LITERARY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 288, 2 December 1905, Page 10

LITERARY.

"Rose o' the River," by Kate DouglasWiggin (Constable's Colonial Library), is a pretty American love story, spun out beyond its natural limits. A sterling young ■ farmer, living in a timber district,- loves Rose, belle, a good girl at bottom, bnt with her head a little turned by admiration. They become affianced, and their cottage home is being built, when a dapper little city man comes along on a visit to his aunt, and amuses himself by laying siege to Rose's heart. She tolerates a little flirtation, and as a result is promptly granted her freedom, which she did not altogether desire. Then follow various rather trying, experiences for the girl, which deepen her regard for the man whose love she had held so lightly, with happiest results for both. There is a capital account of logging timber on a river and an ice pack, and the homely cheerfulness of the story, its pleasant wholesomeness, atone for its lack of more virile qualities.

"The Coming of the Tide," by Margaret Sherwood (Constable's Colonial Library), is the love story of a beautiful girl endowed with overflowing life and spirits, and, a passionate appreciation of every phase of natural beauty. She comes from a Southern State td a Northern seaside reaort, for relief from the pain and loss caused by her mother's death. And here she meets her fate in the person of a studious young man, the last representative of an old New England family. Frances Wilmot is one of •those girls who carry sunshine into every place they enter, and who possess the power of inspiring in an almost equal degree the affection of men and women. It is a disposition that inevitab y leads to complications, and Frances finds it much easier to arouse than td allay the emotions she calls into The undesired lover makes matters decidedly unpleasant not to say perilous for hrr, and only the interposition of another lover of finer type saves her from a tragic end. There are several interesting characters in the seaside hotel where Frances takes up her abode, and the society in which she i'j thrown. The- conversations, which touch in lighter vein upon many of life's problems, are bright and spirited, and often philosophical, and the book* from cover to cover, is devoid of any hint or suggestion of impropriety, a quality which now-a-days counts for a good deal.

Tales of adventure in the West Indies (luring the period immediately following the discovery of America by Columbus are usually popular, and it is this period and scene of action that is exploited by Eugene Lee-Hamilton in '"The Romance of the Fountain," published in Unwin's Colonial Library. The story opens in Spain, where Don Luis, a member of the nobility, after 20 years spent in search of the elixir of life, directs his inquiries towards the discovery of the traditional fountain of youth. He consults Hebrew and Moorish scholars, who confirm his own belief that this spring of immortality lies in a vast forest in the West. An adventurer named Diego Perez encourages the old man in his folly, and an expedition of three ships is fitted out for the exploration. Don Luis insists upon his only daughter accompanying him,. She is secretly affianced to Juan de Alvareda, between wliosp family and that of Don Luis' there has for centuries raped a war as bitter as that of the Montagus and Capulets. After vainly trying to dissuade the girl from accompanying her father, Juan makes his way to the West Indies, and there joins the expedition in order to be near Eosita for her protection. Thru follow a series of exciting episodes, which end most disastrously for the poor deluded Don Luis, and result in the enrichment of the adventurer Diego Perez. "AYESHA": 'THE RETURN OF "SHE." It is not often that a revival in fiction equals in freshness and power the original conception, but in calling back "She" after vanishing twenty years ago in. the flames of the Caves of Kor, Mr. H. Rider Haggard has afforded proof of the axiom that the exception proves the rule. Certainly in fertility of imagination, in mystery, in the exhibition of that magic power which can lend to the fantastic an air of probability, the new book stands not one whit behind the story which produced such a sensation two decades ago. Ayesha, the re-incarnation of the marvellously beautiful creature, endowed with superhuman powers, who vanished so mysteriously, makes her re-appearance as a veiled priestess in an inaccessible region of Central Asia. Here "tho priestess of that oracle which since the time of Alexander the Great has reigned between the flaming pillars in the sanctuary, reigns the last holder of the sceptre of Acs, or Isis, upon the earth," and here is revealed "'the tnysi ie consummation of the wondrous tragedy which began at Kor, or perchance far earlier in Egypt and elsewhere." The narrator is again Ludwig Horace Holly, who with Leo Vincey, after many thrilling adventures, penetrates the strange and unexplored country where the hall of Ayesha stands on the brink of an active volcano. "We asked our guide," says the narrator, "whether t!ie mightly looped pillar that towered from the topmast cup of the mountain was the work of men. Ho answered no; the lwnd of Nature had fashioned it, and that the light shining through it came from the fires that burned in the crater of the volcano. The first priestess, having , recognised in this gigantic column the familiar symbol of Life of the Egyptian worship, established hfft , altars beneath its shadow." The drama which began twenty years ago is revived, and takes some strange developments, in which Khania, queen of a hostile race, plays an important part. Through all this maze of mystery and whirl of passion, reader excitedly presses on to a denouement as tragic as that enacted twenty years before in the Caves of Kor. The book is published by Ward, Lock and Co., and we have received copies from Wildman & Arey and Gordon & Gotch.

"THE TOLL OF THE BUSH."

The simple life of the North Auckland settler, with its deadly round of commonplace duties, may appear an unlikely sphere wherein to look for soul-stirring romance, but passion and suffering are common to all conditions, and perhaps plumb the profoundest depths where life is primitive. Many a homestead decaying in the midst of some neglected clearing may represent the futile struggle of a brave man and loving woman against the resistant powers of Nature. And if romance lingers amid fair surroundings then surely nowhere in the world may it find a securer home than in the lovely hills and valleys that border the great sea inlets of the North. This truth is brought vigorously home to ns in reading Mr. William Satehell'e book, "The Toll of the Bush," published iii Macmil lap's Colonial Library. The scene is laid in tiie Hokianga dia.tricfc, where two young men of good faxa-

i]y are: found. *brugglui* tq e&ibjish W "Some'in."th« trash. ' IfiteTthe bJSrts 01 both comes the disturbing emotion of love, and sways their destinies. The younger brother, strong in common sense, finds satisfaction in the daughter of' a neighbour; the elder one, obtaining a place in the store of a county magnate, finds his hopes imperilled by the rivalry of an ardent young clergyman whose impassioned religious views make a deep im-, predion upon the girl's heart. Here are conditions potent enough to generate' any tragedy, and there are not lacking elements' of the tragic in the events that follow thickly, as the story approaches its climax. The clergyman is tempted to advance his cause by repeating a story he has heard to the disadvantage of his rival. We must not spoil the plot to the reader by revealing the sequel. There are some very fine descriptions of the New Zealand bush, through which for four days the chief personages of the tale wandered in hopeless bewilderment, being finally rescued in an exhausted condition. There is a common disposition to turn away from New Zealand stories as lacking in novelty or spice, but those who take up "The Toll of the Bush" will not lay it finally aside until the last line hae been read.