SOME RECENT FICTION.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2515, 17 July 1915, Page 9

SOME RECENT FICTION.

I X . , "THE DOOD SOLDIER." Mr. Ford Madox . Hueffer's latest story, "The Good Soldier" (John Lane), is - in curious contract lo the same author's "Fifth Queen" and other semihistorical romances. • The story,' which is supposed to be told by an American gentleman, and is described by him as : "the saddest story I ever, heard," tolls of two unhappy marriages, one of the wives, .a silly, worthless flirt, committing suicide. The other marriage ■ ends with the suicide of the liusband and the madness of a girl to whom he had' been attached. As you will agree, such' a combination'of'tragedies in a single novel does, not make promise of very cheerful reading therein. The story, however, is told with a- clever air of detachment, and its psychological quality is by no means small. By means of a curious insistence upon dates and places, Mr. Hueffer tries hard to invest his story with an air of realism,; but the attempt can hardly be considered successful. The author is also just a trifle too anxious to be witty. For instanco, one character asks another what' the D.S.Omeans, and the questioned one "grunts out, 'It's a sort of thing they give' grocers who've honourably supplied the troops with nduli terated cocoa in war time." : The gentleman who bad the D.S.O. also "had tlio Royal Humane Society's medal with a clasp. That meant, apparently, ' that he bad twice jumped olf the deck of a troopship to rescue what the girls cali Tommies,' who had fallen overboard in the Red Sea and sucli places. Ho had been twice recommended for the V.C., whatever that' might mean. ..." Mr., Hueffer,, ,vrho ia, I believe, of_

German descent on his father's side, probably considers this sorb of thing very funny. It's all a matter of taste, no doubt, but ill a novel published at the present junctures such sneering references to British decorations appear to "Liber" at least to -bo sadly misplaced. If Mr. Hueffer wishes to exercise his satire on military decorations he might more properly turn iiis Attention to tho German Iron Cros6. "SKIRTS OF STRAW." ; Miss Sophie Colo's latest story, "Skirts of Straw" (Mills and Boon, per Whitcombe and Tombs), owes its title to an old Spanish proverb, quoted on the title page, and reading as follows "Who hath skirts of straw needs' fear the; lire." Truth to tell, poor Rhoda, March's temperament lends- itself only too well—partly as a result of heredity —to inflammable adventures, and environment and evil fortune fan the disastrous flames. After herself providing, accidentally, tho cause of her first lover's death, she becomes entangled in a sccond "episode of passion," to quote ah expression of one of Paul Bourget's characters, and Teturns from a weekend spent in Paris with lover No. 2 to find her little son, by lover No. 1, has died during her absence. A thirdtime she loves, but her chances of permanent rest and happiness sho herself banishes by bringing an estranged wife and husbaild together again. Miss Cole's heroine is much more to bo pitied than- to be blamed, and when we leave her in' the final chapter, devoting herself to Red Cross work, it is with a sincere hope sho may find peace of soul in au occupation for which she is in many ways pre-eminently fitted. The story is hardly up to tho standard of Miss Cole's delightful tale, "A Warddour Street Idyll," but it is distinctly readable. "THE STORY OF A WOMAN'S HEART." The anonymous author of "The Story of a Woman's Heart" (Hodder and Stoughton, per S. and W. Mackay) is, I should say, .a lady. The story, which in serial form,- has achieved no small, popularity, having, so a publisher's note informs me, "thrilled a million readers," is a well-told tale of a much-tried woman's experiences whilst endeavouring to prove the innocence of her husband, unjustly accusod of theft, and to punish the treacherous woman who had compassed his ruin. The task involves the wife in a series of,very curious and occasionally exciting experiences in the narrating of which the author dsplays no small ability. .The strength and chaTm of the story—and ■ it possesses both qualities in a very marked degree —aro mainly to bo found, however, in the unfailing devotion of the' lonssuffering, but patiently trustful, wife to her quest. ■ Tho. s>tory is one which cannot fail to win the reader's sympathy for its real or fictitious narrator. THE BLUE BUCKLE. "The Blue Buckle," by Wm. Hamilton Osborne (Hodder and Stoughton, per S. and W. Macbay), is a'highly sensational but' well-told story of New York life, the hero being a young Wall Street operator, who is' suddenly called upon to aid a damsel in distress. He becomes involved in- a tangled web of intrigue and crime, in■ which. a "melodramatic and quite impossible person, one J. Baron-Holderman, the "mystery' man" of New York financial circles, figures as the chief villain.' The heroine's happiness and her claim to a vast fortune depend upon the getting together of two curious l enamelled 'blue , buckles, one of which she possesses, but tho second sho is unable to find. The author presents his readers with a generous' menu of exciting incidents,' and the story furnishes a'rich repast for lovers of tho luridly sensational. , TWO YOUNC PIOEONS. Mrs. Penrose's stories are always very amusing, and her latest effort, "Two Young Pigeons" (Mills and Boon, per Whitcombe and Tombs), is no exception to the rule. The story relates tho escapades of two young people, Norman and Dorothy Dane. The .author gets some capital fun out of the boarding school experiences of the boy, ih whose mouth, with occasional interruptions by a gentleman whom the' "pigeons" call "Mr, Remorse," the narrative is placed. Were it not for the philosophical and sentimental reflections of this third party the. story would, no doubt,, be voted "prime" by youthful readers. As it is the "interruptions" rather spoil the effect' of such episodes as the howling out of the school sneak, Watson, and the.consequent triumph of the "pigeons" friend, "Cocky." Parton. THE SNARE. "The Snare," by G. Vane'(Visconde de. Sarmento) (London, 'John Lane), is a long and not unentertaining story, the interest of which centres round the long-lost daughter of an aristooratic Italian family. This young lady falls a victim to a scoundrelly woman who is engaged in tho white slave traffic, and acts as procuress to a yet more scoundrelly German baron, a personage, highly placcd in London financial circles. . The herbino is rescued in Paris, having, lost her memory, by a real live English duke and taken to : his home in London, where his wife, at first somewhat sceptical as to her husband's version of his . Parisian experience, befriends. her. In .the end, tho wicked Hun financier, after attempting further mischief, is carried off by a fit of apoplexy, and tlie much-tried heroine is happily married to a wealthy and quite estimable young nobleman. The background is, for the most part, London, but Continental visits vary the scenario. Sensational, not a little improbablo,- but highly readable. ■ "NICHT WINGS." The hero of Morico Gerard's latest story, 'Night Wings". (Hodder and Stoughton; per S. and W. Mackay) is aytfung English airman; who falls in love with a Dutch young • lady. War threatens between Great Britain and Germany (the story was, I presume, written betoro the present war broke out), and as a result of Sylvia Van Annan having a twin sister, married to a' Hun officer, a serious misunderstanding threatens, for a time, to bring the attachment to an end. Fortunately the mistake is cleared up, tho threatened war does not eventuate, and the two lovers are duly made happy. "LONG FURROWS." In "L'ong • • Furrows," by ' Mrs Fred Reynolds (Mills and Boon • per .Whitcombe and Tombs), the interest i centres . round two figures —one a doting and .self-sacrificing mother; the other, a weak and worthless son, who embezzles his employer's money, and loafs on his relatives rather than face and accept tho consequences of his ill-doing. The repentance and regeneration of..the young man, which come. in the last chapter, as the result of his lovo for a. lovable and highspirited girl, are not altogether convincing, but .some very pleasant features ' o£ Cornish life atono somewhat for the general .tepidity of tho story. "THE HIGHWAY." A strongly religious tone pervades Mrs. Moberly's latest novel,. "The Highway" (Methuen and.Co.), in which, as a change, from the sensational subjects with whioh this author usually deals,* tho social problem is in prominence. Probably it is one effect of the war that not a few. English novelists are. beginning to discover tho terrible inequalities to be found on every side in I tho Mother Country. Be this as it may there is much in Mrs. Moberly's story which should give the everyday British reader i of fiction food for wholesome thought. The principal figure, T'rafford, a returned Australian, whose hobby it has become to do something towards the betterment of the poor, is _apt to be a, little -'preachy," and the

moral of the story is rather too obviously pointed. "HELEN WITH THE HIGH HAND." With tho excoptioir of tho later and longer novels, such as "Clayhange'r," and "Hilda Lessways," one will soon bo able to make up a complete Arnold Bennett iii cheap editions. A recent addition to Hodder and Stoughton's Shilling Library is one of Mr. Bennett's shorter and earlier "Five Towns" stories, "Helen With the High Hand" (Hodder and Stoughton; per S. and W. Mackay). It is not the most successful of Mr. Bennett's stories, for few readers will, I fancy, care for t-he selfish and egotistical, if strong-minded and worldly shrewd, heroine. But it contains two characters at least for which it well deserves to bo read—the heroino's great uncle, a grasping old landlord, and a quite Dickensian figure in tho person of the old gentleman's