SOME RECENT FICTION.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1830, 16 August 1913, Page 9

SOME RECENT FICTION.

"V. V'S. EYES." Let it be said, first and foremost, concerning Henry Snydor Harrison's new story, "'V. V'S Eyes" (Constable and Co.; per George Robertson), that it is simply wasto of time to compare it with tnat delightfully original and fascinating story, "Queed." One might as well compare "David C'opperiield" with "Pickwick," or "Esmond" with "Vanity Fair." In "Queed" the leading character was a man, an eccentric, whimsical, completely lovable man. In "V. V.'s Eyes," it is not the hero, tlie little • slum doctor philanthropist, and denouncer of tho selfishness and meanness of the every-day world, who is, to my mind at least, the principal figure in .the book, but tho tieautiiul, but shallow,, and until she sees tho world through,V. V.'s charitable, unselfish, and loving eyes, pitifully smallsouled Carlisle, or Call} lietli. In Mrs. Heth and her mother, a social climber, and as indefatigable' a chaser of the parti, eligible as was the Campaigner,'' in "Tho Jsewcomes," Mr. Harrison gives his readers two charac- . tvrs whku-go to prove liis nsr.miu<iie knowledge of tho combined pettiness and nobility of which the feminine soul is capable. Late, very late, in tho story Gaily Heth finds she has a soul, and that there aro other things in this world worth striving and scheming lor than the merely material delights procurable by.a plenitude of the aliingi-tv dollar. It is Dr. Vivian's inllueiM which bungs about the change, and in deso: l)ing ttw subtly, bow gradually, but still how surely the transformation is effected, Mr. Harrison makes the doctor a much more convincing figure than when ho is referring to the somewhat vagus schemes vf philanthropy and social reform to which Dr. Vivian has so disinterestedly devoted liis life. The opening scene, the placing, most unfairly, of the stamj) of cowardice upon a silly yomig fool who has drunk too many cocktails, and .who swims ashore instead of staying to rescue the beauteous Miss Heth, is hardly convincing. -To the English reader, at least, it must seem that the girl's fear of scandal is absurdly exaggerated. Certainly, thero was no warrant for'her concealing' the exact truth which, had it' been made public, would have ■ saved young Dalhousio from suicide, and his uncle from a sorrow which drives him nearly mad. But Miss Heth is mortally afraid of losing the handsomo. Hugo Canning, and being, too;'a weak'creature,, allows tier intriguing mother, all hot in. chase of a millionaire husband for her daughter, to influence: public feeling against the unhappy' young man. But V : . V. knows from the first : that the girl's account is, to say; the least of it, disingenuous, and Cally knows that he knows! It takes many chapters before the girl comes to recognise her moral weakness, but when recognition of her fault does finally penetrate her weak and worldly soul, she develops ,a strength of will to do tho right which not cither the blandishments or thei threats of the much gilded Hugo Canning can overcome, and against' which, too, even the long suffering, but never despairing, matchmaking mother finds it useless to contend. The strength, the charm, tho all-compell-ing interest of the story lies, I repeat, in this evolution of moral strength from moral weakness. It is Cally, not the doctor, who stands out most prominently in tho five hundred and odd closely-printed pages of Mr. Harrison's fine noveL And it is a fino novel; let there be no mistake about that. It is a novel singularly rich in well-drawn characters. Tlie doctor is, it is true,' sefcn through a mist at times, but when the fu'll figure does emorge it is the figure of as honest, sincere and lovable a man as was ever born. And the doctor's environment in the dreary old Dab-

ney House—how it teems with real people, none less real in that they are poor, and, sans the benevolent V.V., practically friendless. Mrs. Garland, and her wastrel husband, tho confirmed hobo, and Corinno, otherwise Kern—these are quite Dickensian characters. Then, 'too, there is tho group of Cally's poor relations, a. whole family of well-drawn types. Verily Mr. Harrison is shockingly prodigal in his presentment of characters, «ac!h of ■ winch could afford the ordinary novelist material 'for a separate story. The selfish and careless employer and the suffering factory hands—all these and many other . types we have had before in a geed hun<lr.e<l or eo American novels, but hero they are invested with a'special life and interest all their own. I miist confess that, having an old-fashioned liking for a happy ending, I wish. itr. Harrison had spared the doctor to reward, with all that exquisitely, tender love of which he was capable, tho changed Cally, th'e» Cally of tho regenerated, tho new-found soul. But at least the reader will know that whilo Cally Heth lives, the doctor's work will not die, and after all" there ore more important things

in tho world than tho sound of wedamg bells. By all means read "V.V. s Eyes. It is n good, a wholesome book, full of well-restrained satire, a quiet and ever kindly lmmoi'ir, real pathos, and, too, rich, in certain situations, with a compelling dramatic strength. It is a book which does ono good to read,. and which, when read, will well repay a. second perusal. . "THE COMBINED MAZE.' Miss Mov Sinclair's latest novel, "Tho Combined 'Maze" (Hutchinson and So.; per Whitcombc and Tombs), takes its title from a physical exercise, in which take part, at the Polytechnic, a London olerk and a London shop girl. In Kanny, otherwise John Randall Fulleymore liansome, con' of a tippling chemist in Wandsw'orth iligh Street, and clerk in a big furnishing warehouse, the author of "Tho Divine Fire" gives us a character quite Pett Ridge'-liko in its realism, and Winny Dvmond, otherwiso. Winks or Winky, is also reminiscent of the samo author. But whereas Mr. Pett ltidge. deals first and foremost in humour, that element in the lives of poor llanny and Winny, i= ■ though agreeably present, largely overshadowed by sterner tilings. For lianny, who ought to have married AVinn'y, is cheated and tricked into marriage with a vulgarly handsome, sensual wench, who ruins the poor young fellow's life. To lianny, whose personal gospel from his 'teens has been "Fitness." this lazy, idle, sluttish mul impudently immoral wife becomes a burden of misery inexpressible. Miss Sinclair's story constitutes a powerful indictment of the British law of divorce, but it is no mere tract. It is tho finest presentment of lower middle-class lifo in London that 1 linvo read for some time, and alike in its motif, its character-drawing, and tho virility of its dialogue, is a cuiito notable production. There have been several good novels of late describing tho life of the London clerk and shop-girl class, but "Tho Combined 'Maze"—tho titlo is, of course, symbolical of the mazo of life in which liansome and AVinn.v meet and cross, only to part to meet and cross again—is certainly tho most convincing. As for Winny Dymond no moro delightful, if unfortunate, little lady-*-for true lady she is, despite her Cockneyisms—could one wisli to meet. "Tho Combined Maze" well maintains Miss Sinclair's reputation as a novelist of the first rank.

A COCKNEY MILIEU. | A book which all Ixmdoners, and especially those who know tho famous foreign quarter ot' Soho, should read, is Edwin Pugh's "Punch and Judy" (Georgo Bell and Sons, per Whitcombo and Tombs). Mr. Pugh rivals William do Morgan in the intimacy of his acquaintance with tho waifs and strays of London mean streets. Punch and Judy are two children, ill-treated by a tipsy and selfish old grandmother, but happy enough in their vagabond life. The real interest of tho story centres, however, round a group of more or less eccentric people who livo in an old Soho house, the ground floor of which is the Ecstaurant Poussier. The ultra-sentimental but none tho less worldly-wise Monsieur and Madamo Poussier; a brilliant, but for some time unsuccessful, musical composer; a venerable, and, outside politics, quite benignant Anarchist; a lady with a past, but possessing, as do so many of the sad sisterhood, tho kindest of hearts; an artists' model, vulgar of speech but pure at heart—all these and many other strange figures appear in Mr. Pugh's lively little comedy-drama. There is both pathos and humour, plus a touch, of tho dramatic in "Punch and Judy, which I can cordially commend as a quite fascinating little study of Bohemia, A GERMAN STORY. Mr. John Lane is _ a publisher who seems to Ispecialiso in translations of latter-day I rench and German fiction, and for tho most part these translations aro very well done. "The Son of a Mother, 1 ' just published by Mr. Lane, is a translation by H. Raahaugo of a novel, "Einer Mutter Sohn," by a popular German novelist, Clara Viebig. It is a simply-told, most pathetic study of tho anxieties and sorrows caused to a very worthy but childless German couple by their adopted son, in whoso character there is an unmistakable and, alas, ineradicable hereditary strain of -downright wastreldoin. Touching as is the motif of tho 'story, , there is no straining after sensationalism. The author lays baro the hearts—alas, so sore at times—of good Erau Schlieben- and her too easygoing devoted husband, and shows their every working. There is a quite startling actuality in tho various episodes; tho reader feels as if he wero listening to the narration of a family's life-story by one who has participated in its every episode. Here, ono feels, is a human document, a veritable transcript from life; lifo shorn of all its tinsel; life as it is, with sorrow ever jostling joy; life in which there can lie no setting aside of the realities. Clara Viebig's work may be found too unrelievedly pathetic by somo readers, but it is. Nona the less a strong and notable performance.