SOME RECENT FICTION

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 150, 21 March 1925, Page 21

SOME RECENT FICTION

The Romantic “Carolinian.” • Mr. Rafael Sabatini, as so many a hardened novel reader knows full well by this time, is hard to surpass as the writer of picturesque “costume” novels on historical or semi-historical themes, novels exuding the very spirit of the period, richly glowing in colour, and possessed of those genuine. thrills of a highly dramatic quality which so many readers admire. Who that has read, say, “Bardelys the Magnificent,” “The Justice of the Duke,” or those flamboyant but fascinating romances “Captain Blood” and “The Sea Hawk,” to. mention only a few out of a long line of excellent novels, is not always eager to greet this author’s name on the title page of a new story? Here, to-day, Mr. Sabatini gives us in “The Carolinian” (Hutchinson and Co., per Whitcombe and Tombs), a stirring, full-blooded romance of the Carolinas in those eventful days when the sturdy, independenceloving’ American colonials were in revolt against that British rule, which had found such stunid expression l?y “Farmer George,” Lord North, and the latter’s hoirest enough, no doubt, but pigheaded fellow Ministers. It is the story of a gallant young Carolinian. Harry Latymer, and of his beautiful loye Mv’rtle, whose father, in the opposite camp, is as stalwartly Royalist as Harry is intrepidly strenuous in his championship of t*he revolutionary cause. The motif is not exactly novel, but the story has many highly original, and for the most part ouite enthralling incidents,.- the progress of the. leading characters through a web of intrigue, subtle enmitv, personal love, and political animosity towards full happiness being engineered with all Mr. Sabatini s old ingenuity. Several famous episodes more soberly recorded in actual history are here invested w’ith a fascinating fictional embroidery, and the narrative is possessed of a vigour which is decidedly inspirting. An excellent story. Shorter Notices.

There is a fine dramatic quality in Mr Ralph Rodd’s “From the House of Bondage” (Wm. Collins Sons and Co. per Whitcombe and Tombs), Lettice, the girl-wife heroine, her tyrannical and suspicious husband, and Ins scampish half-brother, and Ins unscrupulous niece, Roy Darner, the lover —all are well drawn characters. "Peter was Married,” by Granville Sheet (G. P. Putnam’s Sons), is an American novel in which are recounted the trying experiences of Peter Remington, a young minister wholeaves the peace of country life for the most exciting scenes Of an industrial parish. There is a struggle between true love and social precedents and obstacles, although the true companionship he gains with Faith should be recompense for much sorrow. English readers will scarcely approve of the device bv which, at an American lawyer’s suggestion, the hero gains his freedom. “Cronulla,” by Vance Palmer (Cornstalk Publishing Co., Sydney), is an agreeablv fold if not. specially notable storv of station life "on the other side'” The storv affords a series of instructive and entertaining glipmses into pastoral life, and there is a pretty love interest.