SOME RECENT FICTION

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2793, 10 June 1916, Page 9

SOME RECENT FICTION

Corner Island. There is some excellent fooling in Mr. John Oxenham's latest story, "Corner Island" (Methueu and Co.), in which the popular novelist, departing ■ temporarily Irom his usual vein of picturesque and full-flavoured romance, indulges in what might almost be called broad farce. A party, of London stockbrokers, with a wealthy Wall Street operator, and a "guinea-pig" Duke, are on a yachting triji in the Western Hebrides, and are wrecked o.i a. tiny island, the only inhabitants of which' are an old crofter and his family. The party are thus accidentally,, '"marooned," until the arrival of the fortnightly steamer. The Englishmen lmvo i;ecently had the .better of Vandonbyl," their American friend, -in the flotation of the Askandiiga Copper Mines, and the smart Yankeo imagines a way of "getting even.'". He' quietly buys up "the whole of the available provisions on tho island, and. when the party assembles for breakfast the morning after the wreck, -they • are confronted, by a notice stuck on the cottage door, announcing that "one square breakfast" will cost them SO.Asdandagas (.£1 paid up), " one whisky of the ordinary size," 4 Askandagas, and so forth. Throgniorton Street, however, is not to be outdone by Wall; Street, ami tho London stockbrokers'-retaliate-by purchasing tho crofter's rights in the lease of the island and charge the over-ingen-ious Vandenbyll so many Askandagas, so much, for every walk ho takes outside the cottago doors. Soon, too, the position i 9 further complicated by, tile arrival of a' gentleman of Semitic origin, a Mr. Goldstein who, at first highly indignant at the "corners"' already set up by his financial friends, does a little' thinking on his own account, and for a time threatens to outwit the others. Mr. Oxenham gets some excellent fun out of the "cornering" speculations, and a minor and equally farcical interest is afforded by tho Duke, who makes- furious, love, to the' crofter's daughter and thereby arouses the furious jealousy of her Highlander lover,., the brawny and red-haired Hector M'Tavish.

The Latest Williamson Story. ' Mr, aticl Mrs. C. N. M*lliamson never fail to give us a highly readable story, although the hypercritical may sco'lf at their excessive employment of the long arm of coincidence,' and their ' unfailing concession to sentiment, often at the sacmm 0 '" e> Their latest story. I lie Shop Girl" (Methuen and Co.), lias for its heroine a young Englishwoman of good family, who, goes to New York and beoomesau assistant in one of the huge department stores which are the .pndo of that city. The ill-paid, over* worked shop-assistant is an over-familiar fijrire in latter-day fiction, but in the skilful hands of Mr,-and Mrs.' WillinmS< J ll 'tWs' well-wornhiotif...is. .very pleasantly., and . ingeniously' 'varied, and their.... heroine is • such a Y'u sens il>le, and good-hearted girl, 1 that every reader of tho story will rejoice over, the good, fortune which,'in the last chapter, rewards her. The herolover, the son of tho millionaire storeowner, is a likeable young American, and tho local colour of tho story is'bright and convincing. "The Shop Girl" is ono 0, the best novels the Williamsons have given their numberless admirers.{or'some tune past. More Adventures of an A.D.C. In "More Adventures of an A.D.C." (John Lane), Mrs. Shetland Bradley gives US n further instalment of tho humorous experiences of Captain Wynford, who was s.r prominent a figure in those highly entertaining books. -■■'An American Girl at i ?\v<» r Si ? ' e Adventures of an j.jj.O. I hat most resourceful of'ladies lieiengana, is again .introduced,;' together with a. host-of new characters, and tho ls i as '■ as '' aIU ' furious as ever, c-speci-uliT when a mad dog—there was always a doubt.about the actual facts of tiio /natter—has .'a picnic all. his own at a Government House party. Here and 'there tho humour may seem a trifle forced and too purely of an Indian local "■colour to appeal vcajr much to an, outside audi, once. But these arc- the exceptions which' pjove the rule of general entertainment. Zeppelin Njnhts. ,J. Ir - Ford Orndox. Hueffer and his wife "Violet Hunt)/,both skilled novelists, display both originality and a gracelUl literary style in the series of 6hort stones entitled "Zeppelin 'Nights" (John jUuie). _ iJie authors have remembered the of the "Decameron," and have imagined the lightly assemblage of a F'YX £ r ' eu< ! s wl )° fcmn( * in tho »tories told by Air. Serapion Hunter a temporary forgetfulness of those • "silken reservoirs filled with hate," which the Huns periodically send to raid the nuichdetested England. The stories aro historical in character, and th* rango <» agreeably wide; the scene of the first being laid in the market place at Athens, in B.C. 490, from which it is a far cry indeed to the gallery of Drury lane Theatre on the eve of the Boer War. The vividity of the stories themselves, and tho shrewd and often amusing topical character of the comments of the audience, combine to make the book on<> of a singular and most agreeable fascination. The Borderer. "The Borderer," by Harold Bindloss (Ward, Lock and Co.; per Whitcombe and Tombs), is' a well-told story, the hero of' which, a young Sco'taman, thwarts anu defeats the traitorous plans of a naturalised German, with whose purely Scottish stepdaughter the young man is in love. The traitor owns a country house on the shores of the Solway Firth, ami some of the most exciting episodes in the story arise out of the yachting experiences of tho here, who discovers a deep-laid German scheme to establish a submarine base in that locality. . In ad. dition to being a German spy, the amiable ■ Staffer (formerly Stauffner) plots the death of his stepson, a dissipated young man upon whose lifo there is a heavy insurance. Tho hero is assisted in his unmasking of Staulfner's villainy by a family lawvei, a shrewd old Scot, and ■ by his sweetheart, a plucky and charinin? girl v An excellent story of its kind. Let Be. Mrs. Sybil Campbell Lethbridgo's story, "Let Be" (Metlmen and Co.), is chiefly notable for the brightness anil, in places, brilliancy of its dialogue. It is intensely modern, both in motif and style of narration, and deals with tho infatuation of a--middle-aged married man—a prosperous lawyer—for ■ a young . lady :.whose acquaintance he makes as the result of .a street accident. Hargravo Ladd is quite, a well-meaning man, but he drifts into selfish anrl passionate love with Stella Kayne. Mrs. Ladd. though narrowminded _ and almost icily moral, is very much in love with her husband, and most readers will feel relieved when, a younger and more attractive man happening to come along", the pretty but shallow Stella reconsiders her consent to ail elopement with Ladd, and the latter returns sadly disenchanted, and, I hope, repentant, to his legitimate spouso before any real harm has been done. Tho Swiss background of tho later scenes af-

fords Mrs. Letlibridge an opportunity for introducing several well-drawn minor characters, and the whole sjory makes good reading by reason of the reality and vivacity of its manner of telling. The Mammoth. "Tho Mammoth," by (tho lato) Stanley Portal .Hyatt ('J.'. Werner Laurie), is a vigorously writtou, highly sensational story, 'tho plot of which contrcs round tho discovery that a so-called copper mine in Portuguese East Africa is really worthless as such, but contains a vast treasuvo of gold. An adventurous young Englishman, a mining expert by profession; iv rascally company promoter; two or tIiTCO still more rascally Portuguos?, uud a beauteous young lady, in love with ,tho hero, but sorely persecuted by tho company promoter, all play prominent .parts in the Mammoth Mine drama, and tho record of their alternating fortunes makes very good reading