BOOKS & AUTHORS.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2301, 7 November 1914, Page 5

BOOKS & AUTHORS.

SOME RECENT FICTION.

ism. MID-VICTORIAN LONDON.

I [BY Liber-1

"THE FIRE OF SPRINC." . If English society were really half_ so frivolous, so empty of intellectual impulse, so cynically regardless of conventional morality, as it is pictured in certain chapters of Ethel Boileau's novel, "The Firo of Spring" (Eveleigh Nash), then must the present war be deemed a, most wholesome and * blessed purgation. Miss Boileau's heroine; Angela Barrington, a. young lady of good family, marries, at twenty-one, an easygoing, extravagant young aristocrat, an earl's son, Tony Carlyou. Young' as he is, the husband has already had more than one "adventure," - and before many months of married life are over, "week-ends" in Paris with_a lady of a lurid pa6t—and present—and lias tho bad luck to be "bowled out," byliis wife who temporarily forgives, but does not forget. ■ Soon comes on tho scene one of, those strong, stern, outwardly cold, but inwardly passionate,. men of forty or thereabouts, so beloved by Miss Ethel Dell and other popular feminine novelists, and Angela, hitherto the pink of British propriety, falls hope-, lessly, in love with him. There is a sojourn in Algeria, and Angela gives herself to her lover unreservedly. Later' on, she comes to ' understand that the intrigue will prevent her adored one succeeding, in his, political career, and'after a poignant heartstruggle she sends him away on a mission to the Persian frontier where he is shot, the story; closing with, her determining to devote her life to bringing up. her boy—her lover's , boy, not her husband's boy—.''to be .true to 'the high! ideal—the great watch w.ord of the ■ Mackenzie House— : 'l serve.'" And this, (if you please, ;in the renewed society of the outwardly at least pardoned Tony. The story is well written, but jifter all it is a deliberate apologia for a course of action which, if general, would strike deep at the foundations of marriage as a social and family institution. "Liber" is no Puritan, but it certainly seems to 1 him that "The Fire of Spring" is a far more mischievous book , than the productions of Victoria Cross and her male rival in .fictional naughtiness, Mr. Hubert Wales. . . TWO NEW "AMERICANS." "The. Lost! Dispatch," by Natalie Sumner Lincoln (D. Appleton and Co., New York: per George R-obertson and Co.), is a highly sensational, but wellwritten story of the American Civil War. ■' The heroine, Naiicy Newton, is suspected (and with reason) by Captain Lloyd, of the Federal Secret Service, of being a spy in the interests of the: Confederates. ■ Lloyd is found dead in bed mysteriously 'poisoned, and Nancy is arrested and charged with the crime. For. a: time all the evidence obtainable seems to point to her guilt, but sensational disclosures at the trial reveal the fact that the crime has been committed, by Lloyd's long lost wife,' and Nancy, acquittod of the murder, is pardoned (as a spy) by Lincoln, and the same day marries an officer who has long loved her. In the development of the case against heroine, tho author. displays considerable ingenuity, and proves herself a skilled compounder of fiction of the "detective" class. The mysterious South American poison, cu-, rari,' which' is employed:by Mrs. Lloyd,' is," however, no longer a novelty; The ; procedure of the Court by 'which Nancy' is tried '' seems,'even to'.a' non-legal mind, somewhat loose,: but a. certain latitude' must, of course, bo allowed in .novels of the kiiid.. • An. exciting,' thoroughly readable-story.' V ' ; . 'There. is somewhat of; an old-f ashion*ed flavour about "Mrs. .Corra Harris's story, "In Search of a Husband" , (Doubleday, Page, and Co. ; per George: Robertson and Co.). The heroine is a Mghly-sentimehtal,. not to 6ay ro-mantically-minded , young lady, who lives' with her father and brother in a sleepy little' town ; in; one of the southern States.- The father is indolent and self-indulgent, the. brother greedy of 'money, and Joy Marris foolish enough to conclude with the latter a curious bargain,: involving the matrimonial ambitious of botb. Fate, however,, steps in' and brings about certain twists in and : entanglements of the contract, which 'for a long time threaten to imperil'the young lady's, chances of happiness. In the end, however, true love bas its way, and Joy's pretty little romance ends as all such, romances should do. Such a large proportion of the •American'novels: which find their, way to New Zealand.deal'either w'ith the hustling and rather sordid life of the great Eastern cities, or reflect the somewhat cheap melodrama which is supposed to ,be the inevitable accompaniment of life, "out .West," that Mrs. Harris's story, with its clever reproduction of so different an atmosphere, came as a very agreeable change. Colonel Marr is a'most amusing personage, and the social life of the sleepy little southern town is depicted with no small humour. "HAPPY EVER AFTER." It is difficult to say very much in favour of "Happy. Ever After," ■ by, ,R. Allatini (Mills and Boon, per Whitcombe and Tombs). The heroine, 'the daughter of a South American father and a German mother, is well meaning, sentimental,! and 1 just' a trifle silly. Whilst quite'! a girl she falls in love with a picturesque young wastrel, who for a while carries on : a_ desperate flirtation with her, but who eventually ekipes with an impishly attractive cousin. • The heroine visits relations in Germany, and finds a new lover in a stolid and somewhat thick-headed Teuton business man. Several chapters are devoted to the fair Olive's regretful dreams of her lost Prince Charming, but when that much erring person, having scrapheaped the fair but capricious Renee, finally turns up again and ■■would fain renew his philandering, the sentimental Olive tells him.' she lias "buried her heart," and turns to her tow-headed Teuton with resignation. "And they all lived happily after . . ." is the-final sentence. The. German scenes are interesting, but tlie story is spun out to an unconscionable length. "SOMETHING IMPOSSIBLE." Those who know their Kipling will remember that curious story, "The Bisara of Pooree," in which a tiny silver box, possessing certain magical properties, played so prominent a part in the love story of the pretty Miss Hollis and that dreadful ' person, Captain Park. Tn her latest story, "Something Impossible" (Mills and Boon, per Whitcombe and Tombs), Mrs. H. H. Penrose introduces, a small ivory figuro of a cow, the possession of which by a country doctor is: accountable for a long series of strange and humorous happenings. The , doctor, though a good husband and' a go°d fellow,- is cursed with phenomenal ugliness. The ivory cow, however, is_ responsible for his sudden transformation into a ventablo Adonis, and much to his embarrassment and to the annoyance of , his wife he becomes the object of quite open adoration by half the ladies in the neighbourhood. This leads indirectly to him passing himself off as his own brother, and an ew set of complications quite in the approved vein of some of Mr. Anstey's stories is created, only to cense with a second recourse to the magical powers of the mischief-making Indian curio, and the return of - the original Dr. Marks in his own and old physical personality. Ait impossible, but ver yamusinz. story.,

"THE FOLK OF FURRY FARM." Tile fact that "G. A. Birmingham" vouches for the fidelity with which Miss Purdon reproduces in her "Folk of Furry Farm" (G. Bell and Sons; per Whit-combo and Tombs) the dialect of tlm Irish peasants about whom she writes, is ail excellent passport for Miss Purdon's book. The background is, lie guesses, "somewhere in the western part of Leinster, in Meath or Kildare, on tlie great plain which fattens cattle for tlie market." This, as it may be, I can testify to tlie vivacity and singularly convincing spirit of the stories, which deal with every variety of Irish life, as lived by the small-hold-el's and peasants. As in so much Irish literature of the day the author introduces at times the element of mystic-

In her latest book, ".From An Islington Window" (6. Bell and Sons; per \Vhitcombe_ and Tombs), the veteran lady novelist, Miss . Betham-Edwards, gives us a series of sketches of mid-Vic-torian life as the author knew it when, in her early womanhood, she lived in a quiet little street in Islington, the same little street, by the way in which Charles Lamb resided in the day of his South Sea'N House servitude. , Miss Betham-Edwards writes as pleasantly as ever, and apart from the value the various stories 'and sketches give of Victorian social manners and customs, there is in 6ome of them an agreeable note of romance, as well as many touches of restrained but agreeable humour. PATIENCE TABERNACLE. Sophie Cole's latest story, "Patience Tabernacle" (Mills and Booii: per Whitcombe and Tombs), well fulfils the high promise of' its predecessor, "A Wardour Street Idyll." The heroine's father, an under-paid bank clerk, makes a bad break, and her . mother, being empty-headed, unsympathetic and selfish, poor Patience finds life of a greyer tint than her bright, sincere young personality deserves. , The story of her troubles when in search-of employment, her persecution by a man of good birth but evil intention, and of her faith in and rescue by the friend of her youth, _ a middle-aged artist named Valentine Day, from marriage with a "fatuously conceited young man whom maternal insistence had alone made her' accept, makes very pleasant reading. . The earlier scenes are laid in one of the old Inns which still exist in the Holborn district, and to all who know London the general, atmosphere of the story should prove most fascinating.

"HIS LOVE STORY." "His Love Story,'? by Marie Van Voorst (Mills and Boon; per Whitcombe and Tombs), is a pleasantly-told story, with a captain in, the French army and a lovely and wealthy American girl as leading figures. _ The captain, Count de Sabron, who is poor and dare not avow his love, goes off to Algeria, is wounded in an engagement with an Arab tribe, and for, some months is given up as dead. His littlo dog, a model of canine'faithfulness, plays a prominent role in the discovery of his'master's whereabouts, and the beau sabreur returns to France and marries his fair Julia. A pretty but ultra-sentimental story. The Algerian scenes are well done. Pitehoune, the faithful rterrier, "will be remombored by all who read the book. "CROSS FIRES." ■* ' Florence Warden, the author of "Cross Fires" (Cassell and Co.; -per ■Whiteombe and Tombs), is by this time a skilled compounder of sensational fiction, and her latest production should afford pleasant entertainment to those who like to read once more of the doings of a gang of clever daring thieves, and of the anxieties and perils of an innocent, and, of course, surpassingly beautiful, girl, who becomes entangled in their evil practices. In this case it is a real live lord who acts .as the rescuer, his task being complicated by the awkward fact that a wastrel younger brother has got into the toils of the.gang. The story would lend itself easily and well to kinematographic adaptation. . ..-.-'