SOME RECENT FICTION

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 311, 25 September 1920, Page 11

SOME RECENT FICTION

"Sestrina." Mr. Saffroni Middleton lias followed up his two highly entertaining works of; travel and. adventure in the' South Seas, "A Vagabond's Odyssey" and "South Sea Eoam;" by a well-written and ■ very exciting romance, entitled "Ses-trina''-(Methuenand Co.). The hero/of the storx,- a young Englishman,. named Itoyal Clensy,' to whom we are first introduced "on the btach" in; the Marquesas, .decidte'that ho has had.ehoiigh of the;south 'Seas, | and accompanied;>h.y nn eMerly 'fellow ndviehturer, a brolteiidown actor;-musician, and typical beach-; his, way, first to.; Mexico 1 and then on to HaytL Hera Clensy. falls in love with,the President's lovely daugh-' tbr, .Scstrina, ,to whom he t'caches music. The author flow .works in a description of Ytiodoo../worship and much otter, pic-turesque-local- .colour, after-which ,there, is the usual flaytian revolution—a hsivirdy' annual ,i't tvas ''during a ■ long period' of : the ; Black; Mepublio's history—and the'' lovers arose paroled by a cruel ■•fate. After-.. ,-thd murder of hen father, the ' girl -escapes ■ from tho" .'island x in-; /a,; , French . .steamer,' whilst 'Clensy'' and ' his, friend -A.danes who, friends 1 of tho'.late PresidentVare in griive-peril;.ship to a South AinerfCan port, whence,-' after a. time, the young ■ Englishman? -having received, a timely re-, from'-his neonle. . sails•-• for Honolulu, where; .' before leaving: Hayti, ; the , lovers had agreed to meet. The' author's-generosity in the supply of sensation is now testified bv an extraordinary series' of adventures in which:.the.: heroine becojnc'S.f involved. Travelling to Hawaii in a small- brig; _she discovers; to her horror, that the native, passengers, as to whose real character she has been' kept in iffiiorniiife.-aTe lepers. Thereisaterific -t«^hoon' , fnffft"&TiiT»wye6Tt;' ; tKS driven ashore.. Se6trina is the only. ..per-' son -left to' release the 'horrible tinman freight imprisoned iri. tbo vessel's. hold. More adventures;-on the desert island, and-then the end, pathetic, ■ tragic; yet not without /its own, romantic beauty. The story. iseemfc' to exhalo the musky odour of the"tropics; the local colour, indeed,, almost ove.rpoweringly brilliant. Sestriiia, is a.very, charming heroine' who deserves a- better fate than thaial-' lotted, her by the author, andi although both 'Clensy. .'arid .his-comrade are', in somo respects rather theatrical types! they l are,'on: the-.whole,-well dro-wn, and suffir: ciently convincing to pass muster as real.: nonple. .If Mr. Saffroni. Middleton wquld but tone down "his verbal flamboyance 'a little aid /eschew, a tendency to create purely "jkinematographic. effects in.;.' his situations,; he- ought to write an even 1 more entertaining and enjoyable story than' 1 is "Sestrina."

SWho's That Availing," ■ ■- . llrs. Kate Horn's latest story, ''Who's That A'Callirig" (Stanley Paul and Co.) for. its heroine a young; lady of good birth, whose mother, however, is a confirmed'done fiend,• and the partner of a •villainous'..German'Jeff, Mr. Moss, alias Mosenheim, '.in a West End establishment,, jvliere ■ "cocaine',parties" ai'e' held. : and-.other- evil''things' take place. It is difficult. to. believe,-that any mother, howover . degraded, would deliberately plot ■the ; corruption " and degradation 'of -her . oVn • <jhild, but the beau' tiful '. .and wicked ' Mrs. Avelinsr ; 'inaists upon ■ her daußhter leaving the .'peaceful;, cdtmtry home whero she. has been brohglit up by a relative, rihd becomiriff :an inmate of the abominable den •in-which the mother chooses to reside. The girl is for a, time in sore peril ; ,of .being;, forced into marriage with;' an olderlv ,d«bauchee, but is befriended by a.sjiell-shocked' young aristocrat, who has been:enticed to the flat, but'who is-res-cued from ruin by the young lady, with vhom '.he : fallß deeply in love. The lovers] are;' parted for a time, but all comes tight in'.'tho ejid, a rial live duke accepting the'young-lady- as his daughter-in-law. Mis; .Horn tells her story' well enough;.'but I) miss t'he humorous touches which were so pleasant 'a feature of her eai;lier-novel, "Edward and I and Honeybun."-' \ '

["Miriam and the Philistines." ■ ilico . D.' Clayton Green's novel, "Miriam and the Philistines" (London, Leonard Parsons; per. Whitcombo and Tcmbs), v deals largely with life in:a travelling theatrical company, but lator .on ;the young actress,. the daughter of a -well-bc'rn father of 'Bohemian tastes and an Indian dancer' mother is taken into the home .of a blue-blooded grandmother, who, witli her various "society" friends, are evidently tho "Philistines" of-'the title.- Theatrical - life has been rather over-worked as a motif in recent fiction, but Misß Greene writes crisply and smartly, and.eonio of her "cabotins" aro very amusing in their : way, the wrmen folk of the company being specially well drawn. Miss Greene is less ■ successful with her "Philistines," and although one is glad to know that the hcroino finally -made a good match, a younger "hubby" should, wo cannot help thinking, havo been her lot. "The Line's Engaged.'' A recent' addition to "The Laughter Books' 1 _ series' (London, Jarrolds Ltd.) is 'Tho Line s Engaged, by Albert Edward Ullman, an American humourist, who here introduces his readers to a pert and thoroughly up-to-date young lady who "runs" tho telephone bureau at a big Now York hotel. In a scries of letters to her bosom friond, Myrtle, Miss "Goldie" recounts eomo of her cxperiorieos, and hits off, sometimes very smartly, the personal peculiarities, in dress, speech, and demeanour, of those : who made two of her services. She is evidently a young lady who can take very "good care of herself," and being _ as kind-hearted-as she is ehrowd, occasionally "butts in" on; her own account and renders 6omo of'her patrons ah unexpected good service. Her vocabulary is rich in specimens of the groat American "slanguage, ,is a sort of fictional first cousin to Sewell Ford's well-known and meet amusing character, the one and only "Torchy." There is a big lot of good fun in Air. Ullman's littlo bonk, which contains a number of rigorouf-ly-drawn .illustrations by C. A. Voight. (N.Z/ price, Bp, 6d.) ,