BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

Evening Star, Issue 15074, 4 January 1913, Page 9

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

'A Regular Madam.' By Alice Wilson Fox. London: Macmillan a.nd Co. A simple, unpretentious little story of tho eighteenth century, of which it is" not possible to say anything bad nor anything very much in the way of commendation, it one must raise a question it is: Whv s.ories that are so hopelessly doomed to an early death are written? Once thev have been given to a child for a birthda*v or a Christmas present their life's work is flone. Lady Barbara Bauchester goes to «l u causo hcr stepmother wishes it. the thero meete some- nice girls, has an adventure with a highwayman, leaves wtih a French' chum for Canada, going bv a Trench, man of war, that on the voyage has an engagement with an English frigate, lands in Old Quebec, meets some more race people (French), is captured by Indians, finds her long-losf brother, and"after Wolfehas accomplished his gallant feat of arms i 3 ablo to marry a French officer to ?how that there is no ill-feeling. 'John Scarlett, Ganger.' By Donald Maclean. London : Hodder and Stoughton. A capital story of work and labor in a navyies' camp in Gippsland. Victoria, the hero being a shy, physically-insignificant young man; tho heroine a certain altogether lovely Sheila Macdonald; and the guiding authority the Melbourne branch of the Y.M.C.A. The story will recall (as the author admits) Ralph Connor's 'Black Rock,' though, it lacks, perhaps, the literary charm of this the most popular of tho Canadian writer's missionarv stories 'John Scarlett,' which obviously'is written from first-hand knowledge and personal experience, has distinct merits of its own. The writer is an enthusiast on the greatness of the benefits of Y.M.C.A. work in out-of-the-way places like mining and upeountry railway camps, and if his descriptions are but approximately accurate, which there is no reason to doubt, the reader can hardly fail to agree with him. An interesting chapter is that entitled 'The Story of Achan,' which is a report and account of Scarlett's first sermon to the wild spirits of Powlett River. It is one of the most practical we have read or heard for some time. 'The Chequer Board.' By Sybil Grant. London: Hodder and"Stoughton. Nine stories of striking interest, pitched in a key and written in a manner beyond the average of short stories. Mr Grant, whose work is unknown to us, writes with refinement, taste, and skill, and in tho selections we have read—'Be-yond-the Boundary' and 'The Threecornered Secret'—there are evidences of power and knowledge which, under his deftmanipulation, yield narratives of no mean order. The large type and wide borders of the 520 pages, of the book aro appreciated aids to the enjoyment of the reader. (ByJLG.) 'Mary Pechell.' By Mrs Belloc Lowndes. London : Methuen. It is always a pleasure to open a new novel by Mrs Belloc Lowndes, for she has such an engaging style that one knows that anything she writes must for that reason alone bo worth reading. From this point of view, 'Mary Pechell' is one of her most charming performances. Tho story is not so gripping as 'Jane Oghmder.' so sinister and compelling as 'The Chink in the Armor'; it is one that wooes rather ! than challenges us, but its persuasive powers are veiy subtle, and there is a delightful old-world flavor about it that puts us in mind of potpourri in a Lowestoft, china bowl. Thero is a mystery, of course, and as usual Mrs Lowndes exacts from her readers the. most scrupulous attention if they would not miss a single clue She is One of those writers who believe that the denouement should come suddenly, like a streak of lightning, after which she likes to ring down tho curtain immediately. In the present instance we are not quite sure that tho ending is not almost too abrupt. The penetrating of the Wigney-Caryll mystery is an excellent piece of literary construction, and the manner in which the knotted skein is unravelled puts us in mind a little of Conrad's method in the ' Secret Agent.' All '•the same, we feel we should like to have known a little more—what John said, for instance, when he heard of Maiy Pechell's marriage, and how the old aunts received the news. And one somehow feels that Mary and her husband ought to have lived at Highways after all. Of course, in real life, such a conclusion would have been impossible, but, all said and argued, fiction is not quite the same thing, and in this case w r e feel we have been defrauded of a good half of our romantic happy ending. ' The Debt.' By William Westmp. London : Alston Rivers. The story opens well, almost brilliantly; the scene between the transport riders and Lensford is excellently described, and Hiroughout the book the author compels us io feel the fascination of the veldt. When he take<s his hero to Johannesburg, he does not, in our opinion, succeed as well. We are not setting up a plea for the sordid or gloomy, we do not wish to revel in nasty-, naturalistic details, but we must own. to a slight feeling of disapointment when we. find the young man's adventures in that wicket capital are limited to a mild love affair with a girl in a boarding-hcuse, for whom he does not greatly care, and that his debts merely amount to the sum of £IOO. The Jewish villain who "diddles" everybody is conventional, and his ending melodramatic and absurd. Mr Westrup shows us in his introduction that he knows how to produce really good work, and throughout the book most of his characterisation is far above the average level, while his atmosphere is undeniably good. Wo hope, however, that in his next novel he will give us a, hero on a slightly larger scale and a villain who ha.s not just stepped out of an Adelphi melodrama. 'Honey, My Honey.' By Katherine- Tynan. London: G. Bell and Sons. Miss Katherine Tynan is a charming poetess, but I fear she is not so successful as a novelist, though she has written many novels. This story, brightly written and well characterised, is mainly" concerned with tho love affairs of Honey. This young lady, discarding the English" baronet, of the first part, weds . . . but I will not reveal the plot; the ending is happy, and Honey disposes of the baronet in"a manner so convenient that it is hardly likely. Excitement is plentiful in the book, for ghosts, fires, and motor troubles occur when required: it can be recommended to the lymphatic. ' The Celestial Critic.' By Vincent Brown. London : G. Bell and Sons. This is perhaps not so good a novel as Mr. Vincent Brown's earlier ' A. Magdalen's Husband,' but it is still an interesting one. The characterisation is throughout remarkable, notably that of the wife, the "other •woman," and the little humpbacked dressmaker who plays the part of celestial critic. The ending is a little unsatisfying, for the conversion of John Brood," the, hero, to religions belief and the tenets of tho High Church rings false: tho book hardly leads one to think that this change of heart would have come upon him. Still, Brood, was a man. of divided mind, and the delineation of his psychological states is so excellent that we 'must Mr Brown the benefit of the doubt and assume that his hero -wm clear at least to him. The bock J' assured of a great many sympathetic readers in every country. FIELDING'S LAST DAYS.

In a recently-published book of essays by Austin Dobson there is one paper that demands .fuller notice than the others. For the first time we have now some knowledge of Fielding's life in Lisbon. AH readers of that bTavest of books, the ' Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon,' know that Fieldinc left FoTdhook, his house at Ealing, in June, 1754, was carried, helpless on board the Queen of Portugal, Captain Richard Veale, and reached Lisbon in August—to die there in October. But little or nothing has been known of his life during those two months. Now we have " two of his latest, if not his last," letters communicated to Mr Dobson by the Fielding family, which are full of interest to lovera of Fielding's life, The later of the two letters is full- of

trouble. Portuguese merchants are all rogues. Captain Ye ale—already familiar to readers of tho ' Journal'—has been found out: " Captains are all ye greatest scoundrels in the world, but Vealo is the greatest of them all"—as poor "Bell," Fielding's maidservant, had found to her east. His own health is very much better; but "William, the footman, after too much cheap wine, is deserting tho party and fleeing homo with, as it afterwards appears, £3 12s. of his master's'cash in' his pocket. Lisbon is horribly clear, and no one will advance any money without security. Fortunately, we meet'now with Mr Stubbs. "the greatest merchant of thi.s place." Mr Stubbs has a little kintor or ydla, at a. place called Jonkera, two miles from Lisbon and near Bellisle which is the Kensington of [Portugal]"; and here he finds a house, very cheap, for the Fielding family. But Mrs Fielding was fretting to get home to Ealing and her children; and her companion, Mies Margaret Collier, was a snake in the grass, a . mischief-maker. So our last glimpse of Fielding is not a very happy one. Far from London, from all his friends and from activity, cooped up with a pack.of women, sometimes worried for money, and apparently losing spirits as he gains health, the great, and generous , soul is in the toils of pettiness. Best, must \ have come sweetlv to him on that day of October, 1754: but for so brave a'lifo , could be wished a braver end. MR CROCKETT'S LIBRARY. Admirers of Mr R. S. Crockett, the Scottish novelist, may bo interested to hear about his library, portion of which was recently sold at Sotheby's. A literary man's books are always the surest index to his real interests/and Mr Crockett's library shows very much the sort of books one would expect to find there. There are, however, only six works by Stevenson, one with tho authors autograph. Scott, Borrow, Murryat, Lever, and George Augustus Sala appear to be his favorite novelists. There is a good deal of Scottish history and historical publications. The curiosities are of a highly sanguinary kind—Cox's 'A Faithful Narrative of the Transactions of that Bloody-minded Gang of Thiefmakers : Mac-Daniels, Berry, Sab mon, and Oahagan, 1756,' Fierce Egan's 'Account of the Trial of John Thiirtell,' ' The. Authentick Account of the Life of Mr Charles Drew, Convicted for the Murder oi His Father,' the ' Newgate Calendar.' and so on. There are many strange hooks of 18th century Scots divinity—'The Mairow of Modern ' Divinity,' and ' The Antinomianism of the "Marrow of Modern Divinity Detected'; and again, 'The Snake in the Grass, or Remarks About a Book Entitled "The Marrow of Modern Divinty."' and Shields':? 'A Hind Let Loose, or"An Historical Representation of the Testimonies of the Church of Scotland, 1687,' and ' The Lord's Trumpet Sounding an Alarm Against Scotland by Warning of a BloodySword,' by the prophet Peden. There was no copy of Scot of Seotstarvet's ' The Staggering State of Scots Statesmen.' Mr Crockett possibly is hoarding his copy of this patriotic wo'rk for the joy of its title. MISCELLANEOUS. The following advertisement tells more eloquently than many "puffs" of the continued popularity "of the anther of ' The Recessional' and ' Barrack Room Ballads' :—" Collected Verses of Rudyard Kipling. £5 5s net edition limited to 100 copies, all sold. £2 2s net edition, limited to 500 copies, all sold. 20s net edition, first large printing order, all sold; second edition already' heavily subscribed." At Sotheby's auction sales recently a fine copy of the first edition of ' Waverlcy,' in three volumes, printed in Edinburgh for A. Constable and Co.. 1814, was sold for £BO. For a first edition of another of Scott's novels, ' Guy Mannering,' 1315, £47 was paid. Mr Andrew Lang's posthumous book on the Shakespeare-Bacon business gentlv brushes aside, all the people who have been named in place of the Stratford-on-Avon man. Neither Bacon nor Bungay wrote . Shakespeare, says Mr Lang, who poohpoohs the whole string of nonsense. He does it gently, "with sweet reasonableness, and, if possible, with persuasive urbanity," because he had noticed "with pain that_ the controversy has hitherto been passionate and acrimonious." A curious bit of evidence relating to George Meredith's father, about whom the famous son was so reticent, is to be found in ' Peter Simple.' one of Captain Marryat's novels. Peter Simple, on arriving at Spithead with, his friend Lieut. O'Brien, both in a shabby condition after escaping from a French prison, says : "We did not go to the admiral's, but merely reported ourselves at the admiral's office", for we had no clothes fit to appear in. But we called at Meredith, the tailor's, and he promised that by the next morning we should be fitted complete." Now, Captain Marryat's nautical stories are based on actual experience, for he went to sea earlv in the last century. Evidently at thattime Meredith, the tailor, was well known among naval officers at Portsmouth. THOUGHTS OF MASTER MINDS. Nothing in the world was ever buiit without a dream at the beginning. Man spends his life in the "effort to realise his ideals, which, like will o' the wisps, hover just beyond him. Woman, on the contrary, brings into her life what grace she may, by idealising her reals. Life is mostly froth and bubble ; Two things stand like stone: Kindness in another's trouble, Courage in your own. —Lindsay Gordon. ''When lore is hurt, it is self-love that requires the opiate.'"—George Meredith. Among modern nations the greatest eaters are the British, tomans, French, and the Americans—the ruling people of our civilisation. The .Americans are, on the average, the greatest eaters in' the world. Said Carlyle to Emerson: '"Che best thing I know of your country is that in it a man can have meat for his labor." _" Straightforwardness, without the rules of propriety, Incomes rudeness."—Confucius. It is a woman's tendency to make the best oi what she has, and "man's to reach out for what he has not. Reverse the golden medal of noble love, and behold! the word "love" is repented! Reverse the coin of petty love, and vou will find the word ""jealousy" stamped" on its back. "All my woes come of having thought too weil of my fellows."---Rousseau. "The Imperialism, not of the future but of the present, must be practical vigorous, and decisive."—Mr F. E. Smith' "Friendship is seldom lasting but between equals, or where the superiority on ore side is reduced by some equivalent advantage on the other."—Dr Johnson. " There can be no successful development of lousiness which does not carry the employees along with it."—Sir AVm. Lever of Sunlight fame. " Hasten slowly, and without losinnheart put your work twenty times upon the. anvil."—-Boileau. _ " It is ordained in the- eternal constitution of things that men of intemperate minds cannot be free; their passions forge their fetters."—Burke. '" One must first appreciate, then desire, then resolve, and finally achieve. A man's enthusiasm is flame-colored, and its sparks flash from his eyes. A just chastisement may benefit a man, though it. seldom does, but an unjust one changes all bis blood to gall. In every life there is a perfect moment like a flash of sun. We can shape our days by that, if we will—before by faith, and afterwards by memory. Money has made many a fool, but seldom have fools made money.