NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 11456, 15 December 1902, Page 9

NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

Id tbe "jfetru«one of Feggy,°;Mr *»ta*r Hope &m given us * very bright and interesting fctory of present-day life i» Lon-1 don. Wβ nee it Jβ rarwus fbases, *°& throughout 'tie people siwtcbed ere bandied , vr&h that euro touch which convinces via] that air AJoteny Hope M irriti»g of <i*t whica he himself knowa. "Peggy" »«" I sell Ihree in Bohemia, «md ia a delightful J character, unconventional, bvt true woman- i Iγ, feoru apparently for the expreaa purpose j of getting other people out of difficulties. Other types of modem Bohemia, artistic and literary, live ia Mr Hope's pages, and so do the cbaractew taken .from a higher sphere—the {Kanpoui, kindly, exceesivelyproper Lord Bam worth, his son, Lord •Merwyo, very honourable, very Kngli&h, Bertram Chance, the rising politician, who commits a false step and becomes declasse, and the Doid, but shady and unscrupulous, financier, Mr Fricker. In hid female- characters, especially Mrs Bongill' and Lady Bliiwoftix, two °*very "managing" society woman of "different types,' Sir Hope display* {great skill in delineation. His Trix Trei valla is a more complex character, but j hardly so naturally drawn. The book on the whole ia excellent reading. (London.: IG. Bell and Sons; Christchmt:h: Fountain Barber and Whitcombe find Tombs. 3s 6d : nnd 2s 6d.) If history has beep too much neglected in our schools, as we think it has, the novelists are endeavouring to repair the omission. Soon 'there triu not be a bypath of history which they have not explored for our benefit. It was rather a happy thought of Mr S. R. Crockett to take the rising of the Camioarda, in the Cevennes, in the reign of Louis JCIV. of France, and our own Ann»,. to provide the "nulieu" of hia latest story,. "Fiower-o'-toe Com.' In view of the neglect of the educational authorities aforesaid, we may perhaps be excused for reminding our readers that the Camisards were descendants of the Huguenots, who, in the earlypart of the.eighteenth century, maintained, in their mountain retreat, a auccessfui resistance against their Royalist persecutors. Their leader, Jean Cavalier,; was the son of a shepherd, and began to earn his livelihood as a baker's boy. At the age of seventeen, however/on account of W* fitness for the post, he was recognised as the General of the Camisards. His manoeuvring on one occasion was pronounced by the ablest marshal of France to be worthy of C«sar- In later life he became a General in the English army, and was Governor of the Isle of Wight. ■ Needless to aay, Mr Crockett has found in this remarkable man a sufficiently romantic figure for a very stirring story. He has woven- into the narrative the usual love element, the heroine; "Flower-o'-the-Corn" being the daughter of a Presbyterian chaplain. A complete foil to this simple, lovcftble Scottish girl, is the beautiful daughter :of a Cevennes innkeeper, who betaays the Camisards to the French Marshal. Altogether the «tory will hold ite own with the best of Mr CrocketVs historical tales. (London: Macmillan and Co.; Chrietchurch: Fountain Barber, 3a 6d and 2s 6d.) For wholesome atones of English do.; mertic life, ownbining accurate jstnij of character with: refreshing , ''oleanneee" of tone, without; degenerating >~ into "goodygoody" preaching, Mien Roai Nouchette Carey is especially to be 'commended, and the "Highway of Fate" shows her at her beet. In this she has achieved the difliculftask of making a plain, plump, aandyhaJTed woman of 39 or-40, a, lovabk, interesting character with whom the reader ie very 09117 to part. Incidentally Mies Carey shews a. boy and girl entangle-' ment may develop into, maxxiagQ and prove a mistake, because baaed on genuine Jove. The scan* is kid in a conntry village' within eaey reach, of London, and one of the chapters which will live longest in the memory of the reader ia' a capital description of an old-fafbioned English Christmas. Wen it for this atone we.should have no hesitation ia recommending the book , to* our mdete' It 1* an excellent Chrietmaa present for a girt. (London:' , Macmill^n , and Co, "tawietchuroh: Simpson and William*. 2* 6d.) Hamlin Garland's hovel, "The Captain of the Gray-Horse Tkoop/' waa referred to' in our "Topfos , ! on'Thuiaday ac giving , an unusual and interesting piqtnm of the present.day Indian. The Captaan concerned is appointed guide and ruler for the red men penned in a far west reservation; and the atory deala throughout with bi» efforts for their good, hampeMd by opposition from oowboT neighbour*, and scheme* of venal. legislators. , A heroine appeara in the 'daughter of one most venal, At filer absolutely indifferent to the Indiana' sorrows, she comes to the Jtceervatkm as *n artisA'in search of model*; but is teguifat into'sympathy with alt that hex father has decried, 'until she , finally , feels pride ia becoming the wife, of an Indian agent, and presents herself before the tribe* clad- in " 4 fine buckskin dress beautifully adorned with beads - and quills/ to eigmfy her change j>f heart. Hamlin Garlaoad'e vkill ac a apeciu! corraspondent ie recoiled by his incidental deocnptions of the symbolic Harvest Festival, for instance,* or the Indian deuce;" end " The Oaptam' of the Gray well repreeenttt many a> mißtanr t.fflqjalj " toiKng thankkwly on a <barren, sun-emit'land, in'effort , to * u * ) J* cfe 1 race to celf-supporting freedom. don: Gtniitßichfird'B-Colonial library. ' Christchgrch t Whitoombe and Tombs'/ r 2a "Love of Sisters" 3a a new addition to Katharine * Tynan's list of pretty Irish stories. It iofrtkliicee" 4 tree and ' tender Sark eteter, and a univewaUy bewitching. fair one, and, ac fiction so frequently de. creee under such circumetanoes, a heartbreak Wema inevitable from involvement of their love affaire. Mias Tynan, however, dardains j;he conventionally unplesean.fc element of a conscious rivalry. accord is scarcely ruffled, aodinwttem finally work round to & happy fortune for each. The love of an elder pair of sisters, sketched almost in the'Mie Gaflkfell style, supplies a secondary interest in. a graceful volume, dealing with agreeably individual persons and the poetic aide of the Irish character. (London: Beii'a Indian and Colonial library.' OhrUtohurch: Whitcombe and Tombs. 2s 6d.)