SOME RECENT FICTION

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 229, 21 June 1919, Page 11

SOME RECENT FICTION

By the Author of "Sonia,"

".Midas and San" (Mcthiien' and Co.) is tlie latest novel to come irom the •clover jien to w-liich we owe the highly successiul "Sonia." .Mr,.Stephen M'Xeimn takes for the principal figure in his new story the .son of n multi-millionaire, Sir Avinier Lancing, who deserts tue .aw lor tlie world ol' lu naute iinanee in Aow York, and there 'accumulate#-* colossal lortune. A ividoweiv - ho dreams ot Ins only son .Ueryk becoming a leader in politics- and society, and. nnirrying, needless to bay, .a lady of high degree, who shall assist him in attaining. the- high position which the lather, considers ahonld crown .his son's career. ■ . Unfortunately, ileryk, who is by way of being a musical genius!, ■ does' not see eye to eye with his lather in regard either to political career . or matrimonial - tuuire. ile « in love with and is loved by a beautiful. girl; ldiim', who, m -wealth iiiul social position, is a mere feminine detrimental—from Sir Aylmer's point of view, tjuarrelling with his father, Jj.eryk goes to jjondon and. becomes a. journalist, liis success in gaining a hearing in' the -editorial sanctums ol i'Teet Street being, .by the way, attained witli it -rapidity w liicli is, L' leitr, more ireq-uept in fiction than ill reality.-, 'i'lie success achieved & not held by the youdlg n-an as -justifying a speedy niarnage, and eventually the young laity grows weary of waiting, atid marries a prematurely old'man, who, after a few months, dies--of. dropsy. Deryk, meanwhile, becomes entangled in an intrigue with a fashionable dame, by whose rather too openly-displayed ilelilahiike seductive powers one. would scarcely expect a nihil 01, iJcryk Laiicing's type lu lie beguiled. After a peiiod of hectic dissipation in London, tlie hero, now the successor to liis father's millions, goes oft' to Asia Minor to indulge in archaeological research on the plain of Troy or somewhere thereabouts. But wherever he goes, boredom marks him down for hisown, and eventually he returns to London and to his old 'allegiance with fdina, lie falls into a state of morbid depression, and oil the eve ol' his marriage with his iirst-love, commits suicido .in his palatial mansion. And this, too, on tho very outbreak of the great struggle which would have ntl'ordcd him, H did 6o many others of the cimiti-riddeit English rich, a new world of opportunity for wholesome distraction. 'J'o tell tho truth, Deryk is a disappointing, even, to me, irritating hero, if hero indeed ho can properly bo called at all. He has neither tho mentiil grit in hintself to llnil avenues for the useful utilisation of

his millions,'nor "Ihe'riftseiFifOc" awl cnur-' aire to utilise Die ideas, to the same end, S?' men more brainy than himself. It must not, however, lie assumed that, the story is dull because its principal figure fails to rise to hi* opportunities, Mr. M'Kenn'a's dialogue is as bright as ever, his pii.lnres of London society as intimate, as vivid, and as brightly coloured as were those to which he treated us in "Soniu," some of the characters ■in which here liiake a brief leappcariince. "Midas and' Son''' is essentially -/a .-picture'of English-society of therimmcdiato ■'pre-war period. It is a- line, in'lerestgripping, ami irileri'sl-holdilig story, but 1 would its end had been less'-tragic. . ~"Th& Valley of tlie Giants." All who . read ilint amusing -story, "Cappy Jiiclis," will be glad to- renew acquaintance with its author. Mr. I'eler B. Kyne. Mr. Kyne's new- story, "The Valley of the Giants" (Uddder and Stongliton). has for its motif the tremendous struggle Which takes place between Bryce. Cardigan, ihe son of a pioneer lumberman in the -redwood region of Norlherii California, and a rulii■lefwlj' unscrupulous lumber speculator from Michigan, Colonel Selh Pennington. Old .John Cardigan, Hryi-eV father.- has held amongst. Ins undeveloped lumber properties a beautiful iinii valuable -licit of redwood trees, locally known as- the Valley of.lhe Giants. Here-lie the remains of the young wife ho had loved so dearly, and wh.Vhad died in giving.- birth to his only eliild, and the ivlijile valley is held sacred against the inroads- of commercial activity. When young- Bryce roturns home from an Kastern university and a lengthy European-'tarn* lie finds the old man tottering on tlie • verge of financial l'li'm and half blind. The ruthless and unprincipled speculator, Pennington, had'gradually 'hemmed him in and cut' off his lumber belt i'roiii the sea. Pennington specially 'covets flio Vnlley of the Giants, and when old Cardigan refuses to sell or allow ihe lumber to bo cut:' threnlous his ruin. In 'the youiiger Cardigan he .finds, however, a doughty find determined antagonist". ."Abitter .and determined • war : of- wits, 'money—ami,' incidentally, of fists and rifles—ensues between' Ihe rivals and their supporters. Bryce's difficulties are complicated atid accentuated by the fact that: lie is in love' with his' enemy's niece. Miss Shirley Summers', who is an old playmate of his youth, and. who holds her lyrannons' and ■ unscrupulous' uncle's designs and niel hods ill 'most,henrty- abhorrence, but' for a while keeps her own counsel, and endeavours to patch up'-a neace between, the antagonists. - At SSt the Cardigans are forced to sell ihe Valley of the Ginyt's. But it "is not the wily Colonel wlio is (he purchaser,-but a mysterious'company, the exact composition of. which is kept, secret. 'How Bryce. finally succeeds in defeating' his enemy and by wli'oso aid, long Unsuspected, that end is seen,red, my readers must find on.!- for themselves'in Mi'. Kyne'.s vigor-, ously. written and really fascinating story. Shirley is a. charming' heroine, and Bryce Car;!:.gan as manly a hero, and ardent it lover ns oo'iild>lie desired.: Old .Tolln 1 Cardigan,■ -vith his 'pathe'ti'o devotion to'the memory of his dead wife, is also a strougl.vvd'rawn chnractei'. The local colour of the story is picturesque and convincing.' Not: ?veh Ilex' Bench himself has ever given his readers' a tetter. description of rOligh-atid-tnnible-fisticuffs' in. the "backwoods" "than does Mr. Kvne in the scene where Bryce Car-' digan meels and vanquishes the Col-, onel's henchman; the redoubtable Krencli halfbred milly, Jules llondeau. "Liber" .would double star "The Valley of the Giant's" oh his -list of recent: novels. •

riievicws of '.several other novels nre held over.]