NEW PUBLICATIONS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 117, 13 November 1909, Page 13

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

A Village Temptress." By Fred Whishaw, author of "A Royal Hoax," "The Degenerate," etc. London: G. Bell and Sons. (Whitcombe and Tombs.) The author of "Lovers at Fault" has a sure touch in his treatment of Bussian life — not the life of the cities only, for he seems equally at home in Russian Finland, on the one hand, and the vast area of Siberia or> the other. The title of the present book might have been better chosen, for the pretty bufc selfish Shura, the heroine, would be sufficiently characterised by the description "coquette." It may be, however, that the term has been already used in so many connections by fiction writers that scarcely an.y available phrase remains unprotected. The young woman, though she is untruthful and not greatly troubled with scruples, does not fall into any gross evil, nor tempt any others^" to do so, but she treats her lovers very badly, and accepts any sacrifice they may choose to make as a matter of course. She plays off very artfully a young candidate for tho priesthood against the heir of a wealthy landowner. For Nikefor, the young student for orders, she has some affection/ in great measure apparently, 011 account of his good looks, but she dosires an easier life than that of a priest's wife, and strives her. best to divert him from the priesthood. For the other man she cares nothing, though she does not despise his wealth. To be near Nikefor, she goes to~J?erm, where she succeeds in distracting him a good deal from his duties. Playing off a dissolute young fellow against him to stir him to jealousy, she is threatened in unmanly fashion by her new acquaintance, and draws a dagger on him in self-defence. He falls, and is stunned, and loses nis memory. Thinking she' has killed him, she tells Nikefor, who promptly accuses, himself to the police to screen her. He is convicted, sent to Siberia, and banished for life. Soon af{.er she engages herself to the landowner, but the young fellow she has hurt, recovering his memory after an operation, denounces her, and she is sent into prison and exile. Much of the story deals' with Nikefor's career in exile J He is drafted from the convict gang to the army, and fights in Manchuria under Kuropatkin. A regimental chaplain js mortally wounded in a retreat, and, dying, urges Nikefor to assume his garb > and credentials, which he does. Thenceforth he is free, and does splendid work as a priest during a cholera visitation. Attacked himself by the plague, he is tenderly nursed by a priest. Father Cyril, and his Luiba, who are both idealised to such an extent as almost to tax the reader's faith, for they seem^ both too superior to human frailties to be real ; other priests in the story are drunken and disreputable. Nikefor finds Shura in a convict hospital, "and, knowing nothing' of her engagement, undertakes to meet her on her release and marry her. Meanwhile, he returns to Russia, now a free manjMiis sentence having oeen cancelled, and takes orders. He learns of Shura's double-dealing, but fulfils his promise, and to his astonishment finds that the woman prisoner bearing her name -is a total stranger. The^ landowner's wealth has bought a substitute for the last year of the sentence, and bribed the officials to make the change. He has abandoned his ancestral estate, though not his wealth, and taken up 'his abode in Siberia for love of Shura, who may never return. Nikefor, long weaned of his early affection, is very happy at the turn affairs have taken, and is happier still when, returning to Father Cyril, he has an interview with that worthy priest's dauglner. The characters are boldly and convincingly depicted, and Mr. Whishaw's power in giving ( the "atmosphere" is well displayed. Hl3' latest book compares well with his vigorous earlier work. "Fugitives vfrom Fortune." By Ethel Turner, author of "Seven Little Australians," ' "Miss Bobbie," etc. Illustrated by J. Macfarlane. Eondon : Ward, Lock and Co. (Gordon and Gotch). If some of Mrs. Curlewis's books have fallen below her highest standard, this is not one of them. It has all the force and originality of her . earlier fiction, with greater maturity of style. Her theme is a fresh one, and affords fine scope for her peculiar gifts. Ar. American millionaire, whose fortune has descended from a money-gathering line, disgusted with the sordid and fashionridden life that is wearing out both himself and his wife, renounces it all. He invests his. wealth, devotes the interest to certain objects which he has at heart, and takes refuge in Australia, where he settles on a five-acre island in a river, and lfves^the simple life. / He turn? his domain~into a beautiful orchard-garden, but the house is nearly as bare of furniture as a Japanese dwelling, and is> devoid of picture or ornament; and the simple life is extended to dress and diet in a curiously exaggerated form. It is borne in upon the young folk that *his austerity, wholesome^ as it is, is_overdone, and the elder boy_ begins .to develop the hereditary business instinct. The theme is one of fine possibilities, especially as the recluses come into unavoidable contact with the outer world : and the author deals x with her subject, which is not without delightful idyllic passages, with & touch both sure and grace-,-ful. Evidently ncr right hand has not lost its cunning. "The Perry Girls." By Lilian Turner (Mrs F. Lindsay Thompson), author of "Paradise and the Perrys*" "Betty the Scribe," etc. Illustrated by s J. Macfarlane. London : . Ward, Lock, and Co. (Gordon and Gotch). Those who have read and enjoyed "Paradise and the Perrys" will naturally anticipate a. sequel to that attractive story, and will not be disappointed. Enough of the earlier tale is casually rehearsed to prevent those unfamiliar with it from being placed at a disadvantage, and then the story — like stories in real life, which never really end — goes on to the next convenient point for winding up the 'thread. As the story opens, Addie, the most lovable of the Perry sisters, ! is about to be married — naturally, to the hero of tlie former story, the young bush farmer on a very small scale and with slender means, but with the faith and hope that go well with vigorous manhood. Theo, the older girl, who has decided that marriage can never be her lot, is breaking her\ heart over the inevitable parting. The interest of the story is fairly divided among the four sisters, and, of course, their mother, while the minor characters take their due part in. the development of a story which is not , without adventure and excitement (including a* runaway vehicle among the mountains, and a shipwreck off the Queensland coaat), and is thor- ' oughly and typically Australian. Theo has anything but the colourless and loveless life to which ye find her looking forward, and the reader will be gratified as well as interested to find how at last her ship comes in." We need scarcely recommend the "Turner" books for young people of both sexes, as well as for older readers. Our own experience is that the young folk revel in them. The holiday season is at hand, and a word to the wise should be enough. The book may be a gift for Willie or Dorothy, but mamma will be sure to read it— and probably papa also. Mr.

Macfarlane's drawings are far above the average, and add a great attraction to the books. "Ward, Lock and Co.'s Wonder Book: a Picture Annual for Boys and Girls for 1910." With twelve coloured plates. Edited by Harry Golding. (Gordon and Gotch.) For three or four years now this beautiful quarto has been an annual visitant, and we can only say that Mr. Golding has again shown himself to be an ideal editor. Mechanical methods of recent years have enabled sumotuous and richly-illustrated childrens' hooks to be produced at a price that would have been impossible not long ago, and the children benefit thereby. The only danger seems to be that which attends an embarrassment of riches. In the compass of this- irresistible volume are pictures in colour and monochrome, beautiful photo-etchings in half-tone, ivhile the subjects, in prose and verse, dwell .not only with .children and animals, quaint and comic, but with the wonders of that Fairyland which most of us have left so far behind. "Happy Hearts." A picture book for boys arid girls, with eleven coloured plates. Edited by Harry Golding. (Gordon and Gotch.) * Almost uniform Jn size and style with the "Wonder Book," and with the sani»» editor and publishers, the same descrip-i tion might almost apply word for word. But the two volumes are not precisely on the same plan. "Happy Hearts'l..is in larger type and on a correspondingly larger page than the other, and the contents, on the whole, .are sample in subject arid in diction, clearly 'showing it to be intended for a younger claps of readers— those who as yet are liable to be wearied by the closer type which gives no trouble to their older brothers and sisters, and who further depend in some measure on fcKe pictured interpretation. So that in_ the time .of gifts, each might find its place in a single household. . Nash's ' Magazine for October shows no sign of .falling off; in fact, some of the stories are of exceptionally good quality. Contributors include Sarah Grand, Rider Haggard, A. E. W. Mason, Alphonse Courlander, William Le Queux, Martin Hume, Frank Hubert, and others. A somewhat 'hard-featured horsewoman adorns the cover of the current number of the Sydney Lone Hand Magazine (Gordon and Gotch). Mr. Arthur H. Adams continues his fanciful romance of "Galahad Jones," arid Leon Smith describes a Maori race-meeting in the King Country. Ex-President Roosevelt continues the narrative of his African experiences, and the department "for the public good" makes an excursion into the mathematics of the time-payment system. The verges include a touching poem, "Babe of Dreams," by M Forrest. The magazine improves in the decorative department, and colour is occasionally introduced with good effect. We understand that Mr. -E. J. Arnold, of this city, is engaged on a book on prisons and prison reform. Thesubject is one in which he is deeply interested, and his long experience as a visiting Justice, as well as years of .active work in the direction of hefriending discharged prisoners, have given him unusual opportunities of acquainting himself with prison management and its weaknesses and shortcomings. , Public Opinion, the well-known London weekly review, has just published its 2500 th number. It was started forty-eight years ago, and reprints in greatly-reduced facsimile the first page of its first issue, dated sth October, 1861. It was an. early — perhaps the earliest — forerunner of periodicals like the Review of Reviews, and has been a success f»om tjie outset. The present editor is ' Mr. Percy L. Parker. Among the useful bulletins of the Agricultural Department we note an illustrated treatise on bee-culture, by Mr. Isaac Hopkins. It is a thoroughly practical handbook, and will doubtless be appreciated. .No. 5 of The English Race (August) is to hand. The editor still mourns that New Zealand can not be persuaded to take any interest in "St. George," who, by the Way, even if he. be historical, knew nothing about New Zealand, or England either. An article about some foolish official tampering with the national flag is of interest. Apparently without any proper authority, a spurious design has been issued to the Territorials, in which national symbolism and the laws of heraldry are alike defied. The correct Union flag is the handsomest flag in the world ; but when the broad white field of« the red cross is abolished and a "mere fim'briation" substituted, it loses not only its significance but in great measure its dignity and beautyr This is not the first time that the flag has been officially tampered with. A few years' ago a flag was designed for certain services, in which it was materially shortened, altering the whole proportion and changing the angles of the saltires. - Who is responsible for this kind of foolishness? In this latest instance it seems to have been the War Office. The result is that, instead of one flag, there are now at least three, and two of them wroa.|. Mr. Owen Seaman, in Punch, under the title of "The New Cordon Bleu,", chaffs the rival' Arctic explorers in characteristic "Vqrse. Concerning Dr. Cook, he writes :—: — But most we marvel how you nursed So long in secret such a sprint ; I should»havo thought it would have burst OUt through your pores in sudden print ; , Is there a case of such restraint InYankeo records? No, there ain't. . Eren The Mail was months behind The dato of <your accomplished fact. ' Nor should I be surprised to find Its Polar Correspondent sacked, Who miesed you in the Arctic night Through an amazing oversight. A Russian paper has instituted a. plebiscite to ascertain what fifteen books are considered by its readers most suitable for a child's reading. The result places "Uncle Tom's Cabin" first, followed by Kriloff's "Fables," then "Robifison Crusoe." Romance (says the Daily Chronicle) plays a considerable part in antiquarian bookselling. You never know what is going to "turn up." Within the past twelvemonth a London bookseller bought from a country catalogue a tiny volume for three shillings, and a month or iwo later sold it for £250. A bundle of pamphlets bought at a London saie for £15 included one item worth £150. And there is the case of a set of .Johnson* "Lives of the Poets" — a work of current interest just now — being bought from a stall for ninepence by an Eastend bookseller, and sold immediately afterwards for £9 10s. This had on the title-page the' Inscription, "J. Wes^ ley, che gift of the Author, 1781," and in another hand, "S. Wesley, the legacy of her much honoured uncle, J. Wesley, 1791." How the romance of these transactions struck the original vendors is not stated. An English publisher recently stated that the authors of the chpap novelettes published in London receive £3 for a work of thirty thousand word&. An enthusiastic hard-working fictionist is able to turn out one of these productions in a week, if necessity ', compels.