BOOKS & AUTHORS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2247, 5 September 1914, Page 5

BOOKS & AUTHORS.

BY "LIBER."

SOME RECENT FICTION.

Those who liked that curious, but 'fascinating story, "Tho Soul of a Dancer," will bo interested in Mr. Theodore Flatau's new story, "The Thrice Bom" (Or. Bell and Cons, per Whitcombo and Tombs). Tho heroine, Joiieta. Birk, has Oriental blood in her veins, and tho author's theory that sho is the reincarnation of two Egyptian women, fsatfh of. whom .was, killed for infidelity by her husband, is ingeniously worked out. Jpneta, who is brought up In a quiet, prosaic English environment, marries a middle-aged soldier, goes out to "Egypt, and within a few months of her marriage, is detected by her husband in an intrigue'with an Arab dragoman. There is a tragic sequel, but the reader must feel that Jbneta's death is the only possible conclusion, for although the husbands forgives, it is doubtful whether he could ever have forgotten. Joneta's lapse from virtue is put down to uncontrollable impulse, the result of heredity, but the author has a good deal to say—much of it very unpleasant —as to the peculiar fascination exercised upon a certain class of English and American women by the Arab dragomen. \"The Thrice Born," I feel bound to add, is not a novel for tho young person.

The telling-of. a story by means. of a diary or by letters is a device which is too frequently apt to confine and cramp the full development of the author's theme. • It is not everyone who can handle this ntethod as cleverly, say, as does Mr. E.'V. Lucas, whose effort in this .direction, ■••'Listerner's Lure," will be remembered; In "The Quest of the Dream" (Putnams and Sons; per George Robertson), Miss Edna Kingsley Wallace adopts the letter story method, and must be credited with decided success., A young lady, a musical composer, and a gentleman who is an artist lof . high ability, are the chief actors in a very, pleasant comedy which ends in the manner- traditionally popular with lovers of sentiment,' other subordinate characters being introduced as the story develops., Art, literature, music, and life generally, are .discussed in the.letters, which, being written in a very charming iiterary style, will 6trongly appeal to readers of intellectual and cultured tastes. The printing of the book, with its rubricated pages and its red

page headings and side titles, is unusually tasteful and attractive.

Memories of certain of William Morris's romances—"The Glitteriitg Plain" and ''The Wood Beyond the World" in particular—there may be in G. P. Baker's "Magic Tale of Harvanger. and Yolande'' (Mills and Boon ; per Whitccmbe and Tonibs) plus, too, a certain •Hewlettian flavour, a flavour, say, cf "The Forest Lovers.'! But Mr. Baker's romantic story of tho love-sick . Harvanger's search for tho beautiful Yolanda is. a fine piece of work, as.quaint as some of old Malroy's tales of' _ Arthur's Knights-and yot with a poetic flavour all its own. , To read 6uch a novel in this year of grace, nineteen hundred and fourteen, is to ensure transport, alas, all too brief, from the commonplace of everyday existence. That the City of Long Whitewall and the Scaur Gap never existed, that Horn and Goldbeard, and Messiro Paranides, are but figmonts of a clever author's imagination, phantasmal'figures which como to those who smoke Balzac's' "enchanted cigarettes," mattors but little. Amidst a delugo of realistio and sensational kinematograph fiction such a story comes like a nice deed ill a. naughty, world. It is true romance, aud must, ba read as such. -

In. "The Music Makers, the Love Story of a Woman Composer" (Mills and Boon; per George Robertson and Co.), gives us a very interesting.novel in which the two'principal figures are a brilliantly-gifted young Hungarian composer, and a young American lady, who, though lier father is a multi-mu-lionaire, prefers to earn her own living as' a professional-pianist. Jess Levellier discovers-that Ferencz, who cannot get a hearing for -his opera, is starving. She cets his opera .produced, but through a "chapter of accidents is herself acclaimed as its composer. Ferencz, who has fallen deeply in love with hiß benefactress, now believes her to be a mean and selfish creature, and the explanation which would have set everything right is delayed, through tho machinations of a selfish and spiteful operatic impressario, who, not until the very, end of the book, discovers the fact that Ferencz, tho man whom .he. has tried to rob of his fame,'.is actually his own son. Mrs. Creed gives, soma [interesting pictures of the musical world of London, Paris, and Rome, and hor story is decidedly readable.

Tireo recent additions to John Long's Colonial Library (per \\hitcombe and Tombs) are ' Oyster, by "A.' Peer"; "The Beloved Premier," by: H. Maxwell'; and J'lte Maze," by A. L. , Stewart. Iho Oyster" is a story of life m the ultra "smart" 1 set of; London society, the plot turning upon the_ purchase, by ft childless lady, of tho, infant,of an impecunious but recklessly > extravagant friend. ; Both women appear in a very disagreeable light, aiid although) >111 the ond, the child-seller pays a ..terrible penalty, for her share in tho deception, it is difficult to feel any -real .pity, for cither hor or her co-partner,in the .trick which was played upon Lord Blakeney, The story, however, is brightly., told, and its lively pictures of Parisian and London life will no doubt please many readers. .

In "Tho Beloved Premier, Mr. H. Maxwell,author.of that amusing story, ■'Tho Paramount Shop," treats his readers to a wild but entertaining fantasy, which turns upon the remarkablo resemblance between two brothers, one tho Prime Minister of England, tho other, alas, a confirmed criminal, who, however, sins only from what he oddly conceives to bo the most. > benevolent motives. How one Mr. Sloan, the Prime Minister, is replaced in office and power by - bis gaol-bird i twin-brother, and himself takes tho lattor's placo in a cell, at Portland, and jvhat astounding results upon Great _ Britain's .foreign and • internal policy ensue; Mr. Maxwell tells with, great ' spirit and decided gusto.■_ Of course, it hall pcr- ' fectly impossible, and not a little absurd, but underlying the farcical fun is not a little .effective satire upon British politicians and political events of the present time.

"The Maze," by A. L. Stewart, relates the story of a.brilliant young violinist's somewhat unfortunate lovo affairs. He is tricked into a marriage with an elderly and rather shrewish prima donna, whilst the girl lie loves is cruelly doomed to a yet- more unhappy matrimonial experience with a peculiarly , odious Jew. The story, which ends;with the premature death of tho violinist, hardly makes pleasant reading. ,

From tho moment when Jane Race, beautiful, well educated, well bred, but reduced to poor circumstances by the Heath of her father, encounters "the sun-burnt man," and succours his favourite Bully, which her taxi-cab has run over, the experienced novel reader easily "spots" the male _ figure in tho curious nicotine as the inevitable Mr. Right, who will reappear, with. a wed-ding-bells accompaniment, in the last chapter. Before, however, that stago if reached, tho heroiuo of Milliccnt

"Entertaining Jane" (Mills and Boon; per Whitcoinbe and Tombs), undergoes somo varied but mostly unpleasant experiences as "entertainer" at a lorkshiro "hydro," hor special misfortune being tlio amorous advances of a peculiarly vulgar Hebrew person, of tho nouveau riche class. Jane, nowover, is a clean souled, as wall as a sharp-witted young lady, and is quite ablo to rout hero enemies. Tho hydro scencs aro very amusing.

. Tho liefo of Mr John Barnctt's series | of stories of adventure ;on tho West Coast of Africa, "Trader Carson" (Ward, Lock, and Co.; per Whitcomtio and Tombs), must be a first cousin of the redoubtable "Sanders of the Itivers," of whose exploits and those of his faithful henchman Bosambo, Mr. Edgar Wallace lias written so entertainingly. Mr. 'Barnett's hero, who js nicknamed "Blue Funk Carson,"' from his habit of painting himself as a coward, whereas he positively revels in dangerous adventures, is a very fine fellow, and the stories of his experiences with witch doctors, slave-dcaTcrs, Portuguese officials, and the pagan inhabitants of the Gold Coast hinterland, made good enough reading. But the author who gave us that strong, fine story "Geoffrey Cheriton" should be doing something bettor than_' 'magazine shorts," however well, in their own. way, they may be done.

Those who like sensational fiction will find, in Arthur Applin's "Fallen Among Thieves" (Ward, Lock, and. Co.: per Whit-combo and Tombs), a well-con-structed, exciting story, in which the chief figure is a young journalist ana politician, who becomes entangled in tlie web woven by a clever criminal, with whose niece, an innocent, charming girl, tho hero falls in love, regardless of tho fact that ho is engaged to a lovely but unscrupulous lady or title. Tlie theft of a valuable pearl necklace, gambhng scenes at Monto Carlo, and the attempted kidnapping of the heroine, all provide cxcitina incidents.

The novel reader who' severely limits himself to the expenditure of a modest fifteenpence per volume, eschewing new books and making careful selection from among the many series of reprints, which nowadays crowd the bookshelf, can "do himself very well." Indeed, the question of choice is not always easy to answer. To Messrs. Hodder and Skughtoirs Shilling Library (per S. and W. Mackay), for instance, have recently beon added four books'by the popular Amorican novelist, Miss Gene Stratton Porter. These are "The Harvester,"A Girl of the Limberlost," both, already well-known, in. their American editions, to New Zealand readers, and the less known "At . the Foot of the Rainbow" and "The Song of the Cardinal," the. latter a very charming specimen of the "nature story" so popular with Amorican readers. Some may find Miss Porter's.sentiment just a | triflo over saccharine—she has been called, I notice, the American Florence Barclay—but her publishers proudly announce, that over two million copies of lier stories have been sold, and so far as author and publisher are concerned, it is the "big that count, not the critics. _ Other additions to this veil-printed series are "G. B. Lancaster's 1 fine story of South Sea life and adventure, "The Altar Stairs," "The Sunset Trail," a series of stirring . "Wild West yarns by Alfred Henry Lewis, of "Wolfville" fame; Ralph O'Connor's fine romance of life in the Canadian North-west, "The Sky Pilot/' "Tho Temptation of Tavernake," by E. Phillip Oppenheim, and "Daventry's Daughter," by Harold Bindloss. All these are readable) novels, which, in their now, cheap and han-'ly form Vtiouid renew their popularity. Messrs. Hodder and Stougnton also publish a shilling edition of "Robbie Doo," by Joseph Laing Wnugh, a collection of sketchos of Scottish lifo and humour, which should vastly delight:, those who ...can success- '■ fully wrcstlo-with the dialect.

From the New South Wales Bookstall Company, Sydney, I have to acknowledge. a new ana cheaper (a shilling) edition of tlio tat-o Louis Bccke's otory "Tlio Adventures of Louis Blake." Thpro is a'strong autobiographical element in the story,, a special featurd in which is the author's account of various meetings with those romantic, scoundrel, tho notorious "Bully" Hayes. "On His Majesty's Service," by Roy Bridges, is a full-blooded romanco of the old convict and btishranging days in Tasmania, the notorious Mike Howe being a proiminent figure. Tlio illustrations,, by Lionel Lindsay, are luridly appropriate to the text. Two other recent additions t<i the Bookstall Series aro "Spat's Fact'ry" (More Fact'ry ; 'Ands), by Edward Dyson, . with illustrations by Lionel Lindsay, find a pleas-antly-written story, possessing a strong sentimental flavour; "A Bachelor's Bride," by M. Forrest. 1 . (