SOME RECENT FICTION

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 114, 7 February 1920, Page 11

SOME RECENT FICTION

Poor Relations, Not a. few admirers of Mr. Compton Mackenzie's novels, myself included, have felt that neither in "The Early Lifo .ind Adventures of Sylvia Scarlett," nor in its sequel, "Sylvia and Michael." did the novelist maintain the high standard sot in "Carnival," "Sinister Street"

and - the less-known "Guy and Pauline." Truth to tell, the long series of moro or less scandalous and sometimes! very sordid adventures in which that fascinating little baggage, Sylvia, be- J corao involved, was so prolonged as to J become tedious. There -<\ as -too i-uch of tho "Whizz, bang, now I'm off i.gain" in the heroine of those two twentieth century vanaiiVn 01 tho woman picaresque of Lesagc's day, and now that Sylvia is married to, and, I trust, permanently i settled down as the wife of that wellmeaning but rather priggish latter-day Don Quixote, Mr. Michael Fane, I for ono liono that Mr. Mackenzie will leave her severely alone in the enjoyment of such domesticity as a feminine liarum scarum of her type could bo expected to accept. In "Poor Relations" 'Mr. Mackenzie gives us some really delightful comedy. It is full of a quiet, ironic, but never acid humour, which makes ono chuckle softly rather than gulf aw. It is as rich in telling character sketches as i a schoolboy would havo his birthday | cako in- plums. The central figure, John Touchwood, is a highly-successful playwright, who specialises in romantic drama. His cynical brother Jamei, I who writes books which no one leads, and is obsessed by the idea that he has only to start a new weekly literary review (with'John'i; money* ami he will forthwith make a fortune, sneers at the playwright's work as "rosified." As a mailer of fact, John has found that "rosified," ( that is highly sentimental, purely popu-! lar drama, pays best, and he " wisely ■ 6licks to his own metier. It is with the j playwright's troubles with a horde of selfish and greedy relations, brothers, sis- ] lers, brothers-in-law, and others, that j the story deals. No matter how gener- j ously lie treats them they are ungrate- j ful. A specially amusing parasite is a I clerical brother-in-law, who conceives tho j idea that he is a born playwright, and forthwith resigns his cur- .-.ml loafs upon i poor John, tho while he is concocting a . weird nnd quite impossible play entitled! "Thomas." A moro consummate prig nnd amusing ass has not recently appeared in fiction than tho Rev. Lawrence Armytnge. Then (here are George Touchwood nnd his wife, and James ditto and his wife, with llioir two sets of children, a younger brother, who is a hopeless w.-ister, and an elderly sister, a secondrate actress, who believes herself, quite ■ erroneously, to be a. second Ellen Terry, ; and who pesters her unfortunate brother : to give her the leading role in his new | drama, "Joan of Arc." For the children | alone, and (he fun Mr. Mackenzie gels i out of thom> the story is well worth ' reading, but indeed the whole book is one . long feast of good things. How in the ; ond the much-harrnsscd playwright shakes himself free of his bonds, how . he is assisted in doing so by his clever and prelly young ladv secretary, it would fake too long to set' forth. Rend "Poor Relating" forthwith. If in "Carnival" and "Sinister Street" Mr. Mackenzie showed him«elf a master of realism, in "Guy and Pauline" an exponent of delightful sentiment, and in "Sylvia Scarlett" a successful reviver of 'the eighleenlh centurv picaresciue novel, he proves himself in "Poor Relations" a genuine humorist. K is not a grpat novel, but-it is a series of most amusing ' pictures of lntrer-d.iv life, and the freshness and vividity of its character drawing arc beyond praise. "The Gods Decide" Tho circumstances under which Italy entered the Great War and the influences which so lons proved so embarrassingly antagonistic, to the Italian Government in its conduct of tho campaign are explained very clearly in an exceedingly well-written story, "'.lino Gods Decide '" by Richard Bngot (Methuen and Co.). The author (who has already a long series of very readable novels to his credit) is an English Catholic, who has spent long years m Italy, and knows (ho Italian proplc as few Englishmen know them. Quite apart from Mr. Bail's enlightening exposure of 1 he disturbing internal influences which for a time weakened and marred the full effect of Italy's assistance (o the Allies, his story is very well worth reading for its descriptions of Italian rural life in war lime. His hero, Count Ezio Luciani, is a very fine fellow, a true patriot. He has married, as one of those family matrimonial arrangements so common in Latin countries, a woman whoso dot (a dot never paid) .was to relieve'the Luciani estates, sadly impoverished through tho extravagance tf a vicious

spendthrift father. By the death of an initio Ezm becomes the guardian of a young and beautiful second cousin, Donna Vittoru, who comes to reside at the Luciii.'ii castle, contributing, under her father's will, a large sum for her maintenance, the surplus from which enables the Lucianis to satisfy thencreditors. Ezio and his* wife have no children, and the Countess becomes, though without any warrant, somewhat jealous of the beautiful and wealthy Victoria. When the war comes, to the great grief of the Count, lii.-\ wife displays strong pro-German sympathies. When at last Italy joins in the fray and Ezio goes to tho front, the wretched woman, by tihis time a confirmed victim of tho morphia habit, becomes the willing tool of a rascally pro-German banker, fhe Commendatoro Azzini, and allows him to erect a secret wireless elation on an old tower on the coast, whence secret information is sent to German submarines. Several ships are lost, but finally the sinister secret ot the Torre del Morro is discovered by a young sailor home on leave. Azzini escapes, but his chief assistant is captured and shot, The police discover most damaging evidence against the Countess, who. however, escapes punishment by taking a convenient overdose of her drug. The affair is officially bushed up, and Ezio, after an interval, marries his ardently patriotic young relative. A leading character is a ddign:fnllv shrewd and lovable old parnccn or parish priest, Don Giuseppe Porelli. whose strong anti-Austrian views and political independence generally have made him vow unpopular in high Helical, quarters al Home. Perelli reminds me 'not a lit Mo of some of the 'Mo Marion Crawford's shrewd and kindly old fnniily priests "fio J° ™ ! |; tho American author. ! can warmly commend Mr. Bagoi's novel a= a story quite out of the common. It makes very delightful reading.

Some Excellent Short stories. Some of the best) short stories it hi* I been my lot to come across tor some 1 time are contained in "Old Man havarin Stories,'' In- JMward William Thompson (London, T. Werner J.unvie). Ihey are described as '"rales of Canada and tho . Canadians," hut although the narrator in each ca6e is n Canadian, certain ot '. the stories describe characters and scenes i in other parts of the world. The s ones van- greatly in subject. "The Bide, by Nhjht" is a story of the American Civil ' War, worthy of Ambrose Bierce at his best, whilst "The Swartz Diamond, which : lolls how a clever old Boer tricked an ofii- : cer of Hie Canadian Contingent, is full of South African local colour as vivid and picturesque as anything we have had in this genro from Iviplmg. On the whole, however, Mr. Thompson is at. his best on a Canadian haekiuouiid. There is some pawkv humour in ".I ho Privilege of Iho Limits"; some, compelling and genuine pathos in "The Sinning Cross of Itrgaud," and lh* delight- : fnl little cameo, "Littlo Haplisle." Each and every one of the eighteen stories, although'some are greatly superior to the others, were well worth printing, end (here will be but. few readers of the ' book who will not cordially confirm tho ; complimentary opinions as to Mr. Thomi don's charm as a storyteller, which are expressed, on the cover of tho hook, by two such competent; judges of this class of fiction as are Sir .Tames Barrie and Sir Arthur Quilloi- Couch. Mr. Charles A. .teffreys contributes some well-drawn illustrations,