OTHER NOVELS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 170, 20 July 1935, Page 2 (Supplement)

OTHER NOVELS.

Messrs. Chatto and Windus have stretched a point in favour of Mr. P. Chamberlain, who can write smart "snappy" short stories as well as risque incidents, and, when personally interested, give long careful detailed accounts of events in lively prose. In "What the Sweet Hell" (the title taken from a magazine story) there are a score and more of stories, some two pages only, others of up to forty pages, and nearly all beyond the "merely readable" standard. * He has sad and gay anecdotes, and shows much sympathy for the underdog—street hawkers and such. He has no respect for women, and tells ns why not. and he lias only scorn and contempt for young "showy" males. Publishers fight shy of volumes of short stories unless of special merit, and we can only suppose that Chatto and Windus' reader saw special merit in Mr. Chamberlain.

One of the great troubles of the world is the expenditure of effort in pretence. Nearly everybody pretends to be something or somebody. They are not. It is possible that of all English people those of Yorkshire are the most natural, with a proper pride in their owh qualities and position, no matter what that position may be. Mr. Thomson, in "The Exquisite Burden," (Jenkins), tells a story of Yorkshire folk of 40 years ago and up to 1014. An orphan boy of good character and intelligence, and love of sport, is brought up in the house of two rigid, bitter, narrow-minded aunts. Throughout his early life he is ruled by fear, yet has to look for all his food and personal comforts to the two female bullies, both well-intentioned, but tyrannical, cruel, sanctimonious Methodists. The boy's uncles are three in number, two are his friends (one his legal guardian) and a third his lasting enemy. We have been reading school stories for 40 years, but, without imitating the .fulsome advertisements of the average publisher, we can say with truth that few school stories we have read equal in truth, humour pathos and general interest this tale of North Country childhood and adolescence. The steady support of friendship of the old men as opposed to the domestic tyrants of women, and the gradual development of the boy, suppressed always, but, ever gaining* in knowledge and skill, are faultlessly demonstrated. The love affair between Bijou and Philip, whilst yet in their teens, shows how deep and sincere early love can be, and how lasting is the impression on young minds and hearts.

A young woman of yeoman squire stock marries young and is left a widow at 23, with an income of live pounds weekly. This to her is comparative poverty, and she puts most of her capital into a country house, in order to have a permanent home, then looks about for well-paid easy employment. Hhe is first employed by a Swedish family in Sweden, as companion and to teach" English. The position is good and comfortable, and her description of the Swedes, their home and country, is humorously and pleasantly told. Her experiences with London employment agencies make a little comedy. She was next employed to go 011 tour with an old lady, with a ear full of people, visiting Scotland and the English coast. Next she earned four pounds ten weekly as a reader of Shakespeare to an American lady. She had only two hours of "work" daily, and for the rest was "one of the family." She had an idea she could paint, and next put herself in an art school in Paris, living alone in one small room, rented at forty shilling weekly, and feeding out. We next find her again on tour. This time with a party of Australians, whose restless energy wears her (and the car) to near ruin. "The Brighter Bondage" is more than a novel. It is a book of travel, bright comment, and revelation of character. Claudia. Parsons, the authoress, writes as if she herself were the hero-

ine victim and gentle slave, but her candid love confessions can hardly be personal —or has her pen slipped? Chatto and Windus are the publishers.