SOME RECENT FICTION

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 299, 13 September 1919, Page 11

SOME RECENT FICTION

An Indian Story. Of novels descriptive of Indian, more especially Anglo-Indian life, there is always a fairly large annual crop, but in how many of them does tlio author aucend in conveying a vivid, or—what is more imnortant—a truthlul picture of native Indian life? Anglo-Indians have told me that Flora Annio Steel, particularly in "The Potter's Thumb," got nearer the reality than ever Kipling has done, and I have dim memories of a similar eulogy, from a similar source, of soine of Colonel Meadows Taylor's now lialf-forEotten Indian stories, it is doubtful whether any European can ever fathom the subtle intricacies of llic native mind, still less describe its often tortuous working. Now, however, we have an Indian novel by an Indian native author. who. as a writer of mystical nnd heniitiful verse, has achieved almost world-wide fume. 1 am alluding, of course. -,o that acknowledged first-rank star in the Oriental literary firmament, Sir Uftbindranath Tagorc, the first, of whose novels has been translated,, under the title "The Jlonie and the World," bv Mr. Surendraimth Tagorc (Macmillan and Co.). Here, at last, is a novel in which we net native Indian, life painted with a native Indian brush'; Indian customs. habits, ambitions, prejudices, and enthusiasms described by one who has 'studied them at first hand in his own nem>le. JI is in many ways a very remarkable book, this story of the wellmeaning. cultured, idealistic rajah i\'ikliil. his wife liimbnla, a type of the Indian "new woman," and the malignantlymischievous tertium quid, Sandip Baba, superman in crime—albeit he interprets crime as natriotism—out Nietzsche-ing N'ieizsclio in his contempt for any obstacles which may present themselves to his nrroL'unt self-will. Those who would fain understand some at least of (he mvriad difficulties which confront the, Indian Executive in its ondcuvinir to maintain tlio maiia of the British raj, and to convince the Indian people that anarchy, however subtlety and skilfully camoullaired as natriotism, can never produce either liberty or prosperity, or free the country from a rule venomously misrepresented as "tyrannical" by men of the Sandin class, should read this fascinating story of Tngore's. Bimbala, with her nassion for woman's freedom, falls an easy victim to the plotter, who deludes her into the belief that she is filling the role of an Tndia;i Joan of Arc when slw echoes the cry of the Indian Nationalise,

. "Hnmla Mataram!" tHai!. Mother!* Sht> becomes known as the Queen Hee ol the hive of the Great Cause. She wronirs her liusbaiid in move ways then one for (lie sake of the Cause—.ll id for love of the Nietjwehean revolutionary—and sacrifices the "home" •for the sordid, unclean "world'' of Oriental Bolshevism. Nikliil is perhaps the weakest drawn of the three lending character.', but he, 100, is a typo counting for not a little in present-dny Indian politics. The slory is told in turn hv the three lending figures. Its style ia clear, vivid, ami impressive; alike in the pathetic and dramatic interests of liis (jcene.s Tagorc proves himself n literary craftsman of the first rank. "Home and Ihe World'' is story which, as the French say, "gives furiously to till ink." i\"o one can read the Ixiok without being deeply impressed with tlio complexity and intense gravity of the problem which the British Government aihj the Calcutta Executive must combine to folve unless India is to be the scene of political and social disorders which will parallel the deplorable happenings ill Russia of recent times.

"A Princess of Mars." In his latest novel, "A Princess of Mars" (Methiien and Co.), Mr. Edgar liice Burroughs, whose stories of the ape-man, Tarzim, have been bo popular, essays a romance in the vein of Wells's "First Men in (lie Moon." The device l>y which Mr. liurroughs transports his hero, an ex-veteran of the American Civil War. from a cave in Arizona, an ancient." Indian burial place, to Mars, is not very convincing, but once lauded on the distant and mysterious planet the marvellous experiences with which 110 meets are.set forth and elaborated with decided ingenuity. On Marts the exsoldier finds moro than one race, the

people amongst whom lie is first thrown being fifteen feet high, completely destitute of hair, and as naturally, incurably ferocious and unmoral us even the unspeakable Huns, 't'lieir 'bodies are ol a yellowish-green colour, ami their young are hatched out of Cggs, which are kepi: for three to live years in gigantic incubators. .Meat is apparently unknown to the green Martians, who live very lorgolv. according (o the ingenious Mr. Burr'oughs. on « Martian milk,, derived not from the cow, but from "a large plant which grows practically without water/ and yet which, so the municipal milksupply authorities of 'Wellington may be interested to hear, gives, from a single plant, eight to ten quarts ol milk per day. The hero meets with many astounding adventures on Mars. rvcntuall> rescuing a maiden of the' red. Martians, sworn enemies of the green variety 1 , from her cantors. This maiden, JJejali Thoris. i= coveted-by a barbarian chief of the Minotaur type, and has another enemy in u lioiKlish cM woiikih oallwl Sarkoja. who reminds me. in a. far-oil' way. of a certain sinister figure, Ciagoola the" Witch, in Kider Haggard's now, t fenr. half forgotlen "King Solomon's Mines." What happens on Mars when 'the initchiiicry by which ino air is l;?»t pure fail-' to work, of the fate of the beauteous De.inh, and how Mr. Burroughs got his hero lxick. o second liip Van Winkle," lo his Arizona eave. I must not .sav. The author displays rich gifts of imagination, but it is open lo question whether it were wise to enter inln riplry wilh such past masters in I his genre of romance .1 n I p.-" Verne nnd H. 0. Wells. Mnrs is. I believe, the nearest planet to the earth, but Mr. Burroughs'.' description of the Martians, either of the given or red variety, and their manners and customs is, though interesting enough in its way. scarcely calculated lo make his readers hanker after an aeroplane I rip to these fari away regions.

Mr. Benson and the Spirits. The latter-day vogue of spiritualism lias induced Mr. K. !•'. llcuson, from whose now well-practised pen we have had such a long series of stories since the days when lie first fluttered society dovecots with "Dodo," to wiitu a novel, "Across the Stream" (John Murray, per Whit/combe and Tombs), in which he deals with quite a number ol so-called psychic phenomena and supernatural influences. His hero. Archie Morris, a young man oi' good family and some wealth, receives spirit messages iroui a brother who had died whilst yeti a child of Lender years. For a time tlio spiritual influence is beneficent, but later on, sonic malignant demon manages to pose as the innocent M'anriu, and the unfortunate young aristocrat, encouraged Ijy evil suggestion, takes lo iving, gambling, drink, m.d othe-r other vices, and undergoes a process of complote moral degeneration. His cousin, Jessie, who loves him, tiries hard to warn tlio young man Iliali he is meddling w.l.ji very dangerous powers, whilst her sister, a jealous, malevolent girl, exercises a counteracting influence for evil upon him. it would be unfair to Mr. Benson, who could not very wll write a dull book if ho tried, and who manipulates both his human puppets and the spirit "controls"'wit!; all his old cleverness, to recount the final developments of poor Archie's obsession by the supernatural influences ho has called into action. Suffice it to say lhatiuho author's object is apparently to show that if there are good spirits there may also be others of very ovil origin nnd purpose, and that communific.tion wil;,h dwellers in !>he spirit world is sometimes, apt to have a very unpleasant and daugerous sequel.