BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

Evening Star, Issue 14226, 27 November 1909, Page 10

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

4 The Lady in Grey.’ By Mrs Fred. Reynolds. London: Hurst and Blackett. Dunedin: Whitcombe and Tombs.

The above comes heralded as a “great novel” by the publishers, and while few will care to endorse this wholly gratuitous puff, it can at least bo said that it is a thoroughly healthy and clean—a word, unfortunately, that can he too rarely applied to much of the light literary product of to-day—-novel. In the hands of many writers who could be named the secret in Mrs Reynolds’s story—turning as it docs on the blood relationship between one of [he heroines (there are three) and tho hern—might easily have served as the medium of much unsavory detail. It has, in fact, been so used by ancient and medieval chroniclers. The charm, therefore, of ‘The Lady in Grey’ (Y Lladi Llwyd) consists in its delicate handling of an exceptional case, its refinement of tone, and its sympathetic touch. There is neither a coarse nor vulgar word throughout, and this in days when expletives and gutter talk are spelled out lull, and ornament the smart, realistic narratives of the hour, is a great deal. Mrs Reynolds probably is a Welshwoman, and working the literary vein that the lato Allen Rame found so profitable. Scenes atmosphere, and characters are all Welsh, and very prettily they move, proving, if proof wore needed, among other things, that elsb nature and ways are much the same as those of the rest of us. Lady in Grey’ is none the worse treats an old theme, introduces familiar characters, and briugs them to the customary end along tho usual paths. On the contrary, the old, old story of sacrifice and duty and the wages of sin gains in piquancy and (■harm when tricked out in the Welsh tongue and costume.

' J lie Shepherd of the Hills.’ Bv Harold Bell Wright. London: ilodder and Stoughton. Dunedin: R. J Stark and Co. Mr Mrjght’a harmless, picturesque, and occasionally sensational store, like he above, is old. This he admits in Ins opening lines But lie has the wit and the knowledge to tell it of some wild, unsettled part of Texas. Whv so many novels pall and weary is that their authors are unable to'get awav from licet street and the Divorce ourt > Horn motor ears and vachts, Irom/Whitechapel and Belgravia: Awav mi the open hills, in virgin canvons, oh solitary mountain peaks, ’and in sparsely-settled new country there is plenty of material to draw upon that is absolutely fresh to the great maionts ot novel readers. The men and the women we meet may and do act much tho same as those wo hear about in manufacturing centres and mighty nties. but the other affords scope for .• more adequate and convincing display "t the primitive passions when these are free of tho artificial restraints (if thf"hiMdv'’ 1 | Satl V' 1- i Hencu " c I'oUow the Inghh-colored adventurer, of the finely back-hloeks lieroine. the vili‘nd le thn )f t f le .' s ; v . a e« ei ' itl ? desperadoes, sfrnn 1 astonish ."'S teats of the still’ s rong hero as ire do not follow 'the I'agio richness ot the normal shocker. * t J.! s ’ Tt f< - ayS *i r, " ht > ‘ i,;i mv • tor\. It is the store of a man who ''n un! le n tr | all f tl,at leads to tI,D Io«-or ground, and of a woman, and how s he ields \7 Tr'i to th< ; ln -Imr sunlit lit Ids. It all happened in tho. Ozark momitains, many miles from what we L,al1 I Clnl,satioll - 1,1 life it .ms- all happened many, many times hclore in many, many places. ’The storv / very old. is still i a the telling.” The mnel is one ot average merit, and can he read tor its own sake.

‘Simeon Tetloiv’s Shadow.’ Hv ,j ean . ettc Loo. London: Dodder am! Stoughton. Dunedin: R, J Stark and Co. ' A somewhat ambitions attempt to tell the life story ot a great railway J Djito (American, of course), who is mi old man at forty, but the‘despot ami autocrat ol thousands of miles of railway, tens of thousands of Lands, “ml realV-cd “sa v tT L - Mrs Lne *** hardlv leali.Ld, sa,\. Harnnian for ns in her ? et 'T’ &'* has ability and has studied her subject, but whether thl tn S \ l' e f l"i ‘ h<:iltl ? lls tl,at a re essential to the teljmg of a storv that is worth the telling is doubtful. Her opening chapters are tho best, ami there are signs that Tetlow is gohm to '/an interesting stmlv. But” lie dwindles into a half, then to a who e sentimentalist who submits himself to the guidance— commercially and mor•ilb—ot his own office hov. who has the r r bto nvwti,J -’ Te V f »r inWhinprv llninola l }.P lecc of human nossilJv • f seething that errs— Mde b Smi (| nHlf ; h ° n tho £° o( l,V-goody ing '' ' ' 10 stor - v ls onintcrest-

fn a.p. 2000. By Rudyard Kipling, lerhapr, the best thing in Mr Kipling’s collection of etoricM is a vivid romance of , ,' 10 rallwl '.With tho Night. Mail.’ ■ -Vnl m-' l™ r i;rhb i° urnp y "with tho Z 2000 from Loiirn liH? ! hft P? ckct fl, « at an in- . redhblo speed at various heights up to oS ’ • ,h ° t,mo ff,r fho journev to JH from tMI in twelve houmi A £r LfT' ra, ‘ b f , oVCred in t i P,lfto nf thc futum Ae a matter ot fart, one 0 f tho dreams of L," 1 ! ‘ a niln S ato, ‘« of 2COO .A. n. is to bo w]ual m pace, so to speak, with the sun, to turn ail earth into tho Vale of Ajalon. ho far,, the dawn can bo dragged out Vi" DO J InaI lrn S th ’ b,lt «mo dav. even on tho Equator, wo shall hold the Kim level m his full stride.” Another of Mr Kipling’s imaginative sketches, ‘The Mother Hive,’ gives the T*“ of a e vo “ n ff worker bee, called .Melissa. It ronnnds ono of Maeterlinck’s daesio work on bees, so vivid is’ tho porfravalcf the life of these tiny workers. I he hivo to -which Mehw-a belong hue into a diMrderiy condition. The queen beo is hardly up to her work-. The spirit of revolt is abroad, very largely due to tho intrusion of the wax moth. The course of the spreading sedition and misI?” “ ? ICt i' r f \ l fMhion whi ch make* in T r?A er fecl , tbo keenest syrnpathv with the little republic struggling against tho fatal elements of chaos. Melissa and some of her companions remain staunch, and by their own personal exertion? manage to hatch out a new queen to lead out an enfeebled but still Msen.laily sound swarm, just in time before too beo master decided to burn the whole useless hive. At the end of each sketch in Mr Kipimgs volume there is a poem, and one set of verses, called ‘ Tho Power of tho Do".’ will appeal by its sympathetic insight ‘to every dog lover. Hero are two verses : When tho fourteen years which Nature permits Are closing in asthma, or tumor, or fits.

And the vet,'e unspoken prescription runs ”o lethal chambers or loaded gims, Then you will find—it’s your own affair. But . . . you’ve given your heart to a dog to tear. When tho body that lived at vour ein-'e will, " ° When the whimper of welcome is stilled (how still!) When the spirit that answered vour evenmood Is gone—wherever it goes—for good, ou will discover how much yon care. And will give your heart to a do-' to tear 1 When Mr Kipling gives his fine imagination a chance, and keeps off politics, lie shows that ho can still be, at times, the Kipling of old. 'The Merry Past.’ By Mr Ralph Novill. London : Duckworth's. One of tho most entertaining books, dealing with English life in the eighteenth century, is Mr Neville ‘ The Merry Past.’ Our author docs not offer any grave and learned, study of English society in “the good old times,” nor does lip indulge in scandal-mongering after the manner of Lady Cardigan, whose ‘Recollections’

have created such a stir in society. He nae, however, any amount of good stories to toll. One of them concerns Guy, the founder of that groat London institution Guys Hospital, and “Vulture” Hopkins, the “meanest man who ever lived,” whom Pope immortalised in the lines—

W hen Hopkins dies, a thousand lights attend The wretch who, living, saved a candle’s end. Guy was also a notorious miser, and Hopkins sought to. gain a few wrinkles from his rival in the art of cheeseparing. One night he visited Guy, and said :.

“ I have been told that you, eir, are bettor versed in the prudent and necessary art of saving than any man now living, and I therefore wait upon you f°r_ a lesson of frugality, an art in which I used to think I excelled, but I am told by all who know you that you are greatly my superior.” And is that all you have, come about?” said Guy. “Why, then, we can talk this matter over in the dark.” saying, ho extinguished his newlightod farthing candle, and Hopkins left with his lesson.

Another story which Mr Novill retails concerns a West Country cleric who obstinately refused to road the Athanasian f reed. 'lho parishioners complained to the bishop, who told the parson ho must rend it. Now, it so happens that the crml may bo “said or sung,” so on the following Sunday tho parson addressed his congregation this ;

‘ Next follows Athanasius's Creed, either to be said or sung, and, with Heavens leave, I will sing it. Now, clerk, mind what you are about.” After tin’s they both struck up and sang it with great glee to a fox-hunting tune, which, having previously been practised, was well performed. I ho indignant parishioners again complained to the bishop about what had happened, but he said he could do nothing as tho creed had been sung, so t he parishioners decided to dispense with it- altogether in future. Another story concerns tho funeral of a departed lord, who in early lifo had known that dignity which manual labor impa-rtii. Among the, floral tokens deposited on the coffin was one of rather peculiar shape, which reminded the widow of tho dear departed's vocation in tho days when prosperity was nob with them. "Who sent this?” demanded tho peeress angrily. And tho old butler replied ; " Beg your pardon, my lady, it ain t a pickaxe.; it's a handier.”

Very is Mr X’evill when discoursing of the old coaching days. Cm’ of tho, coach drivers’ pcrqnieities was to carry a. traveller for some part of tho journey and pocket the fare without putting it' on the waybill. “Shouldering” this was generally'called, but there were other terms for it.

’ have no luggage. I believe, sir? said coaeficc. to a passenger, after having brought him about fifty miles. “ I have none,” said he. “ Then if you please you shall get down at tho turnpike. as 1 am going to swallow yon ’Ann Veronica.' By 11. 0, Wells. ’Ann Veronica.,’ Mr Wells’s new novel, has greatly shocked the respectable critics. Veu can always tell what is coming when one of them begins in this sort of strain: Our views will, no doubt, be regarded as \ery old-fashioned, but we venture to think (hat theie are still a good manv people who will agree with us when we say, ’ etc., etc. When you read that vou can depend upon its being a, prelude' to some very severe criticism of so-called •’ improper ’ ideas expressed by the author under review. Until new ideas come to be accepted by the majority of people—and that, you know, takes a long, long time—they generally meet with storms of either derision or abuse. Mr Wells knows this a* well as anybody, so that he is probably not surmised to find this unconventional of his denounced in the Press as ‘‘crude, hysterical, silly,” rank in sentiment, and with its humor misplaced. In Mr Mellss latest book, -which he calls a modern love storv. the determination of a woman to live her own life and develop her own individuality is the conM.u theme. At the acre of twentv-two Aim veronica, after a painful expcnence of masculine brutality dn the part of a Uty man who lent her some money and then demanded his price, joins the suffracettes and goes to prison. Finally she falls m love with a professor and’ runs away with him. Shocking to relate, tho mofessor already had a wife, from whom he is separated. So when Mr Wells makes the illegal union of Ann and the professor turn out a happy one, the critics cannot forgive him. It is a very stimulating book, lor it is full of provocative passages in regard to which almost even* reader will want to express decided opinions. Hie following reflections by the professor, for instance, are sure to evoke complete disagreement in many happv homes, and perhaps sonic tacit approval'in homes not so happy. The professor, Capes, is talking about the difference between parents and children—differences of outlook, which nrevent them seeing things in the same light :

.. I kero ? a. sort of instinct of lebelnon. said Cape.-. “It isn’t anything to do with our tunes particularly. People think it is. but they arc wrong. It’s to do with adolescence. Long before religion and society heard of Doubt girls were all for midnight coaches and Gretna s a sor k °f home-leaving instinct. b He followed up a line of thought. “ fhere’s another instinct, too.” he went on, "in a state of suppression, unless m very much mistaken; a childexpelling instinct. ... 1 wonder. • J-here sno family-uniting instinct; its habit and sentiment and material com enience holds families together after adolescence. There’s always friction, conflict, unwilling concessions. Always! I don’t believe there is any strong natural affection at all between parents and growing-up children. There wasn’t 1 know, between mvself and mv lather. I didn’t allow myself to see things as they were in those dars; now 1 do. I bored him. I hated'him. I Mippoe that shocks ones ideas ft’s true. . There are sentimental and traditional deferences and reverences 1 know, between father and son; but thnts just exactly what prevents the development of an easy friendship, father-worshipping sons are abnormal—aud they re no good; no good at all. Ones got to be a better man than one’s lather, or rvhat is. the good of successive thing* L,f ° is a rebellion < or no-

Whether tho reader will like ‘Ann Veromea or not will depend on what he or >he thinks of the passages quoted above, mr the ideas there expressed permeate this powerful study of the revolt of young womanhood against the limitations to " nich it is subject.

( ‘Great Ihoughts’ for October contain* iinany articles of high literary quality. •T ie ’ , for .tho editor’s article on Jhe Avoidance of Thought’ Dr Downes | also writes of the theatre: there is an intcrview with Miss Mary' Macartlmr, scoretarv ox the Women’s Trade Union League • °S Dr Johnso ». a fine I sketch of Walter Savage Landor. and a : lengthy tribute to the with- cssavist. Mr j K - v -. Lucas. There are. as usual, manv ; [witrails and photographic illustrations. " , . Christian Age’ for October contains a_ striking sermon by Dr Aked. of New York, and, among many special feai litres, a contribution to the symposium on j' Fhe Coming Revival,’ by Archdeacon vSin'•lair, who says: “ The eighteenth centnrr j was far more sceptical than the present age. till Wesley and tho evangelicals once more : gave themselves to the spirit of God.”