SOME RECENT FICTION.

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 211, 25 May 1918, Page 11

SOME RECENT FICTION.

"Unoasy Money." Mr. P. G. AYodohouse's latest novel, "Uneasy Money" (Metliiien and Co.), will afford excellent ontertainmont to rea<ler.s who liko their fiction to bo bris'c and bright in stylo, not too exacting ns to plot and frco from psychological analysis. His hero is a yonng English poor, Lord Dawljsh, wlio, when the story commences, is earning, or rather receiving, throe or four hundred a year as a club Bccretary—just enough to keep him in clolliM. taxi hire, and cigars, and enable him to give an occasional suppnr to tho pretty young actress to whnm ho is encageti. 'The young lady eventually wearies of her lovor's insouciance us to tho inadequacy of his income and his shadowy worldly prospects generally, and declaring the'affair "off" sails for America, thero to join an old friend, an ex-ohonis girl who hi\s married a peer, bnt who is earning her own living by executing socalled olaesicnl dances at a famous sup-

per resort on tho "Great White Way." Ihe discomfiture fl f poor Bill, for such is the humblo Christian namo of Lord Dawlish, at being ''turned down' , by tho lovely Claire speedily evaporates in tho wild deliEht with which he receives the news that an eccentric old American gentleman, to whom he had good-natured-ly given soino golf lessons, has left him a cool million or two. He, too, rails lor i\ew lork to rcceivo tho cash, and there such is the vagary, of fate, is lowed into acquaintance with a playful .Young nut" S f tho Transatlantic variety, wlioso sister, a "chicken farmer," had always regarded herself and her brother to certain to inherit tho hoard of their eccentric uncle. Of course, as any wellexpenenced novel reader nt onco expects will bo the case, the British peer, who travel;) incognito as Mr. Chalmers, and tho disappointed but lovely chicken fnrmer fall in love. But Mr. Wodehouse provides a .bewildering number of complications before the echo of coming mamago bells is heard in the last chap- " i Y°S l<l bo rafair to the author to bay wnat those complications are, but I mny content myself with remarking that here is a vigorously-told story, with heaps of wholesome fun in it, some very witty dialogue and just tho right amount of sentiment. A very readable, humorous story is Uneasy Money."

"Green Grapes," In that shoddy, so-called fashionable society, whose idleness and selfish extravagance are among the most disagreeable featnres of English life of tho present tune, the prevalence of excessive drinking amongst women has becomo notorious. In her latest novel, fareen Grapes" (Werner Laurie), Miss Gertio Hentworth James gives us a high y realistic study of a female "tippler. The heroine, Mrs. Elsa Johnson-lan-—hyphenated names arc imperativo m tho snobbish, silly circle in wliich tho lady moves-is a young widow who, hitherto a teetotaller, deliberately worsniiis at tho ehnne of "little boy Bacchus"quite a pet phrase of tho author's-and is m peril of becoming a confirmed and hope ens dipsomaniac when sho is cured by hypnotic suggestion. Of course, there is an incidental love story, and equally, of course, those who liavo read Mrs. James's previous novels will not be astonished to find that tho heroine, who has scarlet lips" and whoso skin is a oroamy warmth," with which "gardenia petals, tea-rose petals, tube-roso petals, and natin velvet" uro all "faulty in comparison," ia of a highly-paseion-nto nature, disdainful of convenlionalities, f and inclined to indulge in. decidedI.V risky adventures. Sceptical readers may bo inclined to doubt tho caso nnd speed with which the cure in effected, but Mrs. James must be allowed tho usual novelist's license with regard to this and other apparent improbabilities in hor lively, if, in places, rather vulgar 6tory. From Mr. Werner Laurie also come cheap editions of two o£ Mrs.' James's earlier stories, "Golden Youth" and The Aran Market," both of which wero reviewed in these- columns on their first appearance; also one of Mrs. Victoria Cross s novels, "The Eternal Fires." ' Reviews of other novels held over.