SOME RECENT FICTION.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1770, 7 June 1913, Page 9

SOME RECENT FICTION.

GEORGE BIRMINGHAM'S LATEST, I always enjoy a novel by the clovqr Irish clergyman whose nom-de-pi umo is '"'George A. Birmingham/' and I never liko him so well as when he is writing of the good folk of the province which it is | nowadays tho fashion to call "Conuacht, especially tho inhabitants of tho little i fishing town. "Ballintra." "Tho Adven--1 tures of Dr. Whitty" (Mothucn's, .per Whitcombe and Tombs) is Mr. Burning* ham's latest effort to ainuso us, and lie is as successful as ever; indeed, a richer feast of good wholesome fun he has never given us than in this scries of episodes in the life, personal and professional, ot Br. Whitty. A pleasant featuro about Mr. Birmingham's stories is that their characters 6eem to bo one big family, and that once the reader gets thoroughly at homo with them they seem so wonderfully lifelike that one feels one i 9 really not reading a novel at all. There is both humour and pathos in this latest story— or collection of stories —of Mr. Birmingham's, but the former predominates. The reader who does not laugh, and that right heartily— no mere sniggering or chuckling —over, say, the chapter headed 'JLho Interpreters," must be given up as impervious to the humorous side of lifo. ,r Miss Mulhall's Lecture" is another excellent sketch. Miss Mulhall is an organiser for the "Guild of Maternal Education/' Lady Claneder's Guild, and her remarks on the art of sterilising milk hardly fit in with popular, and especially maternal, ideas as to the feeding of the Ballintra infants. However, if Mis? Mulhall, as the result of her Ballintra lecture, gives up her mission in tho interests ot the "Guild of Maternal Education/ she finds in that lively little town a new and much more engrossing interest, for she ends by marrying the doctor, whose, characteristic message to the Ballintra Reception Committee, which proposed _to give the happy pair an epoch-making "welcome home," van, I may say, as follows: "Bo not waste money on* illuminated address; buy fireworks." As a matter of fact there was a bonfire as well, and Father Henaghan and Michaei Geraghty, to say nothing K>f the- local retired colonel and the much more important Mr. Flaherty, the local cornet torturer, were all agreed that tho right thing was done, albeit, alas, Flaherty enraged the "doc." by wheezing # out "Love s Young Dream." A very jolly book is "Tho Adventures of Dr. Whitty.' "THE WEAVING OF,THE SHUTTLE." The very title of Mr. C. H. Cautley's ncvel, "The Weaving of the Shuttle (Duckworth and Co., per George llobertson and Co.), suggests a North Country background, and the story is "Yorkshire all thro.ugh," as the "Tykes" say'of anything peculiarly characteristic of # what they proudly claim to bo the "biggest, bonniest, and best" of English counties. It deals with a feud, mainly commercial, but tinged also by the social prejudices of tlfe. rivals, between a prosperous millowner, Michael Esholt, and one of his leading ''hands," Thias Tempest, ivho starts in business for him Self. By tapping tho source of tho water supply to Esholt's null, Tempest secures for a time most of hi 3 old employer's trade. His daughter, however, who is beloved by Esholt's son, tho parents 011 both sides being fiercely antagonistic to any match between the pair, learns that her father contemplates the complete ruin.of Esholt by the purchase of a i'arm on which is tho only spring of suitable water left unused in tho district; and indirectly conveys the information to tho threatened man. The farm is bought, but by Esholt. not by Tempest; the spring is used, and now it becomes Tempest's experience to seo his looms idle, for his own water supply is now seriously diminished. Tho fierce old man takes to drink, and is found dead in tho wellboring 1 , from which he had hopes of once again outwitting his old enemy. His daughter accuses herself of treachery 'to Jieivi'ather and of being tho cause ot his death, but Esholt behaves with great kindness, and agrees to his son marrying the girl whom tho fattier had misunderstood and despised. There is a well-told subsidiary love story, but tho strength of the novel lies in tho two strongly-drawn characters of tho rival manufacturers. Tho period is of tho Victorian fifties, and the local colour is excellent. The. minor characters are well drawn, _ and 'the whole story brightly and effectively written. Readers.of North Country birth or extraction should vastly enjoy "The Weaving of the Shuttle."

"THE PLUNDERER." "The Plunderer," by Eoy Norton (New York: W. J. Watt and 0o„ per George Robertson and Co.), is a story which, although dealing with somewhat hackneyed scenes, has greater qualities of directness and cohesion in its incidents than have so many American, novels of tho present day. It is the story of tho struggle'between a young Eastern man of good education, and a rough—a brutally rough—old Westerner, as unscrupulous as ho is cunning. The struggle is for tho possession of all that is worth having in a mine, La Croix d'Or, in which tile hero of the story has been left an interest. For a time young Dick Townsend is baffled and defeated at every turn, and tho dynamiting of his mining machinery by the rascally emissary of some Denver-unionist extremists seems to crush his last hopes of success. But Townseud is real grit all through, and wins out in the end, not only turning the Golden Cross into a rich-dividend-earner, but making good in another and more personal direction, for he wins the love and hand of pretty Joan Presby, the "Plunderer's" only daughter! The-picturesquc background of a Western mining camp affords scope for interesting sketches, but the "dance-hall" keeper, who turns moralist, is not a convincing character. 'A NEW WILLIAMSON BOOK.' The Williamsons (C. N. and A. M.) have written a goodly number of novels since they first captured popularity with the "big public" by tho first of their many "motoring novels," "Tho . Lightning Chauffeur." In their very latest story, "The Love Pirate" (Methuen's, per Whitcombo and Tombs) they take us to California—with peeps at 1 New York, New Orleans thrown in as "lagniappe" as they pay in the latter city—and a very charming acdount they give us of the orange groves and the fruit farms generally in the southern part of the Golden State, to say nothing of sojourns at the fashionable seaside resort, Monterey, the old Spanish missions, and trips to tho Yosemite Valley and other famous haunts 'of the globe-trotter. There is a lovely young American heroine, laden with dollars, who has married a worthless Italian prince, and returns to her native America as plain JJrs. May. The liero is a stalwart and handsome young Californian, Nick Milliard, who has "struck it rich" in oil, but nevertheless remains an honest, unspoiled, decent-living young fellow. The villain of tho picce is an ex-dancer, Mrs. Gaylord, who is immensely wealthy, aud desperately in love with the handsome Nick. Carmen—when will novelists discover that all Spanish women are not mimed Carmen?—objects very strongly to Halliard's attention to Mrs. May, and carries her jealousy of the fair Angela to the extent of trying on two occasions to bring about her death. Fortunately each attempt is thwarted by the gallant Nick, and tho objectionable Italian prince having been conveniently removed by an aeroplane accident—well, you can guess what happens, and how tho story ends. Tho Californian scenes are picturesque, anil tho story is brightly written, although I absolutely refuse to believe that a latter-day Californian would keep on using such expressions as "you galoot." "THE RELUCTANT LOVER." Stephen M'Kenna's ".Reluctant Lover" (Herbert Jenkins; per George Robertson and Co.) will please readers who like ihoir novels to bo essentially modern, indeed, quite latter-day in tone. The author has a very pretty wit and a decided gift for writing clever dialogue, but by the time I had reached his last chapter tho sensation was one of a surfeit of "smartness." Tho affectedly blase young mini, n cynic at twenty-four or thereabouts, is becoming quite n familiar iiguro in the fiction of the day, but in this case tho "reluctant lover" exhibits an unexpected manliness by saving a young lady's life by using a sucking tube just as sho is 011 tho puint of death— diphtheria, of course. The girl who was first in love with him tires—and really I can't blamo her—of her task of attracting tho cold-blooded Cyril, and although she docs bcoomo engaged to him; she has the good Bense to release him

ivlion a "probation" period of two years is up. As for Cyril and tho young lady ho saves from death, you must come to your own conclusions its to what will bo the result of their trip to India. All the leading characters in Mr. M'Kenna's Iwok are young people, and very pleasant people most of them are. But they tako life as . a jest, and lil'o is no such thing. • A clever and amusing story, but later on we ought to luivo a much stronger and better novel from the sarno pen. SHORTER NOTICES. "Expiation," by E. Phillips Oppenheini (Ward, Lock, and Co., per S. and \V. AlutKay), is n higliiy-sentacional story or ft man who, desiring to avengo a wrongUono to his mother, indulges in a series of contemptible actions little snort ot actual crime, only, in tho long run, to, find the reason lor his career of deception and fraud had never existed at all. The leading incident is the personation of a wealthy country gentleman, long absent from his home, by another man, tho ven-geance-seeker. It is a venerablo motif, but its working out is rarely convincing. Tho story, it is only fair to its author to say, was written as far back as 1887. Mr. Oppenheiin, it will be remembered, protested last year against tho resurrection of his'earlier work, against his expressed wish, but apparently the publishers find there is a good market for it, and tho author having long ago parted with the rights of his earlier efforts, is powerless to prevent their republication, although it cannot fail to injuro his reputation. with readers who do not know'tho facts.

John. Oxenham, who, in his day, has given us much well-written and enjoyable fiction, is certainly not to bo complimented upon his latest story, "Jiary-All-Alone" (Methuen and Co., per Whitcombe and Tombs). Surely by this timo novel readers have had enough and to sparo of tho experiences of young ladies of good family and good education who, suddenly findng themselves penniless, are thrown upon a cold world to find employment as'best they can. Mary Trentham is a charming, plucky girl, and sho fully deserves the highly eligible husband —an' old sweetheart—wnoni, after many trying experiences as companion and governess, and so forth, she wins. But it has all been done before, and so often before, and there is, nothing either novel or strikingly brilliant iri Mr. Oxenham's way of doing it. Despite tho air of unreality which pervades Benjamin Swift's new story, "Tho Lady of the Night" (Gcorgo Bell and Sons, per Whitcombe and Tombs), it contains two exceptionally well-drawn characters, one an artistocratic old dame, anxious that hor daughter shall marry a very rich young man—despite the fact that an accident has robbed Mm- of his speech and memory —and the manageress, a Madame Merveillo, of a fashionable beauty-repairing establishment in the West End. Readable enough in its way, if the reader be not too > exigeant as to probability of the main interest and the leading incidents. "Promise of Arden," by Eric Parker (George Bell and Sons, per Whitcombe and Tombs), is a study of English country life. The story is told by a young journalist who finds himself the sole executor of an eccentric old professor s will, and the guardian of his children, lho Sargcsson children are delightful youngsters. and tho eldest daughter, a bom •housewife and tho good genius of the family is a specially charming character. A very pretty, if quito unexciting story. Edith Kenyon's "Wooing of Myffany" (George Bell and Sons, per Whitcombe and Tombs), has for the most part a Welsh background. The heroine is left almost penniless, but her Welsh grandfather offers her a. home, and she finds in duo course a handsome Welsh lover, who later on becomes a song composer ot somo renown. A pleasantly-written, novel, -somewhat in the stylo of the immenselypopular stories of tho late "Allen Same. [A long review of Oliver Onions* remarkable novel, "The Debit Account, with several shorter notices of now fiction aro 'held over.]