SOME RECENT FICTION

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2486, 12 June 1915, Page 9

SOME RECENT FICTION

"THE MAN OF IRON." In "Between Two Thieves." the author of "The Dop Doctor," Miss Clothildo Graves, or, as she prefers to call herself on a title page, "Richard Dehan," took the Crimean War for the leading motif of hor story. In her latest novel, "The Man of Iron" (Win. Hoinemann, per George Robertson and Co.), she gives hor readers a story which by reason of its subject must challenge comparison with Zola's "Debacle." The principal figure is Bismarck, and the story is almost solely concerned with the Franco-Prussian war. A sentimental interest is, of (xmrse, provided, and Miss Graves may bo oomplimented upon having created a very original and likeable hero- in tho young war correspondent Creagh, whoso calling, plus his interest in a very charming French girl, leads him into so many curious and exciting adventures. But after all, it is Bismarck, the "Man of Iron," the cunning, but able and eminently masterful German master of statecraft, Bismarck, tho real founder nf the German Empire, ujwn whom the author chielly directs her limelight. Ho is not always an heroic figure, and in Germany, no doubt, the portrait may bo regarded as more of a caricature than an acceptably truthful presentation of the Great Chancellor. Miss Graves paints him as being almost ridiculously garrulous, and although Bismarck was notoriously a. great reneliernian, some of the author's doscriotions

of his prowess at the lestivo board are surely exaggerated. The story is far too long—it runs into eight hundred and odd pages —but it contains many stirring pictures of war. It was written before the present struggle commenced, but in her preface Jliss Graves assures us that sho sees "no reason to blot a line" she has writen. "For tho Germany of 1870 was not tho Germany of 1915." Perhaps not, not altogether, but there are instances of German brutality quoted in Miss Graves's pages which show clearly that much the same spirit of barbarism which, in its hideous revelation in Belgium and elsewhere during tho present war has so greatly revolted the civilised world, was by no means absent from the Prussian military mind forty-five years ago. The author makes Moltke say: "You have told this stinking rogue that decent German men make not war upon women and children. When the time •comes that we are guilty of such things, Germany will be near her fall I" Moltke did not know everything that was done in 1870 by German officers and soldiers, but what would he have thought of that terible indictment brought by the Bryco Commission recently against the German officers and soldiers of to-day ? "The Man of Iron" is, in its way, a wonderful literary achievement. If the stage be too crowded at times and the actual plot difficult to follow; if the stage machinery can be heard creaking and groaning behind the scenes; if melodrama —with some very tiresome comic relief —sometimes takes the place of convincing realism; these faults may well be pardoned in view of the general effect, which is undeniably picturesquo and striking. "FORLORN ADVENTURES." "Forlorn" is, I fear, only too suitable an adjective to apply to the very dreary experiences of life which befall the principal characters in Mr. and Mrs. Egertou Castle's latest novel, "Forlorn. Adventures" (Methuen and Co.). It is difficult to understand how the authors of so many clever and entertaining novels could have deliberately sat down to write a story on such a depressing theme as that which is here dealt with. The wife of a Highland gentleman, after fourteen years of apparently undisturbed happiness with her husband, suddenly leaves her home under circumstances which apparently point to her infidelity with an Italian painter. The husband at once divorces the lady, and after a time marries again, mucli to tho regret of bis brother, a Roman Catholic priest, who firmly believes in the first wife's innocence. This he sets himself out to prove, and does eo, the lady, on her side, acknowledging that she had left her husband to revenge what she had imagined to have been a pre-marital intrigue in South Africa. The husband dies, but the first wife reaches the ancestral castle in time for mutual explanations, and for forgiveness of what, on both sides, will be considered by the reader almost incredible stupidity. "SMITH." "Smith." by AY. Somerset Maugham and David Gray (Duffield and Co., New York, per George Robertson and Co.), is a light and decidedly amusing story founded upon Mr. Maugham's successful play of the same title. An Englishman, still comparatively young, returns from a long residenco in Rhodesia to find his only sister whom, as a boy he had idolised, a selfish society woman, living only for bridge, and the ordinary pleasures of the so-called

"smart set." Tho Rhodcsinn is in search of a good, sensiblo wifo, but the general atmosphere of tlio DallasBarkor household in South Kensington so disgusts him that ho finds conversation with the pretty housemaid, Smith—the only ically sonsible, efficient, and likeablo person ill the house a very agreeable change. Tho astonishment and disgust of his sister and brother-in-law and their social circle, wneh tbo visitor from South Africa falls in lovo with and eventually announces his attachment to Smith, may be guessed. The story is an amusing and efteotivo satire on the frivolity and inefficiency of a certain section of English society as it existed before the' war. "YOU NEVER KNOW YOUR LUCK." Sir Gilbert Parker's new story, "You Never Know Your Luck" (Hodder and Stoughton; per Whitcouibo and Tombs), makes good reading, although it is far from reaching tho high standard of some of the author's previous work, notably that fine novel, "The Judgment House." The 'scone is t a Western Canadian town where an Irish country gentleman, Crozier, is living under an assumed name, having left nis wealthy wife at home after having gambled away his own private fortune. A pretty Canadian girl falls in love with him, and when, as the result of a trial in which ho appears as a witness, the fact is disclosed that he is a married man, tho good-hearted Kitty devotedly sets to work to reconcile wife and husband. It is difficult to excuse the exact means —opening and reading the oontents of a private letter —by which the heroine accomplishes her task, but much may be paraoned to a girl who is capable of such self-sacrifice and devotion as Kitty. The disentanglement of Crozier's matrimonial puzzle is very skilfully managed, and as usual with this author, the Canadian local colour is picturesque and effective. Tho ?tory hardly exhibits tho author at his best, but it is very readable, To Correspondents. Northumbrian. —R. H. Forster, tho Northumbrian novelist, was born at Backworth, near Newcastle-on-Tyne, in 1867. Some of his novels are: "The Last Foray" (1903); "In Steel and Leather" (1904); "The Arrow of the North" (1906); "The Mistress of Aydon" (1907): "A Jacobite Admiral" (1908); "The Little Master" (1912). •