SOME RECENT FICTION

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2681, 29 January 1916, Page 9

SOME RECENT FICTION

"I POSE." Stella ' Bonson's "I Pose" (Macmillan) is an exceptionally clever story, in which the most preposterous and farcioally 'amusing incidents alternate with the gravest realities. The two leading characters are a gaily irresponsible young man, who jocularly Styles himself a gardener, as proof of which he carries about with him, if you please, a nasturtium in a pot ; called Hilda I The heroine is a militant suffragette, ' a strange compound of gentle humanity.' and mononmniacally criminal tendencies. Tliis curiously contrasted pair are thrown together by fate, and travel to the West Indies, to Panama and Jamaica, where, at Kingston, they go through some trying experiences in the great earthquake. The sentimentallyinclinedl reader may expect a happy conclusion to their attachment, but the ;author is cruel enough to doom the ;pretty and lovable little heroine to a ■terrible death as the result of a bombthrowing adventure. The wit and gaiety :of : . the story are undeniable. Its chief fault is a too determined and far too evident effort to be witty at all times and under all circumstanccs. Even the cleverest epigram aiid most ingenious paradox ends by palling upon the reader if the trick be too frequently repeated. A ■special word of praise is due to the local colour of,the West Indian scenes. This part of the story is quite delightful. The suffragette is, as I have said, mora to be pitied than blamed. The way in which she confronts and demolishes the smug' self-satisfaction of _ a priggish young' ' person, with hisChurch Girls' Club antf other wellmeant futilities, is delightfully humorous. Altogether a most original and fascinating, although in certain of its' incidents and characters, a frankly impossible story.

SHERLOCK HOLMES, JUNIOR. . Some months ago I warmly commended to my readers some excellent stories of how ail abnormally sharp English public school boy detected and thwarted the evil designs of certain German spies. A second instalment "of these stories, "Some Further Adventures of Mr. Philip J. Davenant,"[ has now been by Mr. Eveleigh Nash,-the ajuthor, ;Lord Frederic Hamilton, proving-, himself y.et mora ingenious in his concoction of espionage incidents and amusing in his character sketch than ever 'lie .was in his first book. Young as ; ■is the hero he.,can give points even to the'famous Sherlock Holmes himself, and his creator has what, with ;all re-, spect to Sir Arthur Conaii Doyle, the inventor of Holmes and Watson rareiy displays in his yarns, .namely, a keen sense of humour. My readers may "take it from me,", as a useful colloquialism puts it, that; these Daycnant .stories are decidedly well worth reading.' .Furthermore, all the author's profits therefrom, ana they ought to bo fairly considerable, will be handed over, as before, to' the Marchioness of Lansdoivne s Officers' Families' Fund. MARJORIE BOWEN'S LATEST. Marjorie Bowen's latest novel, "Because of These Things" (Methuen and Co.) is a grim, not to say gruesome, story, which, relates the tragic results of an ill-fated marriage. A beautiful, young Italian lady, Giovanna Odeleschi, an ardent Catholic, makes the terrible mistake of marrying a dour and bigotedly Calvinistic ' Scotchman, Francis Moultray. From the sunshine and gaiety of Bologna, Bologna a 6 it was in later Georgian, days, to the misty and gloomy.land of the laird of Glenillich, is a trying-change for the heroine, and early in the story it becomes plain to the reader that tragedy is not far distant. On tragedy Miss Bowen makes her readers sup all too richly before the closing pages of her story are reached, for the jealous and bigoted husband, who regards his wife's faith as an invention of the Evil One, suspects her of an Tntrigiie, and not only murders her with positively fiendish brutality, fcut Kills his son by a sudden exhibition of tne poor woman's horribly battered corpse. A journey to Italy, with the murder of Giovanna's supposed lover as its object, ends in further bloodshed, for the Scotchman's Italian mother-in-raw, avenges her daughter's death by the dagger. Miss Bowen has written a powerfully dramatic story, but the feast of horrors_ she provides nced6 more relief than it receives.

THE LORDS OF THE FO'CSLE. , Mr. Morley Roberts provides some good' fun in his latest ' book of sea stories, "The Lords of the Foo'sle" (Eveleigh Nash),' and his stories make excellent reading. Perhaps the most riotously funny of the yarns, quite in-, deed in the Jacobs vein, is that entitled "The' Tramp and the Tiger," in which the author tells of the escape of "one _ three-parts grown, clouded Manchurian tiger, shipped in good condition, with the end of his tail in doubt," from its cage on board the British tramp steamer "Star of the Bast ( " two, or three days , out from Vladivostok, and of the extraordinary effect thereof on tho officers and crew of that vessel. The captain of the "Mesopotamia," a most pious man, who plastered his vessel all over with the most moral mottoes, whilst at the same time feeding his unfortunate crew on smellsome "salt-Horse," and weevilly biscuits, and the ever-cautious skipper of the "Eglantime," who is famous for his long voyages, are most. amusing creations. There is a pleasant little flavour of romance in the story of how an hitherto desperately unlucky Dundee whaling captain at Jast conquers illfortune, and secures a full ship of oil and a pretty wife. A war story was, of course, inevitable, and in "Mr. Spink and tho Submarine" Mr. Roberts is quite at'his best. Altogether, a very good batch of sea stories from a wellpractised hand at this class of fiction.

THE HONEY OF ROMANCE. "The Honey of Romance," by Maud Churton Braby (T. Werner Laurie) is a story of modern London life. It deals with tho experiences, in marriago and divorce, of a well-to-do publisher and his wife. Each tires of the other, the middle-aged husband becoming infatuated with a handsome young lady who acts as "reader" for his firm; the wife, a, morbid, neuxoik; who dreams.

! of "affinities," finding a kindred soul in a romantically-iianied poot, Dorian de la Pasque, who writes erotic verse, such as "The Lilies' Ecstasy," a "Sappho at Hampstcad," and so forth. Husband and wife agree to a divorce, and everything goes smoothly until the meddlesomo King's Proctor intervenes; a fact which affords tho author opportunity for a long tirade against what she is pleased to consider the stupidities and cruelties of the English divorce laws. The story contains some amusing character sketches. Mrs. Amyas Rendlesham, the famous romantic novelist, author of "Tho Purple Embrace," "Passion-Pale," "Pain o' the Heart," etc., and her jealous rival, Miss Octavia Flyng'e, whoso "Two On a Torpedo" is a "best seller," have, I suspect, originals in real life. The decadent poet, De la Pasque, can, however, scarcely be taken seriously.

THE DUSKY ROAD. ''The Dusky Road," by Therese Tyler (Lippincott's, per George Robertson), is a readable if not in any way remarkable story. The heroine, a girl of superior intellectual and educational equipments, is sorely handicapped by ■ a weak ana I bibulous father and a brother who is an , excellent example of the American variety of the "waster" type. Several . men play a part in the development of | the heroine's character, amongst others a young artist, who goes off to Paris and marries one of her friends; a wealthy and vulgar business man, and a selfish' and conceited young clergyman, minister of a- fashionable city church. Her mother is everlastingly upbraiding hor for . want of success in making a "good" match, and finally the much- ' harassed, girl accepts the parson. His egotism and supercilious air of patronage soon, however, lead to a quarrel, and the engagement is broken, off, the long and "dusty road" over which, poor Elizabetb_ is doomed to travel ending at last with her marriage to an elderly cousin, a very fine fellow, who has long desired to come to the rescue. There is , some very clever character-drawing in the ' story, and the freedom of the story from that sickly sentiment with which so much American fiction simply reeks should increase the 'popularity of the story with English readers. "THE CITY OF CONTRASTS." "The City of Contrasts,' 1 by Katherine James (George Bell and Sons; per Whitcombe and Tombs), is a story of old Perugia, of the famous old Italian city as it was in the romantic and, alas, bloody days of the Renaissance. It is largely concerned with the life led 1 by the great Baglioni family, potentates of Perugia, great soldiers, passionate lovers, generous patrons' of art. Such historically famous characters as Cesare Borgia and his Papal father,_ the Sforzas, and others freely figure in the drama which the author unfolds for our view, and the story, which is relieved here and there by some welcome lighter touches, makes good reading throughout. The painter hero, Andrea, and his wife are exceptionally well drawn and . convincing characters, and the author has evidently gone to no small trouble ' to secure the accuracy of her historical colour and topographical detail. A very good novel in its own class.