NEW BOOKS & MAGAZINES.

Evening Post, Volume L, Issue 36, 10 August 1895, Page 2 (Supplement)

NEW BOOKS & MAGAZINES.

Hedged with Divinities : By Edward Tregear. R. Coupland Harding, Wellington. Mr. Tregear's many friends will, we think, regret that he should have published this little book. Probably the day will come when he will regret it more than anyone else. It is quite unworthy of his welldeserved reputation as a writer and a thinker. If we are not mistaken, the work is not exactly what Mr. Tregear first intended making it. There is an element of mysticism in the earlier pages which we ■hould hardly think were introduced without a purpose. It in no way serves the later developments of the Btory, but it makes ns regret that instead of landing his hero in an Adamlesa Eden in Auckland, Mr. Tregear did not take us and his story to Easter Island, and there develop the mystic vein, under the teaching of some Pacific equivalent to a Mahatma. The portion of the story which is laid in Auckland is eminently unsatisfactory in treatment from first to last. The position of an entire community of women, or of a community of women with but a Bingle man amongst them, was a difficult and delicate one. It required very nice handling to make it acceptable, and truth compels us to say that it has not received this at the author's hands. The delicate and equivocal position is, in fact, somewhat coarsely treated, and the finale is especially unsatisfactory. We cannot commend "Hedged with Divinities " to favourable notice. ByAsvebssWihss: By Oliphant Smeaton. Colonial Library ; Oliphant, Anderson, & Perrier, Edinburgh and London. This is a somewhat bulky novel, the scene of which is laid partly in Scotland and partly in Australia. It is written by a gentleman who claims to have had some newspaper press experience in Australia. It is rather surprising, therefore, to find him making the sub-editor of a large Melbourne morning paper do gallery work in Parliament, and transferring the Theatre Royal from Bourke-Btreet to Spring-street, nearly opposite the Houses of Parliament, and close to the Princess Theatre. The story is one worth reading, but it is told at much too great length — in fact, it is spnn ont to a most wearisome extent, and id quite overlaid with incident. The misadventures by which Robert and Elsie are continually kept from meeting in Melbourne and explaining matters ore greatly overstrained. What may be termed the final incident, that of Elsie's trance, amounts to an anti-climax, and would have been better omitted. Although there is a good deal too much of it, "By Adverse Winds " nevertheless contains muoh good writing, and is, as a whole, worth reading. Mr. Smeaton in any future work will do well to study the great art of condensation. A Daughter of the Soil: By M. E. Francis. Bell's Indian and Colonial Library, London and Bombay ; H. &J. Baillie, Wellington. This is a powerfully-written work, on entirely unconventional lines. The opening chapters by rib means give promise of the rich treat which a careful perusal of the story will afford every intelligent reader. Ruth is a very noble character, and even the reprobate Anthony ia drawn with great skill. All the other characters are well depicted, and it would be difficult to imagine a more dramatic scene than Ruth's return to the farm as a deserted and deceived woman, her listening to the congratulations offered to her father on her marriage, and her sudden appearance on the scene to announce the dreadful truth. Altogether «A Daughter of the Soil" is an exceptionally good novel. An Abbanoed Masbiaob: By Dorothea Gerard. Longmans' Colonial Library, London and New York ; H. &J. Baillie, Wellington. This is a fairly interesting story, well told, and deriving its chief interest from the strong contrast of character between the sturdy English workman who, having made a fortune, pines for society— and a title for his daughter — and the old, blueblooded Italian Principessa, who has not a farthing and wishes her noble son to marry money. The plotting of tlie old people to make the arranged marriage appear a purely aoeidentallove match is very amusing, and although at one time the scheme naturally threatens to miscarry through the young people penetrating the designs of their elders, everything ends happily and as it ought to do according to all the regular canons of love stories. The WnrosOß Maoazinb : Word, Locke, & Bowden, London and Melbourne ; H. & J. Baillie, Wellington. The June number, tha sixth of this n.agazine, fully sustains the reputation earned by previous issues, "Doctor Nikola" is continued with increasing interest, and the scene is approaching Australia. Excellent articles are given on Swimming and the Bank of England. Martin Hewitt gives the last of his interesting detective stories, and other stories are advanced a stage. The illustrations, especially thoseof children of notable people, are of a very high- doss character. Scbibnbe'b MAOAzma (Australian Edition): Gordon tc Gotch, Melbourne ; H. &J. . Baillie, Wellington. The July number contains a further instalment and the conclusion of Mrs. Humphrey Ward's new and powerful " Story of Bessie Costrell," and there is a most interesting article on "Posters and Poster Engraving in England," as well as a continuation of the well-written history of the last quarter of a century in the United States. "The Amazing Marriage is continued, and there are some well-told short tales. The Australasian notes are somewhat narrow in their views. All the illustrations are of a very high class.