REPRINTS AND NEW EDITIONS

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29856, 23 June 1962, Page 3

REPRINTS AND NEW EDITIONS

Age of Consent. Bv Norman Lindsay. Ure Smith. 236 PPMore than 25 years after it was written, Mr Lindsay’s "Age of Consent” is now oublished for the first time in Australia. It is easy to see why it was orginally rejected. Very straight-laced people might at times be offended by the lyrical frankness of the author’s descriptions: and the title is probably misleading. All the same, sex plays only a small part in this novel: Cora Ryan, prospective readers wav be assured, is no Lolita. Bradley Mudgett, right up to the last page, is living only for his art. He is a landscape painter and something of a recluse: in order to devote himself *o marine subjects, he makes his way to a forsaken shack on the southern New South Wales coast. More or less by accident, he includes Cora in his picture. "The Oyster Catcher.” She proves to be a patient, silent model, and this suits the artist very well. She. in her turn, is pleased to earn a few shillings, which her grandmother, who spends everything on gin. knows nothing about. A variety of accidents upsets this idyllic arrangement. First. Bradley has an unwelcome visitor in young Podson, a bank clerk avoiding the police, and next Cora’s grandmother forms dark suspicions about what is happening. Here are two problems for Mr Lindsay tn solve, and it will be agreed that he deals with them very neatly. "Age of Consent” is illustrated by the author. His pen and ink sketches are reminiscent of the old Sydney “Bulletin.” Older readers of the book will appreciate them for that reason.