SOME RECENT FICTION

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 14, 11 October 1919, Page 11

SOME RECENT FICTION

Sir Rider Haggard Yet Again. Exactly how many novels Sir Eider Haggard lias written I cannot sny,. but there must lw by this time nearly fifty of them. And 3'et here is this indefatigable story-teller ti> the front yet again with a story in no wnv inferior in interest to anything this now vetehin'novelist has yet given us. "When the World Shook" (C'asscill ai d Co.} per S. and W. Maolcay) is a romance in the style of "She" and "Aycsha," the sub-titlo being "An Account of tho Great Adventuro of Bastin, Bickley ami Arbutlinot." Arbuthnot is a wealthy young man, of West Country birth, who makes a lntgo fortune iti ' the city and, becoming lired of mbney-mak-ing, pines for adventure. Bastin is ft clergyman and liickley ;i medical man. Tho "three friends find tlioir way to ah undiscovered island in the South Sons, where they penetrate into some wonderful' caves and investigate 11 system of civilisation which is a quarter,of a million years old—as in "She," Sir llidor

Haggard does not do tilings by halves. Install of tho marvellous Pillar of piro which so startled the adventurers in "She" this author has drawn upon his rich endowment of imagination to create a much more wonderful tiling, for when King Oro transports his visitors to the innermost depths of his cave kingdom he shown them a natural gyroscope, on whose transit along a grooved path the very balance of our sphere exists. When shaken, this gigantic top causes all sorts of weird happenings in tho world and in its environment of starry firmament. How far Sir Kider Haggard can fit in his wonderful creation with the accepted laws of physics and with expert astronomical knowledge I am not able to say, but tho fact is that not ono reader of the book iii a thousand will trouble very much about the author's science or pseudo science. The "story's the thing,' and as a story "When tho World Shook makes uncommonly good reading. Tho three adventurers are cleverly contrasted, and tho suggestion of the occult in the reincarnation of Lady Yva as 1 Arbutlmot's wife is very adroitly managed. Long may our author live on to amuse us with such ingeniously imagined and well-told -romances as, "When the World Shook.' 1 Tho Latest Pott Ridge. Not even Dickens himself know. London and Londoners better than does Mr. W. Pott Hidge, who is always at his- best when his hero or heroine —of late, years he seems to have specially favoured a feminine chief figure—h il Cockney, born and bred. In his'latest story. "Tho Bustling Hours" (Methuen and C 0.),, tho author seems to have set. out to preach the gospel of efficiency. Certainly, his heroine, the generally amiable, ■ if occasionally sharn-tongue Miss 'Dorothy Gainsford, . is tlio very personification of feminine efficiency. Sho is the typical London gii'l of tho lower middle classes, as sharp as a needle in detecting sham and humbug, and intensely loyal to her family and her class, though >lot without ambitions as to a Mitre lift-up. in tho social scale. Mr. Pett Ridge depicts her working in a munitions factory, acting as secretary to a war charity association, playing the violin at soldiers' concerts—and- in that capacity travelling in France—and doing, her bit—often quite a considerably important bit—in other ways, but ever preserving liey sturdy independence and indulging a natural gift for happy satire, and, on occasion, effective sarcasm. The maternal,. protective instinct crops up in many of Mr. Pett llidge's heroines. In Dorothy Gainsford it is exemplified by her shrewd advico and timely help to a sister whose husband carries on a small newsveniling business. Of course there is a sentimental interest in the story, but not oven tho devotion of a handsome young airman—in tho fiiiil chapter, of course, duly rewarded—is allowed to interfere ' with Miss Gainsford's worship at the shrine nf Efficiency. The story is full of happy little character sketches, witty dialogue, and humorous situations. ■ As for its local colour, Sam Weller himself,' with his "extensive and peculiar" knowledge of Cockaigne, could not, had he taken to novel instead of to .letter writing, , have bettered Mr. Pett Eidge's telling little sketches of' London . scenes and • London life generally. A capital fitory.

"Humptv-Dumpty." In "Humpty-Diimpty" (Hodder arm' Stoughton), Mrs. Louise." Jordan . Miln gives us an exceedingly amusing story, confessedly based upon . t'lio comedy of tho same name by Mr. Horaco Anncsley Vachel. A young, gentleman of aristocratic lineage marries;-whilst an-under-graduate at Oxford, a pretty shopgirl. •He' is a selfish, weak-charactered man is Arthur Dclamothe, who begins to neglect liis wife even before the so-called honeymoon has fairly ended. Then he disappears, having been killert in the hunting field, and his wife,,who knows him only as Arthur Mott, can find no trace of him. . So much as prologue. Next we aro introduced..to. a family gathering of 'the Delamothes, many years later.. Tho family are in doubt as to iho actual results of -a will left by Lord Mottisfont,- head of tho cian Dclnmothc, and an amusing picture is drawn of the greed and jealousy displayed by the rival claimants. • Finally a bombshell is exploded by the family lawyer* who divulges tho secret that the true and lawful inheritor of the Mottisfont. title and rightful owner of Mottisfont Chase. Mot? tisfont House, in Park Lfcne, tho Mottisfont -pictures and jewels,- anil last, but not least Iho many scores of thousands of the Mottisfont family fortune, is-just imagine the effect of such news upon a blue-blooded audience I—actually a barber, wlio. all unconscious of his good fortune, is peacefully and proudly pursuing the useful but certainly none too lordly catting of li hairdresser' at Swashco;nbe-by-the-Sea, a ' nuiet little- South County port Mr. .Vflchel provides some capital fun in his descriptions of tho eccentricities in which tho ex-barher, really a good-hearted, '.well-principled little man, indulges, but eventually he subjects his pnppots to a skilful rearrangement and the new peer is'discovered, after all, to bo anybody but the Simon Pure, tho

mil Albert Mott, or Delaiiiothe," having" died as an infant, unci the biirbcr and future peer—for a month or two—having been .a nameless infant, adopted by the kind-hearted Jiinic when her own child died. The. barber, who, to tell the truth, is finite relieved by the new turn his fortunes have taken, returns to Swasli-combe-bv-the-Sea, and marries a young ladv assistant in the hairdressing business—"ladies' coill'ure specialties in private 1 parlour"!—and Jack Delaiiiothe duly assumes the title and estates, pins the hand of a charming cousin. A very pleasant little light comedy. "The Land They Loved." Tho latest addition to Mncmillan's Empire Library is a well-written'and interesting Irish story, "Tho Land They Loved," by. G. D. Cummins (London and Melbourne, Macmillan and Co.). Tibe heroine, K.ato Cnrmody. is an Irish servant girl, who returns to the "Oulil Counthry" after a five-years' absence in America. Horn and bred on a farm, and with a natural liking for country life, she hopes to bp very happy with her friends, tho three Tnrpin lads, two of whom were rivals for her love. Also, 011 reaching liftr old homo, she finds that, whilst she has' been away. across "liho great black water," the brothers hail quarrelled. One had died fighting- for what lio considered the sacred cause of Sinn Fein, the other, drawn by a spirit of adventure, and spurred oil also by. indignation over the foul conduct of the Germans in Belgium, had enlisted, gone to tlio front, and' died a hero's death in France. There remains ' the' third brother, and it is with tilie' relations between tho returned girl and this young peasant that the story is mainly concerned. For a time the heroine migrates to Dublin, where she indulges in a flirtation with a policeman. In Hie' end, however, (he call nf the land, always insistent in her blood, triumphs, and the story ends with the old lovers coming together again and mutually vowing to stand by the land and to "bring union again to the two dead brothers by working together side by side in the land they had loved;". Tho Irish. problem, in more than ono of its many phases, -is prominent in ■ the story, the main merit of whicih lies in its simple yet strong character drawing. In a way the Dublin scenes savour almost of an intrusion. •: The. author is far' l more at. homo in his descriptions of' rural life than of the' more complicated urbanworld.

."The Black Stone." Those of my readers who remember "Tihq Yellow Dove" and "The Golden Bough" know' what to expect when they: turn to a new story by Mr. George. Gibbs. : In "Tho Black Stone" (New York, Appleton iind Co., per Whitcombe and Tombs), this clever American compounder of sensational fiction gives it's an excellent war story,' with Cairo and Ari'.bia as ■ the scenario, and with a young Amerioan millionaire and his American lady love as chief figures in a full-flavoured drama ill which a clover and -audacious German secret agent plays the role of chief villain. The German agent is a guest on the millionaire's yacht—the period is before America's entrance into tho great struggle—and misleads his host rather" meanly as to his real object in obtaining a passage to Alexandria. At Algiers von , Jfengel obtains possession qf tho famous "Black Stono of Mecca," tho possession of which will give him, so the Hun schemer believes,- a tremendous prestige with the Arab tribes and assist him in organisinga general anti-British rising throughout Mohammedan Africa and Asia. Jessup, the millionaire, learns all this and much moro at Cairo, and having by this tiino espoused the cause of the Allies' with enthusiasm, sets'himself to the task of recovering tho mysterious stone and outwitting the' cunning German. Soon the plot thickens, Jessup's young lady friond being kidnapped by the German and his anti-British associates in Cairo, anil, tho millionaire, now an accredited member of tho British Secret Service,, narrowly escaping assassination. Tho .final scenes of decidedly thrilling story take place on the shores of tho Bed Sea,-von Hengel's audacious plot being effectually deI feateil anil Jessup happily reunited to I his charming Connie. Dramatic, scenes follow each other'with' almost bewilder-' ing rapidity,.'and the Cairone "local colI'our" is pictiiresquo and convincing, "The Black Stone" is an exceptionally.'.good. I story in ih own class. . ..... • '