BOOKS AND AUTHORS

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 96, 21 January 1928, Page 25

BOOKS AND AUTHORS

(By

"LIBER.”)

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

BOOKS OF THE DAY THE PSYCHOLOGY OE CRIME. "The Man Hunters?’ Dlelville Davison . Post, the author of “The Man Hunters” (Hutchinson and Co.), has made a special study of the subject of scientific criminal investigation, and has assembled a considerable bulk of data not only from British and American authorities, but from German, French, Italian and other sources. A comparison of the methods employed in various countries leads him, I note, after declaring the obvious fact that the criminal must be apprehended and punished, and the present revolt of the underworld ruthlessly wiped out, to the conclusion . that “the American courts are adequate, but the machinery for the detection of the criminal agent in America is not.” Mr, Post reviews and analyses the systems of detection of criminals and solution of criminal mysteries by tiie police of Scotland Yard, by the Parisian Surete, the methods employed by various Continental police authorities, and gives a number of instances of where seemingly insolvable mysteries were cleverly probed and the criminals brought to punishment. He writes, too, upon what he describes as the “unscientific American methods,” upon bank looting, scientific „ means of detecting forgeries, upon secret ciphers, the codes, and signs of the underworld, laying great stress upon the value of careful and scientific study of bloodstains, footprints, to which latter, it is evident, be attaches almost as much importance as to handprints. His is a most thorough examination and analysis of methods of crime investigation and detection, the long and usefully detailed index showing ( how carefully the author has collected and arranged the widespread information utilized in what is a work of no small importance and value, being, in fact, a veritable cyclopaedia of the scientific crime detection systems of the world.. Many diagrams. (19s. 6d ) “Before Scotland' Yard.”

Long before Scotland Yard, with all for which it stands as a term, became famous as a London, indeed an English, institution, public interest was always manifested in stories of crime, its detection and punishment. It has been the task of Mr. Peter Haworth to collect under the title “Before Scotland Yard” (Basil Blackwell and Son) a long series of “classic tales of roguery and detection, and as nearly all these tales have their romantic side they cannot fail when so cleverly retold, to make eminently good reading. .Mr, Haworth begins by taking two stories from the ancient Hebrew, in the “History of Suzanne” and of “Bel end the Dragon,” both from the sadlyneglected Apocrypha. These are followed bv an ancient Egyptian. story, as told by' Heroditus, this representing the literature of ancient Greece. Tn "Mediaeval Literature” we are directed to some stories from the Gesta Romanoium, from the Spanish yams of Juan Manuel; from French traditional stories, such as “The Dog of Montargis.

Italy is represented by a story from, Boccaccio, and Germany by one cf Grimm’s stories. An Elizabethan story by William Painter follows, and then we enter upon a modern section in which Deloe, Voltaire, Schiller, De Quincey, Mrs. Gaskell, and Charles Dickens, all figure as authors of stories of lascality which have become famous in fiction. This is a very well-planned and most entertaining volume. (10s.) The Crime Passionel. Although most people would say that seventy-five per cent, of murders are committed, directly or indirectly, because of women, a recent analysis of the chief, contributory causes of murder in sixty-tw > instances shows this to be a sad' slander upon the fair sex, for from the analysis referred ,to the fact was elicited that in onlv nine of the sixty-two cases could the cnnie be attributed to actual feminine influence, direct or indirect. In France, however, what is known as the “crime passionel” has always been specially notorious in the annals of the Courts. Woman’s influence over the actual criminal or her complicity in the crime not infrequently have a considerable result upon the speeches of the prosecuting or defending counsel and the jury. In a volume bearing the, somewhat startling title, "Passion, Murder and Mystery” (Hutchinson), Mi. Bruce Graeme presents a series of studies of French cases in, which the ‘crime passionel” has played a leading part. In two cases, the murder of the bill collector Gouffre by Eyraud and his female ' accomplice Gabrielle Bompard, and in that of the Italian-born murderer, Carrara, who destroyed the body of his victim in a mushroom bed in a Parisian quarry, the first cause of the crime was the lack of money, but even here the woman had an indirect influence on the murder. Extravagance and vice prompted the thefts of the disappearing cashier, Gallav, the projected betrayal—the first such case in which a French naval officer has been concerned—of State secrets by Midshipman Ullmo, was largely due to the insensate extravagance of his unstress, La Belle bison. Madame Steinliel’s alleged dual crime, of which she was acquitted after a trial which convulsed all France even more than the Drcvfus case, resulted in the most astonishing revelations in Court as to the folly of both men and women—even of a President of France himself —through their vices. Nearly all the fourteen cases analysed by Mr. Graeme exhibit evidence conclusive of the part nlnyed by the influence of, sexual relationships; Each case is cleverly analysed, the author coin" direct to the French criminal records for his details in most cases, in others making use of already published books of criminal memoirs. (22/6) .

The Underworld of Paris. Mr. IT. Ashton Wolfe, for many,years “interpreter at the Civil and Criminal Courts,” presents in a volume entitled “The Underworld” (Hurst and Blackett), a seiies of reminiscences and adventures in many lands. Dlr. Wolfe tells the story of'the part lie lias played in the detection anti punishment, of many French, American and British

criminals; heroes of the underworld such as Lacombe, the Paris Apache of Hie Spiked Suit, Lemoine, the manufacturer of fake diamonds, who actually swindled Sir Julius Wernhev, and others, also retelling the curious stories of the Austrian Grand Duke, Jean Orth, who disappeared so suddenly and mysteriously from European society, Madame Sophia Varonoff, the clairvoyant countess, and others. The stories for the most part are wildly sensational. Manv illustrations, mainly from photographs. (3/6). LIBER’S NOTE BOOK “Gallion’s Reach” kept “Liber” up to an ungodly hour the other night, but he sticks to his own valuation of Tomlinson’s work when he puts down “The Sea and the Jungle” as the best book Tomlinson ever wrote How many more? Faber and Gwyer, a new firm of publishers, are about to issue in facsimile print, the plays in the “First Folio Shakespeare.” Each play is to be given an introduction with some notes by J. Dover Wilson. Fine reprints are evidently the order of the day. Thus. Eyre and Spottiswoode are to publish a complete new edition, in black letter facsimile, of “The English Works of Sir Thomas More,” and another firm announces a new six-volume edition of “The Works of Sir Thomas Browne,” whose English, in his “Urne Burial,” “Religio Medici,” and other works has long been reputed the best we have. Browne was greatly esteemed by Charles Lamb. Wm. Le Queux, the novelist, who died recently, was a great wireless enthusiast and is credited with having been the first amateur experimenter to broadcast.

E. V Lucas is one of the cleverest of anthologists. This Christmas he, is presenting “The Joy of Life,” which its to contain poems bv latter-day writers in praise of “the happiness of living,” and will be a supplement or seciuel to the famous “Open Road.”

E.V.L. has two other Christmas books this year. One is a collection of stories and sketches concerning dogs. “The More T See of Men, the . . . and a volume of travel articles, “The Fronded Isle,” and other essays, which is the result of a health trip to Jamaica. Yet another idition of Rabelais., John Lane is issuing a two-volume edition of Uronhart and Mottcux’s translation, with illustrations by the American artist, Frank Paane, who has Illustrated some of Anatole France’s books, and who did the pictures for Cabell’s muchdiscussed “Jurgen.”

John Murray announces that the new volume of Queen Victory’s “Letters.” covering the period 187!) to 1885, will be ready early next year. But really who wants any more of “Vicky’s” letters ?

Ernest Benn is publishing a new edition of “Treasure Island,” with illustrations in colour by Edmond Dulac.

Say what von like, but to “Liber” Stevenson’s famous yarn wherein Long John Silver and Jim Hawkins figure so prominently, lias never been beaten as a boy’s adventure yarn. And, with it, in a different genre, it is true, give me “King Solomon’s Mines.” And yet how manv New Zealand boys ' know cither? John Lane is also shortly to publish a new pocket edition of Disraeli’s novels.

SOME RECENT FICTION The Caste of Bevan Yorke. Clever son of one who was one of the most prolific and successful of popular Victorian novelists, Mrs. Maxwell, so much better known as Miss Braddon, Dlr. W. B. Maxwell, the author of “The Case of Bevan Yorke” (Ernest Benn; per Dymock, Sydney) has given us many stories of quite outstanding merit since his first success with “The Guarded Flame.” In his latest story he has produced a piece of powerful and really distinguished fiction. Bevan Yorke, the able Egyptologist, but in some ways a rather weak-willed husband; Cecil, the wife from whom he had separated; Ursula, the museum assistant, with whom he becomes so sadly entangled; the sillv and somewhat revolting Lady Lardner; Moring, the religious charlatan, of whose murder Yorke is, for a time, unjustly accused —all are strong-, ly drawn characters ill a story of far more than average merit and interest “The Amazing Saunders.” I like, too, Dlr. Eric N. Simons’s novel, “The Amazing Saunders” (Chatto and Windus), the simple and yet enthralling story of a young man’s upward climb to fortune, amid the grime and clamour of a great steel works in a northern industrial centre, the identity of which it is not very difficult to perceive. Young Simons has to meet and conquer not a lew obstacles to his advancement, some from the manager and leading officials of the great works, others from workers who are either jealous of his quick progress,.or selfishly misregarding his real motives, and misreading their own interests There is, too, an incidental but impor taut sentimental side to a story which is reminiscent in style, perhaps, of some of Arnold Bennett’s “Five Towns” pictures, minus, thank goednecs, that ait of would-be omniscence, that regard for individual success, at all hazards, at all costs, which at times one has associated with. Bennett’s stories, and the attitude of his heroes towards life. “The Amazing Saunders” is decidedly a storv to be read.

Bodley Head Fiction. “The Star of Satan” (John Lane), the English translation of a French novel, by DI. Georges Bernanos, which has been compared by Parisian critics to certain masterpieces of weirdness by Balzac and Barbier d’Aurevilly, is the story, briefly but dramatically told, of a struggle of a saint against the forces of evil. It possesses an interest at once spiritual and fascinating and will probably in its English dress achieve much of the popularity which no’ less a literary critic than Leon Daudet predicted for its French original. Neville Brand, the author of “Black River” (John Lane), must be credited with having written a very fine novel, largely affected by a ■ Conrad influence, but none the worse for that, in his new story of a young Englishman’s adventures in a South American State, where his employer, Tressci, a gentleman of the superman description, controls the trade of the great Rio Negro, or “Black River.” Mrs. Tressell, the merchant’s wife, for all her obesitv, is a singularly striking personage, but tl|e half insane Indian girl and her half-caste husband are scarcely very convincing. The scenes on the river are most thrilling; indeed, this in most ways is an exceptionally powerful storv.

There must be a big public, mainly American, which periodically rejoices in a new Graustark yarn; but, to tell the truth, some of us are beginning to consider George Barr McCutcheon’s stories of that bogus principality, which reminds one so much of Ruritania, just a trifle overwrought. Dlr. DfcCi’*<’heon’s latest Graustark novel, “The Inn of the Hawk and the Raven” (John Lane) describes, however, with an unfailing entrain, the advanttires of Colonel Starcourt and his daughter, Geratie, around the mountains, where Jenifer Davos and his gang of brigands are such a menace to the traveller, and, although one may think it time that Dlr. McCutcheon should choose a new scenario for his tales of adventure, there is no gainsaying their vivacity and charm.

Mr. F.ssington Once Again. Bearing a post-impressionist jacket as bizarre in its humour as much of the literary contents of DTr. J. Storer Clouston’s story, “Dlr. Essington in Love’’ (John Lane), th'e latest production of that irrepressible fun-maker the author of “The Lunatic at Large,” is fullv the equal of its predecessors from the same pen in the entrain of its undeniable mirth-provoking narrative. From the time that there appears before the counter of a “Miss Eve, Tobacco and Cigars,” of Brighton, to the close of a riotously funny story, our old friend, Dlr. Essington, or Dlr. Bennett, or Mr. White, as he at first styles himself, keeps the ball of mirth rolling with unfailing rapidity. To set forth the story of his new adventures in detail would be to spoil the fun of a very jolly book, which during the holiday season can be guaranteed to disturb the gravity of the most sober-sided and prove a reliable disperser of whatever gloom or temporary ennui the weather fiend may chance to send us.- Dlr. Storer Clouston, per our friend, Mr. Essingtoii, may be trusted to see to that

Sundry Stories. There seems to be a permanent and fairlv clamant demand for fiction dealing‘with life and adventure in the Wild West and Frozen North of the United States and Canada. Three good examples are to hand ftom various publishers. An addition to Jarrold s “Adventure Novels” is “ Llie Padlocked Plateau,” by Arthur Preston Hankins. This is an exciting yarn of the adventures which befall those encaged in tracking down and securing the punishment of a gang, of daring cattle rustlers (Anglice, thieves), the background being that wild western prairie territory which has provided the scenario for so many such dramatic narratives. “Frozen Inlet Post,” by James. B. Hendrix- (Hutchinson), is a stirring tale of love-making, adventure, and criminal design in one of the wildest of Northern Canadian regions reached from Hudson Bay. There is a good plot, and the story is full of sensational incidents and much strong human interest.