SOME RECENT FICTION

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 87, 5 January 1918, Page 10

SOME RECENT FICTION

The Latest Locke. "The Red PJaliet" (John Lane), Mr. W. J. Locke's twentieth novel;' is' a war story, tho principal character.being an officer who suffers from occasional attacks of an instinctivo and almost uncontrollable cowardice, which positivei ly paralyse him for tho moment. Not ■ only does this deplorable weakness cause Captain Leonard Boyco to bo guilty of a grave failure in his military 1 duty (in the. South African War), but | it hypnotises him, into shameful inac- ; tivity when a young lady of good birth, ! whom ho has seduced, ends her agony of shame and remorse by drowning herself.- Captain Boyco, it will be seen, is a very ugly character, and not even tho heroic exploits by which, summoning up a hidden will power to his help, ! he wins first the D.5.0., and then tho j coveted V.C., can make us pity him as perhaps he deserves to be pitied It will be seen that, in its study of cowardice Mr. Locke's story recalls memories (of Mr. Conrad's "Lord Jim," and, in j a lesser degree, of Mr. Mason's "The Four Feathers." The problem is dealt ! with, however, on totally different I lines, and the treatment is both original and masterly. The story is supposed to be told by a retired and cripI pled officer, Major Meredyth, who is I a quite Lockian and very delightful character, with his gallantry and chivalry I and his many amiable eccentricities! The Major is horrified to discover tho truth about Boyce's seduction of Althea Fenmiore, and the man's confession puzzles and saddens him greatly. Ho is torn by conflicting emotions when he finds that Boyco is in lovo with a very charming but whimsical and wilful young lady, Betty Connor, who, carried away by admiration of ll delinquent's gallantry, and knowing, 0 f course, nothing of the acts of cowardice and the Althea episode, consents to marry him. When, however, Boyco returns to his native village covered with honour'and almost a national hero, ho feels it his duty to tell poor Sir Anthony Fenimoro the truth. A very dramatic situation is evolved when the poor old knight, as the local magnate has to present the V.C. hero—and the man who had seduced his daughter, and seen' her drown without making an attempt to rescue .her—with an ad* dress of welcome and congratulation. The description of the ceremony is one of the strongest things Mr. Locke has yet done. Of course, it is impossiblo that Boyce could be allowed to marry the hero-worshipping Betty. How this is prevented, and how the unhappy Boyce puts an end-to a very delicata situation, my readers must learn for themselves in the pages of this excel- - lent novel. The background of the story is an English village in war time, and Mr* Locke has never given

us a gallery of well-drawn, and for the most part, amusing minor characters, than tlioso here "depicted. The Major's faithful old body servant, a Sergeant Marigold, would alouo make the story very popular, for tilt, old soldier is a second Corporal Trim, at once as great a tyrant and as dogliko in his devotion to his master as was Sterne's immortal character in "Tristram Shandy." In "Tho Bed Planet" Mn' Locke is at his very best. By ail means buy and enjoy this admirable novel as soon as you can.

"Ths soul of a Bishop." ,ln "The Soul of a Bishop" (Cassell artel Co.; per s. and \V. iuackav and whiicombe and Tombs;, Air. ij. (i. Wells makes a second excursion into the realm, of theology. In "Cod tho Invisible King," lie dealt with certain modern theological problems in a manner which provoked considerable discussion in tho religious world. In "The Soul of a Bishop" ho returns to the charge against the Church, especially the Anglican Church, and skilfully utilises fictional devices to strengthen his plea that the Christian world must witness after the war a complete overhauling of old creeds and old ceremonies, and allow, and even welcome, a much greater individuality and liberty of religious thought and belief than has hitherto prevailed. The Bishop of Printchester suddenly finds himself questioning and doubting what he has so long quite honestly acceuted as unassailable truth, and comes "to the conclusion that in its attitude to great puolio issues the Church is a failure, /he character is cleverly drawn, and isinvested with an apparent reality which is quite convincing. The poor Bishop worries himself into a state of nervous breakdown, and is spiritually and physicailv in a very bad way when ho seeks t'he advice of a great London nerve specialist. _ In the absence of the great .man' he is treated by his locum tenons, a brilliant hut eccentric '-practitioner, whose methods are decidedly original. Whilst still under the influence of a marvellous drug administered by this gentleman the Bishop repairs to tho library of the Athenaeum Club, in which mundane and prosaic environment he has, or imagines he has, a supernatural visitation. Further doses of the drug produce similar effects, and as the result of these visions or' hallucinations, preaches <t Confirmatioi service which terribly shocks -he at tendant clorgy by its decidedly mi orthodox character. Doubts increase and at last the Bishop finds his con science dictating a resignation o' hii sacred office. The commotion, the grie: which all this causes in his family car well be imagined. His wife, a lady ol aristocratic birth, at first deems Inn almost mad, but loyally accepts tin positibn ; when finally he leaves tin Church. The portrait of this lady, b; the way, is an exceptionally elevei piece of character drawing. Anothei character, this time of a purely amusing typo, is tho millionaire American lady, who gushes over the Bishop, in tvhoni she finds, as it were, her soul's affinity, and who. wishes to build a sumptuous temple in which the "new religion" is to be expounded. I refrain from any

attempt to set forth or analyse the nature of the Bishop's' new faith, in which may be found, I may say, some of, if not all, the rather shadowy theories expounded in "God the Invisible King." j\ T or have I space to sparo to show how the story deals incidentally with various political, industrial, and social problems of the day. All these. are discussed with characteristic Wellsian audacity. "The Soul of a Bishop" is a very clever, very'' ably' written and interesting book, but I confess that for my own part I shall welcome the day whon Mr. Wells's cfazo for settling thorny problems in theology dies out, and ho returns to the consideration of purely secular subjects. As an up-to-date variant of a motif treated so many yoars'ago now by Mrs. Humphrey Ward, in her once famous hook "Robert Elsmore," and more recently by the American novelist, Winston Churchill, in his story "Inside the Cup," Mr. Wells's latest novel is a clever and interesting piece of literary craftsmanship. But after all the subject.of religious doubt and church reform is scarcely suitable for fictional treatment. *

"Penrod and Ssm." I All who read Mr. Booth Tarkington's delightful study of boy life and character, "Penrod," will only bo too glad to renew acquaintance with that mischievous and.diverting young gentleman in. a second story "Penrod and Sam" (He-elder and Str>ugliton< per Whitcombe and Tombs). Penrod is now a- little older, but his capacity for getting into scrapes—very largely in company with, and with the assistance of, his chum Sani—is as . great as ever. There is a strong flavour of our old friend Tom Sawyer in Mr. Tarkingtou's vouthful hero, but the latter-day novelist works on his own lines, and the shade of Mark Twain is not likely to , raise the cry of plagiarism. Besides Sam, who may be taken as a prototype I of Mark Twain's Ben Sogers, Penrod has a Buck Finn of his own in a little negro boy who is his companion, sometimes of his free will, sometimes an enforced associate in various amusing escapades. The stoisf, or series of stories, is about as consistently a mirth-provoking production as I know. Both vouthful and adult readers should heartily enjoy the rich entertainment Mr. Tarkington here provides.

"Summer." In "Summer" (Macmillan and Co.) | Mrs. Edith Wharton takes us* away ifrom the busy world of New York or the political atmosphere of Washington, and gives us a story more akin to her "Eltham Frome" than to her "House of Mirth" and "The. Custom of the Country." Her background is the little and much-decayed town of North Dormer, in one of the New England States; her heroine, Charity Royall, an orphan girl who finds a home with Lawyer Royall, a broken-down egal practitioner. Charity really bej longs, as the Americans say, to the "Mountain Folk," a community of mountaineers given to illicit distilling, and sunk in ignorance and immoralI ity. Her mother had been an outcast | from society, her father was unknown. I Royall is kind to the girl in a way, I but sho rebels against the awful monotony of life in the dreary village, and when a young city architect, bent on studying the old colonial stylo of buildings, comes on a visit to his relatives, he appears as a veritable Prince Charming. The man falls in love with the fresh beauty and wild charm of the girl, but ho is engaged to another girl, and his love passages with poor Charity end, alas! in her ruin. Lawyer Royall rescues her, however, and tho distracted girl eventually consents to marry him, albeit ho is old enough to be her, grandfather. With all her cleverness in leading up to this denouement Mrs. Wharton cannot reconcile us to a conclusion which must leave the reader pitying poor Charity more than ever. This tragic story of a girl s sufferings might have been written by Thomas Hardy, so insistent is the author on tho inevitable workings of a cruel fate. In its pictures of rural New England life, tho realism of the scenoi in which the , Mountain Folk" are prominent, and its strong character drawing (Lawyer Royall is a specially firmly etched portrait), "Summer" is a novel far above tho average. Mrs. Wharton is still easily in tbo very front rank of American novelists, and the vividity and strength of the story are undeniable.