"MAGDALENA."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 307, 28 December 1935, Page 2 (Supplement)

"MAGDALENA."

A FIRST NOVEL.

The first novel by Helen Douglas Irvine, "Magdalena" (Macmillan), is chiefly notable for the style in which it is written. It is simple, clear and sustained evenly throughout the book. The construction'of the novel is unusual, but well handled. A travelling Englishwoman with a faculty for drawing confidences, is told by the several members of a party of Estremadurans returning to their own land from Europe the.story of the girl they have all known in the past.' The 'unwelcome 'presence on the ship of one of the principals of the drama had recalled Magdalena's tragiclife to them, and it seemed that each had to tell his or her own part or thoughts to ease the oppression that presence caused. "It seemed to Miss White, while she sailed southwards down the Pacific Coast, that the boat's cargo was the story which was being so persistently unfolded to her. 'Chattered to carry back to Estremadura the memory' of Magdalena,' she said to herself."

The sum of facts told is small—a brief account of convent school life, a reckless courting and wild elopement, a week-long visit to a country town, a visit to a friend, the birth of children, a belated marriage and violent death following hard upon it—these are all that the world knows of 20 years of Magdalena's life. The novelist keeps the story well under control. There is no redundancy, no repetition in the telling of incidents, even though the visit to the town of Angol is spoken of by most of the narrators. There is diversity of approach and attitude in each of the characters, but perhaps over much similarity of expression. This is a book which those who love simplicity of expression in fine prose will delight in, and the character of Magdalena as wo are shown it is worthy of the vehicle by which it is conveyed. .