SOME RECENT FICTION

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 209, 29 May 1920, Page 11

SOME RECENT FICTION

"Dad." ; /' Erom ltfethuen and Co. come* an Bag. : JisTi, /edition of an American ■ novel, "Dad,"...by Albert Payson ' Terhune, which vis- : a -very :plcasflntly-written . romance,of the great Civil War. When the etory; oneng a young Americnn officer, Tamosßrunton, in serving under Grant in the War. Giving way to a temporary weakness, he oyer-iudulxes in drink while carrying an 'important mossaee "to his commander, and is degraded and dismissed from the service with dishonour.'. Tears pass by, . and "Dad" .Brunton is. if. not a confirmed drunkard, still, so frequently'"under tho influence" as to become a by-word in the'small town where he has settled. The .Civil War electrifies the old officer. His son, after much hesitation, volunteers, and finally tho father, still nn active'and well-preserved man, is so. carried away by his patriotism that he himself enlists. How the once "broken" offioetv' now!-private -James Dadd, as spber ; as ho ia brave, performs deed after deed-of gallantry, and how ho. renders such signal service to tho Federal cause that'-.he .' wins' a, commission, and finally 'rises! 'to the rank, of brigadier-general, being specially thanked V. M'Clellan lind presented'to. the great Lincoln himself, is-set . forth by Mr. Terhune in a weil- ■ planned,-' brightly-told Btory, in whioh history and romance are very happily blended.-,v

"The Door of the Unreal. "

That a motor-car should break down, . and be burned on a certain hilltop along the London and Brighton road is nothing surprising, and a duplication of the accident at the Same spot exactly a month later might be accepted as: a quite po°siblo coincidence. • But when, in raoji cose, the occupants of the ear- disifn-iMi' from'human ken so suddenly and so completely: as to suggest the earth hnd opened- • and' swallowed .them • up,. small wonder.that "The Mystery of the Brighton;.' Road" should cause a'• widespread sensati<sn7 In. his cleverly-written'story, "The' Door of.; the' Unreal" , (Eveleigh Nash; per W.hitcombo .and .Tombs), Mr. • Gerald Biss unfolds and solves mystery. of, the mystorious disappearance of Mr. and Mrs; Bolsover and of Lord Tony Bullingdon' and a . popular young ! actress/ . The •* villain'. of the* story ! is . nfino-othet than a ...werewolf, a learned •'German' entomologist, Ywith a dual pep.] eonalitv, ; It would feem a. difficult, task > for a to give the old werewolf 'belief,'still widely current in Transyl-1 vania.and the';-Balkan States, a .twen-- 1 tieth' century,', and English setting, but ■ Mr. BissVis'singnlarlj.euoceesful in male-1 ijigv. the seemingly supernatural appearquite probable; The'story is not of eueh'. a hair-raising character as was . the late. Mr. Brain • famous novel, in the same motif, "Dracula," which as a' ' "blood-ourdler"' still unsurpassed, 'Jmt Mr. .Bliss's, very original and- ingenious, adaptation of the'werewolf legend will be quite weird enough for most readers. His old German professor Ms a. triumph in personi* Red ■uncanhiness.': and, the 6mart : young .American who puzzles out the problem of the disappearances is a very attractive character. . .

"On Great Wators." ' > i / ' Amongst latter-day ; . authors., .who write 1 'on ' thoso who " "go dotvn to ~ the , 'sea' in : ships,"' : 'and : . deseri.be' tjie hard, sadly .underpaid, and ,yet; nevertheless,' ever-fascinating life of the" merchant , sdilorman, . Captain 'Frank H. Shaw, enjoys a high Reputation for the freshness and accuracy of his word In his latest .story, "On Great Waters" (Cassell and "Co., - per; S;'/W.. Mackay), .Captain 'Shaw describes the ; experiences of .al. youut; apprentice on boArd a; big merchant eail.er,'from the Mersey, <jut. to Sydney,' thence'- to Iquiqueiwith a cargo of coal, erid from the Peruvian port back round the Horn with a cargo of nitrates. His jierq is a likeable , lad' with a; friend, nick-named Slumgullion,- meets with many strange''.pnd . exciting adven-. hires,l but the'main interest and chief value of-'the story lies , i». - ita weU- • written descriptions of sea life and in its,'many sharply ■ etched character sketches of captains, mates find' various proniinoiit types of; seamen. '■*.. Captain Shaw is evidently «, warm advocate for: the better, treatment of the British • sailor-man,' and: would have the. British, merchant' service freed as much as possible of the alien ■ element.' Bo tell* us, by the,way, that in the'ship on which he made, his first voyage, out. of a foremast crew, of fifteen, hands, fourteen were 1 foreigners.'and one 1 wag British. In the ship-in which the author made his last ' tramping' voyage, with the exception of the ! engineers and himself, : .the entire' crew, officers and men alike, was foreign, "yet that ship was British-owned, British-T?gistered, and flew the British flag"! '

'"The Builders." ' ' . Ellen Glasgow's 'latest novel, "The Builders" (John 'Murray;,-per . [Whitctrnbe and Tombs), is a. story' of life in a krgoj town in the southern States,: the .period, tying,, that, .ofjtho .earlier •yeiirs,'of . the Great War. The leading character is a' Strong-minded, intensely patriotic! man;- an» industrial magnate,; iviioso ivife, ;the personification-of selfish- , iiess,' is., clever enough to, most pw.ple' think -that' her. husband. -ill-uses' her whilst,. as a matter of fact, she ■ herself constitutes . a. mischievous,,handicap upon,his innate altruism, and an 'obstacle • to.,' his most beneficent .designs. Angelica 'is.'-easily .one -of the "most -unpleasant" women tobe-met with in latter-day' fiction, but there is no denyingthe.subtlety and, strength with .which' the character .is".drawn. ' Another leading figure; in. the story is a fine womanly girl who acts as ilurse to Blackburn's ; invalid . daughter. The narrative. proper is interrupted too fre-'" quently by. long, letters and '.equally long. discussions, Upon 'the hesitation'' displayed by, American statesmen before tna people .of the United States finally revolted-- against continuous .and deliberate (Jerniari insults' 'ahd' outrages', but its literanr merits are none the-less of-'a very high order: ./ ■ ' "Second Youth." ' ' ' ' ,- Mr. :Wnnfi6k''Deeping is.a :jttll-prac-.i [titled novelist who. at one .' time devoted ]

his attention to semi-historicaLsubjects— Mb "Ked Saint," "The King Behind jthe King," and "Martin Valiant" were all three excellent essays in this particular genre of fiction—but has turned in later days to tho study of contemporary sopietyi In his "Second Youth" (Cassell and Co.. per S. and W. Mackay) ho describes the progress of Miles Laverack, from law student and youthful romanN ieist to a military career, which rote him of his -illusions,'.and is, incidentally, the caiiso of his separating from a seltish, snobbish LWifOj -who has never had any real affection for him, and throwing up a fairly lucrative legal practice in a dull country town -to commence life over again ns the associate editor of a feminist organ,, in which: his sister has an interest. This 6ister, the. real heroine of the story; lias been a rebel against the 6todgy, convention's and deadening snobbishness of her'native town almost since her teens,: and her influence over her idealistic and rather unpractical brother 'is the keynote of a. very clever story. There was a time when, perhaps, a Mi's. Grundy-would have taken' grave exception to moro than one incident m the story, but. to-day broader views prevail as to the relations: between, the sexes, and ; the mucli-dreaded library censors of 'Mtidits and 1 Smiths haveoiot, so f ftr <is I have heard, placed any taboo on Mr. Deeping's story. ' ; • "The Lost Diary."

Mr. Horace Blaokley s story, "The Lost Diary" (Evoleigh Nash, per Whitcombe and Tombs),,is a rattling farcical comedy in the shape of a novel. If by this time it has not beon dramatised it surely soon will bo, for in a stage version it would be a 'veritable /"screamer." The plot turns upon the fact that the Bigjit Hon. Clement. Venables, M.P., UnderSecretary of Stato for the Red Tape and .Wafer, or some other department; once, in his wild youth, kept a diary—and an illustrated diary at that. This diary, which he'has indiscreetly preserved, he is ■■unlucky enough to lose. Outwardly, at'least, VenableS/is. n'most proper, not to sajy somewhat priggish, person,.engaged to a'young; lady whose guardian) a real live Duchess, is a tremendous stickler for ; the' proprieties. The 'diary'. falls into the hands of- a, puritanical old humbug who is oii'B' of tho v : Under-Secretary's •'istroiigest supporters;- and when the pair fall out the indignant Alderman M'Douthreatens to pi\tand publish selections from .the pages of the incriminating document.'The chase and ftght for .the lost diary becomes very comically, complicated, but "very :fortjwatoljr for the unhappy Venables the/book is destroyed by fire, the good Duchess being ail-uhcoiiaelong of the In rid* light it throws upon the : youthful lifo of her favourite. The culprit's 'fiancee, Delia, however, manages" to get a peep at it,, and secretly' rejoices that hw future husband has been "a sport,'" Quite a merry, eren jolly, story, tho 1 grotesque improbabilities of which will be quite overlooked in the rougn and tumble of its highly farcical incidents.