SSOME RECENT FICTION

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 144, 13 March 1920, Page 11

SSOME RECENT FICTION

"Felicity." ■ Considering {hat the life, almost right •un to her' m'arriage, of Felicity Mordnunt- wijs ,one. long purgatory, the title of Kathbriije -Harrington's story, "Felic-. ,itv" :(Georce Allen and Unwin) have been conceived in an ironic spirit. -The' poor girl is cursed with a bad-tom--Dereil. tvrannous father, and a frivolous, selfish', and dishonest mother. To shield her . mother poor Felicity takes upon 'herself thi'blame for a series of thefts 'committed, bv Mrs. Mordaunt. She Is arrested, but is discharged upon a clergy-, man's -anneal for ■•mercy. Thereafter follows a.long period of positive martyrdom; the false charge being continually brought. mi against her. She becomes a household drudge in a theatrical board- . inghouse. and goes through many sordid o.xneriences before, finally, sho marries a Bohemian.' a young journalist, who eventually blossoms forth into a successful writer of music-hall songs. The father is almost incredibly cruel, and the author's style is in places somewhat crude and "amateurish. Nevertheless, the.storv. although'its theme is too nnbrofconlv Wd* displays a decided gift for realistic description of middle-class life, and , is .full of promise of stronger and' better work to come.

/'Rebecca's Promise." '"Rebeeca'si Promise," by Prances- R. SJ:e>r6tt''(D-, Appleton and Co.. 'New •lork, per Whitcninbe and Tomli?), is a very KOod example of ■ a class of novel ■'always sure, of popularity -with Ameri,«in readers'. In.novels of this type ono .ahvavs..-finds a liost of agreeable.young• .people wim. as young people sliouid do,. :mako- love to' each other very p[cn?iint"ly. Any strongly dramatic element is. absent, and ailything approaching realism, realism of the ugly kind, is "rigorously tabooed. Yonnor ladies, especially American young ladies, greatly delight in this class of fiction. Miss -Sterrctt's story has.a very pretty and wholesome-minded'young heroine," "ju?t; the sort of girl who was made for love and happiness," so we are informed on the cover slip of the boolc. Her lovo story is not altogether ro'=e-strewn, but. the denouement'is eminently satisfactory to a11..-:loyers-of -the sentimental.