READERS' COLUMN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 50, 20 July 1914, Page 6

READERS' COLUMN.

! (Conducted by Jamos Wortley.) SOME NEW NOVELS. "ripVndown," by Limhav Jiashford. London: Chapman and il.tlv. A novel with ;i modern setting. "Splendown" is a eolos.-al department store, sucii as Luiidon. Ut.ui and tin: leading American ci.ves provide. A! the opening of the story it i> on tin.' verge of collapse bct.u'i.ie its owner, whose great persona, i'.y has evolved and .supported it. has given way to liquor. A .son, who at ;cl 00l was tin: fool of hi* class, takes hold of the concern, and quite unexpectedly develops a talent for fciinincss superior j to that of bis father, and under his . eara the industry is nlil-i. further cxI tended'. The book provides an opportunity for its author to forecast, as he sees it, which wi.l be the trend of thought and social life during the next I few decades. Politics, business life, the public school are all discussed, and we gain an insight into a good deal of the why and the wherefore of presentday commercial activities. ■ "Sylvia," l>y Upton Sinclair. PhilaI delpliia and Chicago: The John C. ! Winter Company. ' "Sylvia" is (juke in vine with the i various other boohs which Mr. Sinclair i ban given us, in that it is a novel with I a purpo-e. To serve its purpose, Sylvia i:-. much overdrawn, but it must be so to mark the morai of the book, (still, there are many, surely, we are thankful to believe, to whom the hypocrisy of our modern social life is repugnant, and who, if they but dared, would raise thomsclves agaiiut it. iSylvia is a beautiful southern girl of rare aceompli»hin«nls and unconventional' nature, who has been well schooled in the fine art of coquetry by her worldly-wise grandmother, "shoals of young men j flock round her, like flies to the honeypot. But she, however, will have none of them. They are but the empty social ornaments of her world. Quite sud- j denly there appears Frank Shirley, a struggling youth of good family. He j and his people have, however, been ostracised by Sylvia's set, because bis father, wrongfully accused of crime, served a sentence rather than put the fault on another's shoulders. Frank is j serious of purpose and a strong, good character. This makes its own appeal to Sylvia's common-sense, and a tussle with her family ensues, to have Frank recognised as her affianced husband. It ia just here that the purpose <*f Mr. Sinclair's writing comes in, and the story is deflected from what might havj been a happy ending. It is needless < 1 pursue here the detail—readers may do that themselves—but the family eventually prevail and Sylvia i.-, driven, as the writer would have us believe many another one is, to marry a man unclean, rather than Frank Shirley, with the unjust taint of las father's*sacrifice. "Idonia. A Romance of Old London," by Arthur K. Wallis. 'London: Sampson Low, Marston and Co., Ltd. A capitally written historical nove'. of th« period when England wa fiT-.t feeling her feet—may we use s. ■■ , a metaphor?—as a maritime power. The days of (Jood Queen Rcs s are graphically portrayed in the story of the rough path that Denis and " ldoula bad to travel ere tile death of Denis' uncle put an end to their tribulations, or at least it marked the turning point in their luck, which from that out to the ' end of the List page proved all that could be desired. 'The Years of Forgetting" by Lindsay Kusse 1 !, author of "Smouldering Fires," etc. London: Ward, Lock and Co. It has been said that authors find great difficulty in deciding upon the title for their book-. I may say that .upon taking up Mr. Kussell's latest, I settled easily to the enjoyment of a delightful book, for the title is at once arresting and beautiful. Unfortunately, "The Years of Bitter Eeinembrancc" would have been a more fitting title for the tragic story unfolded, for they seem U) have eaten up the :iou! like a c.ankerworm. Is the book true to life? Does average real life so blast the innocent offspring of crime that, they end so tragically, as did Mary Gray. .Surely not. The writer, with such a charming title might have written a story of a "love" chili! in which the finer characteristics of Ma.'y had been developed into a woman of great beauty and common-sense, and in which were united all the better human qualities of her parents. Such characters are not uncommon. But the opportunity was lost, and we have instead a singularly morbid story with a bitter ending. NOTES. Dent's new issue, (The Wayfarer's Library," is having a good reception. The volumes themselves present a great improvement upon the get-up of "Everyman's.' 1 The binding is better, the paper better, and the titles clearer. From a glance over the titles of the first volumes received, it is evident .they will admirably supplement Dent's great issnue in "Everyman's.'' For instance, we have Thonias J lard v, Chesterton, -A. E. W. Mason, Well-, MarkTwain and Stanley Weyman, all thoroughly representative writers of the present day. "Public Opinion'' hail-, a- a rara avis n successful novi-1 sequel iii Mr. E. F. Benson's new 1 k.'-l)odo the Second" (Ifodder and S'loughtont. In Henry .lame-,' autobiographical book. "A Snrall Hoc and Oilers." we get a rare peep „t '|he private lite of many who figure in American "literature, notably Emerson all ,l I | i( «-f horn, to s-av' nothing of the ,lame, i,i u themselves "- father and two sons. Books received for review from A S Brooker. the U.K. Ilonk-liop, Devon,-l.