LITERARY COLUMN.

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 13, 15 July 1905, Page 11

LITERARY COLUMN.

NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS. "A Courier of Fortune." By Arthur W. Marchmont. London: Ward, Lock, and Co., Ltd. France has ever' been to the romancist a fair field to Tevel vi, and Mr. Marchmont 'has crowded into the little corner of 'Morvaix » world of adventure, love, and "■chivalry. lind«r ths title of "A Courier- of Fortune," he tells us of a fair and dignified lady, a sad coquette who has 'much ado to undo with her wits the mischief ehe does with her eyes, a heroic French noble, various gallants, and severil swashbucklers, all of whom combino in making a- tale full enough of incident; and excitement to satisfy the most insatiate of sensation gourmets. Gerard de Bourbon is the son of the Suzerain of Morvaix, and the romance- turns on his mission to punish and suppress .the tyrannical governor of the province. ' Mr. (Martfamonfc has chosen illustrious nanws, some of which have a ring of 'Mairric© Hewlett, or, perhaps, his fountain head, William Morris. Pascal do la Tour and Malincourt have a distinctly familiar sound, just as Morgraunsct a«d Prosper Jo Gai recalled vividly those delightful denizens of "The Wood B3yond the World." But the tale of the heroine G-abxielle, wrfii hex Jean d' Arc-like courage, and unfaltering faith in the man she loves under the most eqiiivocnl situations, cannot lie followed wrthont .tho greatest interest and edification. The inconscionable Lueatte makes an excellent foil for lfer dignity and breadth ot character. " The Courier of Fortune " i$ illustrated effectively with drawings by Cyrus Cuneo, which add materially to the graphic strength of the book. "A Frontier .Mystery." By Bertram Mitford. London: George Bell and Sons. In "'A Frontier Mystery," Mr. Bertram Mitford has added another to lib long list of interesting books which deal with lrfe on the' African veldt. In spite of the sawestive trtls, and with the exception <rf tha last few chapters, fho plot is of a passive" character, but one follows with interest the everyday doings of a set erf quite ordinaxy peopie, because of their naturalness, and the entirely simple way in which the author trawte shem. However, wfoea tke mystery does come, it makes up for its tardiness by its grnesomeness. It teHs of the abduction, first of a whits settler, and then of the heroine, Asia Sewin, by Ukozi, a Zulu witch doctor, for holocausts in a horrible mrtiv© religions ceremony. Hensley, Hie settler, falls a victim to Ukozi's religions fervour, but Aida Sewin is rescued by her lover, just as her immolation is -about to be consummated. Thsre is some clever description -of the- veldt country, and the habits of thought of the native Zulu iis shown, with that ease' and completeness possible only to the- expert, and were it not that Mr. Mitford makes his characters guilty of -certain roughnesses, inelegancies, of speech, he would have given us, not only an interesting and typical piece f work, bub one with aitistic merits much beyond the average.