NOTICES OF BOOKS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 299, 23 October 1873, Page 5

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

The Story of Wild Will Enderby. Told by Vincent Pyke. Book II.: "The Young Widow." R. T. Wheeler, Stafford street, Dunedin. • It has been well said that the difference between novels and other imaginative compositions is, that " while the latter depend for their effect on our tastes and sympathies as men, the former require us to be interested in the circumstances of the plot as well as in the characters themselves." So far as the plotof " Wild Will Enderby" was developed in the first number, expectation was raised which has not been disappointed. " Wild Will" and his shrewd Yankee partner were left at the close of part I, revealing to each other their love stories, their hopes, and their disappointments, NOi II unfolds Will's antecedents, and flow it W«8 that he had found his way to New Zealand. Mr Pyke in this number has proved not less successful as a character painter, than he showed ' himself in the last to be a scene depicter. He does not attempt this by any labored analysis of the good or bad qualities of his heroes or heroines^ Very little time does he give to telling or what was passing through their minds ; he ' eaves their words and actions to tell their own tales. We are shown just so much of their appearance, habits, and characters as is necessary to account for the events in which they took leading parts, and to justify the reader in feeling deep interest in their doings. There is nothing at all extravagant in any of the ideals Mr Pyke has drawn. It is quite possible to pick out a score Mrs Melmoths, young widows, amongst those we have known ; and all are acquainted with many love-sick Mabel Greys — lovely girls cherishing hopes that those Mrs Melmotbs stood in the way of being realised. It is just because they are people we have met, that we can realise their thoughts and f eellnea, and feel deep interest in their fate. The noblehearted, open-handed John Grey, is not a singular character in the Colonies, Aa Mr Pyke says, men like him " rarejy preach ; they merely practice"; but their .practice is the most eloquent preaching. We will not mar the pleasure that all will bavu in reading No. 11, by detailing the further development of the plot of the story, nor forestall that analysis of the characters that readers will so easily form for themselves. The different chapters are each a dramatic scene complete in itself, but neceEßary to the development of the plot. If people are disposed to find, fault, it will be be,.

cause of to* little being said, not too much about the various persons brought under notice; but both men and women, the merchant, the station manager, the ac omplished flirt, the confiding fiancte, the honest Scotch Bfrv.mt, reveal themselves in their words and woiks. The second book brings us back to the Yankee goes far to remove the film from Will Enderby s eyes in a few characteristic words. We, like all who r*ad this rather short number, feel so much interested in Will's story as to long to know what next I—Star.