SOME RECENT FICTION
"The Safety Candle." We have had quite a number of excellent novels from Miss E. S. Stevens sinco tho author of "The Saiety Candle" (Cassell and Co., per S. and AV. Maclcay) made her hit with that admirablo story, "Tho Veil."' In her latest story she reaches high-water mark. The scene is laid almost entirely in Sicily, and tho local colour, so picturesque and so convincing, is evidently the result of close and intimate study of the Sicilians and their beautiful island. TV plot turns upon a problem which is by no means new in fiction, namely, the love of a young man for a woman considerably older than himself, and the intrusion of a second and younger woman. Captain Brangwyn finds passion too much for him, but the eldorly wife's devotion' to the husband makes her forgive not only an erring spouse, but —which is far . more unlikely in real life—the beautiful young Anglo-Italian yoiing widow, who is tho third chief actor in this domestic drama. How this second forgiveness is brought about readers of this fine novel must discover for themselves. The finale is as tragic as it is unexpected, but is developed with true literary artistry. It is some time since I havo road a novel which exhibits at once such restrained force and delicacy in its treatment of a very dlihcult and painful problem. I warmly commend "Tho Safety Candle" to the attention of my readers. Possum. Mrs. Mary Grant Bruce, tho popular Australian writer of stories for and about young people, is generally to the front at this period of tho year. Her new story, "Possum" (Ward, Lock and Co., per Whitcombe and Tombs), lias for its heroine a very jolly Australian girl of fourteen or fifteen, the daughter of a small selector. "Possum" proves herself a warm and useful friend- to tho Maclcods, who give up a comfortable homo in Melbourne to settle in an out-of-the-way corner of Gippsland in order that their boy Garth may profit by the fresh, wholesomo country air. Tho mishaps of the amateur farmers are not a few, but kindly neighbours and their own stout hearts work wonders, and the closing chapter finds the boy quite recovered, and his parents dotermined tn remain whero they are and give up_ all idea of returning to the crowded city. "Possum" is tho real heroine of the story, a warm-hearted, blunt-spoken, but shrewd and clever girl, who is not only a "littlq mother" to her younger sisters and brothers, but tho good angel of tho whole community. Mrs. Bruce does not disguise the discomforts and drawbacks inevitably incidental to lifo in the backblocks, but she shows how that life develops ft spirit of not only self, but mutual help, and how much it is to bo perforred, all things considered, to that of a great city. An excellent Christmas gift book for family reading. "Mr Totldy." Mr. li. I l '. Benson's latest novel, "Mr. Teddy" (T. Fisher Uuwiu), is a | very restlul and charming study of | lifo in a littlo English country town. •Mr. liciison'fi style is slowly mellowing as ,ho grows older, lie setms to place more reliance upon careful char-actor-drawing than upon plot and dramatic incident. His principal figure, Mr. Teddy, is a middle-aged gentleman, well-to-do, who trifles with art and leads an oasy-going, rather somnolent existence, a slave to an unspeakably selfish and exacting mother. How the tender-hearted Teddy retains his affection for the girl he had loved as a young man, but had never dared to risk maternal displeasure by marrying; how, on the lady's side, there is the same quiet, and, as she mistakenly imagines, hopeless devotion; and how, finally, the death of the selfish old lady changes tho whole position, is set forth by Mr. Benson in what is a very charming story. As a study _ in feminine egotism, Mrs. Heaton is a positive triumph. In her own way sho is as great a success as the novelist's earlier creation, tho redonbtablo Mrs. Ames. The quiet humour of the story is irresistible. "Moscow in Flamc-s." "Moscow in Flames," by G. P. Danielski (Stanley Paul), is tho first English translation of an exceptionally powerful historical novel by a Russian writer whose works are very popular in his own country, bill- are as yot little known to English readers. As the title gests, the story deals with tho Napoleonic campaign in Russia, the hero being a young Russian officer who, after Borodino, is held prisoner by the French during an armistice, and has a close shave of being shot in consequence of being taken for another man. Ho takes part in the disastrous retreat of the French, the horrors of which arc described very realistically, and is followed by his betrothed, who disguises herself as a man and joins a company 'of Russian sharpshooters. From a sentimental point of view, tho conclusion may seem disappointing, for tho fair and heroic Aurora attempts to kill Napoleon, and pays for her failure with her life. The author evidently holds Napoleon, not the French nation, to blame for tho in Russia. His story is rich in dramatic interest, and is well worth reading. Would that the Russians of to-day were so truly patriotic as were tho Muscovite soldiers of 1812!
"The Desert Trali." Bud Hooker, the hero of Dane Coolidgo's story, "The Dosert Trail' (ilethueii and Co.), is. a his, raw-boned Texan prospector, a man who knows not what fear is, and is as brainy as bo is In company with a mining expert, named Phil Do Lancey, he goes to Mexico to take over a long umvorked mine for a Texan speculator, who duly "stakos" or finances what is a very difficult and dangerous enterprise., lho partners find a dangerous opponent in a cunning old Mexican, who is skilled in the art of fleecing los Americanos, and the cowardice and duplicity of JJo Lancoy threaten for a , time to make the venture a failure. The big Texan, howovcr, pulls through with success, and secures, too, a lively Mexican bride, a whimsical, capricious, but very delightful fiirl, who makes a charming heroine. The story is vigorously trkl, iiTid is decidedly readable.
"Bromfey Neighbourhood." So irony latter-day American novels deal with the bustling, hustling life of the cities, with tho sordidity of business men. tlio greed and extravagance of their womenfolk, and with tho lurid dissipations in which the vulgar rich of New York and Chicago indulge, that we are apt to forget that in the New England villages can still be found a rusticity very little different from that of the English country districts. Tn such a story ns Miss Alico Drowns "Uromlev Neighbourhood" (Macmillan and Co..'Now York and Melbourne) pc «eh an insidit into. ■> vor.y different
stylo of lifo to that unfolded in the I novels of, say, Mr. Kupert lluglics, or Mr. 11. W. Chambers. Miss Brown paints tlio little community of which her characters are members as minutely as does Mr. Hardy his Wessex figures. Her forto is character drawing. The plot of the story contros round the land greed of the head of tho Nealo family, who covets and for long vainly endeavours to induce tho owner to part with a little plot of land, which Nealo wants to round off, as it wore, his own possessions. Tho heroine of the story is a doop feeling, repressed, hut conscious, girl, who instinetly shrinks from everything connected with love, but vho lives nevertheless to inspire deep passion in two young men, with whom her fortunes become inseparably entangled. Tho description of New Eiißlnnd country lifo are intensely interesting;, and Miss Brown proves herself a shrewd and intimate observer of human psychology. Her narrative manner is leisurely." but onne the reader pets interested in the twin stories- of the Neales and the Brooks, and is shown the lit. nor working of their respective loves, ambitions, and iealousies, the hook is difficult to put down.
"The Empty House." In "The Empty House" (the Macmillan Co., New York and Melbourne) an anonymous author gives us a strikingly dramatic and convincing stucy of the greatest of American social problems, the modern childless woman. Whilst yet a girl, the heroine learns that her mother had been killed l>T bearing children, and when she herselt comes to womanhood cW«mincs that sho will never have a child., Sho marries a strenuous young business man, who, the first flush of his love once over, devotes himself to his husmess affairs so unreservedly that ho becomes as one of tho characters observes, a mere boarder in his own house. There is a commercial crash, and eventually, the author developing tho situation with great skill and delicacy, tho heroine finds that her entire future happiness hinges upon her rescinding her lonsr-cliorislied resolution. How the problem is solved my readers must discover for themselves in the pages of a story, which is sure to grip and ' return its interest from the first to tho last of its chapters. That clever story of English .public school life, "Tho Looni of by Alec. Waugh, is selling well in England. Young Waush-he is still only twenty-was a pupil of S. B. Mais, the ex-sclioolmnster whoso' "April's Lonely Soldier" mado such a hit. So far no copies of Mr. Waugh's hook seem to have reached New Zealand.
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Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 70, 15 December 1917, Page 13
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1,557SOME RECENT FICTION Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 70, 15 December 1917, Page 13
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