BOOK NOTICES.

Evening Star, Issue 7355, 29 October 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

BOOK NOTICES.

Frederick Uazzdden, by Hugh Westbury. Zoroaster, by F. Marion Crawford, author of ‘ Mr Isaacs,' ‘ Dr Claudius,’ etc, The Crusade of the Excelsior , by Bret Harte, author of ‘ A Millionaire of Rough and Ready,’ 'Devil’s Ford,’ etc.

Three novels published by Macmillan and Co., of London and New York, and sold by James Horsburgh, George street, Dunedin. These three novels are part of Macmillan’s Colonial Library, a series of choice works selected for circulation in India and the British colonies. These handsome volumes are printed in the same style of type, and enclosed in neat (one might almost say elegant) covers, and similar alike in color and bordering; so that when the series is completed, without further expensive binding, they will form a neat row on a library shelf. A few months since we called attention to the first instalment of these novels. The three works named at the head of this notice have since been received. The first two stand in strong contrast, inasmuch as ‘ Frederick Hazzelden ’ is a vivid picture of modern British life, while ‘ Zoroaster ’is a story of Eastern life and manners 2,500 years ago. We believe it was the late Lord Beaconsfield who said if he wanted to spread the knowledge of a particular political theory, he wrote a novel' embodying its doctrines. No question if the imagination can be enlisted in a scientific investigation; while through its influence there is perhaps increased danger of error, abstract propositions are denuded of their dry logical precision, and when woven into a story of a life are seen in their influence upon fortune and character. In ‘ Frederick Hazzelden’ we have a novel in many respects very original. It is well written and well conceived. Perhaps opinions may differ regarding the characters of the hero and heroine the latter being a most loveable compound of contradictions, while the former is essentially an amiable though somewhat weak youth, too easily swayed by circumstances, yet without vice. It seems necessary to the author’s design that this should be so, for he has made use of these traits of character to introduce types of different classes of scientific and political experimenters. Thus one very interesting personage is gifted with “thought-reading,” and, without endeavoring to explain the process, gives some curious information drawn from his experience of the possibility of transmission of ideas apart from speech. Next, we have an enthusiastic Darwinite, transferring the pollen of flowers from one to another with his brush of camel’s hair, and thus varying the species; and in the political world we are let into the secret of how committees influence elections, of the means of securing their support, of public demoralisation through their machinations; and lastly we are introduced to the secret councils of the Irish agitators, their bloodthirsty hatred to British rule, and the doctrines with which they seek to justify their resort to dynamite. The idiosyncracies of the various characters are well and naturally worked out, and, as our readers will conclude, the whole story is one illustrative of society as at present constituted. It is society up to date. * Zoroaster * is an Old World story—not the less interesting on that account. The time is that of Belshazzar and his conqueror, and the opening scene is laid In Babylon, in the “ hall of banquets” in the palace. The short narratives of the Old do not help us to realise the state of society which led to the events detailed. Accustomed to constitutional government, to the administration of laws based upon the recognition of the equality of mankind and the duty of man to man, we are apt to judge of the events of past ages by our present ideas of right and wrong. In India, where social science has been stationary for ages, truer conceptions may be formed of the burdens 1 of tyrany and barbaric pomp and luxury ; but excepting for the labors of historians, it

would be difficult for us to avoid judging Eastern civilisations by our traditional Western standards. By the aid of works of imagination we can place ourselves in sympathy with the people of 2,500 years ago, can understand their customs, and learn to bless ourselves that we were born in happier times. The story is romantic, involving the fortunes of protegds of the Prophet Daniel, and the language in which it is written and the imagery in which it abounds remind one of the rich Eastern voluptuous phraseology of ‘ Lalla Rookh.’ Bret Harte’s ‘ Cruise of the Excelsior ’ is a romance of modern times, suggested by the unsettled state of the Spanish-American colonies at the time oi the early .gold discoveries in California. The well-known talent of the author is a guarantee that his work is interesting, full of movement and incident, and free from mock sentimentality. It is of course a love story, with difficulties of an unusual kind to mar its smoothness. The Excelsior, on board of which are several very interesting persons, beconies, through the blundering or design of a drunken captain diverted from her intended course to a Spanish settlement, the inhabitants of which detain her on a charge of aiding a rebellion against Spanish authority. This gives the author an opportunity of describing some very humorous phases of character and social life in a colony into which modern ideas and modern thought had not penetrated. In the hands of a writer like Bret Hartc a wide field for adventure is thus opened, and he has taken full advantage of it. All these novels will well repay perusal.