Among The New Novels

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 280, 26 November 1938, Page 10 (Supplement)

Among The New Novels

An amusing story that will give enjoyment to readers of all ages is Kitty Barne s "She Shall Have Music" (Dent). It is about an Ulster family—a mother and four children—who have come to live in Bristol and have taken with them their maid Biddv. whose rich Irish voice is as changeful as the hills of Donegal she had left behind her. But it is Karen that the story is really about. She is the babv of the family, a strange little girl, a musical prodigy. How she started playing the piano—her hobby—the variety of the pianos on which she practised. the strange places in which she practised, the friends, as well as the mistakes, she made, and how she was chosen to have-her playing recorded on the gramophone, and was successful in getting a scholarship and figuring in the papers.—all this Miss Barne tells lis with a charm that is all her own. We cannot help liking the family with whom she makes us acquainted. The book is enlivened by a number of excellent character drawings.

A novel well wortli reading is Frances Harris' "Villa Victoria" (Duckworth), a study of the upbringing of a family. Avlmer Meredith, a University lecturer, and his wife have five children—three girls and two boys. Having discarded religion, they bring them up unwarped by, what they consider outmoded ideas and crippling shibboleths. When the two elder girls are grown up, Meredith has a nervous breakdown, and he and the family spend a year in the Villa Victoria, in one of the quieter and more select towns on the French Riviera. It is here that the result of the upbringing comes out. The young people reveal Unforeseen tastes and inclinations. The eldest girl is light-hearted, indeterminate, with no ambition to work. The second is self-willed, caustic in licr comments on others, including her parents, and spends money recklessly on clothes. The third suffers from an "inferiority complex," is highly emotional, and trios to take her life. Meredith and his wife discover that "the evils of discipline are loss than the evils of license" and that they have "made a mess of being parents." Even so, they are a fine couple, and one cannot help liking them, and having a warm side to the young people, and sympathy with them all. But the character that attracts one most is Ruth, the companion-governess, a "practising Christian," who is, though sadly, loyal to the wishes of the parents. Meredith admits that she is the "kernel" of the home, but it is she who suffers most. ♦ + + + Books in Local Demand The following list of books in demand at the Auckland Public Libraries is supplied by the chief librarian:— FICTION. Ann* Alone—By Owen Rutter. Character in Distress—Ry Luigi Pirandello. Bread—Ry Alexei Tolstoi. Green Volcano—By Jim Pholan. Golden Spaniard—Ry !>ennis Wheatley. The Cat and the Clock—By Charles G. Booth. Precious Company—By Jackson Rudd. Blood of tho North—By James B. Hendryx. Destiny's Daughter—By Florence Bone. By Papuan Waters—By Otwell Binns. Dead Ned—By John MaseHeld. Growth of a Man—By Mazo de la Roche. Foreign Bodies—By Seldon Truss. NON-FICTION. The Old Century and Seven More Year* By SiegTrled Sassoon. Woman of To-day— By Margaret Cole. With C. H. Middleton in Your Garden. Lock* Berkeley Hume—By c. R. Morris. Great Catholics—Edited by Father C Williamson. Sailing All Sea* in the Idle Hour By Dwight Long:. Imperialism—By J. A. Hobson. Children'* Dreams—By r»r. C. Klmmins. Dry Guillotine—By Rene Belbenoit. Painting in Oil*—By Bertram Nicholls. Surgeqn Extraordinary—By Loyal Davis. My Cricketing Life—By Don Bradman. V ' fc 'Buck.°* Ul * Bunri*e—.By Peter H.