LITERARY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 72, 25 March 1922, Page 22

LITERARY.

The latest addition to the series of translations of stories by Anton Tchehow, published by Chatto and Windus, includes "The Cook's Wedding" and twenty-five other short stories. The Russian novelist's pictures of life and character are dramatic. They expose ; the proverty, ignorance and superstition j of the peasantry, and describe the reli- j gious and social customs of the country. J In the present volume are stories deal- j ing with Easter, Shrove Tuesday and Passion Week. "The Kingfisher," by Phyllis Bottome. author of "A Certain Star," deals with The career of a very remarkable man.: ,"<ent to a reformatory for killing his father in defence of his mother when quite a child Jim Barton's natural integrity of character and innate intellectual capacity enable him to triumph over all his "early difficulties and carry him to the position of one of the great Labour leaders in England. When he has attained this position, he falls in love with the daughter of the employer against whom he is waging a bitter industrial war. Miss Bottome has a remarkable talent for telling a story, and Jim's early years and development are described vividly and convincingly. The puhli-hers are W. Collins, sons and Co.; our copy from Whitcombe and Tombs.

Harold Bindloss, in his new novel. ''The Man From the Wilds" (Ward Lock), introduces us to John Wreay, a Canadian prospector, who has come to England to undertake the guardianship of a young girl. On arrival in the Home Country, he finds that his ward's estate, which consists chiefly of agricultural property, ha s run down under the management of a legal firm, which seemed to have prospered, while its client had grown poorer. He also found his ward and her grandfather obstinate in resisting proposals which he made for the better management of the estate. In fact Wreay's difficulties in England were quite as trying as those which he had encountered in the wilds of Canada, although of a different sort. The novel shews that Mr. Bindloss' talent for creating interesting situations can be successfully applied to the conditions of English society.

"Labour: The Giant With the Feet of Clay." by Shaw Desmond (Collins), is a critical and sympathetic analysis of the Labour movement from the inside by a writer who has been widely known as aj great champion of the Labour cause, but who. after being a member of the Labour party for fourteen years, is frankly disillusioned. Tn what amounts to a sweeping but reasoned indictment, die writer shows ihe "feet of clay" of the Labour movement, and claims that though outwardly united the movement is split from crown to heel by fundamentally opposed ideals, tactics, and objectives, that :t might collapse at any moment, an', that such "success" as has been obtained ha< been pun-based at the price of principle. In so doing he gives many vivid and revealing portraits of great Labour figures of the last generation from Keir HarJie to Rosa Luxemburg, "the Red Tigress." He describes the spirit which animated the great interr:ii!.inal congresses which he attended. Bii-l «hews how they embraced elements which foredoomed them to failure. The book is not merely destructive, the latter Dortion is given over to a constructive examination of the problems facing democracy, with a vc-ry interesting foreshadowing of what the writer <W_[ls "The Xew Democracy" or "The spiritual Democracy." Our copy from Whitcombe and Tombs.

"Arthur Mee's Hero Book" (Hodder and Stoughton) makes a valuable addition to the long list of interesting and instructive books which bear the author's name. The heroes selected are Joan of Arc, Drake, Walter Green way, Toussaint L" Ouverture, the Passengers of the 'Mayflower,' William Lloyd Garrison, Socrates, Abraham Lincoln, Robert Louis Stevenson, Captain Cook, the Panama Gang. Ordinary Folk, Benjamin Harrison, Sir Robert Peel, and the Men Who Have Won the War. The claims of many of these men to be ranked as heroes are well known, but some of the names are probably unfamiliar. Among these is Walter Greenway, who left Yorkshire a ne'er-do-.veil and disappeared from his friends, only turning up during the war in Mesopotamia, where he acted as a voluntary spy for the British, enduring during his wanderings in Turkish camps, shocking torture without uttering a sound. He also made a daring expedition to Bagdad, disguised as a German officer, and blew up the arsenal. In his tribute to Captain Cook, Mr. Mcc declares: "He taught us how to be healthy at sea; he spread everywhere the fame of Englishmen and fair-dealing. They are at the basis of our civilisation, these two things. - ' In the chapter devoted to "'The Panama •Gang is recorded the remarkable engineering feat involved in the construction of the canal, and the still more notable scientific achievement in the prevention of yellow fever and malaria, which turned the failure of ..de Lesseps into the success of American engineering enterprise. The book, which is well illustrated, reached us through C'hamptaloup and Edmiston.

The foundation of the Roman Catholic | Church in Australia and its early his- i tory is associated with many interesting | facts connected with the colonisation of Xew South Wales. These are brought into prominence in a biography of Aretapriest John Joseph Therry, written by Rev. Eris M. O'Brien, Professor of Australian History in St. Patrick's Ecclesiastical College, Manly, and published by Angus and Robertson, Sydney. In an introductory letter, Dr. Kelly, Arch.bishop of Sydney, states that the publication of the 'book is specially opportune in connection with the centenary of Father Therry's arrival in Australia. He adds that "the majority of Catholics who were in Xew Holland when Father Therry came to the colony, had been transported from Ireland as convicts after the rebellion of 1799," and that many of these political offenders were hi.gh-minded, industrious, and progressive, and these formed the nucleus of the church in the early days. In his biography of aFther Therry. Professor O'Brien describes, the harsh laws that •prevailed in the early days of the colony, and the struggle to secure religious liberty. Several letters to Governor Macquaric and the Governors replies are published in facsimile. He describes the stages by which the fine cathedral of St. Mary's was built up from its conception in the mind of Father Therry, whose crude drawing stands in marked contrast to the stately edifice of to-day. The work may, in fact, be described as a history of the Catholic Church in New South Wales, rather than merely as a 'biography of the man who had so much to 'do with the organisation upon which it has become established. Our copy from Whitcombe and Tombs.

"Belief in God," by Charles Gore, D.D., formerly Bishop of Oxford, is an at- • tempt to construct a rational fabric of ] belief from the foundation, as far as 1 may be, without assumptions. The author inquires afresh what are the grounds, first, for any sort of belief in God and, secondly, for belief in q, specific revelation such as Christianity postu- j . fates. The work represents the fruits of ! | a lifetime of study and thought. It is to be followed by two others dealing respectively with Belief in Jesus Christ j and Belief in the Holy Spirit and in the I Church. The author, in his opening chapter, describes the break-down- of tradition, which occurred in the Victorian period, through the scientific dis- • ; proof of the special creation theory and . the general acceptance of the doctrine lot Evolution as expounded by Darwin. ' i This shock to current religious beliefs j was accentuated by literary and lnstor- | ical criticism applied to the Bible, which ■shattered accepted beliefs on the subject 1j of inspiration and authorship. The revolt | against Galvanism had also contributed '| to tho overthrow of the old foundations 'and unsettled men's minds. From these 'Ipremises the author proceeds to examine j the work of reconstruction, and in doing |so discusses the authenticity of the J j Gospels, and finally states the conclu- ! sions to which a dispassionate examinaI tion of the evidences in support of a i belief in God and Jcoiis Christ should ; i lead.

The sixth part of "The Companion \ Bible," being the Authorised Version of 1011 with the structures and notes, critical, explanatory and suggestive, has been published by Mr. Humphrey Millord, Oxford University Press. It covers the Xew Testament from Acts to Kevelations, with nineteen appendixes and general index to the appendixes. It is not a new or an amended translation. The text is that of the Authorised Version of 1611, as published by the Revisers in their "Parallel Bible" in ISSS. There are no alterations in the text beyond what can be effected by a variation in the character and arrangement of the type. 'Hence, there is nothing that affects the ear when reading it aloud; hut only that which meets the eye in order to call attention to important facts and truths. All ancient readings and new and amended renderings are confined to the margin. The pronouns and other words emphasised in the original are in special type: and so are all quotations from the Old Testament. The chapters and verses of the Authorised Version are retained: but spaces are introduced to mark them off into paragraphs. These are not divided as in the Paragraph Bibles, but according to the structures, which are given in the right-hand margin: while the corresponding index-letters are repeated in j the left-hand margin, by the side of the text.