REVIEWS FOR READERS.

Feilding Star, Volume VI, Issue 1797, 18 May 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

REVIEWS FOR READERS.

B* T.L.M. r» ' TWO FROM STANLEY PAUL'S LIBRARY. Miss Kate Horn is not so well known in New Zealand as she is in the Motherland, where she is a frequent producer of books .which show versatility, and marked for the most part by a sprightliness that is refreshing in an age when so much that is stodgy passes, for cleverness. Miss Horn has added to the gaiety of readers with "Edward and I and Mrs Honeybun," "The White Owl," and "The Mulberries of Daphne.". Now comes in Stanley Paul's Colonial Library (through Whitcombe and Tombs, Wellington) "The - Lovelocks .of Diana." This is a modern romance of a damsel, many of the scenes of which are laid in Malta. Major Felix Cassell, the villain of the piece, infatuated by Diana, sends his] accomplice, Mrs Vavasour, who runs a gambling hell in London, to lure the girl from Malta. Mrs Vavasour, masquerading as a Baroness, accomplishes her purpose. Diana's complete ruin is plotted, but the stars in their courses watch over her, frustrating the machinations of her enemies and bringing to her rescue a worthy lover. Despite the tragedy in the tale, there is action and bright writing, whilst Diana and ; some other characters are well worth ' i becoming acquainted with. ■ [i Harold Avery is another writer of ; ; the bright and cheerful school of. i novelists, as he proved in "A Week ; ; at the Sea" and "An Armchair. Ad i venturer." And he maintains the' cheery note all the way through his 1 latest book, "Every Dog His Day," J which is published in Stanley Paul's i Colonial Library (Whitcombe and 1 Tombs, Wellington). The story ,'of < Basil Relever, the dog who has his 1 day, is a , charming romance of ] youthful love and manly endeavour, c of independence and misunderstand- s ing, and of final reconciliation, t Basil Relever and Angela (the hero- r me) kiss in a garden at Avesbury, just as youthful and innocent lovers t have been doing these ages past. I Circumstances divide them. Basil iis whirled away into the vortex of b commercial life and spends some f years building up a business and C making himself a position. Prosper- b ing, he' revisits Avesbury, to learn a from Helen Sutherly (Angela's aunt, t! a delightful creature) that Angela, a proud and independent, lives in h London and earns her own livelihood a: as a secretary. The lovers again h meet, and yet again each is not un- sj derstood of the other. Aunt Helen ti intervenes, but the lovers are again tl about to part When they meet once- A more in the old garden and "love ti awakens and does not wake invam ."■ ir It is a peasant, quiet story which p] - /: " :-;: ,'-.. -rct33-" ■'■-■■

' grows :in. ( interest,as. it proceeds, **nd ! leaves-a, r .sense, in, > the ; mind , of ; the reader when it is-fm-i ished; especially when, in the finale; Aunt Helen,' told by Angela. .'itiai Basil is out in the .porch, rushes put arid embraces—the postman. . ; ; -'"HE WHO PASSED." "To M.L.G." That is all. Whe- j ther Michael Lawrence Grant or George Leonard Griffiths or Methuselah Longdead Greatheart is the man "He Who Passed" is written forj or whether it is "just written" (like other semi-autobiographical novels) puzzles the reader all the way ! through the 320 pages of the latest book issued in Wm. Heinemann's Australasian Edition of new novels (our review copy comes from Messrs George Robertson and Co., Melbourne). There is a strange fascination about this well-written seem ingly human document, which gets its grip upon the reader from the very beginning in which the anonymous author sets out thusly: "To M.L.G. Because I could not bring myself to tell you these things, and because I would not marry you unless you knew them, I let you go without m*e. I let you believe that I did not care enough to go so far away, though in truth I would have gone to the darkest corner of the world with you, seeing only sunshine." Then is told in detail—too much detail in the childhood days— the story of this woman with a vivid past, almost wholly spent-on the stage from her fifteenth year. The writer impresses us as being as young as her heroine (if it be not a transcript from life), and she casts grave reflections upon the unmoral life of actresses on the American stage. The 320-page letter to " M.L.G." (he who passed) concludes thusly: "You will mot be 'spoiling my life' by keeping yourself out of it. There will never be any other man in my life. There never has ben any other who counted, in my heart. But while sunrises and sunBets throw their banners across the sky, while winds call, stars throb, and murmur to my soul, I cannot lose all that is worth having or live behind prison bars. So I say again: put my needs out of your mirid, and decide what is best for yourself." It seems to be M.L.G.'s next move —it may be that these lines in the Stab may catch his eye as he hides in ■ "the darkest corner of the world" (one of Feilding's un-> lighted back streets) and if he is a gentleman he will reply with a 320-page account of why he passed. " GOD AND MAMMON." Those Hocking brothers are rivals only in the output of their books. On April 6 Silas H.s latest novel, "The Quenchless Fire," was review ed in this column; and on top of this comes another work by Joseph Hocking, " God and Mammon," which is published by Ward, Lock and Co., a review copy coming from the Bible, Book, and Tract. Depot (Wellington). Yet again the author of "Lest We Forget" and "All Men are Liars" proves his versatility as a novelist and his love for his native Cornwall, whence comes the hero, a legal practitioner, who goes to London in, search of fame. There is the usual -jtrugglesome start, an accidental friendship,, the first case fortunate, *Ehe ultimate fortune, the faithful girl he leaves behind him, the girl of high degree who loves the Cornishman's gold rather than himself, the dog-in-the-manger attitude to the friend who led him to fortune. All this time the hero is ar Idently serving Mammon, and has forsaken the God of his people away t back at home. Ho builds up a big business on the trust of many people—but ruin comes swiftly, like a thief in the night. Thanks to the direct influence of his father and mother, he makes restitution to the people who had trusted him, but ruins himself financially in so doing, and loses the baron's daughter who did not care for him. However, : back iri his native town he rises again, and finds the happiness he did not promise at one tiirie to deserve. Everybody who likes Joseph* Hocking's work will like "God aha Mammon." TWO FROM S. AND W. MACKAY This well-known firm of Wellington booksellers sends us a copy of Hodder and Stoughton's cheap edition of Harold Begbie's "In the Hand of the Potter," a study of Christianity in action. This book, like its companion volume, "Broken Earthenware," has had an enormous , circulation all over the Englishspeaking world, and this ls 3d cdi- i tion should add considerably to the ■ multitude of Mr Begbie's admirers. "The Ride of the Abernathy Boys,' ] by Miles Abernathy, is another of j Hodder and Stoughton'B books, but j it has had the advantage of having been printed in America and is profusely illustrated from photographs. One is struck by. the family resemblance between the names of the * author and the young heroes, and E the narrative of these boys of syrs 1; and 9yrs can well .be accepted as liaving been recorded by a father or *■ an elder brother. The Abernathy " boys are wonderful kids, and may be d said to be the,latest thing in ven:uresome Young America, The things b -■hey did! . The journeys they made! J ■Vnd there are numerous really and j b ;ruly photographs to prove their do- I o ngs. The narrative,' which is sim» P sly and told, concerns two h

tups acrdss a -wide raoige of country, on hoiseback, in tho course of twelve* 1 months. "The endfhas a yery natural and modern touch—the boys return home ih a motor car "The Ride of . the Abernathy Boys" can be thoroughly recommended as a book for all boys, and is admirably suited for reading out aloud to the family after tea. during' these winter evenings.- " j.'-THE PARTNERS." In "The Partners, a Tale of the Nor'-West Coast of Australia," which is published by Messrs Hutchinson and .Co., London (Messrs Whitcombe and Co., Christchurch), Kate Helen Weston has given us a full-blooded, full-bodied book of 368 pages of small type. The narrative is crowded with *■ out-of-the-way incidents in a littleknown corner of the world, arid the atmosphere is wonderfully well imparted into the work. The story starts very simply, but the reader is right into intimate touch with the partners before being informed how the partnership came about. The ~ Rev. Alfred Arnold, who has a ma- -;, nia, but not the gift, for redeeming the aborigines of wild and weird Australia, takes out with him a young wife who is not at all in touch with her husband's mission. Out of the sea comes her affinity, Coudrey Watson,' who owns a lugger and pursues the pearl and the girl and the whirl of the-.-wild life. He makes Beatrix Arnold a partner in his pearling operations, and he is ever her hero. There are exciting times out there, - s in which the missioner as well as the hero and heroine take plenteous part. " When the narrative is half-told, the missionary "crosses the bar" in a vividly-told episode, which is one of •!■ the purple patches of "The Partners "—and then Watson's trouble : begins. This is something new in Australian fiction; .it is .* somewhat different from the j - usual novel, and it gives the impression of having been written by on who knows the north-west coast' of Australia better than well, and as a result it should have a good sale at both ends of the world.