SOME RECENT FICTION.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2241, 29 August 1914, Page 5

SOME RECENT FICTION.

A Story of Russian Life. As a rule "Liber" finds.the works ol the Russian novelists, such as Dostoievsky, Tolstoi, Gogol, and Tohekov, now, apparently at-least, so popular witli English readers, somewhat depressing, Turgeniev, of course, is: ah exception I have, however, just read 1 'a story ol quite modern Rusian life, whicflrl haw found most fascinating.. This is "Katya" (Heineniann; per Georgo Robertson). /The author, Franz de Jessen, is not a Russian, but a Dane, 'who, however, has spent several years in the land of the Tsar. I can warmly; commend "Katya" •as being a strikingly dramatic novel of much distinction as t< style, and possessing some, exceptionally well-drawn characters.- The heroine '.-. the daughter of a Russian if . a beautiful. and talented, but inordin-ately-vain, and,-, as .'events prove, dan- . gerously ambitious woman.' love of wlhon: Brings three .very, fine fellows to tragK ends. : As the wife of : a Russian consul in an' Albanian town, Katya work! mischief which narrowly escapes having very serious international consequences. The onlv soft place in her heart is foi •her childhood's home,' and_. there is something peculiarly cruel in her finding, when she marries her second husband, that the union spells pennaneni oxile from the beloved Prilulca, she had- ever deemed hei rightful harbour of refuge. A secondary interest is provided by the famous Black' Sea mutiny, in which one of Katya's - admirers plays , a leading part, and meets-wit|h. a tragic end. A notable feature of the ■ story is the description it gives of the daily life oi a Russian land-owning nobleman and 'his family., "Katya" is a novel whicl will well repay the leisurely perusal, its incidentstpeked chapters demand. Manj Russian novels read! somewhat stiffly ir their English translation, but Mr. "VVorsfold's, translation of "Katya" is a vcrj agreeable exception. . .