SOME RECENT FICTION

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2781, 27 May 1916, Page 11

SOME RECENT FICTION

Barnavaux. Pierre Mille, the author of the excel* lent stories of French military life en. titled "Under the Tricolour," and who more recently ivrote n little book of soldier stories, "Joifre Chaps," is at his best in the collection of stories entitled "Barnavaux" (John Lane). Barnavaux , has been described as a French Mulvaney, and both in his bibulous and amorous adventures has, it may lie, not. a littlo in common with the immortal chief figure in "Solfliers Three." In the present collection, however, Barnavaux is not quite so prominont as he was in "Under the Tricolour," indeed in some of theso new yarns ' ho does not figure at ail. The stories deal with French soldier life, ill Madagascar, in the Congo, in Algeria, and in Cochin China. Tho two best, both not only intensely dramatic bub grimly pathotic, rather than humorous, aro entitled "liamary and Kataka" and "The Chinamen." The former is much moro in the ix>ti than the Kipling; vein. Tho latter,, oil tho contrary, is ITipling pure and simple,' and what is more, it can. be placed alongside even tho best of Kipli.'.!<?~say, "The Man Who Would Bo King"—without suffering from a comparison. These stories of M. Mille's should not be overlooked. Their atrnosphere is mainly exotic, siul here and there an English taste may boggle at certar.i incidents; but they simply reek with tho giim realities of life. They are the real thing; nothing could be more direct and convincing. A. special word cf praise is duo to the crispness and fidelity of the translation, by'Madame Berongere Drilliea. Coloured illustrations by Helen M'Kie. , . Daughters of Ishmael. Mr. T. Werner Laurie, London, has just published a shilling edition of Reginald Wright Kauffmano's powerful story, "Daughters of ißhmael," which has been described as "Tho Uncle Tom's Cabin" of the White Slave traffic, and which "ives a series of lurid, but, so it is claimed, by no means exaggerated picture of the social evil as it exists in New York. The revelations of the Flexner and other commissions, as to the "organised traffic in women for immoral purposes," which has so long New ' York, and which, so it has been pioved,

exists also in Chicago and several other American, cities, will, it is to bo hoped, awaken tho American public conscience to a sonso of tho community's duty in tho matter of suppressing a hideous evil. Mr. Kauffmann's story, it is hardly necessary to say, contains many ugly pictures, and is hardly suitable for general perusal. In its original form it wont through numerous editions, and undoubtedly proved useful in directing tho attention of tho American public to the hideous iniquities perpetrated upon the women victims of modern civilisation; Mr. John Masefield, the well-known English poet, contributes a thoughtful and forcible preface, writing in warm commendation of the courage and accuracy of Mr. Kauffmann's fictional exposure of tho evils dealt with. It is worthy of notice that the vast majority of the agents and managers of this Horrible business of organised, commercialised vice are Germans! (N.Z. Price, Is. Gd.) The Spirit of the House. "The Spirit of the House," by Kate Murray (Hodder and Stouglh.ton, per S. awl W. Mackay), is tho title of a gracefully written story, in many ways a good deal out of the ordinary. That an ancient family mansion can have an "atmosphere.'' of. its own, an. influence, both haunting in the abstract, and effectually potential in its domination oi the thoughts and actions of its inmates, is by no means unknown —even outside the membership of the Psychical Society. It is the influence of the peculiar mediaeval atmosphere of Caldicott upon its ownor, Oliver Caldioott, and his relations with, the two women by whom he is loved, that the author makes the motif of her story, and ?u Ver -L story it is. It was a happy biumght to add to the apparent reality oi the harrative by tho inclusion in the book of a number of very beautiful illustrations,. some in colour, others in black and white, by Mr. Charles Wade, of the ancient mansion which is so prominent in t'ne story.