A REMARKABLE HISTORICAL NOVEL

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 264, 5 August 1939, Page 5 (Supplement)

A REMARKABLE HISTORICAL NOVEL

Adventure In Scotland Anu America “Next To Valour,“ by .John .Jennings ( London : Ilamish Hamilton). Ju many respects this is a remarkable achievement. It is an historical novel, the action being first in a Scottish setting (luring the .Jacobite warring of 1745 anti later in America. The author could not have written this long novel without at first great research into Ute history of the colonization of America in the latter half of the LSth century. Indeed Mr. Jennings has certainly succeeded' in conveying a very live picture of the hardships of those early colonists in their domestic difficulties apart altogether from their eternal vigilence against the marauding tribes of Indians, who were to some extent influenced by the hostile French. It is remarkable that a comparatively young man should be able to write a very long novel, for this one is nearly 000 pages in length, and all the time kept the attention of his reader. Yet this he has done. That does not mean that the book would not have been improved by being shorter. If three hundred pages had been cut out of the book it would still have been a full sized volume, and the story could have been told just as vividly.

The characterization of the. persons moving through the tale is in some regards weak. That applies to some of the principal characters. The hero, for instance, is first as a very young man seen moving among his Scottish heather helping the Jacobites against the intruding Hanoverians. Later compelled to fly the country, he

grows into full manhood and performs great deeds of valour. His is a sterling character, loyal and upright. Yet withal he is a simpleton. His wife, who early reveals himself as a wanton. remains a true and faithful wife in his eyes. His cousin, a rogue and villain from the beginning, ought to have revealed his duplicity to Jamie Ferguson, the hero. On the contrary Jamie welcomes him to his house and leaves him in charge of his wife. It is clear to all that neither wife nor cousin intend to respect their trust. Later, as the long' war wages against the French and the Indians, Jamie joins the scouts, Roger’s Rangers as they were known, and with that gallant band of provincial soldiers performs deeds of daring. He bears not at all from his wife, and when ou rare occasions he is able to visit her, her frigid reception of her gallant husband ought to have told him what was happening. But he just went on trusting. In other respects, too. Mr. Jennings has made his hero a little too sitnjtle. The cousin Major Ferguson was a villain of the deepest dye. His cleverness was a little too remarkable in that setting across the Atlantic where everyone perforce knew everyone else’s business. Yet for years he played the spy for the French. The deception “of the hero and the duplicity of the villain are the weaknesses of a very vivid tale of adventure. There are'chapters <’>’ vel ’. v tine writin S and some of the adventures against the Indians make grim and exciting reading. There are details, such as the methods and effect of scalping, that are gruesome.

As an historical tale it gives a fine picture of lhe brutal treatment meted out to the supporters of the Stuart cause by the Hanoverians. Those were brutal days and the slaughter was by no means confined to the soldiery. In America, west of Boston and then north up to Quebec, where most of the adventures are retailed, the tale reveals in a very interesting way the manner in which the colonizing was begun and developed. Jamie Ferguson became a very successful miller and one of the more interesting phases of the book consists in the telling of the establishment of that industry. The mill was established in Suncook, west of Boston, and from there went countless expeditions peaceful and warlike. | The story, considered as a whole is one of the most remarkable tales published for a long time. The dialogue is natural, the descriptions of scenes and episodes are on a high plane, and the full effect is not materially harmed by the weaknesses to which reference lias been made. Once one begins to read the book there is a strong inclination to go on reading till the whole talc is told. That indicates the quality as nothing else can.