LIBER'S NOTE-BOOK

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2510, 10 July 1915, Page 9

LIBER'S NOTE-BOOK

Kitchener Chaps. ' Mr. Neil .. Lyons,. whose amusing studies of r East End life and character ("Clara," "Arthur's," J'Cottage' Pie," etc.) are so' well inown, presents the reading / public, in. his. "Kitchener Chaps" (John Lane) 'with' fourteen clever htlte impressionistic studies of certain types of soldiers in the making. The treatment is mainly,.but not, wholly, humorous, and the author exhibits, as in ,his previous books, a wonderful command of the peculiar language .or dia-'. kct common ; t-o'the -working class; Londoner. ' In some of the " stories the,intorest is more dramatic than humorous, but I prefer Mr. Lyons in.his lighter vein.;As-a bit 'of ■ genuine low' comedy his "Private Blood" is. simply delightful. • The only failure in the. collection is,, curiously enough, the last sketch, "An Over-Seas Contingent." Whether by ; New. Angliaris Mr. Lyons' 'means. New Zealanders I, cannot say, but his "colonials" talk as no New Zealanders or Australian over talked. Mr. Lyons should /stick- to his Cockney, 'type,/ and not '.venture': further- afigld.- On his peculiai- .background- he is inimitablo. (Price Is.- 3d.) ; , ■ i "A Great Mystery Solved." ■ 1 I How Charles Dickens intended his i last and uncompleted story "The Mystery of .Edwin Drood," to end has ever been < a ■ subject ot keen discussion amongst Dickehsi'ans. A' vast amount of literature has been published on the. subject, Messrs: G. IC.'Chesterton and Cummmg Walters, • Sir Wm.' Robertson Nicol. and the' late Andrew Lang having,.> amongst others, devoted, special Volumes'to'attempted ,solutions of, such probloms as :"Did Jasper really, murdor 'lidwm Dro'od?"."Who was DatcheryP" and so \forth. ■?.. Thirty-five years. : ago : a', lady,- who' adopted the rioni-de-plunie. of; Gillau. Vase, published, a book entitled "Tho Great' Mystery Solved: .A Solution to the Mystery of Edwin Drood." 'Originally.' published in! three, volumesjt this work, ..'being eagerly sought "after, <by collectors .of Dickonsiana, became/ very scarce.'. A'.new one volume : just put-;, hshed (price 65.) by Messrs; Sampson-, Lord, and Co. is thereforo VBry-Hvel-como. In its new edition Gillan Vase's story, has been shorn.of some of.its oj;ig--■inal redundancies.'- - "Personally, as onel Who has devoted (or wasted?) a good many spare hours/in' studying sft-cailed solutions of,.the Drood mystery, and who has now before him, as' ho writes, a good' ; shelffull of what may be "Styled "Droodiaha," .1 cannot, accept - GUlan Vase's version- of tho stor.v as being either coherent or probable.; ,In certain .passagesj however, notably ifc- tier description of Jasper's confession, arid in the;, way she- manages - a very' sensational'resurrection, or, I should say, reappearance of Edwin Drood, 11 she displays a quite-impressivo dramatic power. To a- Dickens' collcction this curious old •book'. yedite'd.'.'inuts'ihew form, by Mr. Sliirley B. Jevons,< should be a valued - Stephen-Phillips. ■ "v Mr. Stephen* Phi!li]>s, who has: not: producedmuch of.late, ;h'as, I see, writ; ten a new po'etio'drama'dii the war, ;the title being; "Armageddon." The drama, which is in; three actsi' and is; to be published in volume iform by Mr. Johu iLane, the publisher, - who first brought Mr. <■ Phillips's fine poom, "Marpessa," under the notice of tho reading public, has a prologue in.which the shade of Attila, is.;dispatcfied!'by Satan to take possession : of- th'e v ,Kaiser's person. The' scene of the first act -is laid outside Reims"; that/of the last act in Cologne, which is occupied by the Allied forces. MK Phillips 'is/also to publish shortly a new volume'of poems, entitled "Panama and other Poems':" : ( Mr. Wells's New Story. / Copies of- the new Wells book arc now on sale in town. So far no review copy has reached ''Liber,:' who was therefore compelled, as .a: faithful ''Wellsite,".'ftp go, opt the,other.day and spend three ai(d sixpence ;oii:'the said .'work: •'"Beal-: by,", tho story in- questiouj • is- more iii the vein, of the "Wheels of Chance," "Kipps," and .the. .ever-delightful, .' ; ' Mr. Polly," than liave been certain' of' Mt 1 . Wells's , more Recent novels. It is, , indeed, a; piece of wild and uproarious farce-making, just as much a "fantasy as Chesterton's "Flying Inn.". It may therefore disappoint, .th'oye. of the Wellsian brotherhood who found pleasure in I "The World Set Free,"; and other of the novelist's'more serious works, studies in 'contemporaneous history, • politics,' and sociology. \ But it is;, full of a rare, and rich humour of its own, : and -in j these days of. war and all the gravity whici' .necessarily .accompanies 'war ,it. has afforded to one reader at least a welcome relief from- the more serious sido of.'life. . " //■ '.' '', '