SOME RECENT FICTION.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1788, 28 June 1913, Page 9

SOME RECENT FICTION.

TWO NEW AMERICANS. Frederick Orin Bartlett's new story "The Guardian" (Boston; Small, Maynavdj per George Robertson and Co.) is a well-written, dramatic, and, in places, pathetic story of two brothers, lumbermen, in the forest country of Maine. The elder brother, Nat Page, is rough ot speech and manner, and unblessed with Rood looks, but a fine-principled, trueheartod fellow, the very antipodes of his younger brother, Gene, a'handsome, but lazy and dissolute wastrel. The elder brother loves a., village girl, Julio Moulton, but Julie, alas, prefers, until she knows him better,' the wastrel. Gene leaves home for Boston and becomes addicted to drink, but is befriended by and marlies a city working girl. When his wife is about to become a mother, the wastrel discovers that his .marriago was illegal, and forthwith callously deserts the poor woman and returns to his village. Meeting Julie, he induces her to'marry him, but the marriage is only one in name, for on his very'wedding day the wretched fellow gets drunk and poor Julie, so rapidly disillusioned, refuses to live with him. • Then Nat takes a hand and endeavours to reform 'the- wastrel. - Slowly, but 'surely, tho;,elder brother wins the girl's heart, and just as both recognise ■that they can no longer meet,'the wastrel goes down to a coastal town, "hits the booze/' to quote the great American language, and is fatally stabbed. The scenes in the lumber :eamp are replete with a vivid local colour, ..but the strength of history lies.in -the .author's.skilful con-' trasting of the two brothers' characters. A powerful, well-written story, but one which will, I fear, hardly pleaso those who believe that prohibition, in Maine, really means "no liquor." ■ The clergyman who ia full of zeal and who funis that .his fashionable city, congregation prefer a parson of tho "tame cat' variety Is a familiar figure, in American fiction. John Gait, tho hero of Fred Lewis Pattle's story, "The Breaking Point" (Boston i Small, Mnynard; per George Robertson and Co.), mortally offends.his wealthy and smug-faced "elders" by undertaking • female rescue work- He is scandalously maligned, and eventually resigns, not, however, before he gives tho elders a piece of his mind upon the difference between true Christianity and mere time-serving. Then he retiros to New York, engages in slum work, and dies. Mr. Pattie's novel is a powerful indictment of "respectable Chuxchianity," _ but there ■ are two sides to every question, and Gall, the hero parson, Is not a little hysterical,. and his dabbling in Theosophy, though no excuse for the severity with which h® is treated by the officials of his church, was, to say the least of it, ill considered. ELINORGLYN IN SMALL DOSES. "The Contrast, and Other Stories,", by Elinor Glyn . (Duckworth j per . George Robertson and Co.), is quite a proper book,. and may therefore ■ hugely. disappoint that section of tho reading publlo which found pleasure in the now notorious "Three Weeks" and the thinly-veiled "naughtiness" of the fair Elinor's earlier novels. The second.story in. the collection —tho title story of the book—"TTie Point of View" is the' most interesting of the series. It deals with the eudden awakening, at the Grand. Hotel of Rome, of ' passionate love, plus a big dose of worldliuess, in a demure tlnglish country maiden, the niece of a highly sedate and proper Anglican .parson. How that pretty ingenue, Miss Stella Ransom, succumbs to the volcanic lovemaking of a mysterious-but fascinating Russian prince—Mrs. Glyn seems to . have a curious penchant for love-making a la Russe—and jilts, at a day's notice, her' ascetic and priggish English fiance, the Rev. Eustace Medlicott, none less than it" bishop's chaplain, if you please, is told with some humour, but I refuse to bolievo in the reality of a Russian prince, with goodness knows how many millions of roubles a year, proposing marriage, at an hour or two's notice, to :a milk and watery country girl whom he meets for the first time at a table d'hote. As for the jilted chaplain, ho is- simply an atrocious caricature. "The Contrast," the opening, though not the title, story in the collection, is better stuff, but "Tho iTtonwood Ghost" is just cheap melodrama, and the' rest of the book is mero padding. Mrs. Glyn has sometimes shocked her readers. She must take care she does not boro them. TOPHAM'S FOLLY. It is pleasant to turn from Mrs. Glyn's laboured awl meretricious fiction to Mr. George Stevenson's pleasant, wholesome, and quietly charming story of English country life, "Topham's Folly" (London: John Lowe). Mr. Stevensons novel reminds me not a little 'Of Mrs. Blundell's sitories of English rustic life. It relates tho fortunes of two families, related to each other, tho Olivers and the Tophams, the central figure being a selfish, grasping, and unprincipled country lawyer, who cheats a poor woman., of good birth, but who had married a poor farm servant, out of a big legacy, and thereby lays the foundation of a fortune, which in the end he loses. His wife, a sweei>natured, good-hearted woman, takes the sido of her sons, to whoso engagements to good and pretty, but moneyless, girls the tyrant father greatly objects. Mr. Stevenson makes all theso people seem like everyday acquaintances to the reader, and his realism is none the less effectivo in that i:t is restrained. There is some exceptionally strong character-drawing in this book. Topham, the ambitious, but unprincipled, solicitor, would do credit to a Trollopo novel, and imt Trollope himself could liavo bettered if certain curate who for a time plays an important rolo in the comedy-drama enacted at the quiet little Yorkshire country, town of Bumthorpe. I ghsOl look tawd .with pleasure .to Jli.

Stevenson's next novel. # But the publisher has mado a sad mistake in putting such a horriblo pictme on tlio cover of the book (mino is a paper-backed copy). Tho opisodo depicted is not one of any outstanding iinportanco in tho story, and tho crudity of tho picture is worthy of a sixpenny shocker, whereas "Topham s L'olly" is an exceedingly delicate, finelywrought piece of work. If Mr. Lane imagines that the colonial reading public want such covers as this to induce them to buy a novel, he is greatly mistakon. SHORTER NOTICES. 'Tiro and Frost," by Maud Cruttwell (London: John Lane), has for its principal figuro a young Egyptian, PrinceLoufti Sabalieddine, a handsome, but essentially vicious and selfish young mail, whom "Claro Glynne, a young Englishwoman, devoted to art,and literature, .is foolish enough to marry because a doctor tolls h'CT that if she does not do so the Egyptian young gentleman will die. Loufti is an arrant bounder, and worso than a bounder, for lio deliberately loafs on tho money stupidly given him by a wealthy and very silly old American woman. Within a fortnight of his marriage ho abuses and ill-treats his wife, and a very littlo later is openly, scandalously unfaithful to her. A handsome and scheming Italian woman plots to secure the Cairene treasure, when once she learns that lie is coming into a vast fortune, and, fortunately for poor Clare, sho is able to divorce the good-looking waster. Tho tnoTal of tho book is that young English ladies should have as little to do as possible with ' fascinating Orientals. The background of the story is alternately Italy, Paris, and Switzerland. "Mysteries," by Mr. William Le Queux (Ward, Lock, and Co.; per S. and W. Mackay) is a collection of short, complete stories alleged by their author to have been based "upon actual facts as Teported to the various chiefs of the London and Continental police." Be this as it may, tlie stories, which deal for the most part with the exploits of daring and clever hotel and train thieves, professional gamblers, adventurous ladies with a past, with cosmopolitan rascaldom,-in fact, generally, are' well-.told, and certainly pos- • sess almost in excess the quality of sensational effect. Mr. Le Queux has his own public, and gives it exactly what it likes. The Askews (Alice and Claude of that ilk) have• imagined quite .an- originalvillain in the country solicitor, John Pleydell, who is the principal figure> in their latest story, "Poison" (George Bell and Sons; per Whitcombe and Tombs). Pleydell buys,by chance an. old bureau, in which he finds a curious collection of poisons of all kinds. After a time he becomes positively obsessed by a passion for studying the, lives and crimes of the mediaeval poisoners, but, up to a certain day in his life, all with most innocent intent. But the day comes when a rich woman stands, as ho thinks in tho way to his marriage witli a beautiful girl to whom he knows the wealthy Mrs. Latimer has willed her fortune. And then, alas, he puts to sinister use. the toxicological knowledge he had acouired-and the contents of certain phials in the old bureau. More than this I need not say, ea,ve to assure my Teaders that virtue and beauty. and true love triumph, and that the wicked Mr. Pleydell comes to a deservedly bad end. "Candle-light Days " . by Adeline M. Taskey (Cassell an<l Co.; per S. and Mackay), is a story, or rather a series of sketches, -of Canadian lifej—life m the far northern back-blocks of Ontario,- in tho! pre-railway "days. The privations ot the' adventurous pioneers, their simple virtues, their indomitable pluck and nevertiring industry, are described bv the authoress in a simple d ] rcct style. Attacks by Indians, and the:lynching of horsa thieves, supply an element of sensa-. tion, and there is also a touch of pretty romance. The story is based, to some extent, upon records of pioneer,life handert down bv older generations of settlers, and bears the impress of truth. As a picture of Canadian life before the construction of the great railways and .the flooding of the country with hundreds of thousands of immigrants every year,. Candle-light Days" is decidedly interesting