NEW PUBLICATIONS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 118, 21 May 1910, Page 13

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

"The Crowning Hour." By Rupert Lance. London : William Blackwood and Sons. This book, we infer, is the work of a new author, and the swing and vigour of the romance suggest that it is the outcome of the vivid imagination of youth. Neither the supposed facts of youth or lack of experience need tell against one's estimate of the work. Blackwoods Tarely make a mistake when they introduce a new name to their circle of readers ; and the chief charge that can be brought against a writer whose chosen name is itself suggestive of the age of chivalry is, that he is too prodigal in incident, 'having worked up sufficient material to equip an economical fictionist for three books instead of one. The scenes are laid in medieval Italy an Italy still not unlike that depicted in the imagination of Tasso and Ariosto, or the more realistic stories of Boccaccio. The pretematuTally wicked but over courteous Duke- Ascanio of Fiorano is one who discourses pedantically on the respective merits of Dante and Boiardo, and, as a man of affairs, pillages his neighbour's towns, and devises ingenious tortures for his captives. Another monster of the first magnitude, but an undisguised ruffian, is the bandit chief Innocenzio del Solani. There is a hero, Tristano della Flamma, who wins Cressita from the Duke for its rightfu.' lord, Ludovico, and whose hairbreadth escapes and deeds of valour are worthy of Orlando himself. There is also >a tremendous trader from England of Viking blood ; there are many fair and noble ladies, and much love-making-The author has indeed woven a tangled web, but has for equipment a competent knowledge of the Italy of history as seen through the tinted glasses of romance. The swords sway and flash gallantly, and abundance of blood is shed ; but somehow the wounds and slaughter of fiction resemble thoso of the good and evil demons of Miltonian mytholl O try they are not mortal as they axe m ordinary human life. It is pleasant to meet with a writer who can write an old-fashioned Tomance as if he believed in it, and a book like this is a welcome change after the morbid psychology and physiology which is invading so much recent fiction. "Sealed Orders." By Alfred Edward Carey, author of "The Mammothhunters," etc. London : Greening and Co., Limited. • Another new author— for though Mr. Carey, who is a member of the Institute of Civil Engineers, has written a number of books on matters connected with his profession, his previous output in the line of general literature seems to have been confined to two small plays and an illustrated volume, "The Mam-moth-hunters," highly recommended by critics as adapted primarily to "the human boy," with almost, if not quite, as strong an appeal to his seniors. Therein, taking as his theme some children's discovery of a prehistoric bone-cave with flints, he made the dry bones live in a manner not unlike that in which Kipling has resuscitated the past in "Puck of Pook's Hill." In the present book the writer has shown equal originality of method ; for, though he has chosen a plot which could be easily classified and pigeon-holed by those who, like a certain Frenchman, have a complete scheme of natural orders and genera down to species and subvarieties, under which all stories and plays may be accurately docketed, yet breaks away into what such methodical gentlemen— to say nothing of the "gentle reader" who demands either love-making, intrigue, or bloodshedding in every chapter — would probably consider tiresome irrele-vancies. Yet to those who look for the soul of a book, one like this, which reveals the heart of the writer, owes no little of its interest to the fact that it is » genuine human document, with lifeblood, of its own, and no mere automaton actuated by means of a more or less ingeniously devised system of cams and cranks, wheels and pinions. The author's professional knowledge and personal tastes colour bis views of a landscape as, in a different way, they did Ruskin's. Tho gravelly plains, with scant vegetation, for instance, unconsciously reveal the nature of the soil beneath, and in far-away past ages, the glaciers that shaped them ; the eroded sea-cliff calls up visions of submerged fields and towns, and of the forests that once extended far into lands beyond the British Channel. Yet there is dramatic mystery in the murder of the inoffensive Lord Plover on the lonely East Anglian Coast, and tho rascality of the legal firm of Dollywaggon , and Prestwick is ably depicted, while the secret of the plot is guarded in a manner worthy of a veteran. And Lhe author's English is good, though ha does sometimes lapse into the vulgarism "a lot." There aro some admirable studies of character in "Sealed Orders," a book which few will begin without reading to the end. Tho Att Journal (London,: Virtue) for May has the full complement of full-page plates. Its opening article is on Mr. Ernest George, A.R.A., with many reproductions of his paintings of foreign cities. The suggestive series of articles, .. o Consolations of a Modern Critic" is continued. Air. M. H. Spielmann writes on "The Yerkes Collection," and those are the usual delightful naturalI history articles. [ The Windsor Magazine (Gordon and : Gotch) for May opens with an article on "ThoArt of Mr. W. R. Symonds,"by Austin. Chester, illustrated with reproductions of nineteen of his beautiful portrait and character studies. An article of special interest, by Austin Brereton, is entitled "Father and Son: the Two Irvings in the same Roles." The illustrations, on opposite- pages, depict Sir Henry Irving and H.»B. Irving respectively, as Hamlet, Mathias, Louis XL, Charles 1., and Dubosc. "England's Story in Portrait and Picture" is devoted this month to Hai-old 11., William 1., and the Norman- Conquest. Fiction, as usual, is a strong point. It is necessary only to note that the serial is by Justus Miles Forman, and that Mrs. F. A. Steel and Mr. A. E. W. Mason are among the contributors of short stories. The two leading publications of the Smith's Publishing Company, London, veach us svith great regularity. Great Thoughts is not only a fine Illustrated miscellany of selected matter, but contains original essays of value in every issue. The issue for April includes an interesting interview with the great publisher, Mr. John Murray, and a sketch of Richard Strauss, "a typical, if greatly daring, tone-poet of the day. ' The editor contributes a biography and appreciation of the late Alexander Vinet, ?.nd those interested in astronomy will welcome an account with nortrait of Professor Percival Lowell, who piobably knows more about Mars than any ; other man living. The Christian Age is on just the same general lines, though a distinctively religions character pervades the whole contents. It has avoided the error fo common jowadays in the icligious press : it refrains from political partisanship. It is unsectarian, and we do not know of a penny paper to equal it for home reading for Sund&y or i jveek-day. i