SOME RECENT FICTION

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 116, 2 February 1918, Page 13

SOME RECENT FICTION

Tho Dwelling Place of Light, Mr. Win.ston Churchill continues his studios of latter-day American problems. In "Tile Inside of the Gup" lie dealt with the question of how l'ar the Church is in, or out of, sympathy with the question of social reform. In "Tho Dwelling Place of Light (Macmillan and Co.) lio deals with modern business methods and what might bo called tho ethical side of industrialism. "Modern business," ho says, "by reason of the mingling of the sexes it involves, for the playwright and the novelist and the sociologist is full of interesting dramatic situations, and in it may be studied, undoubtedly, one phase of the evolution tending to transform, if not disintegrate, certain institutions hitherto the corner stone of society." His story has for its background a manufacturing centre in Massachusetts, where a large proportion of tho mill workers are Europeans of a very low order of intelligence. Tho principal female character, Janet Bumpus, is a typiste, the elder daughter of a quiet, simple-minded old man who comes of a good family, but who, a failure in life, now occupies a position as timekeeper . Janet, is a girl of superior intelligence, _ who eventually becomes the trusted private secretary of her employer. There, is another sister, Lise, who, alas, is foredoomed to moral disaster. Vain, empty-headed, but pretty, Lise, with her passion for fine clothes, her love ol the "movies," falls an easy victim to tho blandishments of a rascally "drummer" But Janet is made of stronger stuff, and I, for one, lintl it difficult to believe that. a woman of her typo would not have triumphed over a sexual weakness, and successfully resisted her employer. The latter, Ditmar by name, is by no means a calculating sensualist. Ho really loves the girl, and is quite prepared to marry her. But Janet adjudges liini to be merely a vulgar seducer, and throws herself passionately into the' hands of a gang of I.W.AV. leaders and foreign.:anarchists, who organise and carry out-a great strike at tho Ditmar works. It is. in his description of the various elements which . make for industrial disorder in tho TJnited States, in his thrilling narrative of tho strike making—and strike breaking—that Mr. Churchill is at his best in this his latest story, In her hour of.shame and need Janet meets with two good and kind friends in Brooks Insall, a wealthy novelist, who is interested in social reform, and Mrs. Maturin, who takes a tolerant and truly characteristic view of feminine weakness. Insall falls in love, with the heroine,, and oven when ho learns that she is to become a mother, is true to' his-professions of -love-. ■ For the sorely-tried "Janet,'however, 111sall's offer comes too late, and the story ends with 110 such concession to sentiment as' so many American novelists would - have made; - -Mr. Churchill is scarcely at his best in this novel, but everything he writes is worth reading. In contrast with the somewhat melodramatic pictures of the strike the novelist provides an intricate and fascinating study of Janet's homo environment. The simple old father everlastingly poring over the pedigrees of -the Bumpus family, and the keen-witted, patiently toiling old mother, who is well nigh deathstricken by Lisc's open disgrace, only to recoivo an even more terrible slick whon she learns of her elder and muchtrusted daughter's misfortune; are character sketches of convincing reality. "The Long Trick." Tho gratitude of all who. take an interest in the doings of the"'British'Navy' —and what Briton does not?—is duo to that clever writer, "Bartimeus," for his really admirable story, "The Long Trick" (Cassell and Co., per S. and W : . Mackay). Under the guise-of fiction; and with the introduction of moro than 0110 very pretty lovo story, he gives us a sories of pictures of tho everyday life led by the officers and men- of tho Grand Fleet and its small craft" satellites hitherto -unequalled for dramatic vividity. That the narrative includes, so many humorous touches does ' not in any way impair its value as a presentment of naval life. The humour is so gay, so spontaneous, so fascinatingly "bubblesome," if I may be pardoned the concoction of a new adjective; there is pathos, too, in this book, trao wholesome pathos, as all will admit who read the chapter beaded "Sweethearts and AVives," and that in which news | comes of the "Battle in the Mist," the :'reat Jutland sea fight, -of - which,, by the way, "Bartimeus" has given a most thrilling and convincingly realistic description. Tito entrain of the narrative is simply irresistible. "Liber's" own personal experience -iia's. been that onccs commenced it is simply impossible to lay the boolt down. ''Bartimeus" gained the public ear yitli his '.'Naval Occasions" and "A Tall Ship." In "The Long Trick" he has beaten his own record. From the admiral— and the visiting "big guns" from tho Admiralty—down to the:merry yonngj sters in the gun room, from captain ; down to the humblest seaman; each and ! every type of navy man is here, drawn ] in a few vigorous telling strokes which j make tlie picture unforgettable. Our I old friend, "The India Rubber Man," j is again to tho fore, and we are pleased to meet him again. But he has several new rivals for pomtlarity with the reader. "Podgie" and "Mmiidv" Jakes will, I venture to nredict, be great favourites, and if .there be a render who does not feel tlrnt a certain submarine commander deserves a knighthood or a V.C. —or both—l would call him —well, Hun! By all means beg. boi'row, or steal —yes, steal, for theft in tills case would he almost permissible—a copy of this jolly, wholesome, and intenselv fa.sc.inating story. It will cost you four and sixpence, and four and sixpence was never better spent. "In Another Girl's Shoes." Miss Berta Buck, tho author of "In Another Girl's Shoes" (Hodder and Stoughton), caught the popular tasto with those clover stories, "llis Official Fiancee" and "The Girls at His Billet," and now again scores, and scores heavily, with a delightful little comedy, based upon what may at first appear, to be a venerable fictional cliche —the impersonation of ono girl by another. In the case of pretty little Rose Whitelands, who meets a war widow and exchanges identities with the film actress, ...Miss . Vera Vayne,. and is accepted by a dignified baronet and his Quito delightful wifo .as the legitimate spouse —whom tlley have never seen—of that amiable and handsome young scapegrace, Captain George Meredith, there is 110 wilful deception. The role or the war widow is transferred to _ tho pretty and ladylike ingenue entirely against lior wiil, and, worso still, tho more the girl honestly tries to- explain and expose her real identity to Meredith perc ct mere, the more utterly hopeless bccomes the task. All this may savour of the impossible, but Miss l?uck cheerily and easily triumphs over improbabilities. When the impostor (against her will) encounters her "hus<band"—oll "rest leave" in Paris —tho fun becomes fast and furious. . I re-, fuse to spoil the reader's iiiterest_ in Miss Ruck's clever and most amusing story by disclosing how Miss lloso Whitclauds and the handsome young captain get ou: of a.difficult and somewhat delicate position, and that without that pet of the "movies" audiences, Miss Vera Vayne, being the least jealous oi' m-noyed. "In Another Girl's Shoes" may be recommended as (i sure cure foi ennui. Its all-pervad-

ing good humour and gaiety are quito irresistible. "Land of the Dawning." The young Australian writer, Miss Lindsay Itusscll, is by this time a well-practised, novelist, and her latest story, "Land of the Dawning" (Cassell and Co., per S. and W. Mackay), is a clevcr piece of literary craftsmanship. Its hero is a young Irish journalist, who, when we first meet him, is "down 011 his luck" 111 what tho late. Joseph Hatton described as "Cruel London." Ho witnesses the rescue from the icycold river of a young and beautiful bejewelled and expensively-dressed woman. How this woman, a woman with a vivid past, befriends David Carey, how they drift apart, the woman to play a prominent part in the Sinn Fen rebellion, the hero to emigrate to. far away Australia, there to become a country journalist, and, incidentally, to meet and fall in love with tho first woman's lovely cousin (without a past), is told by Miss Russell in a story which runs very smoothly, and possesse many excellent features. The story ii is its political. side, and the author's treatment of certain phases of the everlasting Irish question may not please everyone. Bin. the story, as a story, is skilfully planned, and wellcarried out, and is eminently readable.