SOME RECENT FICTION.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2144, 9 May 1914, Page 9

SOME RECENT FICTION.

"ftEd PEARLS." "Red Pearls," by CluuloHe Jlaiisloltl (Bell and Sons, per AYhitcombo Hid Tombs), resembles the curate's ;gg, ill that it is "good in parts." The '.cone, for the most part, is laid in Diirliiii, of which, .and of its suburbs, the uitlior gives a most engaging description. Tlio story takes its title from a collection of red pearls found, under romantic circumstances, on a small island in tlio Indian Ocean, pearls which ire desired by a. beautiful widow, Mrs. Clayton, and secured for her, at the peril of his life, by n handsome English baronet. Considering that tlio lovely Olivo is described on more than one page as being "icily cold," it conies as. a shock to find (on Pago 15G) that, when Sir Begiiial.il Limfiiam "clasped her .to his heart, almost brutal in Ins embrace," and, "to her surprise, held her but did not kiss her," "slio laid her mouth oil Iris, drew his undcrlip between , her teeUi, and gently gnawed him as an animal caresses hef mate, and then he threw her from him quickly, violently, as though afraid lest a slower action would unnerve him for the deed." There is here quite a Victoria. Cross touch, but I can reassure those of my readers who may imagine "Bed Pearl" to be a "naughty story." On tlio contrary, it has a. quite excellent moral. But Miss 'Mansfield should eitltti eschew tlio use of French expressions, or get her proofs rend by a competent reader. She talks about ''petite clreveaux" (on another page "Petit Clieveaux"), and "Blanquet" do VeaU, and, moro than once, discourses upon "I'odour" D'Afrique. Proper names she is continually mis-spelling, such as Max "O'Reil" for Q'lioil, and "Bosetti"—■this latter a. mistake unpardonable in an author- who seems to assume quito 9 proprietary interest in that writer. There is good stuff in the story, but Miss Mansfield is far toe careless, especially in her punctuation. On Pago 2/4, for instance, commences a sentence, descriptive of the hero's desperate encounter with a. rascally Creole, which runs into no fewer thaf forty-one lines, and (toes not end until the next pago is reached. shorter notigss, .Louise Mack, the es-AustraJiaii-—■what good, short -stones she used to write for the "Bulletin"! —is only moderate' ly successful in her latest novel, "31k Marriage of Edward" (Mills and Boon per George Robertson). Alice St. John whose parents are of "high degree,' but _despcrateiy poor, is about to uiarf; a rfclt man, whose money will raal-:< life easier for the family. But an oh lover writes to say he is on his waj home from-India, and Alice.rebels. T<: save the family, a younger sister Ariadne, comes to the rescue, and tht desirable party, Edward.Harding, most conveniently for all concerned, sudden ly discovers that it is Ariadne, and 110 Alice, with whom he has been in levo Later on the elder sister's fiance turn: up, and believing that- he has beei robbed of his love, and that Alico i: Harding's wife, "sees red," and "pots' the millionaire hubby in his garden When tlio husband recovers, he is led by an unscrupulous widow, who hat long coveted such a desirnblo prize, t< believe that his young .wife is cafryittf on a, guilty intrigue to save her sister 4 : lover, refrains from telling the truth. Tli< plot is ingeniously entangled, Inv Ariadne, who has leafnt to lovo he husband very passionately, plays i noble part, and the story ends quit satisfactorily for rI) concerned. Read able, but not in any way notable. The late David Graham Phillips nuts have left behind liim quito a -ffespect atily...ljivge,,.quantity .of jvorfe itf niaitu script,;, for-.three or 'fourvrolttkttfes bear ing; his nam® hayo already , appearor sinco his death. The latest is "Begar nio's Wifo and Other Stories" (I) Appleton and Co.; per .George llohcrt son and Co.). The volume contain three stories, eaeli of which displays tin special gift which this.Amorkran novelis.: possessed for depicting tlio' working o tho feminino Blind, hi the titlo star; wo aro shown tko gradual change, i! tho point of view, on soeitjty and lift generally, which is brought, about, itt ; iniddle-aged, wealthy, and self-indul gent club man, by a young wife whe is possessed of a certain force of eliar actor, as well as Smell physical beauty In tho second, '•Enid, the ieailin; characters aro two young married peopli who gradually drift apart, and con tcmplato a divorce, b«t who are com pelled to mako tbo best of what ha: threatened to become a permanently unhappy marriage, and finally attaii truo happiness. "White •• Roses am Bed," the third story, cloak with .th< love of a young girl for a man of forty fivo. It ends on a note of real tragedy All three stories are well written, ant are quito worthy of the pen from whici wo liad tliose fine novels, "Old Wive for Neiv," "The Husband's Storv," am "White Magic." The plot of Mr. Ernest Bavies's clev erly-written "detective story,"' "Tin Widow's Necklace" (Duckworth am C 0..; per George Robertson), turns tip&i a robbery, at a country house, of a dia mond necklace, north £20,000. Tw< detectives, one' a Scotsman, the ethe: (who is assisted by his wife), an Anieri can, are employed to solve the mystery and the special theories and method of each aro very cleverly contrasted Jt is tho American who succeeds, an< he, seeing an opportunity of seeuriiij the necklace for himself, succumbs alas, to the temptation, the actual thief more, under the Special circumstance of the case, to be pitied thai! con demned, committing suicide. Much a ono must admire the audacity and in genuity of the Yankee thief-catcher who himself ends as a thief, most read ers- will join uUh me in deploring hi successful escape with the booty. Ther is some good character-drawing in tl: earlier chapters, and the story through out is on a much isigher plane of liter ary merit than aro most efforts of t'ni kind. Ladram Hawke, p selfish. and nr. •scrupulous fihuneiur, ruins l\iax Logan' father, and Mas thereupon swears ver geancu upon his father's enemy. Th story of liow this vengeance is accoss plished is toki by Paul Trent, ivhos line/novel, "Tfae .JfOHtidlinjj," may b remembered, in his latest book, '"Ma Logan" ("Ward, Lock and Co., per S anil W. Mackay). Logan brings Hawk to tlio brink o£ ruin, having first mad love to, and married, the financier' daughter, whom at first ho uses morel as a pawn iii the game of vengeance Just, liowever, as the younger man ha come to realise that ho really loves h; wife, the latter discovers her husband' deception, and a new game of vengeanc ; is entered upon, this time with the wil as the chief aetor and her husband f tho,intended victim. How, in the en< love proves superior to the spirit < revenge I must leave my readers to fin out for themselves in the pages of ill Trent's story, of . which the one salieii and none' too pleasant feature is th complete disregard by each ol' the tlm leading characters of tho factor of «oi science. In tho meanness, deliberat lack of everyday honesty, and pettino? of human spite, there is not much t chooso between Max Logan and Ailcc Hawke, and whilst admitting tho ii genuity with which the author work 6ut his plot, tho story, to my mine leaves' behind a very disagreeable taste In the twenty-nine slioTfc stories an sketches which arc collected under th heading of "Ten-minute Stories" (Job Murray, per Wl.iitconibo and ■ Tombs] Mr. . Algernon Blackwood once agai displays his ability for bringing, th occult into everyday life. No othc writer of to-day, save, perhaps. Olive Onions, whose "\Yidc!e?v-hiiis" I liav specially in mind, can invest the snpei 1 natural with such an air eS convisciu

■enlisrn as can Mr. Blackwood, Televathy plays an important part in more ;iian ono of these deiicateiyMvriticn md fascimiting> ii : sxfc times rather weird, •aics. one or two of which. dccided.ly suggest memories of the "Fat ikryV iismal threat of making "your ilesh ;rcep." In others, as iii that in which l surveyor's clerk is driven out of a ivooti (which is doomed to be cut down n order that a rich owner may have a jetter view from iiis windows), by certain mysterious influences, there is an ilcmeut of comedy. In. all, the grace- ■ :ul literary style comes as a refreshing 1 ;}iange from the crude and careless ; writing to be- found'in so much of our - latter-day fiction. As a study—it is 1 unt actually a story—ol forests, and the : peculiar atmosphere thereof, the sketch entitled "Pints" is a little gem." I. < prefer Mr. Binckivpud in his longer ' stories, such as "dim'bs" and "A i'ri- .< soncr in fairyland." But anything and i everything from his pmi is ever ivei- : come, . ; "A Girl from Mexico," by H. li N Townshend (Methuen and, Co.), is what" < might be called a "rattling yarn" of adventure in tlio "wild and woolly west." A young Britisher, of adventurous disposition, becomes involved in the highly romantic story of a beautiful young - Mexican girl. The swing of tho lariat and tho crack of the revolver arc echoed in every chapter, the author, however, introducing new material, for a story ot this kind, in iiis description of a Mexican sect, the Penitentes, who not only practise flagellation, but, in their wildest throes of fanaticism, periodically soleit one, of their number for crucifixion. In tho long run, the hero, who sees his much-cherished Dolores prefer another man, "returned to h'is blankets s saner being." "If," he philosophises, "a. man cannot win in love, lie may. win in war," and ho decides to "up stakes" and he off to South Africa, where "tho loud baying bloodhounds of war had been let laoss 011 the Natal frontier." He is si Hkeablft young fellow, Mr. Townshend's "tenderfoot," and tho story of his varied experiences awl ad' ventures makes good reading. In "Tho Thousandth (George Bell and Sons, per Whitcombo ami Tombs), B. \Y. Hormmg, of ."Raffles" fame, us a well-written story of a mysterious murder, and tho part played in the solution of thd mystery by <> young Australian and a middleaged American. Mr. Hornung exhibits 110 small ingenuity in side-tracking those of his readers who may qui to early 111 the novel imagine they luiye "spatted" the real murderer and the wfroduc--tion of a pretty )ovo story provides some agreeable contrast to tho darker shades of the narrative. Methtion's have added one °t A Bennett's earlier stories, "The Gates of Wrath," to their "Shilling Novels scries.' .Entitled "a melodrama/' it is as highly sensational as the dovourevs of "shilling shockers" could desire. But for live characters alone, the coldblooded adventurers and would-be murderers, Dr. Coljius and Madame Carolossi, tho story is well worth reading. Dr. Colpus is almost as good a villain •— the pcinidox* ti? Wilkie Cbffiiw'fl Count Fosco in "Tho Woman in W'hitc." "Blacklaw," by Sir George Makftill, (Methuen and Co.), is unduly spun out in tho tolling, and would have oeen a much more effective story had some ruthless editorial blue-pencilling pruned down its redundancy. An cccentnc,. though well-meaning, peer, Lord Blacklaw, deserts his position and fortune and, with liis family, fioos out to New Zealand to lead "the patriarchal life. a strain of something likii fanaticism leading liim to ignore the injury he is doing to thu future of his children, Entangled with that future is that of the. rotative, John Wesiray, who, on his side, deliberately ..sacrifices happiness, ati<3,'iii the end, oven life itself, 111 order that his son may succeed. Tho New Zealand scent's are clearly the- result of first-hand study, but the story has also a Scottish and n London background, an easily identifiable art colony in Cornwall also serves for a- time as scenario.