SOME RECENT FICTION

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 208, 28 May 1921, Page 11

SOME RECENT FICTION

Maurice Hewlett’s Latest. In his latest story, “.Mainwaring” (William Collins, Sons and Co.; per M hitcombo and Tombs), Mr. Maurice Hewlett has, ho "Liber” at least is very pleased io see, deserted his recentlyfavoured Scandinavian background, and turned aside from writing modern Variations on Viking themes, to give' us a purely modern, story, descriptive of political and social life in thd final quarter of the last century. The leading figure is a clover but unscrupulous demagogue, of good Irish family, named Richard Denzil Mainwaring. Ito winy a seat in Parliament as Labour member for a northern mining constituency,, leads riots of "unemployed” in the West End, and makes violent speeches in the House, irritating the gravo Prime .Minister, Mr. Hardman (easily identified is Mr. Gladstone), and greatly amusing that cynical humorist, Mr. Bentvoglio, clearly, to be identified as Air. Gladstone’s famous rival. He but manages to entertain frealy. Married to a very charming woman, a woman of tho people, ha poses as a lady-killer, and flirts outrageously with the witty and beautiful Lady Whitehaven, but eventually falls ill, goes to Paris,, and meets with a very tragic pnd. All this and much besides is ect forth by tho narrator of the story, an old friend of tho brilliant but unstable and irroclaimable selfish demagogue. This friend loves Mainwaring’s wife, a woman of sterling qualities, who has long realised what a. pitifully poor creature the so-called People’s Champion, and the story closes with the promise for a much-tried woman of a happier future. Mr. Hewlett is most successful in reproducing the political atmosphere of rhe period, and the two women in the story are both exceptionally clever Character studies. As to the demagogue himself, he is just a trifle too theatrical for. me. It is difficult to conceive of such a palpable poseur having been taken -so seriously by his fellow-politicians. A very clever, exceptionally well-written, novel. “Thuvia, Maid of Mars."

The quite astonishing gift of imagination of Mr. Edgar Rice Burroughs shows no sign of decay in the author’s latest Martian romance, “Thuvia, Maid ot Mars” (Methuen and Co.). Mr. Burroughs, who by this time liai “out-Haggarded” the author of ‘ She and challenges comparison with both Edgar Allan Poe and H. G. Wells id tlia vividity of his realistic descriptions, hAje sets forth the romantic love story aifej fantastic adventures of John Carthoris, Prince of Helium, son of the John Garter who figured in “The Gods of Mars,” and a beautiful Martian lady, the Princess Thuvia of Parth. for whose love the hero has a formidable rival in the Martian warrior, Astok, Prince of Dusar. The “green men of Barsoom.” who ( figured in the earlier stories, reappear, but the special feature* of the new’ story is tho part played in Martian lite by some peculiarly horrible animals called ."bnnths,” otherwise the giant Barsoomian lions, sacred beasts witlh ton legs and with mouths (equipped with "several rows of needle-like fangs ) which reach “to a point far back of their tiny ears.” (For this and other curious information concerning the wonders of Martian zoologv the reader can consult tho verv useful glossary wlrjcti the author thoughtfully appends to his story.) Then there is the mysterious, city of Lotha, whose prince defeats his enemies by certain powers of suggestion, as compared with the deadly effect or which the Hun-invented poison gas is a mere trifle. What with the "green men”*'and the “bnnths,” and the "siths ("horiiet-liko monsters, bald-faced, and' about the size of a Hereford bull”—again see glossary), and the ton-footed Martini? horses-, to say nothing, of the giant “warfliers” —every self-resfie-cting Martian has his private aeroplane, which could apparently defy -a Wellington galo-there are no end of strange creatures and objects in the Martian world to which the ingenious American novelist again conducts us. Of course it is all not .a. little ridiculous, but it makes astonishingly good reading. “The Palliser Case.”

Monty Palliser. the self-indulgent, cynically vicious son of a multi-million-aire, deludes Cassy Cara, a rising young operatic artist, into a, bogus marriage. Cassy fortunately finds out the fraud in good time, but her father, a Portuguese nobjeman of decayed fortunes, but with no decay in his family pride, avenges Palliscr’s rascality by sticking a stiletto into the culprit’s heart. Whereupon Keith Lennox, who is in love with tho fair Gassy, is arrested for the murder. In time his innocence is established, as also the curious fact that the supposedly sham marriage has had the legal effect of transferring tho murdered man’s fortune to the woman Palliser had intended to cheat. Thus, so far, is the plot of a cleverly-written story of “society” and Bohemian life in New York. "The Palliser Case,” by Edgar Saltus (Boni and Liveweight,' per Whitcombo and Tombs). For the further development and denouement of the story I will refer my readers to the book itself. In literary style “The Palliser Case” is much above tho average of fiction of this particular kind. “Her Ladyship.”

'‘Her Ladyship,” by Dyke Wilkinson (Sampson Low and Co., per George* Robertson Proprietary) is, so we are informed in a prefatory note by Mr. Jeffrey Farnoll, a first novel written by a gentleman who has reached the ripe old age of eight-five years. There is a wicked young nobleman, Lord Framford, who usurps tho place of the rightful heir to the title, and who says of his rival in tho affections of a young lady, "Curse him,” etc., etc. Also ho plots his rival's ruin by luring him Into dissipation in London, tries to fasten on him a charge of forgery, and in other ways behaves like the bold bad villain of the traditional "Surreyside” melodrama. The author, wlho in earlier life was a provincial journalist of standing, must be credited with a certain amount of courage in entering tho field of novel writing nt so venerable an age ns eightyfive. I admire his pluck, but both in plot and style his story belongs to tho "Family Herald” and "London Journal” class of fiction, and it makes no appeal to present-day literary tastes. “Margaret Bateman.”

There lare some ,'pleasant' scenes of farm life in the Cotswolds in Mr. Tom Bevan’s story. “Margaret. Bateman” (Sampson, Low-, and Co., per George Robertson Proprietary, Melbourne), alternating with some less successfullydrawn pictures of stage life in London. Poor Peg Bateman, tho heroine, n highspirited, lovable girl, is badly treated by fortune, for she marries n dissipated, brutal Anglo-Indian, end does not survive her husband’s tragical end long enough to reward an old friend of her youth and faithful admires for his devotion. A little old-fashioned in stylo, but a readable enough story in its way. Some Good Reprints. [•Tom Mr. John Murray (per Whitcombo ami Tombs) come three welcomes reprints. Two, "Thief of Virtue” and "Widdccombo Fair,” are old favourites vith tlroso who know Mr. Eden Philpotts’s well-written and interesting studies of Dartmoor rustic life ami character. Tho third, “Montagu Wycherley,” by Airs. A,Ben Harker, belongs to the very popular ’Wycherley series, of which, in particular, "Air. Wycherley's Ward” and "Miss Esperance and Mr. Wycherley,” so many New Zealand readers have agreeable memories.