NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17609, 11 November 1922, Page 9

NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

! In "Sacrifice," Stephen French Whitman tells the story of Lilla Delliver, the highly strung daughter of | neurotic parents and brought up in an .atmosphere of luxury, who falls m love with Laurence Teck an African explorer, and marries him on the very eve of his departure on an exploring triD. Lilla stays in America, and interests herself in David Verne, a ay ing musical genius. As Verne seems to be better when Lilla is near him, when news comes that Teck has died in Africa, she marries the invalid musician in ofder that she can look arte/ him, and that the world may havejus music. One is not wholly surprised to learn a little later that Teck is not dead after all, but has been rescued and kept captive by a native king, who eventually lets him go. ± e e K learns of his wife's second marriage before leaving Africa, but pays a briei visit to America, where he meets ner for a few hectic minutes, and then leaves secretly again for Africa. Verne conveniently dies, and Lilla sets out for Africa to find Teck, succeeding eventually after passing through many adventures and dangers. Some crosscurrents help to make up the plot or the story, which, if not of the firstclass, is at least readable and not badly told. (New York and London: D. Appleton; Sydney: Dymock's Book Arcade.) ... "The Bimrock Trail," by J. Allan Dunn," it need hardly be said, is a tale o! the Wild West. It concerns the three partners in the Three fetar Banch, Mormon Peters, Sandy Bourkc, and Soda-water Sam, known Jhrougn Texas and Arizona as "The Three Musketeers of the Range," and their protegee, a girl named Molly Casey, whom they rescue from the desert. Her father, a prospector, was on his way, with his daughter, to locate a mine, but died on the journey. The partners decide to have the girl educated, and finding the mine, proceed to develop it on her behalf. A scoundrel named Plimsoll has designs on Molly and her mine, but is frustrated by Sandy, and matters eventually are brought to the anticipated happy ending. There is plenty of action and excitement in the development of the story and, of course, some phenomenal shooting by more than one of the three Musketeers. The author's style hardly needs the certificate given by his publishers that he knows well the country whereof he writes, its people, and their customs. (Bobbs Merrill Co., Indianapolis; Sydney: Dymock's Book Arcade.) "The Owl and the Moon," by Marion Osmond, is described as having been closely in the running for the John Long prize of £SOO, offered last year for the best first novel. If that is so, the rest of the field, one must believe, was of mediocre quality only. The story, deals with the occurrences, mostly Jove-making and quarrelling, sometimes of a decidedly dangerous nature, at the house of Jim Rendell, a planter in the Straits Settlement. The planter himself, and the other men, his guests, are quite decent fellows, though Patrick Logan, Rendell's nephew, and the doctor's secretary, does make love t6 a neighbouring planter's daughter while engaged to a girl at Home. But the women are tediously amorous, wearisomely fond of playing with fire. The chief interest of the story really lies in its treatment of the native household servants, including, a Chinese house-boy and a Malayan "amah,' Mrs Rendell's maid, and especially an old wizard, the "pawang," who is subsidised by Rendell to entice the evil spirits away from his plantation and thereby make his labourers more contented. . The "pawang" is a person of some occult. gifts, which enable him to play upon the: superstitious feeljngs ; of the servants; There are some rather queer and mysterious happenings when he is about. A more experienced writer, would have made better use of the materials in this book. (London: John Long.) Readers of "Cappy Ricks" will want no pressing to induce them to read "Cappy Ricks Retires," in which Mr Peter B. Kyne .gives us some more remarkable episodes in the life of that delightful old man, and in that of i Matt Peasley, his son-in-law and partner, and his faithful old clerk, Skinner.. Cappy, as : his admirers know, is a combination of .grasping moneygrabbing 'business pirate, and generous open-handed philanthropist, with a great warm heart and the sharpest of tongues. The present book, which is devoted almost wholly to business, some of a highly technical character, complicated by the war and America's part therein, professes to tell of Cappy's retirement. Of course, it does nothing of the sort; Cappy is always promising, or threatening, to retire, and always bursting in with some new money-making idea, which is usually successful, but- .-sometimes fails. Then he goes after the men who beat him, atad things happen. Incidentally we see Cappy on board a more or less derelict steamer of his own, sinking a German submarine and playing a vigorous part in other operations of the naval war. The book _ may appeal more to men than to women, because of the intensely business atmosphere in which the events take place. Certainly all men should enjoy it, if only because of the richness and variety of Cappy's t speech. (London: Hodder and Stoughton; Christchurch: L. M. Isitt, Ltd., and Simpson and Williams, Ltd.) THE FIFTEENTH AUSTRALIAN - I ELEVEN. "With the 15th Australian Eleven," which has made its appearance, is a comprehensive and very readable account of the Australian Eleven's recent tour of Great Britain and South Africa. As everyone knows, the 15th Australian Eleven made cricket history, for it' put up a record never approached by any previous combination that had visited the Old Country. The author of the book is Mr Sydney Smith, junr., who was manager of the tour. He' gives a very full account of the travels and doings of the team from the time the New South Wales players left Sydney, picking up the | other players en route, until the arrived- back in Australia. Mr Smith" tells the Btory in a pleasing style, giving a short account of the various matches played with a wealth of anecdote and interesting incidents. And incidentally one gets an insight into the manner in which the members of the team were lionised by the aristocrats of the English cricket world. The story of the tour is interspersed with numerous admirable photographs of the various cricket grounds ' and other places and objects of interest. Complete scores of every match . are given, and some 35 pages are devoted to statistics and records of previous | tours —both English and Australian. Details of the mileage covered by the team show that they travelled no less than 32,383 miles, and another table sets out the number who paid for admission, the total - receipts, and Australia's share, at each match played. The book makes interesting reading, and will be a valuable work of reference to those who take an interest in the trials of cricket strength between Australia and the Motherland. (Sydney: E. T. Kibblewhite and Co., Ltd.)' OF ALL THINGS. ' In a preface to Mr Robert Benchley's book, "Of All Things," Mr Stephen Leacock says: "I have known

! and admired Bob Benchley's work ever since his Harvard days, when he was one of the brightest ornaments of the editorial staff of the 'Lampoon'" Mr Leacock is responsible for the introduction of his friend's amusing sketches to the British public, and in taking this responsibility he has placed that public under a further obligation to him. Mr Benchlev's method is not unlike Mr Leaeock's: the method of grave burlesque and Bolemn hyperbole. He has a keen eye for the absurdities of life, and he sees them so clearly that he has only to set them down in his whimsical way in order to make an excellent book of them. Who is there who does not know the tortures of visiting as he describes them, or the great truths he exposes in his gardening notes, the exasperations of bridge played as he plays it? Some of his sketches—his excellent satirising of the squarejawed business man, his account of how the American people follow the football reports—are concerned with aspects of life which cannot be found outside America, but most of his lighthearted book can be enjoyed anywhere. His masterpiece is perhaps his romance "written after three hours' browsing in a new Britannica set," which begins: "Picture to yourself an early spring afternoon along the banks of the river Aa, which, rising in the Teutoburger Wald, joins the Werre at Herford, and is navigable as far as St. Oiner," and which ends: "Their eye 3 met, and she placed her hand in his. And, from the woods, came the mellow whinnying of a herd of vip, the wool of which is highlv valued for weaving." The book is made more delightful by a great number of extraordinarily vivacious and amusing drawings by Gluyas Williams, each of which is a funny story in itself. (London: John Lane. Through Whitcombe and Tombs, Ltd.) HUNTINGTOWER. So many writers are bent upon uplifting us, or upon giving us psychological or sociological studies, that the writer of a good romance is the most* welcome of creatures. If K.L.S. were writing to-day, he would be hailed by a grateful public as the greatest of benefactors. There is no K.L.S. nowadays, but we have an excellent substitute in Mr John Buchan. By giving us "Greenmantle," "Mr Standfast," and "The Path of the King," Mr Buchan did all that could be asked of him, but here he is again with a story, "Huntingtower," quite as good as any of his earlier romances. A retired Scottish grocer starts on a walking /tour in Galloway, and suddenly finds himself deeply engaged in a terrific adventure. A. Eussian princess, who has escaped with a great packet of jewels, has been decoyed to an old castle on the Scottish coast, and is there kept prisoner, under the guardianship of Bolshevik emissaries, until an expedition can be sent to bring her and the jewels back to Russia. The grocer joins forces with a wandering poet, who changes from the aggressive imagist author of "Whorls" into a first-rate fighter, and these, with the assistance of a courageous old Scottish woman and a gang of Boy Scouts on holiday from their slum district, rescue the princess in the nick of time and rout the pirates, who come by sea to Huntingtower. Here is the material, one would think,'for..a secondrate film, but Mr Buchan makes of it a first-rate and extraordinarily thrilling story, and he makes all the people, and particularly the tough youngsters from the slums, thoroughly real and interesting people. (London: Hodder afid Stoughton. Through Whitcombe and Tombs, Ltd.). HAWKER OF MERWENSTOW. When Eobert Stephen Hawker died left a mass-of >note-boofes in which he had, over many years, << set down every reference, and idea worth preserving" which came to him in the course of reading and meditation. From these note-books his son-in-law and biographer has selected enough to make a most attractive little book, to which he has given the title which Hawker himself suggested in one of his noteß: "Stones Broken' from the Bocks."- Those who know the writings of this great and original genius will require nothing more than a direction to apply for these extracts from his unpublished manuscripts. The larger public to whom the name of Hawker of Morwenstow may signify little, but to whom the fruit of. every strong spirit's meditation is of value, will thank us for commending this little book to their attention. In an otherwise humdrum preface, Mr Byles Bays of Hawker that Vthe main, current of his thought ran in a channel of spiritual speculation, and he was forever seeking to reduce to concrete-' terms and express in eloquent words the mysteries of Christian revelation and the realm of spirit, which to him was a palpable reality, linking human nature with the divine." In spite of the number and weight of those who lament the submergence of the ■ world in a flood of materialism, we believe that those who are concerned with things of the spirit are more numerous than ever before. For these the note-' books of Hawker provide many helpful impulses to further thought and meditation. Nearly every note is a poem in the bud, and there are few indeed which will not give to a sensitive mind material for a day's thought, or more than a day's. (Oxford: Basil Blackwell). MAGAZINES, ETC. A new cheap magazine, "The Corner," issued by the enterprising house of Cassells, makes its appearance in a field which one would have • thought was already quite comfortably crowded. But the first number makes a good appeal for support, its contents including seven short stories by popular writers, of whom one is Berta Ruck, and a complete book-length novel by E. Phillips Oppenheim. If "The Corner" maintains the standard of its first number, it should, secure a good share of public support. Hutchinson's "Adventure Story" Magazine justifies its name, for .the ten stories and sketches in the September issue, of which one of the most exciting is by'' Sapper,'' are sensational and thrilling, full of, the mystery and romance of strange lands and people. The contents of the August "Novel" Magazine include a number of short stories by Eden Philpotts, W. L. George, Edgar Wallace, and others, a serial by E. Phillips Oppenheim, some jokes, and one of 0. Henry's stories, "Let Me Feel Your Pulse." The magazine will appeal to readers of varied tastes. The "Bed" and "Yellow" magazines claim the same class of readers, people who like their fiction to be humorous or sensational, with here and there a touch of romance. Both cater well for the tastes of a wide clientele, and the August issue of the "Bed" and the two September issues of the "Yellow," each with something like a dozen short stories, besides verses, are fully up to the average. Part 9 of "Peoples of All Nations" fully sustains the high reputation won by this valuable and interesting publication. Sir Basil Thomson deals with Island life in the South Seas, and other writers describe thd Channel Islands, Gibraltar, Malta, and Cyprus. The photographs are, as always is the case with this publication, of extraordinary variety and interest, adding greatly to the value of the articles they illustrate. (Through H. P. i Dobbs, Christchurch.)