SOME RECENT FICTION

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 257, 24 July 1920, Page 11

SOME RECENT FICTION

The Haunted Bookshop. The pleasant, pastime, of.' boobhunting is pursued these days in . America, v'ltn an enthusiasm quite equal to that die--'played by ■ English bibliophiles, and it has been reserved for a trwis-Atlantio writer to be audacious enough tojnake a second-hand bookseller, . if not exactly, the hero, .at. least the ter, of-a novel dealing with preset-day life. 1 The .novel .in - question,.. .Iho Haunted. / Bookshop," by Chnrfopher Morley; (Chapman and Hall, per Whitcombe and Tombs), has enjoyed, a vide* spread vogue in America, and now .that •im English .edition at a lojver.pncc ' is available, should he v ith the •' New Zealand r©ding. pubiic. Mr". Morley gives ; a i c ?J 7 e I Compound, of 'love-making, •/. and ' shrewd,. and Witty comment-upon contemporary events, pi a a-dash of; the purdy ■ leading- character, a quaint eccentric little Brooklyn booMl®, toer Mifflin, has made a.previous ap.pearaice in- Mr. ftS istory "Parnassus on Wheels, but the new-story is quite independent of )ta Dredecessc; and is, indeed, a .much wore .important-and delightful piece of nction. ■The l bald-headed littlo bookseller,., jvith his plump wife, his incurable prowMity i. „ conl cob pipe in the intervals of delivering brief but witty disconrees. on. the fashions and hobbies and follies which obtain in book-collecting,° f concocting sundry savoury dishes-• Eggs a la Samuel Butler is his culinary masterpiece—is one of the most original Stf Mmpletely ■ delightful characters with whom it has been my_ good fortune to make fquaintanee in modern fiction.' • He takes a decidedly jwvd view 1 of life in a bookshop. _ A ..visitor having remarked that "life in a boot sho'p would be delightfully tranquil, the little Ijookseller satirically contends that the exact opposite is the, case. . . Mvine in a bookshop is like In a warehouse, of eiploßives. Those shelves are ranked with thfl roost furioua tiblos in the world-the brains of- men. I 'cal spend a rainy. afternoon reading, and my mind worltß itself up Into Buch a passion and anxiety over mortal wobloma an almrmt unmans me. It is. terribly racking. Surround a man with Oarlyle, Emersofi, Thoreaii, Chesterton Shaw, Nietzsche. and George Ade-would.you wonder at his Betting eicited? What would happen, to. a cat if she had to live m a room tapestried with catnip? She wouiti go crazy I' . , ~ , , , ■ To the dingy but enug old bookshop comes, as assistant; an elegant young lady, Miss Titania Chapman,- who, tho daughter of a rich man, is consumed by the desire to earn her own living, and in 'the wake of the charming Titania (who reminds me not a little of ono of Mr.'Locke's heroines, just as tho little bookseller himself. seems to suggest memories of somo of E. V. Lucas's characters) appears a jolly young New Yorker, Sir. Aubrey Gilbert, who represents "The Grey Matter Advertising Company." Soon there is some pleas' ant love-making and then, after nrach general gossip of books and bookmen, a dramatic element is introduced in the nhapo of a German plot to blow up President Wilson on hip way to Europe. •Weintraub,-a German druggist in tho vicinity of the Mifflin abode, is the villain of the piece, and, tho littlo bookseller aj»d his wife and assistant, become entangled in hia sinister . scheme owing to tho fact that the druggist, who has the run of tho bookshop, uses ono of, the volumes of a,set of Carlyle's "Cromwell" as the means of communicating with hi? fellow Hun plotters. - ; The young: advertising expert becomes invested with'the rolo of amateur detective, nnd the evil-doers are cleverly discovered and exposed, a subsidiary result of

all this being that Mr. Mifflin loses his I assistant and Mr. Gilbert win 9 his Titwua. Tho story is full of.- quotahlo passages, but although • I iim •-sorely tempted to give some extracts—say from -tho account of tho Corn Col) Club's meeting or from Mifflin's, disquisition on tho best books for a guestroom—space, limits enter, ft stern non .possimus.' Tho story abounds in pleasant wit,. good-humour-ed .satire and shrewd if homely philosophy (there is, for instance, a Mif(linian homily on the virtues of "dishwashing" which is full of shrewd com-mon-sense), and tho clever admixture of the sentimental and the dramatio with the purely "booky":flavour of tho story must greatly strengthen its appeal to those readers who liko'a story for "the. story's sake." By all means call in at "The Haunted Bo rite"fop" without delay. It is full of quietly delightful and wholesome wares. (N.Z. price, 65. 1 ) !'Pilate Gave Sentence." .To mako Pilate, and Pilate's wife, fig< uro in a novel, as does Mr, C. M. Cresswell in "Pilate Gave Sentence" (Mc.tliuen and Co.), may seem to Some good people not a little' audacious, and to bring Jesus himself on the stage—although it be, ns in this story, merely in the wings ns it bo held to be in doubtful', taste. Little, however, as I like, as

a rule, the introductimi of scriptural scenes and characters in fiction,. I confess to having read Mr. Cresswell's story with easily-sustained interest throughout, and found in its pages much more to admire than to cavil at. 'the central figures,' Pilate and his wife, are powerfully drawn. Claudia is torn by conflicting emotions.' She realises the innocence of Jesus on the charges brought against Him, is deeply iiunrossed- by the spiritual ibeauty of 11 is nature, and ie almost perRuaded to join the decreed sect whose Leader has set Jerusalem in an uproar, and yet in the end she decides she cannot become a disciple <•*' Christ in view of the duty she owes to her muchharassed husband. The minor characters are strongly.. drawn, although, perhaps, Caiophas may . smack . a little of melodrama. Juda/s is a prominent figure, and Salome, with her blood-haunted visions, is another very effective creation, ijarrabas, Herod and his spouse>,/and a host of subsidiary characters, Greeks, ■Romans, Jows, are introduced, and contribute to the unfolding of the central plot, but-the author, although introducing much -picturesque • local colom\ has wisely eschewed-.-jiiiy .heavy' •historical and archaeological "padding," .such as has been found in other and earlier storiesof this "kind.- His narrative moves smoothly and is not obstructed by any over-elaboration of historical colour or •meticulous detail; .' In tho closing scene' Mr. Cresswell shows us the famous Pro-

curator and his wife,' the former mastered by terror at the doubt which overwhelms him as to whether Jesus really died. and. the woman, faithful to her husband's..causo and career, but in her innermost soul knowing'. full well that "all her'life henceforth was to be a lieand falseness, tho ripe first frnite of her ' nbsolute truth.-". Mr; Crosswell s power-ful-and remarkable story is well worth, readi'rtfi. i 1 "Adventures in 'Marriage." l ■ Somo -exceptionally clever short stories are to be found in Mr. .Ward • Muir's book. "Adventures in Marriage" (Simp-' kin-Marshall and: Co., pel- Australasian Publishing' Company and Wliitcombo and Tombs). ,- The majority of tho stories' have some sex problenv as their motif, and;- the'author displays. considerable ingenuity and marked originality alike in. the conception of the leading interest in each tale and' its artistic deyelopment and presentation; -Ho has, in particular, a clever trick of providing an unexpected denouement, led up to in somo cases by. seemingly trivial incidents which prove in the outcome to bo of the hierhast important'. The opening story, ."Motives." in which the principal character, a deserted husband,' at first an', object of sympathy and pity, turns out' in tho long Tun .to be; rather relioved than otherwise. .that he has .failed to - retain . his wife's affection, is a clever psychological study,' and the cynical flavour of another study of unhappy domestic reia-

tiona "Poverty," may bo overlooked in viow.of tho able study which it presents of masculine -weakness and. feminine sub. tlely. Tho author "skates over thin ico" in moro than 0110 of tho stories, notably in "Tho Risk of Love," whieh indirectly recalls Mr. Arnold Bennett's "Pretty Lady," but if his situations aro at times a trillo risky and his frankness is pushed at time 3 to the verge of audacity, there is no trace of the prurient. The finest and strongest thing _in tho hook is tho final 6tory, "Sunrise," a powerfully-told and convincing study of a ' European missionary's love for a Chinese viman. The tragic finale to the missionary's short-lived romance will not readily be forgotten by the reader. There aro fifteen separate stories in the collection. Not one is negligible, and in most of them there is an air of convincing truth to life. "Whitewash." Mr. Horace Annesley Vaeliell is by this time a well-practised novelist. As was proved by those excellent novels, Tho Hill," 'The Soul, of Susan-Yel. lam," and the widely popular "Quinno.v's," Mr. Vachell is a born story-teller, being never beguiled into side-tracks, but 1 always sticking to his text and avoid. 1 ln ß. that tendency to discursiveness into ' which', so many latter-day novelists are too ' apt to stray. His latest novel. "Whitewash" (Cassell and ; Co., per Whitcombe and Tombs) is an admirable example of diTect, ■businesslike. literary craftsmanship. The narrative .flows easily,' tho characters aro

simply, effectively drawn, and there is (in excellent 'basic interest which is cleverly developed to a satisfactory conclusion. The story turns upon' tlio ca.lm indifferenco of a wealthy land-owner, Lady Selina Chandos, to the conditions under which her tenants live. She is the typical feudal aristocrat, who regards .her tenants as her personal chattels, and her property, purely as a source of income, selfishly ignoring the positively shocking' sanitary, or insanitary, condition of the sleepy village of Hpworthy, of -whioli sho is virtually tho despot. To Upworthy. comes, however,-a vpung doctor, full of enthusiasm for hygienic progress, and 600n between the would-be reformer and. the-lady of tho manor there develops a bitter struggle. Tho position is complicated by tlio fact .that the radical young medico falls in lovo with Lady Seliua's daughter, Cicely. The war comes, and Cicely becomes a V.A.D., the doctor goes to tlio front, ;and- the villagers, plucking up spirit under tho altered, conditions of tho

times, actually defy 11)0 redoubtable ol<l lady. It would be unfair to Mr. Vachell to say more as to tho way in which the story develops,' still less to hint at •the nature of -the denounemeiit, but it is, I think, safe to say that fow readeis of tho story will'be found to quarrel with the device by which Mr. Vachell gets both, Cicely and her proud parent out of a very difficult position. A very readable, enjoyable : novel. Peter Hyde, M.P. The hero of Mr. Paul Trent's "Peter Hyde, M.P."; (Ward, Lock, and Co., per Whitcombo and Tombs), is a young man who is kept in _ igonrance of his rcaj parentage, and is brought up' by ajid educated at ■ tho expense of a wealthy hian who has sprung from tho industrial ranks,'and desires to.'sett his adopted son lieconie tho. leader of a now and Advanced Labour movement. In duo course the young man wins a. seat in Parliament—tho electioneering incidents j ore., very cleverly described- 1 -but as his I i>olitical education progresses ho lcues • touch with the. extremist Labour ele- . .moiit, and-comos, in end, to bo regarded' by some of his old supporters [■-with a certain decree of suspicion. How, i through a-quixfttio soiiso of what is duo i to - his .personal, honour, 'he resigns his j seat in Parliament, how he.fights and wins a second election, how ho gains the lovo of a high-born, lady, and ovenI tally learns the-truth as to his birth, j and how,' roturnuig wounded'from the j' war, lie determines to. devote 'limsclf 1 to the task of bringing about a better 1 understanding and closer co-operation between 'employers and employed, is all set forth by Mr. Trent in a- well-told and veryi readable story.