Sanctuary" (Boston, Lothrop,' Lee and Co., per George Kobertson and Co.), his for its chief character a man ot wealth, and culture,.who, impressed with a sense of duty, works in a mill owned p>,v a grasping plutocrat. .Stone meets and loves the mill-owner's daughter, who, like himself, is greatly interested in work-ing-class problems, and thereby . out of touch with' her father. But. the lover has a.wife living, a beautiful. French woman, whose reason gives way, but is afterwards restored. The entangled "love situation" is delicately treated, and, especially in its pictures of life on a French island, .where Stone's wife is'lady of the" manor, the novel contains many beauti-fully-written passages. In Lamore, an-old French- priest, -who is the Father of the island people, and priest of the Memorial Chapel, ivhere v poor G'ecile finds peace, and which gives the story its title, the author has drawn an exceedingly picturesque and lovable character.

Those who read "The Wood Carver of 'Lympus" 1 will need no recommendation, from mo to turn to Jlary E. Waller's new story, "A Cry in the' Wilderness" (Andrew Melrose, per George Robertson and Co.). Hiss Waller's heroine is a New England girl who seeks and finds a living in New York, succeeding after some trying experiences, in gaining a post in a public library. After a serious illness, she tires of the city, and takes a position on a Canadian, farm, in the province of Quebec, being treated by a goad-hearted Scotchwoman as what we in I\e\v Zealand call a "lady-help." Here Jlarci'a I'arrellmeets and'is lived by Gordon Ewart. a gentleman who, unknown to her at the time, had been her father, in name only, the marriage never having been consummated. Other suitors are there for Warda's hand, and Hiss Waller's character sketches of the Scotch and French-Cana-dians are' in her happiest vein. When Marcia discovers that George Ewart is none other than George Gordon Ewart Jackson, the mother's husband— in name only—she is horrified, and returns to New York. There she hears the whole of a story of which she lias hitherto known only a part, and, as the heroine puts it, "liqrror, -shame, humiliation, despair, jealousy of my own mother—nil this that obstructed vision, deflected, distorted it, was being cleared away." Ewart soon turns up and the pair are married. The Canadian farm scenes are admirable, and even in dealing with that much over-worn subject, the trials of a young girl seeking employment in a great city, the author displays a welcome originality. Miss Waller writes as well as ever, but personally T would she had chosen some other husband for Marcia than one who had been her mother's lover and husband, if the latter only in name

"ELIZABETH, BETSY, AND BESS," | A mischievous, jolly, warm-hearted Irish girl, Bess Redmond, is the heroine oi' Lily Schofield's "Elizabeth, Betsy, and Bess" (Duckworth and Co., per George Robertson and Co.). Tho author gets some capital fun out of the girl's experiences at an English boarding-school, and as Bess grows older and the inevitable love story develops, cleverly traces the gradual formation of a stronger character. I am not quite sure whether the description,. of the ' heroine's visit to a convent is altogether in the best taste, and her Catholic friend, Clemency, who takes the veil, is to me at least a rather nuzzling character. But tho Irish scenes are capital, and whether as Betsy, the wild little Irish girl, or as Bess, the muddling and stupid, or as Elizabeth, the same schoolgirl in moments of repentance for her many pranks, Miss Redmond is always an interesting figure in tho story. Drake Marsden, her lover, is a pleasant fellow, but not a few readers will regret that tlio author dooms the strongest character in the book, Bess's friend, Aveline Urquhart, to an untimely end by drowning.

"LETTERS TO A PRISON." "Letters to a Prison" is the title of a new story by Mrs. Fred. Reynolds (George Bell and Sons, per Whitcombe's). The letters are written by a wife to her husband, who to save, an erring brother has hidden the latter's sin, and been sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment for a crime of which he*was innocent. The wife retreats to a lonely Welsh village, there to await, always loyal', and true, her husband's release. The letters describo her daily life,, and are largely devoted to studies of the natural beauties of her surroundings, diversified by some clever, and in one instance very pathetic, portraits of local characters. There is a quiet fascination about- the letters which makes them very restful and pleasant reading, and the subsidiary story of the lov'3 of a Welsh girl for a blind villager is told with a quite peculiar charm,

IN LIGHTER VEIN. Those who read Mr. Duncan Schwann's sprightly and decidedly entertaining story, "The Book of a Bachelor," will find the author's second novel, "Molynoaux of llayfair" (Heinemami, per George Robertson and Co.), equally lively and amusing. It is not a story with any serious purpose, and probably not a few people may find fault with its tone of unfailing frivolity. It is a story of le monde oil l'on s'amuse, the story of a wealthy, lazy, and selfish bachelor of forty, far more in love with himself and his own selfish pleasures tlmn with his pretty and clever cousin, whom he fondly and mistakenly imagines to bo ready to marry him just when he likes. The scene of Mr. Molyneaux's disillusion,on this point isapiece of delightful humour.' Suppers at'tfie Savoy, musical comedy stars—of the fairer sex, of courses-racing scenes, ■ "motorin'," and high jinks generally pervado the story, which is'light and frivolous, maybe, but vastly amusing. But serious-minded folk are hereby solemnly "warned off." .

THE IMPOSSIBLE SHE. "The. Impossible She," by E. Ramsty iConstable >md Co.; per 'George • Robertson and Co.) has for heroine a young lady, a Quite, youn;; lady, a 'lady, indeed, when we first met her, with a pigtail down her back, who. ii loved, and eventually married, by a iollv and honest -young peer,, who has let his ancestral homo to a wealthy American ladv with a somewhat complicated' past. This lady arid her half-insane, husband play important roles in a comedv-drama which, for Lord Poler and his .Tuliar.c, ends more happily than for certain of the other characters. There are some well-described scenes in the hunt inpr field, and the dialogue is brisk and bright, throughout. Readable, if not notable.

THE CAHUSAC MYSTERY. "Tho Cuhusae' ifvstory," by Kate and Hesketh Prichard (IMnemann; per George Robertson arid Co.), is a more carefullr and better, written story than are most novels which deal with the clearing of a father's honour by his son. Sir Malcolm Cahusac, a, diplomatist, is murdcrorl,. and when his son, also ..a diplomatist, endeavours, to discover the* murdered, the latter, a peculiarly* sillnino.is foreign spy, not only, plots to ruin the young. muii's career, but to rob hitn of the * woman with whom young Cahusac imagines, for a time, he is in love. ■ Tho strong plo* is worked out cleverly and convincingly, and certain of die characters, nctnbly * a Frenchman, Ulpien Puyfoot, the tool of tho villainous Do Sarsan. an. American lady, Lorrie Madesson, whom Cahusac finally marries, and an army doctor, who assists the latter in unravelling- and defeating De Sarsnn's horrible machinations, are far from being merely puppets: In its clas«; a v.ery clever and decidedly readable story. . * /