SOME RECENT FICTION

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 72, 18 December 1920, Page 15

SOME RECENT FICTION

"V?rena in the Midst," "A- kind of a story" is the sub-title of the latest book, "Verena in the Midst" (Methuen and Co., per Whitcombe and Tombs), from the pen of the astonishingly industrious and versatile Mr. E. V. i Lucas. Like "Lisuener's Lure" and "The Vermilion Box," it is a story told in letters, letters written, to an invalid lady, Miss Verena Raby, who, whilst yet in tho earlier years of her middleage, meets with an accident, and injures her spine. Her relations—of whom apparency she has as many as the famous Admiral in "H.M.S. Pinafore"—endeavour to dispel tho ennui of her enforced solitude by writing letters to her, letters, on all 6or'ts of subjects. By dipping- into Miss Rnby's letter-box and judiciously selecting the most entertaining of the epistles she receives from her relatives and friends, Mr. Lucas gives his readers the entree to a curious but very interesting circle. Our old friend of "The Vermilion Box," the agreeably erudite, mildly humorous and worldly wise Mr. Richard Haven, who succeeded the JohnGonian scholar of "Listener's Lure," again'puts in'an appearance. From hiß trick of producing an apt' quotation wherever wanted, just as the parlour magician produces a rabbit from a borrowed belltopper, and from the atmosphere of gentle irony which pervades his letters I have more than a slight suspicion that Air. Haven is the author himself, or at! least, his twin brother. It is he who makes suggestions for contributions to various quite out-of-the-way charities, which is a favourite trick with more than one of Mr. Lucas's agreeable, middle-aged heroes. Then, again, tho ingenious Mr. Horace _Mun Brown, with his fertility -of imagination in finding wonderfully promising "specs,' to be duly financed by tho invalid and well-to-do aunt, will be a familiar figure to those who met him, under a different name, in. "Listener's Lure." The high ly-impressionable nephew, Roy Barrance, who falls in—and out—of love with quite bewildering rapidity,, is a new and very amusing character, and there is a jolly Irish girl, Clemency Power, and an exschool days' friend;' Miss Louisa Parrisli, who each in her way is a "character. Then, there is a delightful Cockney nurse girl, wiiJi- an amusing "Tommy' lover, a retired Civil Servant, who is a shameless beggar, and a host of pleasant young people, who make "poor Aunt Verena the confidant of their love affairs. Mr.-Lucas certainly has the knack of being able to "throw himself," as a ' French novelist—was it not • Balzac ?— once wrote, "into several skins." -He-ap-pears ijo be just as much at home in' penetrating and exposing the psychology of a-nursery maid as that of a fashionable doctor, of a briefless barrister, or an artist. As set forth in the 66 'letters a very delightful _ little family history is unfolded, and, incidentally, a by no means uninstructive picture of post-war conditions in English upper middle class society is provided. "Verena in the Midst" is in many ways a very charming, as it is decidedly an entertaining, stoTy.

"The Romantic." From the author of "The Divine Fire," "The Tree of Heaven," and "'Mary Oliver," the experienced novel reader expects a story >of exceptional literary merit. In "The Bomantio" (Collins, Sons arid Co.) Miss Sinclair gives us a powerful if, in certain ofrtts details, somewhat repellent study of human cowardice and'cruelty. She introduces us' to a strong-minded young woman.who, after a loveless liaison with a married' man, and finds in the Wjir work as a land girl a temporary escape from what has become intolerable "ennui." Her 6econd advonture in love comes to her in the person of a good-looking man, with whom she goes to Belgium to 'undertake motor ambulance work. The man, although at first tho heroine is quite unaware of tho fact, is a coward, a coward whoso dual personality makes him rush into and court danger with.- apparently, a desper-' ato courage, only to exhibit, in the actual moment of peril, a most contemptible, cowardice. Also, in his effort to assume a strength of 'will which, in his innermost soul, h? knows full well he does not possess, lie is given_ to acts of almost insensate cruelty. _. Miss Sinclair gives her readers a complicated psychological study, in the working out of which to a tragic and horrible conclusion, she exhibits ail almost scientific exactitude. Tho heroine cannot for a. time fathom Conway's sudden strange reaction from courage to.'.cold inaction, but .eventually tho awful truth, long evident to the medical men attached to the ambulance, confronts her. She-, makes a desperate effort to redeem the man she has loved, but his is.a'cnse for the psycho-thera-peutists—Conway never should have gone to.the front at all. ■ His case from the first was abnormal -and hopeless. The story, as I have said, ends in tragedy, but with a promise of hanpier times in store for the much-tried heroine. Although I for one may express a hope that Miss Sinclair will abiure the study nf Frend and Jung, and leave such morbid pathology as that we' <jet in--this story to otlier hands," it is impossible to (jony .the strange but compelling fasefnirtion of her latest novel.

Kindred of the Dust" The background of Mr. Peter Kyne's latest novel "Kindred of the Dust" (Hodder and'Stougliton, per Whitcombe and Tombs) is a lumber milling town' on tho Skookum River, away back in one of the American North-Western States. The principal figures in a vigorously-written and' very readable story are 1 a strongwilled, very masterful, but'at times very lovable old man of Scots descent, who is locally known as the Laird, his son, Donald, and a spirited, handsome girl, Nan of the Sawdust Pile, with whom tho suwmiller's son and lioir falls desperately in lovo, despite the. fact that sho is the object of no little local and / quite undeserved slander. Between an obstinate father and equally obstinate eon wages for a time a combat of desires and wills, a rather stagey Irishman, Dirty Dan O'Lcnry. a goodhearted, humorous fellow, also playing a leading role in the comedydrama which is enacted on Skookum I'ivor. There are. too, several welldrawn minor characters, including the Laird's wife and daughters, and a genial old busybody, Andrew Davey, general manager of the Sawmilling Company, a man of strange oaths, but a lovable old follow. As all who know "Cappy Kicks and "The Valley of the Giants" will cheerfully testify, Mr. Kync is a born story-teller, and his latest novel maj; be commended to all who enjoy a judicious mixture of the dramatic and the sentimental. ■

"The Melwood Mystery." "Tho Melwood Mystery," by James Hay, junr. (New York, Dodd, Mead and Co., per Whitcombe and Tombs), is a well-written story, which opens with the mystorious murder of Zimony Newman, a young Hungarian woman, in a fashionable Washington hotel. A young and rising Senator is suspected of tho murdor, and enlists tho services of a detectivo who scorns the old-fashioned methods of the local Chief of l'olict, and reconstructs tho ci'imo in accordance with a very daring theory, of his own. A prominent figure in the story is a German-American who makes perfervid professions of loyalty to his adopted country. This man, i'l.uix Conrad, "has a tool, a wretched dopo fiend, who, so we learn 'in the last chapter, has aotually shot tho victim out of personal revenge, whilst Conrad merely meant him to send a secret message cnoloscd in a bullet which was to be intercepted by a screen. Before tho truth is finally ascertained other people besides tho Senator aro auspooted, and tho detective has a tough job to solve what appears to be an inextricable problem. The oharaotew in the story- intably tho cool, seli-possessod, and r<««s.. vv(al Conrod, aro much moro careful!-; drawn than )w la iwual in fiotion of this kind.