SHORTER NOTICES.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1948, 3 January 1914, Page 9

SHORTER NOTICES.

Those who, like myself, read and enjoyed Mr. K. Temple Thurston's novel, "the Antagonists," will be glad to have its sequel, "Richard Furlong" (Georgo Bell and Sons; per AVhitcombo and Tombs). Tho country youth with a taste for art, which his stern father, a rather dour old miller, could not eradicate, is now in London, struggling desperately to mako a naino for himself. At lirst tho victim of a rascally, but amusingly impudent picture "faker," tho young artist finds the streets of (London as stony and hard-hearted as did Do Quincey. He is befriended, however, by some humblo folk, and eventually marries, out of gratitude, an uneducated but warm-hearted Cockney niuiic hall singer, his country sweetheart. the Dorothy of "The Antagonists," foregoing love for wealth. Mr. Thurston is almost Dickcusian in his

descriptions of certain phasos'' of i.fLoii-.' don life, and there is true pnthos■ in. 1 liisaccount of the fortunes of tho ill-mateh- : od pair, and especially in the death of tiie poor little wife. Trilogies aro ; ':.iu vogne nowadays, and although I cannot say L like thum very much, I. o»r----taiidv hope that the author may -give his admirers a third and concluding- instalment of the life history of so engagr; ing a hero as his young artist., ••'•Jjgjfgi

Mr. Eden Philpotts,.' before - -finally deserting his beloved Dartmoor, as, it is understood, is his intent ion, lias collected a- number of his short stories of rural'life in Devonshire, under the gen-eral-title of "Tho Old. Time ' Before Them" (John Murray; per Whitcombo and Tombs). The background, for the' most part, is'the same as in that'de'ightful story, "Widecombo Fair,"- and although in some of the stories a strongly dramatic, even tragic, iiote is struck, these "little novels" —to use Thomas Hardy's phrase of Mr. Philpotts, aro permeated by a vein of fresh and very, pleasant humour. No English novelist of to-day can surpass Mr. Philpotts in his gift of strong characterisation. Ho gets so sure,' so strong an effectwith such a welcome economy of words. & And tho characters in ' t-hesei:'- littio comedies, and comedy-dramas, nre ;so full of life. Hero at last aro •••no mere fictional puppets, study made, and tearing traces of literary artifice, such as are only too common in latterday English novels. Mr. Philnotts knows' his. own business best, and although his new story —it should be out here- '"cry soon —in which • tho - back: ground is Italy, may be, as I see, by recent English papers, it is considered to be, a highly; successful new-depar-ture, I for 0110 shall regret any- permanent desertion of Devonshire —-and, more particularly, Widecoinbe. Needless to say, every page of "The Old Times Before Them" is well worth reading.