BOOKS AND AUTHORS. BOOKS OF THE DAY SOME RECENT FICTION LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2669, 15 January 1916, Page 9

BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

BOOKS OF THE DAY

SOME RECENT FICTION

LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

''WITH OUR ARMY IN FLANDERS."

. One of the most valuable, certainly one of the most interesting descriptions we have yet had of the part played by a British Army in the oampaign on the [Western front is to he found m Mr. G. [Valentine Williams's book, •"With Our !Army in Flanders" (London, Edward Arnold). Mr. Williams acted ,as the accredited correspondent of th© "Daily Mail" at the General Headquarters of (Field-Marshal Sir John French, and speut the greater part, of six months with the British Army in Flanders. 'He has therefore enjoyed special facilities for seeing the life and work of tho British soldiers, and incidentally something of that of our gallant French allies, visiting, as he tells us lie has done, the trenches along practically the .whole front, and conversing with men of all ranks, and in" all kinds of positions, from the Commander-in-Chief downwards to the man in the sap-head Jen yards from the enemy.

Mr.. Williams, gives detailed descriptions of several of tho leading engagements, his account of t'he second battle of Ypres being specially complete and intensely interesting. - It was in this great jbattle that tne ; enemy tested the efficacy of their asphyxiating gas. That they were confident the'gas demon would "do the trick," and pave the way for a second and successful thrust' at Calais ivas proved by the immense accumulation of troops which had been transported through Belgium and massed behind their front for the purpose of pressing, home the advantage which, .with .overweening but sadly ' misplaced confidence, they felt convinced the gas would gain for them. As a matter of fact, the gas. proved a double-edged .weapon, for it is clearly established, says Mr. Williams, by the statements of prisoners, that the German soldiers ■"were terrified of their, gas-cylinders, and showed the utmost, reluctance to .advance immediately behind their gasfclouds."

; The author gives a long account of '"the capture and loss of Hill 60, paying a, special tribute of praise to the Dorsets and Devons for. the splendid gal- - lantry-they displayed in . the opening Jfcek of May. He says: The British Army.v has passed, through some stern trials in thiswar, but I doubt if any were more terrible than the ordeal of May 5 at Hill'6o. The sun shone hotly out of a..cerulean sky .on the slopes of tli9 hill,'Avhfere. the dead lay in thick ;clusters on;tho ; grass, stained yellow by ,the, gas-fumes; , The railway cutting ■ was a, shambles, dead and wounded,, lying in places so thickly: that our-men-had ; to move •them.o.ut. of the. way,fin order to - pass.'vj soldiers,; who went . along'the"cutting' where the' shells were with reverberating explosions, ' were' positively 'sickened at the sights'they saw, and'filled with fierce anger :agaihst the fiends who had perpetrated this nameless crime. / ■ . It is gcHKlv.to learn that after ' the battle of Ypres the German hospitals at Ghent and o'ther of the enemy's bases in jßelgium'contained many Teuton- victims ot' gas poisoning, ana that "their sufferings caused the military authorities, the greatest embarrassment, owing !to the etfect produced upon the other German, wounded in the wards."

. In a chapter entitled "The Arbiters !jo{ Victory," and headed by the quotation, "The issue is now one between Krupp's and Birmingham," from, a statement made to ill'. James Grady, the British Labour M.P., by Sir John iFrench, the author deals exhaustively with the munitions questions. To a ; -very iarge extent this, is an artillery war, and much, practically everything, depends upon the gunners possessing a more than merely liberal supply of shells. Says Mr. Williams: Nothing puts life , into weary troops like the sound of their own • shells screaming through the air' and mingling with the noise of'the enemy's guns. , Nothing, in the same way, puts a greater strain on - men, even the most seasoned and hardened troops, ■ than to have to sit. still' under . a fierce bombardment, and te. know that their guns must remain inactive because ammunition is limited to' bo many rounds a day per gun. • ; And then Mr. Williams 1 tells how our success at' Hooge on 'August 9. was achieved. " For once—almost -for- the first time—the guns had a free, hand in the matter of ammunition.lt was due. . to their thorough and devastating preliminary, bombardment, and their splendid support afterwards,'that ■ our infantry were i able, to recapture the lost trenches,.and to hold,,them against all German attempts to win them. bacE. . The men's comments were fierce and heartfelt.' "Ah! they're getting it.at last tho —si ' That'll learn 'em! Boom!"'(as a shell exploded with a deafening crash). And when tho storming-party went forward it was irresistible. The men "had their tails up," as the Army says. ' Not only did' they , hurl the Germans .out; of their trenches', but they held tho positions.' Every time the Germans massed for a 'counter-attack bur guns were ready for them, 'and swept- tho attack aivay before it had properly developed,

I had marked quite a dozen or so passages in Mr. Williams's fascinating book for quotation purposes, but an embarras do choix, plus considerations of available space, forbids extracts describing tho actual figjiting, Perhaps the most interesting points brought out in, tho book are the splendid comradeship of the British 'Boldiers, their unfai!ing_ cheerfulness, and their equally splendid regard for discipline. In the chapter Headed "Billets in the Field," I find a vein of ■ pleasant ■ humour, in grateful contrast to the .grim records of the battles. Mr. Williams gives, for instance, a list of Tommy Atkins's often very comically phonetic renderings of Flemish and French placenames. Thus, I find, Armentiores (a town of which in, the later seventies of the last century "Liber" could, as of Lille, Douai, Valenciennes, and Cambrai, have drawn a very accurate streot map) masquerading as "Arm-in-tears." The Normandy seaport of Et-aples, beloved, of British _ artists in search of the picturesque, is known to Tommy as 'Eatables"; Haverskerque, as "Haversack"; and Halteblast, as "Hell-and-Blast." : _ The amusing thing is, says Mr. Williams, that.the wholo Army has adopted this nomenclature. You will hear Staff Officers, who know Fronch well, speaking of "Arm-in-tears," and "White Street" (Wytscbaote). iWifch tho Expeditionary Force it is "tho thing" to do as tho Army does. Tho funniest _of these linguistic transformations is "Gertie, wears velvet" for Godewaersvelde: When first the British

/BY LIBBB.) 1 , Give a 'man a pipe he can smoke, ! Give-a man a book he can read,' ' 'And his home it bright with a calm delight Though the room he poor indeed. . r —Jambs Thomson,

Boldiers went to France they knew practically only two words of ' French apart from "Wee wee" and Nong'" French words familiar to , every Britisher since the days of' "Bouey"), and those were "souvenir", and "bong." Later on, a curious lingua franca sprang into use. The difficulties of tli© modification of the definite article, says the author, are 'simply abridged by prefixing to the substantive doo (du). Thus, milk is "doolay"; bread, "doopong"; water, "doolo"; wine, "doowang." The French seldom eat jam, except in a form of fruit jelly ' they call confiture. But the British soldier never hesitated. The British . Army slang for jam is, I believe, "poz" or "poMie" ;; so jam became "doopoz," and was; speedily recognised by the natives under that form. Mr. Williams devotes, special chapters to the Indian soldiers ("Children of the Raj"); to '/The Eyes of tlie Army" (a most interesting description of the- brilliant work of the British aviators); to the Territorials, and t-o the men of "The New Army." What ho says on the latter subject is full of happy augury for a future of success, always' granted a sufficiency of munitions. A large number of illustrations, mostly from photographs, add to the interest value of a volume a copy of ( which should find a place forthwith in' every, public library. (N.Z. price, 155.)

Alfred Noyes's New Poems, Some of his admirers may perhaps consider that Mr. Alfred Noyes is writing too much, for the author of '.'Forty Singing Seamen!' and "Drake" has now, I see, seven or eight volumes of verse to his credit. Nevertheless, if Mr. Noyes can maintain the high' standard reached in-certain of his latest poems, here collected under the title of; "A Salute - from the. Fleet and Other Poems" (Methuen and 'Co.), .there should be no cheap wit as to a "fatal facility" ■ or an equally "fatal fluency." He still-favours, especially in his longer narrative poems, a .certain robustiousness of expression, and indulges in a poetic. pageantry so highly and fantastically embroidered as to become at times a source of foggiuess rather than clarity of meaning. This is specially noticeable in the two long poems entitled respectively "Encleladus" and "'The Inimitable Lovers." In the latter, a story of. Cleopatra, there is, as in other of the poems, a "vain repetition" and an extravagance of metaphor which stands in sore need of fhe chastening blue-pencil. As for instance:—.

Then—like the blast when the northwind calls to battle, Blazing thro' the blood-red tumult and . the llame, Shaking the proud city as they came, an hundred elephants,' Cream-white and bronze, and splashed with bitter crimson, Trumpeting for battle as 'they trod, an hundred elephants. Bronze and cream-white, and trapped with gold and purple, Towered like tusked catUo, every thunderladen footfall, Dreadful as the shattering of a /sity. .Yet. they trod. Booking like an/'earthquake,-! to a great triumphant music, -v ' ' And, swinging like the stars, black planets, white moons, Through the stream of the torches, they ~ brought the red chariot, . . The chariot of the battle-god, JJars." In the title poem, "A Saluto From the Fleet," and even better still, in "The Sword of England" aod "The Searchlights,", Mr. Noyes strikes a fine clear note of patriotic pride.. In "The Sword .of England," written: in 1912, there is a prophetic note, "Wen England speaks -the word," she : will not "lightly draw the sword." Not as in trance, at some hypnotic call, Nor with a doubtful cry; But a clear' faith, like a banner above all, ... Kolling from sky to sky. r She sheds no blood to that vain God of strife, Whom tonguesters call renown; . . i She knows that only they vrho reverence life Can nobly lay it down. ■ : And these shall ride from life and homo i and love, •' '. Through death and hell that day, But, 0 her faith, her flag must l burn above; Her soul must, lead the way. It is clear that' Mr. Noyes, like the ; late Rupert Brooke, looks to the great war to prove a wholesome national purgation for the country he loves so well. There is something in "The Searchlights" which recalls tihe underlying note of Kipling's "Recessional" 1 ■Search for the foe in-thine; own soul, The sloth, the intellectual; pride; Tho trivial jest'that veils the goal, Por which our fathers lived and died, The lawless dreams, the cynic Art That ' rend thy, nobler ' self alpart. Not far,, not far into the'night. These level swoTds of light , can pierce; Yet for the. faith does 'England' fight Her faith in this our universe; Believing-.Truth , an'd , Justice draw From founts of. everlasting (law. Therefore a Power above the State, . The unconquerable Power, returns,' The fire, the fire that x made her great Once more upon her altar burns. Once more, redeemed and healed and whole . She moves toward the Eternal Goal. Sussex is a lucky county. _ Already Rudyard Kipling and Hilaire Belloc have sung, in'verse , most gracefully haunting, of its special charm. And now, here again, Sussex'makes,, special appeal to Mr. Noyes. From his beautiful little poem, "The Return of the First Born," I select the first and last verses: . '. All along the white chalk coast Tho mist lifts clear. Wight is glimmering liko a ghost, Tho ship draws near Little inch-wide meadow# Lost so many a day, The first time I knew you Was when. I turned away. Little tawny roofs of homo, Nestling in the gray, . Where the small of Sussei loam Blows across tho bay. Fold me, teach me, draw mo close, Lest in death I say The first time I loved you Was when I turned away. Mr. Noyes's must is many-sided. In this one volume i the poet essays many Various mocreo. . His patriotic verse has a fine stately dignity, and there are poems in which he attempts, with qualified success, the didacticism of the old Lake Poets. It is, however, in liis lyrics that I find the most fascinating lines. Suroly, for instance, the charm of tho delicately graceful little poem, "The May Tree," must at once be granted: The May Tree on the hill Stands in tho night, So fragrant and so still, So dusky white. That, stealing from tho wood, In that sweet air, You'd think Diana stood Before, you there, Perhaps, as a bookman, the vorses which make strongest appeal to me aro those entitled "The Crags," written in memory of Thomas Bailey Aldrich, the Amorican poot, at whose house on the ; lonely Mame coast Mr. Noyes has

evidently been a welcome guest, finding joy of companionship with a. book-lover as eclectic in his tastes as tlio English visitor himself: His was no narrow test or rule, Ha chose the best of every school—. Stendhal 1 and Keats and Donne, Balzac and Stevenson. Wordsworth and Flaubert filled their placs, Dumas met Hawthorne face to face, There were both new and old In his good realm of gold. Tli® title pages bovo his name, And, nightly, by tho dancing flame, Following him, I found That all was haunted ground. Until a kindlier shadow fell tTpon the leaves he loved so well; And I no longer read, But talked with him instead. Mr. Noyes's new book is a volume full of charming things, which easily explain tho poet's ever increasing popularity with lovers of good verse. (N.Z. price, 65.)

FRANCOIS VILLON ONCE AGAIN. The Francois Villon, who was the hero of Justin Huntley M'Cartby's semi-historical romances, "If I Were King" and its sequel "Needles and Pins," and who now makes a third appearance in a story from the same pen, entitled'"Pretty Maids All in a How" (Hutchinson and Co., per Wbitcombe and Tombs), is hardly the same Villon of Stevenson's famous essay, still less the Villon of the famous ballade "La Grosse Margot." It is to a high-spirit-ed, good-hearted and romantic youth that Mr. M'Carthy now introduces us, not tho roystoring associate of gamesters, drunkards, and thieves, but,' nevertheless, the greatest figure in the French, literature of his time, who is the real Villon. But Mr. M'Cartliy's story is so brightly told, so full of dramatic incident, desperato gallantry, and pretty love-making that one cares not whether his hero be in Ireeping or otherwise with such estimates of Villon's character as are based upon documentary evidence.

THE SWEET HEART OF THE BUSH. "A Bush Parson" would, it seems to me, have been a better title for George Sargant's story, "The Sweet Heart of the Bush" (T. C. Lothian), for the interest • centres round the experiences, adventures,. and love story of a young man_ from Melbourne, who takes up missionary work in a backblocks Victorian township. The parson is a fine, manly young fellow, who slowly but surely wins the respect and affection of the rough-mannered but warm-hearted folk among whom his lot is cast. The fact that ne, can use his fists well on occasions wins him some staunch friends among the bushmen. The story describes many interesting phases of up-country life, and although strongly religious, m tone, is never marred by any suspicion of the "goody-goody." It would, be a good thing for Australia were all its "bush parsons" of the same type as Mr. Sargant's hero.

"MONEY'S WORTH." Mr.; F. Bancroft, whose "Veldt Dwellers" was so popular, scores an.other decided hit with his new story, "Money's Worth" (Hodder and Stoughton, per S. and W. Mackay). The story opens with a description of the' Johannesburg riots, the plot centring on the fierce struggle between capital and labour in South Africa. Financial mag-, nates of the Rand, engineers, Labour leaders, and othors arc among the prominent characters, the hero being a young Englishman of good family, who comes to tho Rand with ambitions to advance the democratic cause. The heroine is a ilighty and wilful girl, who scarcely deserves the good fortune the author allots her. The minor characters are .strongly drawn,.. and although- the conclusion leaves .us somewhat doubtful as to its probability, the plot, on tho whole, is worked out very neatly. Altogether a powerful and convincing story.

"THE BUSY WHISPER." "The Busy Whisper," by Thomas Cobb (Bell and Sons, per Whitcombe and Toffibs), is a ploasantly-writi-en novel. The heio, Humphrey Fortress, a rising young novelist, is engaged to the daughter of a country clergyman,: but meets another woman, of wider and more liberal outlook. He is in an awkward position, when, having. supped uuwisely and too well, with' somo old 'Varsity'chums, he becomes involved in a street row, and the highly virtuous and most properly shocked young lady in tho country promptly breaks oh the engagement, despite the_ fact that the wedding was to take plac-o in a few days' time. Joyful at his release, for he had long recognised that his true mate was to be found elsewhere, Fortress hurries off to his London flame, only to find that she had determined to marry another gentleman. And then the war breaks out and both men go to the front. Mr. Cobb fails to con-' vine© me that such a woman as Jacintha Burnard could have accepted a good-natured noodle like Bobby Transome, but Humphrey's .philandering and weakness in facing an awkward position may make her decision appear reasonable to some readers of the story.

','THE CATES OF SILENCE." There is a marked resemblance between Lindsay Russell's latest story, "The Gates of Silence" (Ward. Lick and Co.; per Whitcombe and xcmbs), and its predecessors, "Smouldering Fires" and "Souls in Pawn." The author appears to conceive it her o'.uty to expose what she imagines or believes to .be the weak points, of the Rom.m Catholic creed. In her lieiv story, the scene of-which shifts from Ireland to New Guinea, Miss Russell is as severe uponthe priests as in her previous books, desiring, apparently, in this case to emphasise the mistake of young people taking vows the consequenco of which they fail' to foresee or grasp. There is 110 doubt a special public for this kind of fiction, but to me Miss Russell's books seem to reek with bad taste. "THE WHITE COUNTESS." "The White Countess," by G. Brederic Turner (Hodder and Stoughtou, per S. and W. Mackay), is a well-told fltory by the author of that excellent romance "The Red Virgin." Grimland, the scene of Edmund Dawson's extraordinary adventures, seems to bo meant for some German State in which Austria has or has had interests, and diplomatists and- political intriguers play prominent parts in the story. Mr. Turner equips bis hero with considerable "slimnoss" as well as physical courage, and makes him triumph over the Huns by carrying off the beautiful countess with whom the monarch of Grimland is infatuated, and baffling the deep laid plans of a Prussian officer. "OLIVER." Mr. B. P. Neuman's "Oliver" (George Bell and Sons) is a somewhat disappointing story, as compared with "Roddies" and "The Rise and Fall ,of the Westall Browns." The hero is one of those idealistic, rather morbid-raind-ed. youths in whom, when they come to be men, a strain of weakness is often developed in their moral nature. He fritters away his opportunities, philanders with both business and art, and [succeeds in neither. His marriago is a mistake, and it is not till his boy begins to grow up that the man really pulls himself together. The war is utilised' to provido a conclusion which is hardly satisfactory. "THE GOLDEN SCARECROW." Mr. Hugh Walpole, in his new story, "The Golden Scarcecrow" (Cassells, per Whitcombe and 'J'ombs), strikes out into what is for tho author of "Fortitude" and "The Ducbess of Wrexe," an.

entirely now field. "The Golden Scarecrow" is a story about children—not for children —children whoso powers of imagination enable them to believe in the visits of an Invisible Playmate and Friond. There are poor and rich and good and —well, naughty children in tho cast of Mr. Walpole's pleasant little fairy extravaganza, and for the most part very real and very delightful children they are. But ho can well afford to leave the class of story to Mr. Al-. gernon Blackwood, and the sooner ho gives us a sequel to "The Duchess of Wrexe" the better.

"THE ANGEL IN THE DESERT." Mr. Silas K. Hocking's last novel, "The Angel in tho Desert" (Ward, I-ock and Co., per Whitcombo and Tombs), has for heroine an English girl who is stolen from her parents by Arab marauders, but is afterwards brought up in a convent at El Tabra oasis. Unknown to herself i she has inherited a great fortune, which, however, the heiress being supposed to be dead, falls into tho hands of Stanley Wendale. Wendale, who comes to tho desert to dig up tho remains of an ancient temple, discovers the girl, rescues her from an evil-minded native, and honourably renounces his wealth. The young lady goes to England, but wearying of her new life, returns to the desert, recognising she has lost her heart to the handsome explorer. The end can be guessed.

JOAN'S HANDFUL. Miss Amy Le Feuvro, the author of "Joan's Handful" (Cassell and C 0.,. per Whitcombe and Tombs), has a welMeserved reputation as a writer of fiction, speoially suitable for "family reading." Her latest novel introduces us to some very pleasant people, and if not particularly . exciting is a well-told story, tho heroine being a specially charming girl, whoso self-sacrifice and devotion aro duly rewarded by a verjr happy marriage.

THE CAVES OF SHfcND. Mr. David iJenaossy's new sioiy, "The Caves if Shend'' (Hodder aiid Stoughton; ( .er and W. fllnckaO. is even more highly sensational than was his earlier novel. 'The Outlaw;-',' which won a £400 prize in Hodder and Stoughton's Empire Novel Competition. [ It is, indeed, for the most pan, r,uite luridly melodramatic. There is a band of criminals over whose secret hiding place, in a cave on the shore of Sydney Harbour, has been built a splendid mansion, murders, kidnappings, and' rot/berios providing sensational incidents. Some of the machinery—disappearing . fireplaces and the like —by which the villains of the piece gain access to the mansion remind ono not a little of the stage devices of certain moving pictures. Those who like sensation will find a bounteous supply of that article in Mr. Hetiness'y's novel, which, howover, is much "better written than is most fiction of this kind.

THE THINC WE PRAYED FOR. "Smart Society," so called, is to the fore onco again in Arabella Kenealy's novel, "The Thing We Prayed For" (Hurst and Blaekett; per Whitcombe nnd Tombs). There are two heroines, one the pretty, but selfish, Betty Cooling, ' whom her scheming mother exploits in order to secure the ageucy of a nobleman's estate for her father; the other, her cousin,. Pamela, a very charming and wholesome-minded girl. Also, tliero is a vicious and foolish lord, some very "swift" titled ladies, and a country solicitor or two. Virtue is. duly rewarded- in-the cud, after surviving certain severe trials. Miss ICenealy has a brisk, viv.ums style, but tli© sins of "smart society" are by this time rather a stale subject, and might well he given a -.vell-descrvcd rest by novelists. / i

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