THE FICTION SHELF.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 27, 1 February 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE FICTION SHELF.

OLIVER CROMWELL'S SON. "Queen Dick," by Alfred Tresidder Sheppard (Hodder and Stoughton) is the life story of Richard Cromwell, eon of Oliver Cromwell. He was so unlike his father that he became known as Queen Dick. Where his father was courageous to the point of foolishness, Dick was retiring and opposed to force. Had he inherited the characteristics of his father he might have been King Richard the Fourth on the throne. He was often referred to as Tumble Down Dick and the Meek Knight. His early life was unhappy. Compelled to study law by his father, he had neither liking nor aptitude for it. He entertained Royalistic sympathies in opposition to his father, and this, with his disinclination to etudv, alienated his father's sympathy. They had little in common. His father was engaged in strenuous politics and Richard lived a Country, life with his mother. The book deals in considerable detail with the affairs of Oliver Cromwell. At his death Richard took his place but could not fill it. The Army and Parliament paid no attention to his orders. Where Oliver, would have turned out Parliament and locked the doors, Dick allowed matters to take their course. Where his father would have charged single handed into a regiment, and by his determined manner and courage brought them back to their allegiance, Dick remained passive. His last days were spent in obscurity under the name of John Clarke. He might best be described as a weak but lovable character. Mr. Eric Linklater wrote one of < I>n best and strongest stories of the year in "White Maa's Saga." Jt is probable that he put into his work many personal experiences and much of himself. He has now followed it with "Poets' Pub" (Jonathan Gapes) and from title to the last page he has moved backwards and downwards. The basic idea is novel. He imagines a lady of wealth who believes that all business— any business —can be improved by combining it with intellect. Sl#, therefore, purchases a number of old-fashioned English inns, furbishes them up, without destroying local peculiarities, and puts each in charge of a university graduate who has distinguished himself sufficiently to attract public (this is no pun) attention and the admiration of his social equals. In this particular instance she selects a poet who has made his mark athletically (more by accident, than prowess) and he gathers about him as hotel guests a number of strange characters. The conversations are mostly of the "highbrow" order, with Mr. Eric Linklater "showing through." By page 180 Mr. Linklater 6eems to have decided that the story needed brightening up, and he becomes Edgar Wallacey, staging a series of rather vulgar adventures, beginning with a midnight disturbance based upon the stomach disorders of several guests! There is a robbery, a motor car chase, and so on, to please readers who may be bored by classical references and seek the purpose of this book by glancing at the end. 'It might have been a satisfactory novel if differently worked out, for the idea is new, and there is no better way of displaying literary skill than by collecting a number of "odd" people under one roof and "playing them off" one against another. It seems almost as dangerous to think too well of those you love as to suspect them of evil. Marguerite Steen, in "The Reluctant Madonna" (Cassell), takes a family of English nobles, whose history, lives and character have been affected by riotous, reckless living, with intervals of asceticism, for hundreds of years, and shows how noblesse oblige may be misconstrued and made to bring nothing but sorrow and disaster •to its exponent. There is some shrewd criticism herein of the maniac hilarity indulged in by some of the idle rich, not because they approve of or like it, but because it is expected of them, and their minds are unbalanced by the monotony of "amusements" without the relief of responsibility or work. A mother and son of wealth, birth and breeding idealise and idolise each other. Love breaks down the good intentions of both and tragedy follows. This is an especially clever novel of unusual type. "Friarsyurd" is a plotless novel, harsh, powerful, and tragic, with constant recurrence to the common experiences of earthly existence, sickness, and leath. There is no gleam of humour throughout. It is the history of a mountain family of abnormal mentality, taking themselves, and life generally, far too seriously, for any happiness to : °me to. them. Part of the story is based upon Shakespeare's "King Lear." Longman, Green, and Co. have published this prose "tragedy for Mrs. W. Neilson Brown.