SOME DECENT FICTION,

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2558, 4 September 1915, Page 12

SOME DECENT FICTION,

I "A FAR COUNTRY." One of the most prominent characters iu Mr. Winston Churchill's new. novel, "A Par Country". (Macmillan and Co.), gives Utterance to an opinion on the political state of America which explains the titlo of the book: cracy is still in a far country, eating the husks of individualism and materialism. What wo see is not true ficc-bin, but freedom run to riot, men struggling for i themselves, spending on tlienisel/os the fruits of .their inheritance; y>» see a ■ Government intent on ono object alone ! —exploitation of this inheritance, in > order to achieve what it calls prosper- , ity. And' God is far away.". Assiiii edly if wo may judge certain of_ Amrr- . ica's State and municipal institutions bj wliat.wo road of them .in Mr. Churchill'! latest novel, not only "God," but "vommoil honesty" is only too strikingly absent from American public life. Th< story recounts'tho life history of a brilliant young lawyer, who in the thirst foi material succea5 l degrades his iistura

talents and profound knowledge of the is law by placing" them at the disposal of cl soulless colorations wlio / rob indivi- oi duals and the public as a whole with a ci cheerful disregard for any rule or law w save that of their own selfish interests, p: Married to a good and honest, if some- M what commonplace woman, Hugh Paret gi neglects his wife and children for the hi society of a ladyVfriend of liis youth, who has married for money. Wo follow in great detail tlio progress of tho worldly-successful lawyer, who amasses •great wealth, is nominated for tho Stato Legislature, but wlio slowly but surely imperils his soul. Finally his wife■ leaves him, and takes the children to j; Europe. The husband's career of sueless continues for a time unchecked, £ jntil at last the degradation of his tal- ]j snts is publicly exposed and the woman j 5 for whom he would sacrifice even the a I'estiges of his good name refuses to (• take tho plunge of divorce ' which, for 0 lior at least, would spell social ruin. j. Eventually, his nerves unstrung by tho jj thwarting of his guilty passion, and by „ a belated recognition of his moral de- „ cadence, Paret's long-drugged or self- j. stifled conscience awakens, and lie sails f' for. Europe, acknowledges to his wife 0 the wrongdoing he had contemplated, t and appeals for mercy. The wife, good j. loving woman, forgives, and the story > closes with tlie promise of a new and a healthier cxistonco for the brilliantly- . gifted but sadly erring man. The story of Hugh. Paret's relations' ; with. the Street . fraction .and other trusts of the i city wherein. he practises his profession ( has a familiar ring in it's main fea- j tnres, at least,' but Mr. Churchill's li&- l erary 'ability is', so. immeasurably superior to that possessed by the many • American, novelists who have dealt with : the : by this time hackneyed "graft" j motif that-the reader follows the story with;'unabated interost. The novel, too, is rich in clever character studies, notably that of an enthusiastic social re- ' former, ail old college chum of Paret's. "A.Far Country" is, in a way, a.supplement to or complement of that fine story "The. Inside of the Cup,"""in that it opens up another pliaso of the uglier ; side of American public life of the ■ present' day-'.with, which the first-named ' ■story dealt. It is easily the best American novel, that we have had for ' some time past. ,■ ■ ■ . ' SHORTER NOTICES. "Love-Birds in the Coco-Nuts." • Those lucky individuals who have made' acquaintance . with Mr. Peter Blundell's peculiar aiid delightful vein of humour, as displayed in those aniusiu gnovels, "The Finger of Mr. Blee" and "Oh, Mr. Bigwoodi" will need no recommendation from "Liber" that they Khali turn'-to tho pages of-Mr. Blundell's latest story "Love-Birds in the. Coco-Nuts" (London, Jolm Lane). The scene is laid in one of the Malay States, the: principal-characters being a Portuguese Eurasian, bis wife, son, and daughter, and a lady, of mature, but still, attractive physical r charms, who owns and conducts a local hotel. 'There is, it is tme, a secondary'love story, that of a young planter and aii English young lady not long from the Old Country, but the pair are. merely make-weights in a series of screamingly funny episodes in the career of Mr. Ferdinand Fernandez, the' young Eurasian, whose 'chief ambition in life is to appear as English as "the English of the Strand," a real "Johnny," a "Kiwit" !of the, first water. Mr. Austey's Baboo heroes were not more amusing in their extraordinary speech than is poor. Ferdinand, whom not , even tho discovery that he is a' _ foundling—having been, enclosed in a sack of rice which tho thrifty Fernandez pere buys ■ "extra cheap" from a. rascally Chinaman, and that his . name; Ferdinand, of which he is so proud, is merely a travesty / of ; "Bird-in-Hand," can daunt from ,the most astounding . enterprises of.dove and social-climbing „in which he indulges. /The climax of poor Ferdinand's misfortunes is reached when tho much over-plump but still amorous Mrs. Boga. marries him as a means, of. escape from . the attentions of a drunken superintendent of-police, and then discovers the awful fact t'b.it she lias wedded' her long-lost liepliew!' Mr. Blundell has, been, I believe, called tlio W. W. Jacobs of the tropics, but his style is all his own; In this .particular story, to 9, the background is as refreshingly 1 original as it is picturesque., I have not chuckled so much over a novel this many, a long day as over Mr.' Blundell's,latest yarn. It is a. book to be bought , and if not in stock—ad. tlio booksellers .say-Mx).. be ordered-without delay. ,; ■ Ce-Dlreotors. Though not .professedly si feminist writer, Miss llua Silbeirad, the author of "Co-Directors" CHodder and Stoughtoii; per ; S. and W. Mackay), generally .puts forward ,an Exceptionally strongwilled woman,: of unromantio and 1 unconventional type, as a heroine. Her latest story deal? 'with the' partnership, in a difficult ahd none too promising commercial 'enterprise, connected with the slate industry, of a lady to whom■ is bequeathed .a- -share in the patent to. be !exploited, and a clever biit, from. a purely .business point of view,; Unsuccessful inventor. /The inventor'fris'partly'drifted,' ' .partly bean entrapped, into an engagement with a pretty-,, but. frivolous "and emptyheaded girl, much liis inferior in education and intelligence, and as the somewhat maternal love of the lady, partner'for the unsuspecting engineer develops, the jealousy and selfishness ,of the younger woman causes no small trouble. In. the long run, however, everything is satisfactorily arranged, the story closing with one of the most original and prettiest_ "love passages" I have come across in recent fiction. Tlie technicalities of tho enterprise in which the principal cb aracters are engaged have evidently been carefully studied by tho author, and the story as a whole, though scarcely Miss Silberrad's best. work, is decidedly original' and interesting. "The lady Passenger." 'Mr. A. W. Marchmont, the author of "The. Lady Passenger" (Hodder and Stoughtpn.; per S.' and. ■ W. Mackay), can always be depended upon for a wellplanned, vigorously-written sensational ' novel, and his latest story is no exception to the rule. A young Englishman finds himself on board an Italian steamer bound from Port Said to._ Constantinople, a. fellow passenger being a young English lady who has unfortunately, not knowing her time character, been the companion and friend of a clever and unscrupulous German spy, who masquerades as a French countess. Hero and heroine go through some highly exciting experiences on the steamor, which is chartered by a German official, and once arrived at Constantinople, become, enmeshed in a tangled web of international plots and intrigues, in which a villainous Turkish pasha plays an im- , portant role. Needless to say,, that ' Mr.' Marchmont's niueh practised hand ' contrives a very happy ending to the J adventiire. An exciting, well-told, and most readable yam. j "The White Glove." , Mr. William Le Queux may not be so t careful with his plot? as Mr. March- ■ moilt, but ho is still quite astonishingly s resourceful in the provision of sensa-i.-tionnl incidents 1 in his now almost num--3 berless stories. _ lii "The White Glove" i (London, Eveleigh Nash), Mr: Le Queux - introduces us'to what seems at first - to be a criminal mystery which would - baffle eveii the famous Sherlock Holmes, ( tlio sudden and violent end of a wells known politician, upon- one of whoso - hands, after death, is found the white - "love which affords the J-itle of the story. 0 Tor some time suspicion falls upon tho - dead man's rival in love, n prominent r criminal, lav,T«r, but. an-tlio storv '11 vslops it becomes stirisat that tbs lattei