THE READER'S COLUMN

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 258, 22 March 1913, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE READER'S COLUMN

(By James Wortley). NOTES. ior tlie lirst time I have been reading Charles Dickens' "American Xotes," and 1 must plead guilty to not seeing where lie lias been, as so many people consider, viciously caustic at the expense of the American people. In many instances he is very enthusiastic about their customs, and especially is this so about the conduct of their universities, some of their gaols and asylums, and their hospitals. Methinks a tour to-day would result in more searching criticism than the one undertaken by Dickens fifty years ago.

The "Swanston" edition of Stevenson is now completed by the publication of the final live volumes. In it practically everything written by Stevenson, good, bad and indifferent, is included. But if we apply the test of interest, probably* Stevenson wrote less mediocre stuff than any other writer. The briefest note had a Stevenson charm every reader of his books will understand. Sir Sidney Colvin has done us good service in the editing of the Swanston series, which runs to '25 volumes, published by Chatto and Windus.

"The Mystery of Edwin Drood" has for forty years provided fertile brains with the opportunity of bringing Dickens' unfinished story to a satisfactory conclusion. Since 1905 Mr. Cuming Walters has been busy writing essays, offering solutions of his own, and collecting and editing other people's. Last year Sir Roberston Xicoll gave the subject added prominence in a voluminous correspondence he initiated in the British Weekly. The indefatigable Walters has found what lie considers the psychological moment for adding further to the literature on the subject, and has now published (Chapman and Hall), "The Complete Mystery," which includes the tale itself, several conclusions, and numberless essays, notes and other matter in connection therewith.

It is interesting, just as we are celebrating St. Patrick's Day. to read in Sir H. W. Lucy's reminiscences that "on this day a young lady sang before Queen Victoria, and reduced her to tears, with a rendering of 'The Wearin' o' the Green.'"

"Syndicalism." by .T. H. Harley, M.A., is the latest of the ''People's Books" (per favor of the 8.1 v.) I have received. It is a masterly and succient putting of the position from the standpoint of the syndicalist. The book opens with a most interesting chapter reviewing the various stages in the world's history by which la/bor. or certain sections of it, have arrived at syndicalism. If the movement has many such able exponents as this writer, it will undoubtedly be heard of. Students of sociology will get a good grip o£ what labor is thinking along these lines from Mr. Barley's work.

BECENT FICTION. *"Tlie Knave of Diamonds," by Ethel M. Dell, author of "The Way of an Eagle." (London: T. l'isher Unwin; 1913).

Nap Errol is the natural child of .Mr. Evrol and a little Indian girl, whom, in the greatness of her heart, Mrs. Errol takes to her home and rears as her own. We are treated to a more than ordinary love story. Nap's warring natures —good and bad—are wonderfully influenced by the love of a good woman and a devoted foster brother. By their help and his determination Nap learns to look to a higher source for strength than his own wild, free nature, and the better man in liim wins out. The tale is well told, and holds one ill its passionate grip throughout. It is a worthy story to follow "The Way of an Eagle." by the same writer.

t"A Rogue's March,'' by Evelyn Tempest, author of "The M'Ardle Peerage." (London: Hodder and Stoughton).

Percy Lanstone was one of those clever lads at school who were able to just scrape through their studies with a modicum of hard work. He was always about to do so much better, and reach a higher place, when he settled down to work in earnest. , Like every man who puts o|V till to-morrow everything he march was one in the wrong His progression from laziness reles*m«ss to prevarication andjpfcie i< pitiful in the extreme. In the case of Percy procrastination was the thief of more than time—it left him stripped of honor, of friends, and finally of life itself. In the telling, our story takes us to a typical barracks town and pictures with no uncertain pen the inane life of the average I'ritish oflicer in fnclin. Incidentally we get glimpses of the startling gulf there is between East and West, revealed by the attitude of the colony of ollicers and their wives, feel compelled to adopt towards the natives. Mildred l.anstone. Percy's wife, ekes out a pathetic existence in the false and unnatural life she is compelled to lead while following in the downward march. It is a relief when Percy passes out of the story, and Mildred meets the man she was ordained to marry in the first place, had she not passed him by for a warped and cankered ideal.

*"Sanna of the Maud Town." by Mary R. Waller, author of "The Woodcarver of 'Lvpnius." lP>oston: Little, llrown and Company: 1!>12).

Tin- setting of this talc is union}; a tiny inland community whose wharves. Ivinj; apart from the .ureal; highways of commerce, arc left lonesome and decayill',' thi'oujrli the passing of the one-time numerous whalers and sealing boats. Sanna is a beautiful, heart-free "'irl, whose winsome ways endear her to everybody—rich and poor alike in the village. Hut the coininjr of the new wiflti his ardent admiration. make* a 1 >iu change in Sauna's life. Tier stunt and mother point out that she is now jirown up. and must put away for "'{jowl and all" her days in hare lew timl feet. The new master finds himself for the first time in his life possessed with a feeliiifr of l>ein£ thoroughly at home. The plot is unusual. hut not unnatural in this seafaring community. The secret of Peter l*'ra nli a in"- feeling of home is gradually unfolded, and it turns out that twentyseven years before, lie. all infant a few days old. wa- sinu»;;led olf the island. Tt is a strangely moving story that we listen to. and it reaches a pathetic climax when Mrs. Terrcnce acknowledges herself as Peter's mother, entirely clearing the mystery of his birth. The village characters in Hiis seafaring community are drawn to the life. I'">|icciallv fine is the account we have of Aunt" I'loomic and Dan'l Cool"- rapprochement. /loyp-makin.L' and marriajre. after, as Dan'l puts it. (he dear old couple have travelled "for forty years in the wilderness." The explanation of the tattoed monogram. "K.P.X.R." on I'nclc 'H will's arm is an ecpiallv line slorv of love ci>dnrinfr. Vrom cover to <»>ver the book liphohls Ihe bc«l traditions of to-day's American ficthm.

('lievicw copies from the U.K. Tiookshop. Devon St. '"Copy received from Mcs-rs Jlodder and Stouuhton).