BOOKS & AUTHORS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2444, 24 April 1915, Page 5

BOOKS & AUTHORS

(By Liber.) SOME RECENT MICTION. THE KEEPER OF THE DOOR. A new story from the clever pen of Edith whose "Way of an Eagle," "The Rocks of Valpre," and other novels have_ achioved such widespread popularity,, is entitled "Tho Keeper of the Door (T. Fisher Unwin). Although certain characters in "The Way of an Eagle" made their reappearance • in the now story, it cannot properly ;be called a sequel to tile novel by which Miss Dell first made Tier name. Nick Rat-cliff©, the somewhat robustious hero of the earlier novel.' is re-introduced. He is now a high Government official and a staid', man, who plays the pood genius to his niece Olga, the heroine of the story. Olga is loved by two brothers, Max and Noel Wyndham. The former, 1 a clever young doctor, is • preferred, but through the scandalmongering of'a third man, one of the most odious characters to be met with in recent fiction, the match is, for a time, broken off, for Dr. Wyndham is accused of having deliberately allowed, even aided, a woman to die. The old problem as, to whether, in a case of positively incurable disease, it is justifiable io ''open the door" to a patient who is suffering the most intense agony, and whose case is completely hopeless, provides the leading motif in the story. The scene is, for the most part, laid in India, in a turbulent little native State, where the anarchistic section of the Young Hindu_ party Is very strong. Miss Dell is highly : successful with her local colour, and, as in her earlier novels, the action of the Btory is brisk, the leading incidents highly: dramatic, and the dialogue fresh and bright. Personally, I am beginning to weary not a little- of the stern, cold "strong man," whose firmness sometimes, to old-fashioned readers, seems to assume the form of deliberate rudeness, who is favoured as a hero by so many lady novelists of tho day. Also, one cannot help thinking that had Max Wyndham taken Olga Ratcliffe completely into his confidence much misery' provoking misunderstanding on both sides have beeh avoided. "The Keeper ii Q Door" is undoubtedly a strong, well-told storj;,,. which will add to Miss Dell s reputation sis a novelist. MRS. HUMPHREY WARD'S "SUFFRAGETTE" STORY. Mrs. Humphrey Ward has, in her written, many better novels than 'Delia Blanchflower" (Ward, 'Lock and Co., per _ Whitcombe and Tombs), but in the militant phase of the woman's franchise movement she has hit upon a subject - which, although just ' now not of special interest, is one which lends itself ■ very effectively to fictional treatment. Mrs. Ward is an anti-militant, and no doubt those who differ from her as to the suitableness of the weapons.to be justifiably employed by Mesdames Paukhurst and Company, may consider that she sometimes exceeds the bounds cf i'airjiess in her delineation of the militants ivho figure so prominently in her novel. Be this as it may, Mrs, Ward displays all her old quality of literary craftsmanship in this story of the, taming of the young, beautiful, and wealthy but emotional, and, to tell the truth, rather silly young lady, Delia Blanchflower, by her guardian, trustee —and lover,_ the retired. Indian' officer, Mark Wilmington, to whose chargo the handsome but erratic young , laay has been confided by her dead father, with the special injunction that she is to bo weaned of her ove'r-tijiistful. affection for her companion, Gertrude Maxvel ( who ia high in the councils and deep m the plots of the' "direct action" or anarchistio section of. the Suffragists. Winr.ington has a hard row to hoe before he achieves his task, but the contemplated destruction by the militants of a beautiful old manor house, the property of a Cabinet Minister who does not disguise his enmity to the sacred cause, finally competes licr disillusionment and the story ends just as the experienced novel reader sees, from the first, it must ond. The "Suffragettes" of the militant section may. jeer at Mrs. Ward's concessions to'sentiment, but the story ( is not written to make converts, but to entertain Mrs. Ward's always faithful army of admirers. And this, I should say, despite its occasional extravagances and absurdities, it is , likely to do "Delia Blanchflower" may be far from reaching the high standard set in "Marcella," or in "Fenwick'a Career," to say nothing of "Robert Elmere," the once famous,' but now half forgotten. Nevertheless, it is a story well worth reading. THE GREAT WHITE ARMY. That , popular author, Mr. Max Pemberton, is to be congratulated upon his latest effort,', "The Great White Army" (Cassell and Co., per S. and W. Mackay). It is not a war,' story of the present day, but it is none the less welcome on that account. Mr. Pemberton has skilfully utilised the story of the greatest military tragedy in history,' tho retreat of Napoleon's Grand Army from Moscow. How complete a debacle was that which overwhelmed Napoleon's army may be gathered from the one awful fact that of the 600,000 men who crossed the River Niemen in the month of June, 1812, but 20,000 famished, frost-bitten spectres staggered across tho Bridge of Koono in the December of ithe same year. Mr. Pemberton's narrative is placed in the mouth of a Surgeon-Major-, a veteran in Napoleon's Guard, whose young nephew is a captain in that famous regiment. The reader will follow the adventures of the uncle and nephew, and, incidentally, of the French, lady who is loved by tho young officer, with the keenest interest. Mr. Pemberton has worked up his historical material very cleverly and has written a highly dramatic and interesting story_ which should add substantially to his reputation as a writer of sensational -fiction. The chapter in which the crossing of tho Beresina is described is a piece of exceptionally vigorous and effective writing, TWO NEW "AMERICANS." Mr. Arthur Staniwood Pier's novel, "The Women We Marry" (Houghton, Mifflin Co.; per George Robertson and Go.)', is a very, good sample of presentday American iictioii, in which matrimonial misfits are the subject. The sfory Is of two "husbands and two wives, Graham . Rapallo and his wife ILosamond, and George Brandon and his spouse Dorothy. Graham is jilted by Kosa'mijnd, and, after a time marries Dorothy. Neither marriage is at first attended by unalloyed happiness, for Rosamond's thoughts come back too frequently to Brandon, and he, on his side, has to face the consequences of his wife inheriting a huge fortune, and becoming an idle society butterfly, who I refuses the responsibilities of maternity, and drifts so far away from ber husband, who is passionately devoted to bis profession as a doctor, that she comes perilously near to complete moral shipwreck. Mr. Pier creates more than one tangled problem, tho solution of which may be- a difficult task for his readers. But he cleverly extricates the four leading characters from a trying situation, from which both wives and husbands cmergo with honour and with fair promise of far greater happiness than they have, hitherto experienced. A very wholesome, interesting story; with some clever characterisation and equally clever dialogue. It is no reflection on Mr. James B. Connolly's originality to say that the stories contained in the volume entitled "Wido Colours'- (Scrihtiora I V'l' GewiM. Mettiioa and Ca.j axa. SURm-

fcive of both Kipling and Conrad. Like tlieso writers, Mr. Connolly knows and loves tie sea, and can make the seaman's life a very real thing even to a landsman reader. He is a. born storyteller, with a special gift for the dramatic. Whether he is giving us some yarn, of the present-day sailors' life on the American coast, or/ as in his West African story, "Captain Blaise," taking us back to tho days of the slave trade; or, again, whisking us away to far-away Poruj and making an adventurous Yankee captain take the part of an amateur matador in a bull light at Lima, he writes with such an engaging vigour and entrain that he carries bis readers away with him in one long fever of excitement. Those who read this book of Mr. Connolly's will not readily forget Don Quixote Kieran, Pump Man, and Cogan Capeador, nor will tho quiet heroism of a Scandinavian ship carpenter.. named Jan Tingloff, who rescues a poor woman from her awful surroundings in New York, readily fade from the memory. MR. ANSTEY'S FUN. _It must be' a good thirty years ago since Mr. Anstey made us roar over the misadventures of that unfortunate city merchant, Mr. Bultitude, in his weirdly humorous story, "Vice Versa," Since then Mr. Anstey must have written enough short stories and sketches to fill a volume of "Punch," to which periodical he has now been for many years a regular contributor. Selections from his "Punch" work'have appeared in book form from time to time, the latest collection, now before mo, being entitled "Percy and Others" (Metiiuen •and Co.). Mr. Anstey's humour is just as whimsical as ever. As a matter of fact the hero of the title story is a bee! But the author's descriptions of bee life, manners, and customs, are, ! need scarcely say, on very different lines from "those adopted by, say, the late Lord Avebury, or by Maurice Maeterlinck, and his English rival in bee lore, Mr. Tickner Edwards. Mr.' Anstey gives us, too, some sketches of the kind he made so popular in his "Voces Populi," but lis wittiest and most amusing effort is a little article entitled "How to Make Poetry Pay," in which the author pokes some very delightful fun at the "missing line" and similar allegedly "literary" tompetitions at one time so popular. "THE LAW-BREAKERS." Bidgwell Cullum is an author who has come to the front quite noticeably during tho past two or' three years. It seems only the other day since that fine story of his, "The Way of the Strong," won such widespread praise, and here in his most recent effort, "The Law-Breakers" (George Bell and Sons; per Whitcombe and Tombs) he' scores another "decided hit." 'Che plot centres round the liquor-smuggling traffic which goes on ,in a prairie State where prohibition rules, the heroine and' her brothers being engaged in the unlawful business. It is the irony of fate that the man who. loves her, all unconscious, for a time at least, of her complicity in the smuggling traffic, is a police inspector, specially entrusted with the task of breaking up the illicit trade in whisky and bringing the offending traders to punishment. , From this situation soveral highly romantic incidents arise, and tragedy threatens, at one time, to block the course-of love. Mr. Cullum is, as usual, quite at home in his pictures of Canadian life, and, as in "The Way of the Strong," again dis- | plays his ability to build up an original and effectivo plot. An excellent story qf its kind.