SOME RECENT FICTION.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2319, 28 November 1914, Page 4

SOME RECENT FICTION.

MRS. BARCLAY ONCE ACAiN. Mrs. Florence Barclay is not so uni.formerly saccharine in her latest novel, "The Wall of' Partition" (Putnam and Sons; per George .Robertson and Co., Melbourne), as she was in. "The Rosary," and still'worse, in that astoundsilly hook "Little Boy Blue." But in her new story, a story of, two lovers, whose earlier love passage is interrupted by a misunderstanding, but who come together again after an interval of. ten years or so : she is just as artificial and as sloppily sentimental as ever. Rodney Steele, the hero, is an author, jyliose book, "The Great Divide," has , Men published under a nom-de-jilurae of its writer having introduced some personal history, the account of a great tragedyten years back—into the story. Cynical reviewers—ah, these .. wicked reviewers!—scoff at the main incident as being grotesquely untrue to the realities, whereas Rodnej' is quito cortain that it is true to the extent of having' mined his - life;/'Fortunately' for him,, the woman in the case is able to prove to the man most interested, and in whom sho is'most interested, that_ the famous incident' which had so displeased the critics had not, after all, been completely -true, for the author, and hero of the stoty, had been ignorant of one most important fact in the tragedy. ■ Mrs. Barclay works out the enlightenment of '' Rodney Steele by means of a very ingenious device. The idea is not altogether, .novel, and in carrying it out the author strains probability nqt a little. Also, Barclay again annoys me by Scriptural quotations over her pages, jij some cases this intrusion being in very questionable task. Still, there is a fino flavour of romance in tlie_ story, and occasional touches •of whimsical fancy make me wonder how Mrs. Barclay-can, oil other occasions, be' so , disastrously humourless. ' Of. course, there is .a fine outstanding moral, and the story should rival its predecessors .in popularity with Mrs. Barclay's own' particular public, n public. so large as to place the author in the very front rank of. the "beat sellers. And' when you can get .-£BOOO for a novel, as Mrs. Barclay i.s reputed to have received for "The Wall of Partition," why trouble about wliat the critics think and say?

"WHEAT AND TARES." Paul Trent's new story, "Wheatland Tares" (Ward, Lock and Co.; per Whitcoinbo ahd Tombs), is oven more sensational than was the same author's earlier novels, "Tho Vow" and "The Foundling." The plot turns upon a gambling incident in the smoking room of an Atlantic liner, an incident in which an old English' colonol, who I grieve to say is a cardsharper, and a blissfully unsuspecting young parson, take a prominent part. How tho young clergyman's Quixotic stupidity in handing a bundle of bank notes to the wicked old colonol entails upon tho former the suspicion qf being even a greater raspa! than the latter, and how tho incident, blackens the amiable youii" pnrsoft's. career .wlien ho gets, back to England and a pleasant country vicarago, I may not, in common fairness to the ingenious 31 r, Trent, rolato, Mr. Trent can not only, concoct .a good 1 plot, but, what is less frequent nowadays, can work it Vout with equal ability-tb a plausible •'•and satisfactory conclusion. 'A'good yarn, for a. steamer or a long journey by train.

"THE VANGUAFiD." : .Tri "Tho Vanguard'' .(Elodder ■ and Stougbton; per Whitcombe and Tombs S. and ,W. Ifflclravl. Mr. liVlirnr

Roecher Branson provides a full-blooded, wgoronsly-writt'wi story 'of the early..' mining communities of the wild and woolly West of the United States, from tho British lino on the north down to the far ..south of California,' Arizona, and New Mexico. The vanguard of which he writes, sometimes in semi-aut-obio-graphical vein, at others quoting from stories told him by surviving, pioneers or'their sons, included "unlettered and nnsuug heroes, who, as stage-coach meseongers, treasure guards and marshals, to their eild fearlessly fought, often vsinglohanded, the raiding, hostile savages, the organised bands of road agents that infested the stage roads, ana ,tho disorganised groups of thugs and holdups that thronged new mining and front railway camps. A Michigan man by birth, the author took Horace Greeley's advice, "Go West, young man," when little out of his teens. The story of his wanderings and adventures in mining camps, combats, with horse thieves, gamblers,; and with the "road agents'' or highway robbers, makes capital reading. /

, BY ETHEL TURNER. A Christmastide without a new Ethel Turner story would hardly 6eem like Christmas, so, happily for lier many admirers, Mrs. Curlews is once again to the'front with a pleasantly written, interesting, and wholesome story, in which, as of old, the principal characters are young people. "Flower of the Pine" (Hodder and Stougliton; per Whitcombe and Tombs and S. and W. Mackay) shows no falling off in its author's capacity for inventing a neat little plot or in her always careful and effective character drawing. The heroine is a sweet little lass who sits up in the pine trees outside a, pleasant little home called Windyridge, in a North Queensland town, and plays the good angel to a small crowd of interesting people. Mrs. Curlewis has chastened- and mellowed her style not a little since the days of "The Seven Little Australians." but in her latest novel she displays all her old and special quality of beinir a good storvteller. "Flower of the Pine" should please all her old admirers, and win her many, new ones. The book is dedicated, I notice, ..to Lord and Lady .Tennyson,' who are thanked by the author for much kindness shown to lier .bv the ex-Gover-nor-General of Australia and his wife when she was on a visit to the Old Country.

[ "THE FUGITIVE." "The Fugitive," by Rov Bridges (Hodder and Sto-jghton: per'S. and W. Mackay), is a well written, if highly sensational story of the now far away days when British convicts were sent out to the much-dreaded Van Diemen's Land prison settlements. :■ It is the story of the adventures and sore trials of spirit and bodv which' fall to the lot of pretty Hester Whifcbv, who,, when lier betrothed, Miles Goring, is accused of murder, heroically takes upon herself the orimej is found guilty, and sent; to Bofcrny Bay. On . the convict transport. The Prince Regent., there journey witli Hester to Australia the real murderer and another gentleman who plavg a prominent part in tho storv. Tho ship is wrecked; and some highly exciting incidents take place, the romance of Hester -Whitby's love and self-sacrifice be-

ing. worked out by the author to a singularly novel, but most effective, conclusion. "Tho Fugitive" will please many readers of to-day, but its pictures of convict life leave much to be desired

when compared ji-itii' those of Marcus Clarke's famous masterpiece in much' the same genre.'