SWEET SEVENTEEN.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 433, 16 February 1909, Page 3

SWEET SEVENTEEN.

• • .'Why "should- sweet. seventeen -be bo ferocious in'lier literary, tastes? The ladies /who write;for. the maiden of seventeen usually, provide her Vv'ith >rpmances_ of'the gentlest; - with mild domestic liappsnings, and a little - : -S; love. This is not to say that the maiden roads the; books written for.her. She is much more likely t-ocruvofor romantic; ad-, venture/ or. love' stories of. a more passionate " nature, and whoa'.-she comc-s to write stories ; herself—well, wd have seen, in New Zealand what,: strenuousviolent fiction, can be proi duced'^y], tender. : -age,. and now ■ - it .seems'.that; ono of the. most. bloodthirsty K novels'written in/recent years was tho work of. a girl of seventeen. ; ,' -. . '•' • " It'was., aboiit "two years ago-(says an American paper- roviewihg Marjorie Bowen's latest; book, "The Sword Decides") that. a gentie-";English.,&aideniof;;/\seyenteen. .years ' was iinspirejl'to produce' a ijtignlarly ferocious - ■ - romance,; entitled';-' 'The' Viper:;of. Milan " iwhich' attracted ''considerable': comment- at .the time, chiefly on account of its, incongruous . authorship. ... ■•'/ yV--Now. this .'same"^young; 'woman of medieval ! i sympathies has delivered, herself of a second romance" of.;the; 'tigerish type;- and- one 'even v-. more : terrifying -thaii^was; -its':. .■■:f;,;:^ha^:!bec'ajfee : \the''i'arch : -aßsissin." ; 'this. ; time'' ,V. is a woman .instead of a man. -.V\- ;.- ' V '. The scenes in. "The Sword Decides" are . laid in the' fourteenth century, and the story is founded •' on the calamitous and sinister events- in!the ■ career,v.of; Queen Giovarina of . Naples, sft-'er that august,. handsome, aud. :' : r ; veiled v.contempt, .the ,'uncouth: Andreas of Hungary; Poor Andreas, had a hard ; time: . of it; frqnj.-, the -beginning, - but:being after all a. most unpleasant brute,' who was wont to.-weep copiously.-.when trpuble sore beset . ■ him, : he;quite fails to arouse our sympathy, v. even when .ho meets an awful death at.the :■ hands 0f..-fifteen '..assassins hired ' by . the queen. ;The description of . this .gruesome tragedy, by the way, is instinct with power ;Y,/'V-';."King-, Lndovib comes .hot-foot. tolNaples to . :i : v murder; of his brother, and sue-- -; cumbsyat first. to- tho wiles -of the .queen;Subsequently the monarch dallies with some fair dames of tho court-, and then wo have chapters teeming- with jealousy, rage, jri*'irig^and;iiiore; i murderA\vhich last tho king . .escapes, together with tho plague, ,by a sudden .and well-timed flight to -Hungary. ..Thd . story is crude, -exaggerated, and ,:,; gloomyS-imt;'withal.this ;grim .romance holds .the: reader's, interest, from beginning . to/end;! .Wiien.Miss Bpweii. gets : lesrns theyyirtue fof restraint; she is likely v tojdo some.remarkable work.". " ■;-.'i: : Vlt;wpuld;;be/a''imsta'kd T to 'think'that this. . authoress -is'; . sign'-; ofy. the times,; that; it -is peculiarly' a . 'characteristic . oEj this .-.feminist.- century. In , )io/rwn^y-pubMed : --life:..of Julie de Les- . pinasse, who was, it. will bo remembered, the; original-for theportrait; of"Lady Hose's'. .'Daughter,", there.-is .-a staggering story told ; quite in a casual-..way of-a French - schoolfirl, -who'/ though; educated at - a convent,; eard a great.'.deal about : tho fashionable; world,' its scandals and gallantries, heard ' : . apparently in;-detail and. with; mentionof names.'; She was of a;jonrnalistic : mind, and promptly made . mdiscrcet copy -■ of these stories; producing - in i those' cloistered;- shades : a novel which, she presently published, to the • : distress of fashionable Paris. .1 There. was: a • • groat - to-do;i-people'* in*ythe 'highest' circles unere - Bcandalised, and .th-at gentle littlo ; in' the 'gr'ey conVent te; languish'; for 'a .term/ ;.-'v a prisoner in tho. terrible Bastille. That ,'was •• what happened to ''. tho',: too-daring :; authoress' in her teens-over,a hundred years ago. Our* : is an age of liberty. • ; -''';- :■ -o-.'/- r;.-.■:<-?!