BOOKS & AUTHORS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2298, 31 October 1914, Page 5

BOOKS & AUTHORS

■ —.—» [By Liber. 1 SOME RECENT FICTION. "THE BOOMERS." ; Roy Norton's novel, "The Boomers" (Mills and Boon, per. George Robertson and Co.),' deals with the experiences of a dear old Virginian gentleman, Colonel Alonzo Fairfax Hatch, in founding and booming a new seaport town at an out-of-the-way spot, Squaw's Point, • in British Columbia. The colonel'has been president of a bank "down South," and'has sacrificed the bulk of his personal fortune in meeting the claims of that institution's creditors." An honest, trustful, simple soul, ho cherishes the fond delusion that he is possessed of almost Rockefellerian business cabacity, and on arriving at Seattle with the few thousand dollars he has saved from the wreck of his Virginian fortune, he falls an easy victim to the insidious and unscrupulous blandishments of one William Burmah Jcnes, a professional "scalper" of such innocents as ,the colonel. The Squaw's Point property is purchased, and -William Burmah Jones is persuaded to remain for a while to boom it. Jones intends to "skip" on the first possible opportunity, but tho colonel's only daughter, called from Virginia to share in her father's supposed "splendid success," is so affectionate and honest a girl that.the heart of. the rascally Jcnes is touched with- sympathy, and a long-hidden chord of honesty makes him decide to 'do his best to "boom" Port Hatch, and really make the colonel's enterprise a" success. ■ • Mr.' 'Norton's description of the "booming" process, including the sedulous circulation of a Tumour that the port, is to- be the Pacific, terminus of a great transcontinental ' railway, is vastly entertaining. As a matter of fact the Tailway does come to Port Hatch, not through any engineering of the highly imaginative Jones, but through the influence of the fair Arabella's lover, who, the son of an Eastern railway magnate, has been camping, incognito, at. Squaw's Point for tho benefit of his health.. In the end, the "boomster," who is unaware of the favourable turn tbetide of the Port Hatch fortunes is taking; is so conquered by the colonel's faith in his hona-fidos, and by the -honest) trustfulness • of his daughter, that he makes over to the latter the whole of his ill-gotten gains, and prepares to pack his suitcase, and 'leave suddenly for fresh woods and pastures new, a proceeding which,: so; the greatly amused readeralready knows, is quite unnecessary. For William. Burmah Jones sharee in, the ultimate success of the venture which the dear- old innocent colonel fondly 'imagines has justified his claim that "a gentleman sir, did he but turn his-attention to commercial pursuits, could always make a financial success." I cannot recall any recent American novel which his given me more amusement than "The Boomers." "SYLVIA SAXON." -■'Wiston's" was a very good story in its way, but in "Sylvia Saxon". (T. Fisher Unwin) Miles Amber, otherwise Miss Ellen Melicent Cobden, gives us a. much -stronger,, more carefully wrought, and convincing piece of work. The two leading figures are Sylvia Saxon, daughter of a wealthy north country manufacturer, and a brilliantlygifted ambitious politician, named Lessingham. Sylvia is unfortunate enough to: marry, a dissipated wastrel, Jasper Marriott, the son of a wealthy cotton king. Her husband gives way to drink, and when Lessingham comes on the scene Sylvia seeks distraction in .the . company of the stronger natured man. The bond, at .first is purely intellectual, and Lessingham, who, like many strongminded men, is given to philandering with every pretty woman who attracts his attention," 'is careless and mean enough to make love to Sylvia's'adopted sister, a .girl of peculiarly sweet and trustful: nature. Soon, however, the politician begins to find Sylvia' more attractive metal,. and poor Anne's fate, a peculiarly cruel one, is to be drowned in.the presence of a half-insane German governess,' who conceives it to be her duty to let the poor girl die rather than that she i should live to discover Lessingham's baseness. When Lessingham, carrying his new passion to a logical conclusion, asks Sylvia to leave her husband and go off with him to the Continent, she tacitly, agrees, hit later on it is Lessingham who, much more in love with himself ,'and his political career than with Sylvia, break's the-tie. A ;■ completely artistic, but, to the lover of sentiment, somewhat an unsatisfying conclusion. The story.is exceedingly well written, and throws many curious sidelights upon the social life of the north country manufacturers and their wives, besides affording some interesting peeps into the inside workings of the rival political parties. / A NEW OPPENHEIM NOVEL. Mr. E. Phillips .' Oppenheim's latest novel, "The Vanished Messenger" (Methuen and Co.), must have been Ivritten, before the war began. Its leading, character and villain-in-chief-is, ah exremployee'of the''British Foreign Office, who acts as a German spy, and the story generally deals with Teuton intrigues and designs, against ' Great Britain. The scene is laid at an East Coast fishing village, where the wicked Miles Fentolen has established a private ~ and immensely powerful wireless station, through which- he communicates to Berlin much valuable-'' information. An American who comes from New York, charged, bv a syndicate of money kings, with the mission of disclosing a Russo-German plot against Great Britain, is kidnapped by the villain, kept a prisoner, and cruall'v tortured with a view to' making the unfortunate man disclose his secret. How- Fentolin's misdeeds are suspected and discovered by,a voting Englishman who possesses a small property in the village, how Nemesis dictates a peculiarly horrible end for tho archvillain of the piece, and- of the part played in the drama by his charming niece, whom, with her brother, had long been the object of Fentolin's spite, I must leave it to my readers to find out for themselves in the pages of Mr.' Oppenheim's highly-sensational but eminently readable story. THE SECRET OF THE NICHT. Whenever I read "by the author of "lho-Mystery of th 9 Yellow Room,'" on a title page, I know I can count upon a "mystery story" of the very first quality. For Gaston Leroiix is the only serious rival of Maurice Le Blanc, whose Arsene Lupin adventures have won as wide a reputation as did the famous Lecocq stories related by those friends-of my youth, Messieurs Gaboriau and De Boisgobey. In "The Secret of the Night" (Everleigh Njteli), M. Leroux takes us to the Russian capital, whither a famous Fronch detective, an "amateur" of tho Sherlock Holmes type, is called to track down, and, if possible, to bring to punishment the perpetrators of a series of ingeniously conceived and daring attempts against the life of General Trebassof, against whom a,section of tho revolutionary party has vowed vengeance, ho being held responsible for the massacre of a number of Russian working men. Tho young Frenchman) tho redoubtable Joseph Rouletabille—a name, very familiar to readers of earlier stories by M. Leroux —becomes a member of the Genoral's household, and tho story at onco becomes a most fascinating narrative, in which the author exhibits all his old _

cunning in puzzling his readers. Tho solution of the problem which confronts the everalieerful and resourceful Rouletabille is only arrived at in the last chapter, and will come, I should say, to most readers of the book as a complete surprise. M. Leroux is evidently quite as much at home in St. Petersburg—l beg pardon, in Petrograd—as iu his native Paris, and his style is as briskly vivacious as ever. A rattling good yarn. "THOSE THAT DREAM." The singular, quite fascinating beauty of the literary style of Yoi Pawlowska's novel, "Those That Dream" (Duckworth and Co., 'per Robertson and Co.), will compensate with' many readers for a certain tenuity of interest in the plot. The story is, in reality, an analysis of the working of a woman's soul. The heroine, of mixed Polish and English parentage, is married to an Englishman, whom she detects in an act of such surpassing meanness and baseness as to destroy, permanently, irrevocably, her affection for him. Later on she .meets and is. loved by an Italian, a musician of wide and deop intellectual gifts. Her husband pleads hard with her to induce her to return to him, but all in vain. Divorce, under the . special circumstance of the case, is impossible. Shall she defy the world and join the man who loves her, and'whom she loves so dearly, or put love out of her lifo for ever? The Btory of ' the struggle in the sorely-tortured heart-of , Wiosua. Marshall is told wifh great restraint, but none the less with com: pelling and convincing force. Tho story is really a series of sketches of life and character, the scene varying between Paris and Italy, tho local colour of the latter background ! being specially charming. I warmly commend "Those That Dream" to readers who care more for purely literary excellene than a dramatic or sentimental interest; Personally, I have found Madame Pawlowska's story one of quite notable charm. The author is evidently endowed with literary gifts much above the ordinary. JEHANE OF THE FOREST. "Jehan© of the Forest," by L. A. Talbot (Andrew Melrose; per George Robertson Co.), takes us back to the England of Plantagenet times, and introduces us,-,to a bewildering variety of romantic figures, ladies fair, and knights gallant,- but some, too, alas, 'of evil intent. The cloister plays a part in the tale, for one ot the characters is none other than St. Guthlac, of Crowland Abbey, in the' Fcnland, of which Charles . Kingsley wrote in "Hereward the Wake." Miss Talbot's story is hardly up to a Hewlettian standard, but is good' pleasant fiction for all that. "ANDREW AND HIS WIFE." "Andrew and His Wife,", by Thomas Cobb (Mills and Boon; per Whitcombe and Tombs), is an agreeably written, amusing story of matrimonial misunderstandings. The husband' is .a satisfied, gentleman; the wife a decidedflirtatious lady, who skates dangerously on thin ice, and is saved from _ social ruin more by good luck and the judicious interference of a sensible and witty lady friend than by any moral strength of her own. Mr. Cobb never unduly excites his readers. His narrative ambles gentlv along, but if the pace is toevcr forced his stories always provide a discerning reader with a quietly pleasant entertainment.' "JETSAM." Under the general title of "Jetsam" (Mills and Boon; per Whitcombe and Tombs), Victor Bridges, whoso clever sensational story, "The Man From Nowhere," was such* a well-deserved success last year, has collected a number of short stories, which have appeared various ■ magazines. . Several of tho ■ stdies' deal with convict life, and there is genuine humour in Mr. Bridges s yarn of how an impudent escaped prisoner from Dartmoor, an ex-champion full-back, suddenly appears on a.football ground, and, impersonating a player who has failed to put' in an appearance, acquits Himself so manfully ae to win quite enthusiastic local applause. Other stories deal with racing episodes and with the Bohemian side of artistic and literary life.' All are written in a vigorous, brightly attractive style, and although some are much stronger than, others' in dramatic interest, all are essentially readable. A capital book for a railway journey or steamer trip. ■ROOKS OF_ TO-DAY. THE MODERN "FAMILY DOCTOR. The most complete "Home Doctor" pu>. Hshed. 700 double-column pages and numerous illustrations dealing with such subjects as The Human Body—Health in. the Home—The Baby-Health in Childhood—Health in Maturity and Old AgeYouth and Sei—Pregnancy and Mother-hood-Diet and Dieting-The Tee-th-Tho Culture of Physical Beauty—The Prevention of Phthisis—Modern Curative Treatments—Diseases, Their. Diagnosis and Treatment—First Aid—Home NursingInvalid Cookery—Tho Medicine Chest, etc.' This huge volume does not tell jou what to do before the doctor comes, but what to do to keep the doctor away. No home can afford to be without it. Saves pounds in doctors' bills. 55., postage Bd. THE'HARMSWORTH ATLAS. _ The largest and most exact Atlas obtainable; 93 double-page maps,-size 16 inches by , 14 v inches.; 20 page maps, size 9 inchc3 by U inches;' 190 inset maps of principal cities and rivers of each country;, 70 pages devoted to Great Britain and'her Colonies. A series of graphical charts dealing with the commerce of every country. Numerous physical maps showing comparative height of the land and depth of the ocean all over the world. 200 maps and diagrams demonstrating the. growth and present position of our foreign and colonial trade. 284 pages containing 105,000 names of villages, towns, and cities, with easy references, Which enable one to quickly 'find any place required. £2 25., postage 2s. A Short History of Art, by Julia B. Do Forest. New plates, new cuts, and 289 new illustrations; 75S pages; 155., postage Bd. The Life of Sir Fredk. Weld, by Alice Lady Lovat; 155., postage 6d. English Literature Through the Ages, by Amy Cruse Beowulf to R. L. Stevenson; G7 illustrations; 95., postage 6d. AN IMPORTANT BOOK. The Last Shot, by Fredk. Palmer (Tho Great War Novel). This wonderfully vivid story of modern warfare was published in America two months before tho outbreak of the war. It is, so far as tho diverse methods of figihting practised by • France and Germany, and the results therefrom, marvellously prophetic. 3s. 6d„ tiostose sd. LATEST NOVELS. 3s. 6d 7 postage sd. |Tho Human Desire, by Violet Irwin. . Tho Island of the Stairs, by Cyrus Townsend Brady. ■' The Boomers, by Roy Norton. Important Novels Arriving Shortly. Book your order now. Tho Auction Block—Rex Beach. The Laughing Cavalier—Baroness Orczy Tho Gentleman Adventurer—H. C. Bailey. „ , _~ By Blow and. Kiss—Boyd Cable. Ringfield-S. F. Harrison. The Vanished Messenger—E. P. Opponbeim. In Self-Defence, by Silas K, Hocking. WHITCOMBE & TOMBS, Lambton Quay