SOME RECENT FICTION.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1806, 19 July 1913, Page 9

SOME RECENT FICTION.

THREE NEW "AMERICANS."- ' "The Mainspring," by ' oharlc3 Agnew Maclean (Leith, Brown, and Co.; per Geo. Robertson and Co.), is an exciting , and well-told story of the successful impersonation, by a clever young journalist, of tie only son of Jessup Craven, a millionaire Willi Street "operator," Who, -when the story opens, is lying sick unto death at lis country house. Craven and his partners are engaged in a struggle to gain possession of a railroad system. Ashmore; the journalist, who , comes to the house in search of, "copy" re the. struggle, is persuaded to represent Craven's son, who is missing, and thus make possible the use of the millionaire's money during tho conflict, 'l'he journalist, it turns but' towards . the close of the istory,-has an old grudge, against the chief "operator" on. the other side, for the man-in question,-Israel Farman, had ruined the young man's father many years before. The "financial side of the story is pleasantly contrasted by a love interest, for Miss Craven, who at first has but tho lowest opinion of the journalist, comes to respect him:greatly, and from respect to love there'is, in the end, a'very agreeable transition. How Ashmore, as young Craven, successfully engineers a big coup on Wall Street, outwits the villany of Farman and his fellows, and wins the fair Isabel is told by Mr. Maclean with true American, vivacity.

The heToine of David PotteT's capital story, "I Fasten a Bracelet" (J. P. Lippincott Co.; per George Kobertson and Co.). has a weak and vicious brother, who forges the name of Craisr Schuyler, then away in the Far East. Schuyler returns, and through a misunderstanding believes the girl, whom ho lias loved but by whom ho was rejected previous to his departure for Sumatra, to be guilty. The girl and her mother he holds under an obligation of obedience, as the price of his forgiveness, and for a timo he behaves, so tire reader may think, very cruelly to both. The secret of the hold is very skilfully kept until nearly the end of the story, when a succession of unexpected eyents brings out the truth as to the cheque, and a second fact, namely, that Schuyler has been most unjustly suspected of an act of baseness towards a village beauty. The story has a very ingenious plot, but Mr. Potter should .surely not have made Schuyler's mysterious chauffeur n. French marquis of immense wealth, who wishes to see for himself whether all American girls are fortune-hunters. Tho nobleman as chauffeur . was played out iu English fiction some years ago. I can warmly recommend Miss Sarah Comstock's story, "Pioneers" (Hodder and Stoughton; per S. and AV. Mackay). It deals with the life of a young American—an educated man from the East— and his wife, as pioneer settlers in one of the "dry-land" sections of a Middle Westorn State. Those who imagine that it is only the New Zealand or Australian backblocker who' has "a hard time of it should read Miss C'omstock's story of tho noble fight put up by Dexter Hayden and his young wife, Terry, against the frequent drawbacks and disappointments they meet with. Terry, a daughter of the soil, is really a delightful character. Not even "Dad," of Steele Eudd's "way-back" Australian stories, has more hope fidence in being able to "win out" , ; n the long run than has poor Terry. Her husband gives' in and goes East to earn money which .the "dry-lands" would not produce, but the faithful Terry sticks to. .the farm, to which eventually the husband returns, determined to "see it through," and with fair hope—for water is found, and irrigation promises' splendid results—of future success and happiness for both. The American title of tho story is "The Soddy," which, by the way, though not mentioned in the title pago, appears at the head of every alternate page. "A eoddy" moans, in Western parlance, , a sod hut, a first cousin to'tho "shack," or, as New Zealanders would put > it, the "whare." There is both pathos and humour in "The Pioneers," and both ring true. A good, wholesome, interesting story. "ROUND THE CORNER." "Round the .Corner," by Gilbert Cannan (George Bell and Son; per YVhitcombo and Tombs), is a long and most carefully written but depressing story of a clergyman and his family who live in an English provincial town. Tho sub-title of tho slorv is "Tho Life and Death of Francis "Christopher Folyat, Jlachelor of Divinity, and Father of a Largo Family." Poor Mr. Fol.vatt. He is a gentleman, a. scholar; lie liiis been, too, a innn of wuio private fortune. This latter, or

most of it, he loses, and, as years go on, and his children grow up, tho results of the father's natural weakness of character are appalling. The Folyat parental policy is to let things drift, to follow ever the lino of least resistance, and from this comes an all too plentiful crop of disappointment, disillusion, and sorrow. Mr. Arnold Bennett is not more meticulous in his detail than is Mr. Cannan, who is clearly an apostle of the new realism, tho realism of life at its greyest and drabbest. It is a pitiful story, this of the decadence of a whole family, but there is no denying the literary ability which has gone to its composition. I like Mr. Cannan"s previous story, "Little Brother." better than "Round the Corner," but ho is clearly a novelist who is to be reckoned with when once he eschows pessimism and recognises that life is not altogether devoid of brightness. SHORTER NOTICES. Three recent additions to Mills and Boon's Colonial Library (per Whitcombo and Tombs) are "Guppy uayson," by W. M. O'Kane, "Attraction," by Louise Mack," and "The Adolescence of Aubrey," by Harry Jermyn. The hero of Mr. O'Kane's most amusing, if highly improbable, story is the Rev. Alfred William Guyson, otherwise Gnppy Guyson, an assistant curate in the country parish of Archester. The average lay world of Mr. Guyson'a acquaintance regards him as being the simplest and mildest of men. Even tho Rov. Hopley Porter, the "mildest curate going," of one of Gilbert's most amusing "Bab Ballads," was not, outwardly, at least, a more ingenuous and innocent young man. But once goaded by an unappreciative world to be "a man, Guppy soon begins to "go it," as did Mr. Talbot Champneys in tho once-famous "Our Boys." To turn burglar and devote the proceeds of his Raffles-like exploits to founding a benevolent fund for poor parsons, especially those whose abilities are inadequately recognised by their ecclesiastical superiors, is certainly what few curates, accused of being over-mild, have thought of. It would be a shame to spoil fun by hinting further at the wild career into which this rash young curate plunges. Farcical comedy, but very neatly done! ; Miss Louise- Hack's "Attraction" is a fairly readable story of a young lady who, despite many discouraging incidents, remains true to her love for an uncouth and somewhat blatant young man who has a profound belief in his ability to win for himself some great position in life. After scenes in London and Paris the author takes her characters to Sydney, where the lovers marry, and where they are followed by the villain of. the story, a most impossible bounder, whose peculiarly mean tricks to injure his rival and his rival's wife aTe, however, unsuccessful. Miss Mack wrote much better in the old "Bulletin" days. "The Adolescence of Aubrey" is largely devoted to the youthful pranks and escapades of the hero, whose father, a rich banker, and his mother, who spoils the youngster, are a pair of the silliest, most stupid people I have met with in recent fiction. Aubrey goes to Eton, but is expelled for poacning in the royal forest of Windsor, notwithstanding the fact that a great personage, who sends for the_ culprit, considers the affair an immense joke. The story concludes with the admission of the young man to his uncle's bank. Two men, two cousins, Larry and St. John ' Adeane, and three women, Lady Adeane, Larry's wife. Elma Fancouirt, selfish, intriguante, and immoral, and Ruth Frere, deeply religious, of virginal purity of mind, are the dramatis personae of Ella Macmahon's society drama, "The Divine Folly" (Geo. Bell and Sons; per Whitcombo and Tombs). It is a well written and striking story, in which tho author very clovlcrly works out the .effect of a good woman's unaffected goodness upon a woman who, though deeply wronged, comes at last to forgive, and upon a 6inning woman who gives earnest of her repentance by relinquishing what had become her greatest ambition in life. I have never cared very much for the novels of Mr. James Blyth, and the note of almost wanton .vulgarity which pervades his latest story, "Respectability" (Bell and Sons; per Whitcombe and Tombs) is to me at least most offensive. The scene is .laid in an East Anglian fishing town, tho characters being members of the lower middle class, _ tho smaller bourgeoisie, of the plaoe. It is a dull and uninteresting story, about people who, for the most part, have neither decent minds nor decent manners. Why such poor stuff as this should te put into a colonial library is a mystery to me, especially when there are so in any excellent-novels which never reach the colonies in that form.