SOME RECENT FICTION

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2920, 4 November 1916, Page 13

SOME RECENT FICTION

The Gods' Carnival. Miss Norma Lorimer, whose , "Wifo Out of Egypt" and "On Desert Altars'' proved so popular with the novelreading public, now gives us "The Gods' Carnival'' (Stanley Paul and Co.), a powerfully written story, with a strong dramatic interest. The background is Sicily, tho special scenario being tho well known tourist Tcsort, Taormina, which lies under the shadow of Mount Etna. The novol is rich in sentimental interest, containing as it does two separate lovo stories, one that of Don Guisoppo and hi 3 German wife, tJrsula, the other that of their son, the brilliantly gifted and handsome Enzio, and a young Sicilian girl called Mimi._ Of the two heroes ; the father is _ eminently preferable, his character being at once poetical and child-like in Itg naivete and fairly comparable with that of Mr. Locke's "Beloved Vagabond." A specially pathetic and beautiful episode is that in which the griefstricken widower goes away into tho hills to sing to the spirit of his muchloved Ursula. In the second part of tho story the*war is introduced, with Guiseppe all agog to don his old Garibaldian shirt and be off to the front, but with Enzio, alns, poisoned by tho foul vapours of Noitzschean philosophy, betraying his country and being shot as a spy on his very wedding morning. The novel presents a series of vividly picturesque scenes from Sicilian every-day life and is written With a vigour and entrain which is most fascinating. Incidentally, the author affords much interesting information upon the Germanisatiou of Italy, which was in such widespread operation previous to the war. Miss Lorimer has easily beaten the_ already good record she had made with her earlier novels. "Tho Gods'> Carnival" is a most striking and beautiful story, full of well-planned dramatic situations and imbued throughout wtih the spirit of true romance. It is a book not to be missed.

"The Supreme Dosire." Gertrude Page's novels usually' havo a South African background, but in "The Supremo Desire" (Ward, Lock and Co.; per Whitcombo and Tombs) the principal scenes are laid iu Canada. The .heroine, Kitt Fitzgerald, is a young Irish lady, the principal male character, Norman Lutterworth, being a rich young English bachelor. A curious mistake made, by tho latter at a Montreal hotel, a mistake recalling a ■well-known episode in the "Pickwick Papers," forces Lutterworth to pass himsolf off as Kitt's husband. Later on, through the malicious tongues of a Canadian, township, the girl is cruelly slandered. Twice she refuses the young man's offer of marriage, but eventually sho relents, and the romance which has commenced on an Atlantic linor readies a happy ending in tho heroine's native Donegal. The Canadian scenes are tbo strongest. With Lutterworth's relatives the author is loss {successful. Tho story is readable enough, but 1 prefer Miss Pago's South African stories. "Cod's Child." "God's Child," by Captain Oswald Dallas (Cassell and Co.), has Malta— not usually favoured by novelists as a background—as its scenario. The story opens, howovor, iu an English cathedral city, which, by the way, the author might just as well have called Canterbury at once, so easily is it recognisable, where a worthy but dreadfully priggish young parson finds, to his horror, that local gossip connects his name with that of a housemaid whohas had what English people often euphemistically describe as "a misfortune." Tho parson resigns and goes to Malta as army chaplain, only to find that poor Primrose is living there, having married a sergeant in the army, a childhood's friend, who charitably overlooks the young lady's lapse, and acts as father to her child. Tho villain of tho piece now appears, in the person of Captain Damato, a Maltese, who had been poor Prim's seducer. How the poor parson, who is in love with a very charming girl, is again the victim of scandalmongoring; how Prim's husband, madly jealous, gives way to drink and loses his stripes; how Damato, in love with the parson's sister, plots the murder of her English lover; and how in the end poor Prim's boy, little Jacky, "God's child," comes into a substantial fortune, and some very nice people are made as happy >as they deserve to be, 1 must not say. Tho author gives an intimate and interesting picture of garrison lifo in Malta, and his story, as a whole, though the plot is on somowhat conventional lines, is dccidcdly roadable. Max the Sport. Boy readers should find plenty of entertainment in Lilian M. Pylce's story, "Max tho Sport" (Ward, Lock and Co., per Whitcombo and Tombs). It is tho ambition of Maxwell Charlton's parents that their lad shall bo "a sport" iu the best sense of that mucii abused term ; that he shall always "play tho game." And so tho lad does, right through his schooldays, his career as a student, up, to tho day when ho seeks tho "great adventuro" and onlists. At times he is sorely tempted, but ho remains.to tho end of the story a clean-minded, honourable follow', tiio very best typo of woll-cdu-cated Young Australia. The school episodes at St. Virgil's arc on tho conventional lines of English stories of school lifo, but thoy aro well described. Wo part with the hero as Captain Charlton, a medical offieer, who is sbout to re-

ceivc a V.C., and though badly wounded, happily not incapacitated for Ihc practice of hiij profession. John of Daunt. This is about the usual time of tho year for a. new Ethel Turner book to mako its appearance, and this popular Australian writer's lntest effort, "John of Daunt," (Ward, Lock nnd Co., per Whitcombe aud Tombs) is suro of a hearty welcome. Mrs. Curlowis is always, 1 Chink, at her best in writing about finite youii'i. children, and lan and Doe Daunt and Con Miciilleton, tho leading figures ill.lvor latest story, aro just the mischievous but delightful kiddies whoso tho author can so cleverly describe. The Daunt parents, Gertrud, tho German cook, and other minor characters, are well drawn, and of course fchero is an incidental lovo interest, in which, equally of course, , a hero in khaki is prominently conI cerned. Ethel Turner has written a i'°nK series of stories about children, I'i"'' of Daunt" is certainly not tho least readable of them.