BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 97, 19 January 1924, Page 21

BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

By

LIBER.

Give a man a pipe he can smoke, Give a man a book he can read,: And his home is bright with a calm delight Though the room be poor indeed. * — JAMES THOMSON.

BOOKS OF THE DAY.

Old New Zealand. A heavy debt of gratitude is due from all who are interested in the early history of New Zealand, to Mr. James Cowan, the thoroughness of whoso literary work in this direction cannot be too warmly commended and too greatly valued. Mr. Cowan has recently published two important contributions to New Zealand literature. In the first, “New Zealand Wars; A History of the Maori Campaigns and the Pioneering Period. Vol. II; The Hau Mau Wars, 1864-1872’’ (Wellington, the Government Printer), Mr. Cowan carries on the fascinating story of the /Maori campaign against the pakeha from the begin rung or the Hau-Hau War, in Taranaki in 1864, to the final expeditions against To Kooti, and his followers ill the earlier seventies. It is a narrative of enthralling interest,_ enriched by vigorously written descriptions of thrilling evfents, a record of stubborn and" gallant fighting on both sides, a record of which both Maori and pakeha can well be proud. Here is a book which every young New Zealander, whether of the whitje or brown race, should read, telling as it does of the brave deeds of men, many of whom have long passed away. Mr. Cowan has developed a clear, compact, and agreeably picturesque style. He . has drawn upon a rich store of material — most of it to his great credit —patiently and painstakingly gathered by himself from many of the chief actors in the later stages of the great historical drama he depicts—and this material he has put to excellent use. He gives a comprehensive and well-ordered account of the Hau Hau attacks upon the Taranaki settlements ; of the famous battle at Moutoa on the Wanganui River, between the Maoris of the Lower Wanganui tribes and the Hau Haus from up the river, and of the siege of Pipiriki, which was only raised by the arrival of a force of Europeans and friendlies from ’Wanganui. Thousands of New Zealanders are well acquainted -with the picturesque scenic beauties of the Wanganui, but how many of the present generation know its romantic history? Backwards and forwards, from West and East Coasts Mr. Cowan takes bis readers, but ever is his story most exciting and instructive. The industry which must have gone to the making of this yolumo. of over 500 pages cannot be too highly praised. That the native campaigns had their ugly side goes without saying, for savage, warfare can no more be conducted without its ferocious horrors than can omelettes be made without the breaking of eggs. But although there was ferocity there was also chivalry. The Maori fighting men were worthy of the steel of the most courageous European combatants. In the. long run superior arms told their inevitable tale, but whilst the struggle lasted honours so far as personal courage was concerned were fully equal. There is not a single chapter of the book in which are not recorded deeds of desperate valour, the memories of which should ever, be cherished by both races. Well it is indeed that the Dominion possesses in Mr. Cowan an historian, who. in his essentially own modest, straightforward way, has set down with such simple and yet convincing eloquence the romance-laden story of these stirring events in our national history. A special and most laudable feature of the book (excellently produced bv the way, at the Government Printing Office) is its wealth of illustration. Tho numerous portraits of European and Maoris alike, who were prominent in I the various campaigns and the many | excellent reproductions of old engravings and sketches, materially enhance the interest and value of a work, a copv of which should be found in every public or private library in the Dominion. The second of Mr. Cowan’s most recently published historical works is a well-printed small quarto volume. “The Old Frontier: Te Awamutu: The Story of the Waipa Valiev” (the “Waipa. Post” Publishing Company, Te Awarriutu). This may be regarded as an excellent model for what in time will, we trust, be a long series of local historical and topographical works. Of special interest to dwellers in the Auckland province, the store of early settlement in the Waina Valley, with the narts played therein by the missionaries, the soldiers, and. the. pioneer farmers. has no small historical value for all New Zealanders. For the chapters on the Waikato wars alone this excellent monograph should be highly appreciated by all students of New Zealand his’Jfv. The volume includes some specially interesting extracts from manuscript narratives left bv the famous Maior von Tempsky, and the Rev. John Morgan. The illustrations, which are numerous, and well produced, include portraits of military leaders, old settlers, and others prominent in the story, also several interesting renroduc Hon's of old sketches, photographs, and diagrams. The typography and binding of tho volume—the- onlv fault is its rather awkward size—do high credit to a provincial printing office, "The Minoans.’.’

In a modest-sized volume entitled "The Minoans” (Jonathan Capo, per AVhiteombe and Tombs), Mr. George Glasgow gives an admirably compact and informative description of the an-

cient Cretan civilisation, a civilisation which long preceded that of Athens and Rome, existing as it did over four thousand years ago. The excavations carried on in Crete since tho beginning of tho present century by Sir Arthur Evans, tho late Professor Burrows, and others, have added enormously to the world’s knowledge of the ancient Minoans. We are now able to gather a wonderfully complete idea of tho daily life, tho games, the the homes of a people who lived in a now most remote age. The Minoans were specially skilled in the arts of pottery*, and, as may be seen by tho illustrations in this, book, they were second to no race, either of ancient or modern times, in their conception ana appreciation of beauty. The bull was an emblem, as it were, of a physically powerful race, and modern Spain can now point to Crete as the original home of the bull fight.. But it was no adult matador who went into the ring, bus youths and even'maidens. According to the Miiioan pottery, which pictured many pheecs of the national life, the young Miiioan athlete, when charged by the bull, seized it by tho horns, and threw himself in a somersault over his back. Whether Miiioan bull fighting actually lived up to its pictorial presentment it is of course impossible to say. Mr. Glasgow’s book, which is well illustrated, will whet the appetites of its readers for the exhaustive work on the Minoans which is. it is understood, to come later on from Sir Arthur Evans. (N.Z. price, 6s. 6d.) Northern European Fairy Stories. Christmas is past and gone, but there is still a wide public for juvenile gift books, as rewards for specially good behaviour during the holidays, as birthday gifts and so forth. Where such are sought for the choice of intending donors may wisely rest upon two beautifully got up volumes, “The Danish Fairy Book” and “The Norwegian Fairy Book” (T. Fisher Unwin, Ltd.). These northern stories, translated from the original Banish and Norwegian by Frederick Martens, and edited by Clara Stroebe, are tho simple, direct narratives of the fishermen, peasants, seamen, huntsmen, shepherds, and humble toilers generally of the Scandinavian countries. They should make delightful reading for young folk. and one oldster at least, who, in his youth, was an ardent devotee of Hans Christian Andersen, can testify to their charm. “Grown-ups,” for instance, will enjoy among the Norwegian stories, tho original “Peer Gynt” legend, as it existed before Ibsen invested it with more symbolic meanings. “Storm Magic,” in the same collection, is a most thrilling and fascinating sea story. In tho Danish . series “Silverwhite and Lilwaeker” is a fine study of noble self-sacrifice., and a thrilling ghost story, with, luckily. for the children, a happy ending, is to be found in “Torre Jeppe.” Each book has a long scries of beautifully coloured illustrations by George W. Hood, whose graceful drawings are in happy accord with the quaint fantasies of the text. The editorial notes to some of the stories will bo of considerable interest to students of folk-lore. (N.Z. price, 10s. 6d. each.) "Over the Hills of Ruthenia.

Ever since I read that delightfully humorous book, “Tho House of tho Fighting Cocks” I have been on the look-out for anything and everything which might bear (J lO name of Henry Bacrlein on its title page. Since then the author has given us'a collection ot Anatole France-like stories, “Box o’ Lights,” and here he is again with a very original and jolly book of travel sketches, "Over the Hills of Ruthenia” (Leonard Parsons, Ltd., per Whitcombe and Tombs). Ruthenia is one of the new Eastern European States which, once under Austrian rule, have gained their independence by the Treaty of Versailles. Baerlein, who is, I believe, a specialist in Yugo-Slavian and! Balkan politics, provides in this new book of his a very delightful account of his journeyings in the new Sta-te, of its rulers and its peasants, of the quaint old-time manners and customs and superstitions of the people. He has a singularly fas-’ cinating style, u style which reminds one, a rnngo. intervallo of that of R. L. ‘Stevenson in his inimitable "Travels with a Donkey,” with a touch, too, ix.-rhaj.is, of the ury humour of Norman Douglas’s "In Old Calabria.” An out-of-the-way and very delightful book about an out-of-the-way corner of Europe andi its simple unspoiled people. (N.Z. price. 10s. 6d.) LIBER’S NOTE BOOK Sinclair Lewis, of "Babbitt” fame, has settled’down in London for some months after spending the summer at Fontainebleau, where, by the way, Arnold Bennett wrote the greater jiart of “The’ Old Wives’ Tale.” The

American novelist is said to be greatly pleased by tho reception in England of his earlier story, “Mr.-Wrenn.” recently reissued in an English edition. Kate Douglas Wiggin, whose “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm,” was so successful, died recently, leaving a fortune of over £lOO,OOO. Mrs. Gone Stratton Porter is credited with being worth quite twice that amount. Sentimental fiction pays well in America. H. G. Wells’s next novel is to be entitled “Tho Dream.” It will not be ready until March or April. A “Life of James Elroy Flecker,” the author of “The Golden Journey io Samarcand,” and of the recentlyproduced play, "Hassan,” is due shortly from Mr. Basil H. Blackwell, of Oxford, whoso imprint, not a few New Zealand bookmen must have noticed, always stands for good work in poetry and belles lettres generally. Flecker’s “Life” is being written by his mother and will include a collection of what are said to be most interesting letters. Those who, like myself, so greatly enjoyed the veteran litterateur’s (Mr. George Saintsbury’s) “Scrap Book” published phnost a year . ago, should make a point of securing, a copy of a. “Second Scrap Book” by the same author, recently published by Macmillan’s. As before, Saintsbury’s new essays are most varied in character, ranging from recollections of Oxford to disquisiions on the decadence of sandwiches and the “order of drinks.” The book is full oT personal preferences —and prejudiceis—in literature and politics. A real old ‘‘“Die Hard” is Saintsbury, but a writer of a. very original outlook, and always sprightly touch, despite the fact that ho is now well on for his eightieth year. Duckworth’s announce, for publication this month in London, a new novel bv the author of that excellent story, "The Debt.” The title is "The Comedy of Peter Taunton,” the author being a young Harrovian, Mr. G. P. Robinson. “The Debt” has had a big sale in Australia. I read in ‘rhe Publishers’ Circular” that Robertson and Mullen, of Melbourne, recently cabled an order ' for an additional thousand copies. Mr. Robinson s first story was reviewed in The Dominion last year. It is one of tho most sincere and vivid studies that I have ever read of all that the war meant to young Englishmen. SOME RECENT FICTION A New Arnold Bennett Novel. In “Riceyman Steps” (Cassell and Co per Whitcombe and Tombs) Mr. Arnold Bennett returns, if not to a Five Towns background, at least to tho style of those earlier stories in which the Five Towns and their inhabitants figured so prominently, it is an agreeable change from J fie Prottv Lady” and “Lilian.” The scene is laid in a dingy little square in Clerkenwell, a district in . Charles Lamb's time favoured by highly respectable middle-class Londoners, but to-day largely taken up by small in dustries, and inhabited ’ cry largely fiy Italians and other aliens. There survive, however, a few rather disma.l squares, residential oases whore dwell minor clerks, small tradesmen, and the like. Mr. Bennett seems to b<> as much at home in this somewhat drab milieu as he has been, in other of his novels, in Piccadilly and the West End generally. The three chief, indeed the only important, figures in bis story arc an elderly secopd-hand bookseller, who marries a plump and comely widow (much the same sort of lady as figured in "Buried Alive ’), and their maid of all work, Elsie. Earlforward, the bookseller, is a miser in all but tho name, and after a time, such is tho power of intimate association, the once plump and genial widow becomes almost as stingy as himself. The story is that of tho slow, but sure, self-destruction of the miserly bookseller, who not only starves himself to death, but by his stinginess so weakens his wife's, physique that she falls an easy victim to a terrible dis< ase. The servant girl, out of a spirit of self-preservation, keeps, herself alive by i urloining the household food, such as jt is., and is cheered also by her Jove affairs. At first sight tho story might srem to bo unconscionably dull and dreary of subject, but by Air. Bennett’s genius, here displayed in its character drawings at least, almost as brilliantly as in the "Old Wives 1 Tale.” it is converted into a deeply interesting, almost fascinating study of human weakness. The local colour of tho story, though necessarily low in tone and unpioturesque, is done with a convincing fidelity. A« for Henry Earlforward, he is, in his own genre, of miserliness, almost a Balzacian creation. The story, too, is rot devoid of a humour which loses nothing in its effect in that it is for the most part grimly ironic. "Riceyman Steps”, is in many ways one of the most original and genuinely artistic stories Mr. Bennett has yg_t given us.

"French Criminal Mysteries." From Messrs. Wm. Collins, Sons, and Co., per Whitcombe and Tombs, come the two first volumes of an interesting series, "Famous French Mysteries.” The first, "The- Murder of M. Fualdes,” by Armand Praoviel. is the story of a criminal mvstery which, in the early years of ’the last century, caused al widespread : sensation: 'in France. 1 It deals with the murder of a Government official at Rodez, in the

south of Fiance, a murder popularly attributed to ilie Royali»ts, the victim, M. Fualdes, having been an official under the Republic. “The Woman Without a Name,” is the story, by M. Gustave Lenotre, a distinguished authority on tho Revolutionary epoch, of what might be called a Gallio Tichborne case, the story of the claim made by a woman registered as Madame Plainville, to the name and estates, of the Marquise de Doulmlt, who died suddenly at the house of some friends at Orleans, whilst on a journey to Paris. It has been said that truth is stranger than fiction, and these two French mystery stories, though founded on fact, certainly make much better reading than do many most carefully concocted latter-day "detectives. ’ Tho French originals have been very ably translated by Miss Doris Ashley. Shorter Notices.

Air AV. Riley’s romance of Upper Wha.r'fdale, "The Garden of Delight” (Herbert Jenkins, Ltd.), is another Yorkshire story by the author of the very popular . “Windyridge.” With "The Imp,” a merry, mischievous lad, as the central figure, and a. very charming heroine, the story makes excellent reading, specially . interesting to all who know the beautiful country and quaint mannered folk of the northern part of the West Riding.

"A Court of Inquiry,” by Grace Redmond (Methuen and Co.) is a collection of short, rather sketchy stories, brightly written, and all very readable, in which figure a small company of very amusing people, including characters labelled, The Philosopher. The Skeptic, The Gay Lady, Tho. Judge, and others, Good holiday reading.

There was a time when Alias. Marjorie Bowen, the author of “Stinging Nettles” (Ward, Lock and Co., per Whitcombe and Tombs) specialised in historical romance. In her latest story she gives us a fine psychological study of an English wife and an Italian husband, a selfish, decadent invalid who makes her life one long misery. The maternal feeling saves her from social wreckage when she discovers she is in love with another man, and in the long run she gets her release. “Blowing Weather,” by J. T. McIntyre (Duckworth and Co.) has for its principal figure a yoiing American, brought up in New Orleans —the period is about 130 years ago—who comes to New York to take his place in a big slipping business built up bv his father and uncle. Unfortunately the house of Rufus Stevens and Co. has got entangled in dubiously moral undertakings, privateering, wrecking, and even slave trading, and the young man has a tough fight to re-establish its once honourable name. An old and faithful clerk —a particularly welldrawn character —helps its hero to re- - store the fortunes and honour of the old firm, and a young French lady also plays a prominent part in assisting her lover to realise his ambitions.

"The Wilderness Patrol,” by Harold Bindloss (AVard, Lock and Co., per AVhiteombe and Tombs) is another of the many well-fold, exciting stories of the Canadian North-AVest Afounted Police which we have had from this popular author. The tracking down of a pelt-robber who had murdered one of the policemen sent to arrest him, is set forth in a vigorously t/old, gripping narrative.

In "The Last of the Vikings” (Hodder and Stoughton), Johan Bojer, the Norwegian novelist, whoseo "Great Hanger” was such a striking story; describes the communal life of a Norwegian coastal village, whose men folk go forth each year to the cod-fishing grounds off the Lofoden Isles. A wellwritten story, in which the fishing industry and those who take part in it, are described with much interesting detail.

Mr. A. Saffironi Middleton’s "Ragged Romance” (Jarrold pnd Sons) is a story first of Jifo among the Maoris and later of tho South, Seas—the Marquesas in particular.. The hero’ is a violin playing wanderer who prefers a sojourn" amid dusky-hued people to the conventionalities of life among his own race. It is all very thrilling, and some of it not a little silly. The author’s variations uipm Maori mythological themes will vastly amuse many New Zealand readers.

French Canadian life, of which the French novelist Louis Henion lias given such interesting pictures in his "Marie Chapdelaine,” is vividly and picturesquely described in Miss Majrjorie Grant C.ook’s story, "Another Way of Love” (William Heinemann Ltd.). The story deals primarily -with th; passionate love, long unrequited, of an unmarried woman for her sister,, niece, and grand-nephew. The pictures of everyday peasant life in French Canada are clear and convincing..

That enterprising publishing house, the Sydney Bookstall Company, continue to increase the already large number of their publications. Recent additions to the series of Bookstall Novels include: “The Great Turon Mvstery,” by Arthur Crocker; "Son of the Bush,” by Jtxik North,; "The ■lumping Double,” by Charles E. Savers; "The Red Star,” by A. R. Falk. All these are highly sensational stories of Australian life, past and present, tho sporting element being specially to the fore in most of them. Ln “Children of the Sunlight: Stories, of Circus Life,” from the same publisher, Mr. J. P. Fitzgerald, M.L.C., appears as an author.