SOME RECENT FICTION

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2699, 19 February 1916, Page 11

SOME RECENT FICTION

TWO INDIAN STORIES.

/, r by A. F. J. Chinoy and (Mrs.) Dmdai A. F. Chinoy (Werner l/aurie), is a story of Indian domestic lite, life in Bombay. The principal characters are Parsees, and the story has much to do with the subtle but sliady change which is being worked !?, * arseo . life by the introduction of Western influences. The novel is well. v>orth reading, for it gives an inside view of native Indian life which is rarely to be obtained from fiction of European authorship. The authors do not exactly write what has been known as Baboo English, but not infrequently ' s . curious 'y suggestive of dialogue. Such a sentence a ? i spirited horse shied j i ] lu^ u ' ) ) sprang up with a bounce and] bolted on all fours." seems at iirst sight to suggest mixed metaphor. Again, when the dissipated young l'arsce, a native Knut, named Jal, goes home •tor* "spree," we are told of his 'bathing his heated brain in ice-cold water." The authors seem to have a somewhat peculiar idea of tlie averageEnglish maid-servant who, they inform us, ''generally works from early in the morning till late in the evening, and who, though single-handfed, efficiently manages not only to carry out the cooking operations -of the family, but to clean tho house from top to bottom, keep the furniture iii a shining condition, and even answer summonses at the front door." If there be still such a domestic treasure to bo found in England, she would do well to emigrate to tlie Dominion. But how the housewives would fight for the possession of such an enviable possession! "Tlie Temple in the Tope," by S. Foskett (Hodder and Stoughton, per S. and W. Maclcay), is a novel of a very different typo from Mr. and Mrs. Cindy's story of Parsee life. Mr. Foskett was the winner of a, prize, for the best Indian story, in Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton'6 "Empire Prize Novel Competition," and must bo credited with having imagined a very original plot and worked it out to a highly dramatic and artistic conclusion. Tlie heroine is tho daughter of a retired Indian officer, who has married a native girl, a high caste Brahmin who had l been dedioated to the gods and was beloved of one of the higll priests of tho temple to which she was attached. The child of the marriage is brought up in the temple, the priests of which desiro her to fulfil the destiny which it had.been intended her mother should fulfil. Such is the commencement of a long and powerfullywritten story in which many interesting characters, Indian and figure, and which covers many interesting features'of native and Anglo-Indian life and character. "The Temple in the Tope" is easily the best Indian novel that has been published for some time past. THE OCEAN SLEUTH. Maurice Drake, whose "Salving of a Derclict," and the curiously entitled "WO 2," will be remembered as novels much above the average, now gives us another excellent story, "The Ocean Sleuth" (Methven and Co.; per D. 0. Ramsay and Co.). Tlie hero is a young journalist who inherits a small fortunp. Finding an idle life not to his taste, and having had some experience of tho sea, ho seeks out an old skipper who is engaged in salvage work on the Cornish coast, and whilst there rescues ; a young lady from the wreck, at the Lizard, of an outward-bound Belgian liner. On board the steamer is a runaway banker, who has with him some thousands of pounds in English and French notes. Ilio journalist falls in love with the girl he has rescued, but soon discovers that she is in some way concerned in the disposal of tho stolen notes. He sets to work to play the detective, hoping to clear the young lady of all suspicion, and to save her from arrest, this enterprise leading him into a long series of curious adventures. It would be unfair to Mr. Drake to give away the full plot of his story, which is written with great vivacity, being throughout an exceptionally readable novel. The local colour of the French scenes is pleasantly picturesque.

SHADOWS. "Shadows," by H. Grahame Richards (Hutchinson and Co., per Whitcombe and Tombs), is the story of a likeablo, but irresponsible young Englishan,. Eonald Clinton, whom Bome of bis relatives are inclined 1 to consider a "waster," and who, for some time, is decidedly under a cloud. How the hero goes to the front as a private and "makes Rood" at Ypres and elsewhere''is told with much spirit, and the interweaving of a pretty love story vith tho record of the hero's youthful escapades and of his experiences at the front helps to make the story very acceptable . FLOWER OF THE DUST. Mr. Jolm Oxenham's latest novel, "Flower of the Dust" (Hodder and Stoughton, per S. and W. Mackay), has for heroine a girl of humble birth, whose first experiences of life aro on a canal barge, but who afterwards becomes a nurse. Hilary Brown is a very lovable character, and deserves a better fortune than to die like her husband, tho victim of the murderous Chinese Boxers. Mr. Oxeriham takes his heroine, at one stage of her career, to his favourite Brittany, and his sketches of Breton life are as charming as ever. There is a fine flavour of romance in the love story of tho heroine, wlro eventually marries a doctor whom, as a youth, she had rescued from drowning, and the heroine herself is a singularly fresh and charming girl, who is sure to becomo a warm favourite with all who read the story of her decidedly much-varied experiences. A wholesome, pretty story, to which, however, a happier ending would have been (in the opinion of most readers) more ucsirablo "MR. BROOM AND HIS BROTHER." Tho author of "The Lantern Bearers" and "The Sevorins" always writes well, and her latest story, "Mr. Broom and His Brother' (G. Bell and Sons; per Whitcombe and Tombs), provides Mrs. Sedgwick's customary pleasant melange of Continental and English incidents and characters. Wc should have preferred, at the present time, aDiuw English background, but Prince

Torquil of Katavia makes an excellent hero, and his English love, Patricia Dimsdale, is a very charming heroine. The villain of the story is a German officer, but Mrs. Sedgwick provides a pair of really first-class wouldbe murderers, whose names, alas, are so essentially Britannic as Dr. and Mrs. Smithson, otherwise Dr. Pratt and Miss Jonas, but who fairly outdo even the Huns in studied cruelty. Mrs. Sedgwick's story brims over with exciting incident and contains many well-drawn characters.