IN LOVELY CORNWALL

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 220, 17 September 1938, Page 10 (Supplement)

IN LOVELY CORNWALL

Mary ellen chase has taken Cornwall as the scene of her latest novel, "Dawn in Lyonesse" (Collins). Lyonesse is the legendary county that once existed, according to Cornish tradition, where the sea now is to the south of Cornwall. The chief character, Ellen Pascoe, is a young woman who is employed as waitress in a hotel. She is engaged to a fisherman in another part of the county, and her dreams of her wedding and her future life with Derek are mingled with dreams of the love romance of Tristram and Iseult, a romance the reading and musing on which has so transformed her days anil filled her with visions and desires that she bears no resemblance to what she had once be^n—an ordinary, matter-of-fact fisher girl. She has a bosom friend, Susan Pengilly, who works in a public house where Derek lias his home. Unknown to Ellen, she steals Derek's love and, overcome with shame and remorse, he take* his life. This, with its wonderful ending, is the theme of the novel. A singularly beautiful story, written with great charm.