LITERARY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 142, 17 June 1922, Page 21

LITERARY.

Miss -lane Marnier, who first broke on tlie Kuglish reading public with her "Story "i a Xew Zcalsind River," has now published '"The I'use-donate rilgrim.' 1 the story of si city girl who goes to live ;„ t1,,. hush. It has already had appreciative notices. Some cviting stories have boon is-uod in .liirrold's library of fnlion at two s,liilling- |i i- volume, bound iv cloth. Uvrus Tcs'i iishond Bradv's historical novel -When the Sun Stood Still.'' deals with tho e'ewa as a warlike people under .loshua. In "The Texan,"' by Jus. B. Hendryx. wo arc again plunged into the excitement of rough Western life among en who) s and the mis-ecllaneous crowd ot rookies-, dare iie\ il.- who ma.ko thing's stir ill tiic wild-. May Wynne's "A Prince of Intrigue" calls tip very different scene-, it is a romance of llazeppa, mid describes (lie barbarous Russian Society of lii- period, and the struggle, between lint /.tir and Charles of .Sweden.

The revolt in<; .'rimes of the Frenchmi.r.lc'ii'i" l-i'.n Iru inevitably attracted the attention uf Mr. W'm.Le Quciix, whose ?t!!dic-s ill criminalogy have made. him a Kuroppun authority on the subject. Ho was invited to Paris by an cx-nlliciiil of tlis- Prefecture of Police, after the arret of Lamlru, and the dossier of that lietid in human form was placed at his disposal. For over two years Mr. I.c Oueux was engaged in tracing l.andru's career, and the results of his investigation are now published by Stanley, Paul and Co., and reveal a series of deliberate cold-blooded murders of women, whose confidence he. »ained by promises of marriage. More than two hundred women were victiruised in various ways by l.andru in the course of his career, a nuitilier of their \.eing murderer! under most revolting- conditions. Mr. I.c t.nei.x considers tho infamies of this ogre brand him as "the world's greatest criminal.''

Some n i os nn "Changes in Bird Life ill New Zealand appear in "Chambers' Journal fur April. The writer, Mr. R. S. ■Sutherland, refers to tlie extinction of the moa and other wingless birds by the Mauris. Among fossil remains there have been found traces of a giant pei<£_,in. which stood between five and six feet high, and probably weighed two hundred pounds. In recent times stoats and weasels have contributed to the extinction of native birds. The three Xew Zealand parrots—kakapo, kaka and kca—are becoming scarce, and the parrakcets, which became a pest, owing to their raids ou fruit, are being extinguished by the attacks made on them. Tlie liuia has also disappeared. The total extirpation of the weka is not far oil. Other birds, onee'Svery numerous, but now becoming scarce, are ti.ls, bell-birds, fantails, native tomtits, larks, inorepork, and wattled crow.

First "Tlie History of an Attraction," then "Tho Amorous Cheat" drew ti.e notice of our more discerning novel readers to tho promise of a new and very original talent among contemporary novelists. '"The Old Eve/ Mr. C7ei?hton's third novel (Ohatto nnePWindus) more than fulfils that promise. Briefly, it is an attempt to analyse, the emotions of a modern love episode removed, at first, from all contact with tho ordinary" conventions and .complexities of life. These lovers, brought together in the tense days of the "war, when orderliness of life was shattered, pass through phases of recklessness, but are ultimately brought to realise that the foundations of society rest upon moral standards that cannot ibe lightly outraged.

Mr. Beverley Nichols has already -won for himself a considerable reputation for his two novels "Prelude" and "Patchwork/ which have dealt respectively with School and Oxford life under postwar conditions. In "Self," published by Chatto and Windus, Mr. Nichols 'breaks fresh ground, presenting us with a fulllength portrait of a girl of the adventuress type, whose lot, nevertheless, is cast in a strictly conventional milieu. The girl's clever simulation of a ""correct'' attitude is amusingly contrasted with the wild temperament that lurks beneath, and her final debacle is ably traced to the demon of "Self." which she cannot throw off and which is the fatal vice of an otherwise gifted and attractive personality. A girl's school, a country vicarage, it West End mansion, and the Cafe Racine provide .the chief scenes of this interesting novel.

"Play'd in a Box,'' hy Sophie Cole (Mills and Bonn), records tbe experiences of an officer in the Great War, who finds himself at its close deserted by his fiance and generally in a desperate condition. Becoming acquainted with a man who has run a Punch aud Judy show, he is induced to embark upon an enterprise of this description, supplying Punch with a* new repertoire which proves attractive to the patrons of this form of popular entertainment. His wandering life brings the adventurer into touch with a class of society he never knew before, and bis affections are divided 'between a woman in the circle to which he belonged and an uneducated girl, the daughter of his partner in the show. On the development of this love romance the main interest in the novel turns.

''On With the Motley," by Hilton Heaver (Mills and Boon), is the story of the trouble experienced by Basil Ingrain, a child endo,wed with the gift of humour and a face which expressed this faculty for fun, in making people take him seriously. Deprived of his mother at birth, and brought up by a shy father, be led a somewhat lonely life, which engendered dreams of mighty deeds. His earliest romance concerned the restoration of a lost little girl to her home, and in his subsequent association with her both played the part of worshippers at tbe shrine of ancient chivalry. Circumstances, however, compelled Basil to turn his talents to pecuniary account ns comedian in a strolling company, in which capacity lie was surprised one night to Sec his lady, who had preserved her faith in the noble ideals of her lover, staring at him from the stalls during a performance of exceptional buffoonery. The. result was tragic, and Basil's subsequent efforts to regain the girl's respect and vindicate his fidelity in the faith of his boyhood lead to exciting exploits.

"Middle Age Health nnd Fitness" ia .1 miliect wlii.li interest*, a large part "f humanity, and Dr. Edwin I_ Ash has '•ndiHvcjiiivd to assist those who have re:n!ic.(_ period lo maintain their vigour a,id the joy of life. His little hook dealing; with this vital mafctor has I'een published by Mills and Boon. He ''Jui'n* that "at forty a man ia in the I'l imp of life and at fifty he is still within 'lie season of vitality and splendid end-'iivoiir." His maxims for the middleaae I mainly enforce the need for moderation in eating and drinking, exercise, «lid fresh air. He does not recommend any ascetic methods. Two light m p als for breakfast nnd lunch and a substantial twe-course dinner are indicated as who rsome. Dr. Ash also deals with tho

subject of sleeplessness in a vein that I \nll afford encotuagemeul to those whs, I suffer from that distressing malady. He . ..oiio. Os that under normal conditio.;, -tit tie will regulate the amount of •-!";;> actually needful, and that :- is quite possible to maintain good health "P ;'t tour hours' sleep. "To bod at H.jO p.m. and to wake about 0 a.m. is a really good night for everyone over lorty who is not over-harassed, de ii".-•-atifi, o r doing particularly hard wo "k all dayfl. '-.Much sleep, viz., over eight hours, in tlie case of adults, i s mostly more injurious than too little."