SOME RECENT FICTION.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2181, 20 June 1914, Page 11

SOME RECENT FICTION.

"A FIRST NOVEL." Books bearing iho Fisher-Unwm imprint make, cxactiy why 1 know not, but rare appearance on my study table, ; but if ail this particular firm's publics-' tions arc as good as the story entitled "Home," by "Anon" (Fisher Umvin's "First Novel" Library; par Wliiloomb* and Tonite), they are well worthy tho attention of New Zealand book-buyers. For "Home" is not only a novel with a very "interesting plot, bftt is refreshingly original and attractive in its character-drawing, 'flic plot turns Hpt'm tlio mistake made by a gwd-fta.tsi.iQd, easy-going American htisbiind, business man and club man, with the latter element pralominstiiig, who neglects his frivolous and rather silly voting wife, and surprises her, so ho thinks, in the act of eloping with his friend Wayne., a stronger-jiiititrefl roan, who, on his side, has iiUstaken an. ephemeral wave af mcro sensuality for a deeper passion. As a matter of fact, A Ik Lansing fails to catch the Chicago Limited, "weakening," as poker players would say, .at the critical moment of departure. Silo re.' turns horns, disillusitmed ftH-d hone-stly repentant, only U> find that (Jerry, her husband, has disappeared, 'For Gerry, in the belief that bis wife has left for Chicago—the Chicago of "Stop hero ten, minutes for divorce" fame, gees straight to his bank, draws out his available credit balance, and "skips" in real earnest, not by train, but by a tramp steamer, which iu' due oeursu lands him at Perftambuco. Soon bo goes up-country, morts and rescues fvo.ni drowning a brown-skinned maiden of the land, and settles down to the management of her neglected estate and to tho life of a pastoralisi, In time- a child is how to the brown-skinned maiden, and the tie of the "tittle- Man" effectually prevents the father's return to his far-away New England home, whoro Alls, Bjoro til an over repentant, patiently and loyally awaits the Ira* band's return. Acaediitg to the entreaties of a good village padre, tie <jkpatriated American niam-as- bis Marguerita, but Fats ordains that Wayne-, the man who Lansing believes 'had long ago married-bis (Gerry's) wife, set frco by the divorce ho thinks she must have obtained, shall turn up in Brazil, whore he hits been superintetuling co-mo. engineering works up-country, and that, a wrecked, almost dying man, ha shall bo brought to Lansing's ramehc. There is a trying and terrible see«© between the two men, Gerry learning at last that his wife's infidelity had stopped short of colisirnMnatW, and that' the woman lie bad left, so hastily still lives and longs for Mm. Then comes a flood, and the death of poot-Marguerita, and tlio "Little frfewa 3lau,* r and Gerry and his fnondam rival return to tlio States._ The removal ef the. native wife and child by the flood may savour somewhat of over-convenient stage-craft, but the possibility of the disaster lias "been ingeniously but miitf> naturally, suggested in one" of tlio tm-rKw chapters. Beth Getty, wid Wayne are strongly-drawn characters, Wat Alix, tlio . erring but nvueh-tHod wife, is hardly so convincing. however, the author is distinctly successful is in the, ctmtra.st.iil3 of the quiet horns lifts and strong family in-. fluenco of the little onmmijniiy on" Red Hill, the hijmo df the principal characters, and tlio strange fascination exert* ed upon a cistern class of men hv tin? exotic atmosphere of the* tropics. ■ I can warmly immititeiid this first novel as a peculiarly interesting story, full of promise of,, oven bettor and'stronger work to conic from ttc Sam© pen, "THE END GF THE HOKtYMGON." I always-enjoy a novel by Mrs. Beilcc 'Lowndes, and.have,found Jtisfc as good .entertainment in her latest story "Tho End of tho Honeymoon" iJlothnoH- and Co.) as.was. provided, by its deWy-/.-written predecessors "Tho Ohkk on tli& Armour," "When No Man PntsuwUi," and the kss4fio\nr but finite brilliant' story "Jane Oglaiite." Mrs. Lowndes now gives us what might be. I .suppose, described as a. detective story, bi-rt how ! few stories of a Mysterious* disappear- ■ anco are told in so polished a literary stylo as is "BeEudof theßonaymooa." I Paris is tin? background, Paris at Hie time of the Tsar's visit. To a Parisian ] hotel, a quiet, oM-fashioued l wtt . so on j tho left bank of the Sana, cwtne, late 0110 night, Joiui Sampler, an English artist, and his pretty young \ttfs-4uar- I ried but a. fortnight or so. and a most devoted conpl©. The hotel Is crowded, and room is made for tho. youtta couple \yith difficulty. The wife is given' a little chamber oh the second flo'arj the husband is Sent, ap to a tiny attic chamber. In the night there- h ail awe-in-spiring tlittndorstom, and tho wife becomes curiously ansiorts about her bus-' band. Judge her surprise, and horror, when on coming down in. tho nwrninc the young' EftgHslt-vntwnali finds herself addressed by tho proprietress of tho hotel as "Madensfijeollo." V-pmi being asked where Mr. Dsmpler was, the proprietor and his wife point-blank deny that tho lady had bee-fl accompanied by a husband, aad Sflem astonished at the very idea that svreh ji; person exists. John Dampier hns disapipearcfl, disappeared jusi as. SiMidMily, and irrevocably as if the earth had opened and swallowed them up. Where her husband has got to is now the mystery which poor Nancy Dampier has to solve. An American senator, his daughter, and Ms fiwi— especially tlio son—try h.ird to solve the problem. But for certain reasons, which you will find: set forth iu the very last chanter, a-jut which it iwnld fe unfair to p Mrs<' Lowndes to 'hero disclose, the French police, the Minister of Polios, even tho British Embassv authorities, all seem curiously indisposed to help tho poor wife, whose jjearsst and best friends e©rrt-e at last to beliew that she is the .vrctim of an laitoination, and that sndi a person as John Dampier never existed. He did, however, but bo existed only ft few hottrs- after going up to tfart stfcic chamber in the highly-respectable Hotel Anao. How be disappeared, bow, to tell the truth, hft died, why it Iwcamo-tho terribly cruel dutv of tho authorities t<j k«ep tlio sad truth from his widon 1 , and ivhat ha-fi* pencil to that lady, when.finally tliomystry was solved, you must read for yourselves in Mrs. Lowndes's. Ingenious]*.. planned and cterorly-worketl-out story, a story, by tho way. in which the very atmosphere of Paris is most sulrtly end successfully suggested. CQPHETUA'S SGN, Miss Joan SutherlaiKl, who made, a decided hit with that liw .novel, '"Ibe Hidden Road,", should increase her reputation as a rising young novelist by her new story, "Couhetua's Son" {.Mills and Boon; per George Robertson and Co.) Tho plot turns upon the rivalry, for the lovd of Sheila'ClaverUig, of two young men, mm iin Englishninn, xi-'ho owns largo marble quarrit's at Carrara,'' tho other, his friend, a handsome young Frencbuian, Lucieu tic Guise, of aristocratic birth on his lather's side, but possessing a strain of uncontrollable, almost insane impulsiveness, inherited from his mother, a passionate, vmeducatcd, and somewhat sovdicl-natvucd London flower-girl. At first, Lucicn is favoured by Sheila, hut,.owing to tlis unspeakable Hieaaftfss of 'A "cattisli'' friend. Lady TlpUh). Mortimer, _ a scandalous' story as ro his britli is .circulated. Misled by it jealous aatl contemptible awjUa-intaiK'o. into (he belief that bis old friend, Locan, is the author of the scandal, Lncinn nisljes off to Carrara, only to find his old. friend's lifo iu danger, owing to a strike at the quarries, a strike organised by Italian j anarchists. Tire result is tragedy, for j learning the truth rts to Logan's loy- j ally, the gallant, youut; fellow lays down J his' lifo for that of his old i'rieml. 'There is, hero and U«n:, in' til? !;k>;r .1 t?r- j tain touch of tho an?lotiratoatacu but]

tho chariicter-drawing tbroiighont is exceptionally strong arid clever, tlio author being specially successful in showing how the conflicting congenital iuiluesiees work tsmt in Lucicn do Guise's complo* tompcramcut. A fine, powerful, convincing story. SHORTER NQtICES* Warwick Doepiiiij alternates liis novels of everyday lifo, sneli as "Tho White Gate,'' "The Hetnrning <rf the Pctti» coat," fs.nd that pretty story, "Fos Fiirm,"/ by romances whoso subjiects are taken from mediaeval history. His latest story, "The King Behind the King" tC.ns.soll and Co., par S. and W. Mac* kay), belongs to tlw latter category. Tho period is tho 1 reign of Richard the Second and the Wat Tyler rebellion; the hero, one Folk of the Forest, a handsomo'young fellow, who personates the King, Kicnard was a lamentably weak creature, H»; .double is exactly the contrary, ..and Mr. Deeping makes him the contral' figure in many an exciting and perilous situation. To many readers, However, Fulk's sweetheart, "n woodland nymph called Iseult of tho Rose, will proye- a yet wioro attfactive figure than tho hero himself. Plenty of fighting, some pretty kve-aaking, and a bint of somei curious statecraft—all ttiis yoti shall find in "The King Behind the ■Kim*," whieli. nsakes pleasant enough reailmg, despite a surplusage of the "avavmt theo, variet," stylo of dialogue. "The Marrying of Hester Rainsbrook," by J. A. Rever.fi.tont ('William Heim?.mami; per George Robefteon and Co,), lms for its three leading tigiares ■ Constance Haniiiigc, a middle-aged, well-preserved widow, well-to-do, over self-conscious, and not a little selfish; her niece, Hester Baittshrook, and a handsome young man named Edward M'arston. The widow bitterly resents tho {'act that Mars-ton loves tho niece and not tlio aunt. The girl on her part is a somewhat neurotic and hysterical creature, and tho man, who has been in prists for forgery—suffering for ftnother's crime*—too much of a Byronic kind of. hero to be convincing in a note! ot .present-day {lie. The stotv, which ends with the love-stricken widow's retirement to a convent, is permeated by an air of unreality, and the dialogue is often' artificial and stifted. "Tlio Iron Year' (John Lane) is an English and authorised transtatKra of a iiavo.l by Walter Bloem, which lias c.n'joyed great popularity in Gorma-ny. The,author rrtits t-m skilful fictional use tho chief incidents of thowwatr t his descriptions of tlw battle of Siwcliereii, the blood-tWrsty cavalry encounter at Rezonviße, and tho siege and efl.pitulation of Strasbnrg, being specially well d.one. Tho story has its sentimenta} interest in the fateful attraction of a handsoiito French ofeor for a Gcraan ftir-1. Such an attachment, at snob a timo, necessarily spoils oxceptionAl ob" sfcaeies and dtibcnlties, and tho path of true lovo mns by no means smoothly. After many and great trials, however, the layers aro reunited under very paihe-tirt cireiunstanccs. Another prominent character is that of a hypersensitive and much gifted young ntftsician, l-raiisforfflfrd by the stress and -turmoil of the times inte a_ strong wan of action. Tho Oernian original has gone into 11.9 fewer than twenty editions, and in its English guise, it should prove a very popular story.