NEW NOVELS

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22201, 18 September 1937, Page 18

NEW NOVELS

POTTER'S EMPIRE The False Nero. By Lion FjMchtwanand Tombs Ltd. Nothing else that HerTFeuchtwanger has done since Jew Suss » nearly so good as this bold and strong development of a few sentences of ancient gossip «an Imperial impostor. Years after Nero had died, the tale is, a man amaz ingly like him in looks passed himself off in Rome's Eastern provinces as the Emperor, set up his authority, 'SdJ maintained it for some tang gS tlfeToS-afce Vag Sr? heaved to even -cccjmta. when the governor, Cejomua, over taxed him; and his method was to exdoit the resemblance between Nero and. the potter Terence, a fellow who had more than the figure and features to carry out the de he had an actor's skill m pSying a part, plus the dangerous Sfflty half P to persuade *%*****£ the sham was no sham andacjm pelling, demagogic gift of V„ r pnee was an instrument, there could fash-nbu not completely control; and^ the pot ter-emoeror moving m the compn cited politics of the outer Empire, was oart puppet, part wilful power, 7uve S tiiS Si to betray bott "»£ self and his creator. He gamed his following, both Poplar a nd official, Rome itself was obliged to let him go his way unhindered, rather than nrovoke trouble in the East. Herr Feuchtwanger invents no mipenal acts of any great scope for the: false Nero-a wise restraint, by,. wM collision with history is avoided, and the scenes of blood and terror which attend his imposture are the results less of his intent than of his helplessness. In the end the conspiracy broke down, and Terence and two of his immediate associates were crucified, John of Patmos being a witness. Varro, whose account with Ceionius was closed by the Roman T?Ssury* refund of 6000 sesterces and the unfortunate governors recall, had his escape made good for him by the King of Parthia The great game over the wrongful tax was over. ~ . This story has extraordinary animation and the reader will be curiously dull who does not fohow its evolution with eager attention and curiosity. That it is so distinct a satire upon modern dictatorships as the publishers suggest is hard to see. Whether it is intended as such a commentary or not hardly matters. INHERITANCE Legend for Sanderson. By Vance Palmer. Angus and Robertson, Lto. (65.) Mr Vance Palmer is one of the Australian novelists whose work is consistently faithful and good. The central figure of this book is a young man whose life lies under the shadow of his father's reputation, which varies from that of a faithful friend to a swashbuckling, unscrupulous adventurer —according to the person who tells the story and old Sanderson's influence upon him. Old Sanderson went -to North Queensland when the country was young, when life was real and earnest, and when there was no use for the weakling. Old Sanderson was not weak; he was overbearingly strong, and proud of his own strength and invincibility. Separated from his wife, a woman temperamentally unsuited to the blustering pioneer, and from his young son, Sanderson carved out a new career with extra-marital consolations, but in the end died broken in health and fortune. His son, Neil, steps into the picture as the book opens, his mind prejudiced against his father through his mother's influence. But Neil is a chip off the old block, with more balance than old Sanderson. He too was to fight his way through life; but he first had to rid himself of the inhibitions imposed by the legend for Old Sanderson. Neil worked on sugar cane farms and then became a fisherman in partnership with a sardonic Russian whose philosophy first attracted and then revolted him. The pictures of their life ashore and afloat are among the best efforts in the book. Mr Palmer makes his characters vital and their environment, a sizable North Queensland seaport, with its varied population, interesting and realistic. MELODRAMA AMONG THE BEES The Man That Looked on Glass. By Noel Forrest. Hodder and Stoughton. 317 pp. From W. S. Smart Alastair suffered a nervous breakdown, in middle age, and his wife Lois and he moved with their children, Ronald and Marjorie, to the peace of the country. They were very happy, living simply enough at Red Roofs, where Alastair went in for bees with no little success; and it seemed that their peace could not be interrupted or destroyed. But the grand and almost overwhelming shock came. Central to the disturbance was a murder; and the man who loved Marjorie seemed so certainly guilty that only her faith in him remained unshaken. In fact, he was sheltering another, who did not even know what he had done; and the truth would never have come out had not an extraordinarily enterprising young American, Imogen Vandergilt, hired a burglar to steal the diary which enabled strange events to be reconstructed before an even stranger jury. . . . "What Imogen had to do with it need not be explained; but her ingenuity and a few legacies bring back peace about the beehives at Red Roofs and happily /settle the affairs of more than one' pair of lovers. The story is entertainingly incredible.

LEMMY CAUTION, G-KIR j Dames Don’t Care. By Peter (W ney. Collins. 281 pp. “■*'* Lemmy—or Lemuel H.— is Mr Peter Cheyney’s America* detective, of whose exploits top have previously been Readers to whom this third q* comes first will reach out for tfae others and for the next to come—if they like Lemmy’s language which goes (and keeps on going) like this: “Here’s the way it is.” I tell her “This guy Gran worth Aymes bticsß himself off last January. Some taae before he does this he has given hi* wife two hundred grand worth of Dot, lar Bonds. O.K. After his suicide Sj* gets up to some dump near Ikfci Sorings an’ tries to cash one of these bonds at the bank. Well, it js I get stuck on the job an’ I’ve been musclin’ around plenty, but I ain’t doing myself any good. . . .’ So Lemmy told Paulette, whom he searched out because he heard she “used to get around with Gres, worth Aymes plenty”—and told her; too of his suspicion that Granworfe had not bumped himself off but hai been bumped, that it was Henrietta who had bumped him, and that ah* knew all about the phoney bond; whether she had got them ft m Granworth or had substituted them for the genuine ones. Then Paulette told Lemmy something that startled him plenty. .. . This book a brainily put together, thrilling, aorprising. The Lemmy language a worth an effort. THE MONKSBURY GROUP Country Dance. By Gideon Clark, lar Nicholson and Watson Ltd. SSm Through Whitcombe and TtaaSl Ltd. “I want you all to drink to the soecess of the Monksbury group," Aaat went on. ‘‘lts objects are to astte damned well, help each other. Hie k harmony, and make its mark ap* English letters.” “And return a proht upon Anuk cottages,” Oscar whispered “I give you the toast of the Unto, bury group,” Anna concluded. . .. Champagne was poured down meat fifty throats. Mr Poilinger rose and puffed and ijew and stammered a lei congratulatory phrases. “He writes a little better than It speaks,” said Oscar judicially. Anna, who had money and an «« to the main chance and who lid written one successful play ad fancied her .genius, established k Dorset a literary settlement in cottages she bought and rented to Oe group. There was Oscar—“ Snap —Humbert, a critic of the “advanced school,” who “like so many CTltfcl had private means.” There jm John Carberry, who wrote thnQa* and in spite of his drunkenness art fits of depression was “anarf* There was Gertrude Venning, Hit “modern” novelist, couragew* knowledgeable, and sophistfeptaji Among the minor groupers Carberry’s wife, Marian, the “gMt gossip-monger and whisperer d. luscious secrets,” Gervase, Anssti pet man, and Tony Bayes, Gerlraki discarded lover, for whom her heel was still sore. Mr Clark has bee the components of a very good satirical piece, directed against tie absurder aspects of literary Ufe nt fashion. Romance and mystery vary the interest of his story. Two men outside the group greatly disturbed it —the handsome Ante Gusterton, and Hugh Farland, w* Ih! was working as a farm-hand because he genuinely loved country life Readers will like Mr Clark’s sort«' justice to his characters, his ffcßl!| wit, and his pictures of thqjjjjpp scene and its native characters: ARCHIE BURFORD AGA® The Diva’s Emeralds. By Victor Clare. George G. Harrap ud ft Ltd, 275 pp. Detective story—murder storytMr MacClure breaks this too rep* I identity very successfully in his no* case for Inspector Archie When the celebrated singer, Anisina, left her theatre, she had W even more celebrated emeralds u® her, or thought she had; and te companions thought so toa Bd when she reached her hotel die certainly did not have them. fact that she had been visited®** ing an interval by Mr Henry w greatly interested Archie Btcdße* for Mr Henry Holly was otha*» known to. him as Claude the lifter. But how to get oyer Jg clear evidence that Ambrosma W** had the emeralds much later, that when she lost them Claudejte far away at supper in the Granflte Grill? Burford’s investigations w* him across the Channel, where* found much to engage his attemg* in the career and tastes of the lionaire Proponides, a noddgti quaintance, at least, of Mr WP Burford’s work is a pleasure to low, as before; but is it possible he has begun to talk a little W pompously than he did? MURDER OF A BLACKMAttI* Tempt Me Not. By Anthony y? mouth. Rich and Cowan pp. Through Whltconrte » Tombs Ltd. A writer of crime stories, Rhodes was haunted by the that his preoccupation with ma* would some day make a mtfy* of him. He had expressed fear to some friends, .and ” laughed at for it. on the night ** he found his young wife in t*** and drew from her the story of unhappy experience and the nte of Anthony Rodd, who had blackmailing her ever left the house, carrying a .. . Such a weapon. InSpySi Treadgold decided, had killed whose death he was sort to in gate next morning; and it a*** much trouble him to discover * i connexion with Denise to build on it a gallows for But Treadgold suspected I vious. open-and-shut case. j. excellent fellow; and his SUC discovering the truth hidden the obvious deserves if little plot devices under hypnosis and uoaDit ties offend purists m this so»* literature.