NEW FICTION

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26639, 26 January 1952, Page 3

NEW FICTION

The Quiet Gentleman. By Georgette Heyer. William Heinemann Ltd 352 pp. This is another of Miss Heyer’s always acceptable novels of the Regency period. Here Earl St. Erth returns from the Continent, Where he has been fighting in the war against Napoleon, to his ancestral seat, Stanyon, in Lincolnshire. To all his return is not welcome, but the softspoken Earl discloses that he is quite firm enough under his gentle exterior to deal with any hostility. It is when several attempts are made on his life that the plot thickens. However the Earl shows himself a shrewd and resolute person; and he is able himself to discover his most unlikely would-be murderer. This is a pleasant story in Miss Heyer’s best romantic tradition. Sylvester. Edward Hyams. Longmans, Green and Co. 199 pp. Edward Hyams is well known to readers of the “New Statesman and Nation for his frequent contributions to that journal. Hyams tells us that he nas never shaken off completely the influence of French satire to which he was introduced at an early age and his book “The Astrologer,” most notable amongst his publications, has been described as “a whirlwind satirical fantasy.” In “Sylvester” he has given us another such book packed with humour, satire, and brilliant ingenuity. To his friends Sylvester was an amiable junior officer in the R.N.V.R.—to the -wyld at large he was unwittingly to become the mysterious and portentous figure who held in his hands a power as terrible as that of the H-bomb. Radar Type 998 leads Sylvester into every situation imaginable, and from each one he is extricated by Mr Hyams with a skill which is at once entertaining and surprising. From cover to cover “Sylvester’’ is a mine of penetrating satire in which irreverent mockery is combined with acute commentary to make excellent entertainment. The Witch’s Thorn. By Rath Park, Angus and Robertson, Ltd. 220 pp. This story by the author of the prizewinning novel. “Harp in the South,’’ is King Country town in the 1920 s. It is a mixed Tittle community. mostly of the Roman Catholic faith, and the character round whom the story is built is an unwanted little girl, Bethell Jury, daughter of a flighty, single mother and a ne’er-do-well father. There is some splendid character-drawing in this tragic story of a child's misfortunes; and the author has faithfully reproduced the atmosphere .and .background of a King Country village. THE MALINDENS (Longmans. 308 pp.) is a domestic novel set' in Edwardian times by the well-known British writer of broadcast serials, Jonquil Antony. Like “Mrs Dale’s Diary,” this story was originally written as a radio serial. It’s “listening figure” was estimated at 7,000,000. It is based on the Clapham Common doctor’s household in which the author herself grew up. In the character of the domineering mother who loves her only son so much more than her three daughters, one guesses at touches of real experience from Jonquil Antony’s own life too. But with the unfailing flair of the really popular writer, she has contrived to make the rest of the Malinden family suitably differentiated types of Edwardian womanhood. Janet, the eldest, wants to be a doctor, is forbidden, joins the suffragettes, is imprisoned, and finally succeeds in becoming matron of a hospital (the family house, which she has contrived to buy up in secret); the other two are more domesticated —one marries, and the other sacrifices herself to looking after her mother and brother. The father is unlovable, but constantly unfaithful. There is plenty of good melodrama here; it is not difficult to imagine that it was a complete success as a radio serial, and it has been skilfully transposed into a novel. THE EDIFYING BISHOP (Peter Davies. 232 pp.) by Magdalen KingHall is an entertaining historical novel about Frederick Hervey, Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry (1730-1804), an unconventional bishop belonging to that curious family of whom someone once said, “God made men, women and Herveys.” That the bishop in his own time aroused strong feelings both of admiration and hostility is demonstrated by the amusing selection 'of contemporary judgments on him printed on the title page of this book: the poet Gray said of him, “Sometimes from vanity he may do the right thing;” John Wesley accounted him "exemplary in all parts of public worship, plenteous in good works;” Horace Walpole called him “that mitred Proteus, the Count-Bishop, whose crimes cannot be palliated, but by his profligrate folly.” He provides good material for a historical novelist, and the reader is bound to follow his activities in England, Ireland, Venice, Rome and Naples with lively interest. THE HEART OF FAME (Longmans 448 pp.) by Giles Playfair, is an engrossing story of an actor who was consumed with a perpetual desire to escape from the fame and publicity that came with success. What be wanted was the simple life, and eventually, after purposely ruining his career and breaking the hearts of all the people who had loved and supported him in his rise to fame, he escaped into obscurity and died in the Manchester suburb where he had spent his last years contentedly tending the garden. Improbable as the idea is, the novel is capably written, and the theatrical background is authentic—as one would expect from the son of Nigel Playfair and the biographer of Kean.

THE LONG ROAD (Hale 320 pp.) by Netta Muskett, is a dramatic and absorbing story about an Austrian girl named Franzi. After an idyllic childhood in the Tyrolean mountains, she lives through a prolonged period of misery when it is discovered, after the invasion of Austria by the Nazis, that there is a strain of Jewish blood two generations back on her fathers side of the family. She manages eventually to escape to Switzerland and from there to Chile where, after an unhappy marriage of convenience which had facilitated her entry into the country, she finally finds normal peace and happiness. This is the typical history of many refugees of this period—though Franzi has more good luck than many—and the warm-hearted sincerity with which it is written will commend it to the general reader. KISSING KIN (Hale. 352 pp.) by Oswyth Thane, fc a continuation of the story of the families of AngloAmerican cousins who figure in the author’s four earlier novels in the Williamsburg series: “The Light Heart,” “Ever After” Stranger” and "Dawn’s Early Light. Miss Thane is a sort of minor Upton Sinclair who puts her fictitious characters right in the midst or historical events. “Kissing Kin takes us through the first World War in the first section, back to ± America for the twenties, and over to Europein the thirties for the third part. The reader soon finds his way about among the complicated! relationships of the numerous characters who Will be old acquaintance to re^“ e T®. P 1 earlier novels in the series. The Richmond twins, Camilla and Calvert, are the central figures this time. No one can fail to be impressed at Miss Thane’s indefatigable industry as a writer the family trees extending over several generations given on the inside covers are alone evidence of tne energy and care she Dilts into ner work, and the references to the help of several libraries in her preface are equally formidable. .ENGAGEMENT IN BANGKOK (Jonathan Cape. 286 pp.) by F Thompson, has its setting Ragland, and partly in Siam. A young English businessman, an ordinary Philistine type, frustrated by his uncle s tyrannous management of the family ™A. decides to try hjs luck, im mrwe exotic surroundings. But the resulting story is not ts original as one, w °~~ hope. There is ah affair with a matried Englishwoman, and a (more suitable) romance with a young American pri, ending in the ‘engagement of tne title. The local colour is sparse, being mostly restricted to the presence of a «w Siamese servants, to whom we Speak P^ gi ?* EngllS Vn?iand "hse life goes on much as in Engiana. gdth games of football, parties, and