SOME RECENT FICTION

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2776, 20 May 1916, Page 9

SOME RECENT FICTION

Three Pretty Men, Thrigsby, the sceno of Mr. Gilbert Cannan's long and carefully wrought picture .of oarly and mid-Victorian lifo, as given in his latest novel, "Three Pretty Moil" (llethuen and Co.), is, so clearly and easily identifiable as Manchester that it is difficult to understand why the author should have troubled to uso so thin and useless a disguise. To show liow ugly and sordid a thing was Lancashire and especially Manchester commercialism in tlhe forties and fifties of the last century would seem , to have been Mr. Caiman's main object, an object only too well achieved. But tlio story is also a family chronicle, the life record of threo Scots youths who come with their mother to Thrigsby; there, for ii ■ time at least, to bo taken in hand and befriended—according to his own peculiar notions of friendship—by a grim old uncle, lirthe opening chapter, Tom, the second eldest lad, indulges in prophecy! "It's Janiie'll be tho grand man. lie's tho one at tho academy, except in the arithmotic, Where's lie's a bom fool." As a matter of fact, it is Jamie, the' dreamy, the passionate, tihe careless as to arithmetic, and to his worldly interests, whocertainly .is the

"grand man" .of the story. Tom, in his boyhood a born bargainer, worldly wise beyond his years, prospers exceedingly, but remains to the end tho embodiment of selfishness. John, the- youngest, drops out of the chronicle very early, rebelling against tho tyranny, of tho patronising uncle, -and emigrating to Australia, whence he returns with a fortune, a most impleading person, and, so far as the final development of tihe family affairs is concerned, an almost negligible quantity. Jaruie is tho leading figure all through. Extricating himself, with huge deligoit, from the avuncular grip, ho enters a loading bank, and despite that weakness in arithmotic, of which we have heard, becomes, so it would seem, a'very efficient business man. But Jamio .is blessed, or oursed, with the artistic temperament— from a arid-Victorian Manchester point of view, a terrible drawback and most dangerous possession. He writes poetry and theatrical criticism, becomes part proprietor of a weekly paper, and, worse still, .dabbles not only in dramatic authorship, but theatrical management. Undermined by a jealous and unscrupulous rival, he has to leave the bank, loses heavily by his theatrical speculations, sees the girl lie has loved prefer another and a wealthier man,' and from' a worldly point of view, has to confess himself, at fifty, an utter failure. Novortheless, ho has lived his life and would not change places with fifty successful' Toms or lucky Johns. There is in him that spirit-o! adventure, that hatred of conventionality, that scorn of smut? bourgeois prosperity .with which .wo have met in more than one character in Mr. Cannan's earlier stories, notably in "Old Hole" - and "Young Earnest." The story is rich in character drawing. Tho Scots mother, with her uncompromising Calvinism, and her pride in' her. three lads; the Scots maid sen-ant, Tibby, whose one consolation of her grey, dour life is her secret love for Jamie; the domineering, pompous uncle, are all admirable. So, too, are the little group of clerks and warehousemen employees,-and tliorc is quite a Dickpns touch in tho pictures ; of the queer theatrical and Bohemian circle of which Jamie becomes a member. Mr, Cannan has, maybe, unduly crowded his canvas, but he has written , a very remarkable, and, in its own way, avery fine story.

Bildad the Quill-Driver. Starting life as a leather seller, but later on, finding both bread and fun—for he is a born humorist—and' having the ancient Eastern calling of a professional letterwriter; the hero of Mr. William Caine'a latest story, "Bildad the Quill-Driver" .'(John Lane),, has a career us full-packed with adventures as half-a-dozen chapters from tho'famous ."Sighted" Those who remember VJJLoffuian's Chance" and "The Revolt at RoskellyV' Icniiw full well how sly and rich is .' Mr. Caine's humour. Hero in this Oriental tale of his, which recalls both "The Nights" themselves and Meredith's "Shaving of Shagpat," ho is quite riotously funny. Not tho least amusing feature of a most nm using book .is.the''introduction of-sundry..sly, satirical foibles, and follies by no medils".'peculiar ■iui Mr;"6aine styles -hisv 1 background—or 'tonfiiied .to past ages".O'ne'ot" the most 'iiiuusing episodes in the hero's career consists in '. his being mistaken, for a "fat boy," owing to. his'clothes being stuffed with his poctical effusions, and added to the attractions, of a freak museum of the period,. where the amorous fittcntions of an ovcr-coquettish' giantess, initio feet in height, became decidedly embarrassing. Mr. Caine variegates the' course of his narrative proper, by scraps of doggerel and proso philosophy. Here is a quotation from the "Platitudes of Punkali the Persistent".: Thy Book of Destiny's a varied text Of terror and of glad surprise complext; And what condemns thee at one paje's foot May save thee when thou turnest to the . next.,. From' the "Fables of Fuj, the FarTravelled," the'"Seventh in the section called the Anomalies of :Anglo-Saxony," 1 .take the following lines:— The Socialist Duke made a moving ora- . tion, And claimed for his broiler- each man in '' creation'. His»valet (who'd been in' the hall, and believed what his'master let fall)Kelt morning omitted "My Lord" and "Your. Grace'' , From his ohat as he lathered the nobleman's face; But the only reward of his tact Was to find, himself instantly satked. Again, the heroine, Ogga, being skilled in culinary art, as 6he was decidedly impressionable in a' sentimental way, the jocular but philosophical young poet fires off the following: , Marry the Cook, not', let thy fancy Gare?s the idea of .Housemaid Nancy; For Nancy may. be fair and good, But Cook will give thco decent food.' In dimpled ohceks Love liveth not, But rather' in the Seething l'ot. Mr. Caiue's story is a strange jumble of Oriental romance, allegory, and philosophy, with purely Western fact, inn, and faucy, ' tho: two latter elements predominating. K will probably puzile some readers, but it should delight many more, 'i'lie illustrations, by H. M. liateinuii, whose clever drawings so often adorn the pages of "The Sketch,"'are in admirable keeping with the humour of tho text. Moll Davis; Despite a touch of what Bobert Louis Stevenson called "tushery," Mr. Bernard Capes's story of the days of Charles the Second, "Moll Davis: A Comedy" (George Allen and (Jnwin), isa liveiy and wellwritten novel. The heroine, of whom that delightful gossiper, Mr. Samuel Popys, has i so much, to say in 'his iinmortal "Diary/' ami who -is also mentioned more than once in tho scandalous, but vastly entertaining, "Graminont Memoirs," here plays.an important role, being introduced into' the household of Lady Chesterfield, by tho letter's cousin and would-be lover, George Hamilton. This gentleman conceives the ingenious idea of making the wife believe that her husband has brought a mistress into the house, while the nobleman is to be persuaded into the idea that the vulgar, impudent but good-hearted creature is a friend of his spouse. From this starting point is evolved a long 6cries of ingeni. ously contrived situations in, the recog* nised style of Restoration comedy, virtue, however, being eventually triumphant and trickery foiled. The Duke of York, .Mr: Samuel Pepys himself, and other personages of the period ■ play more or less important parts in tho pleasant little comedy-drama. Bentley's Conscience.

Paul Trent's latest story, "Bentley'a Conscience" (Ward, Lock and Co.; per Whitcombe and Tomlw), has for its hero a young and briefless barrister, who 6inlts into direst'poverty and :'s found on the' Thames Embankment ona night in a state close upon starvation. Helped by an old friend, he becomes legal adviser to an accident insurance company, but rebels aguinst the dirty work of having to discover legal technicalities by which claimants can' be outwitted, and is shown the door, his - fiancee's father, a well-to-do stock exchange man, flatly calling him a fool, and endeavouring, in vain, to break oil' tho inajtch. Positions as private secretary t» a prominent politician, and special correspondent—with a mission for investigating and reporting on industria.l disputes —of a great London daily then follow, but in each he is asked to do things which conflict roughly with his sonse of honour, and for a time 'the path of lifo is so formidably rock-strown that ho almost

despairs. Tho girl ho loves remains, howover, supremely faithful, ami eventually her lover anhievos fame n-ud comparative irdepeiidcnco as a novelist. I lie chief villain of tho story, au America it finaiieicr, is a melodramatic and most impossible creature, but iu this class of Fiction it "'is unwise' to be over exigeant as to probabilities, and tho story, as a story, is well worth reading. ♦