SOME RECENT FICTION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17096, 19 February 1916, Page 12

SOME RECENT FICTION.

TWO INDIAN STORIES. “ "Pootli,” by A. F. J. Chinoy and (Mrs) Dimlai A. F. Chinoy (Werner Laurie), is a story of Indian domestic life in Bombay. The principal characters arc Parsees, and the story has much to do with the. subtle bu shady clvango which is aOl Led in Parse© life by tho introduction 0 Western influences. The novel is well worth reading, for it gives, an 1 aside view of native Indian life which is rarely to bo obtained from fiction of European authorship. Tho authois do not exactly write what lias been-known as Baboo English, but not infrcquently tlieir style is curiously suggestive of Ollendorfinn dialogue. Such a sentence ns “Tho handsome spirited horse slued at the hubbub, sprang up with a bounce and bolted on all fours,” seems at,first sight to suggest mixed metaphor. Again, when tho dissipated young tarsee, a native Knut, Hiamed Jal, goes home after a “spree,” we wore told of his “ bathing bis heated brain m ice-cold water.” The authors seem to have a somewhat peculiar idea of tlio average English maid-servant who, they inform us, “ generally works from early in the morning till Into in the evening, and who, though single-handed, efficiently manages not only to carry out the cooking- operations ot the family, but to clean tho house from top to bottom, keep the furniture in a sinning condition, and even answer summonses at the front door.” If there be still such a domestic treasure to b© found in England, sj?c would do well to emigrate to tli© Dominion. But bow tho housewives would fight for tho possessipu of such xui enviable possession I u Tho Temple in tho Tope, by fe. Foskett-(Hoddcr and Stoughton), is; a novel of a very,different typo from Mr and Mrs Chinoy’s story of Parsec hie. Mr Foskett was the winner of a prize, for the best Indian story, in Messrs Hoddcr and Stoughton’s “ Empire Prize Novel Competition,” and must be credited with having imagined a very original plot and worked it out to a. niglily dramatic and artistic conclusion. Tlio heroine is tlio daughter of a retired Indian officer, who lias married, a native girl, a high caste Brahmin who had been dedicated to the gods and was beloved of' one of tho high priests of tho temple to which she was attached. The child of the marriage is brought up in the temple, tho priests of which desire her to fulfil the destiny which it had been intended her mother should fulfil. Such is the commencement of a long and powerfully written story in which many interesting characters, Indian and European, figure, and which covers many interesting features of native and Anglo-Indian life and character. “The Temple in the Tope ” is easily the best Indian novel that has been published for some time past.

THE OCEAN SLEUTH. Maurice Drake, whose. “Salving of a Derelict,” and the curiously "entitled “WO 2,” will be remembered as novels much above the average, non- gives us another excellent story, “The Ocean Sleuth” (Methuen and Co., per I>. 0. Ramsay and Oo.). The hero is a young journalist who inherits a small fortune. Finding an idlo life not to his taste, and having bad some experience of tho sea, ho seelyi out an old skipper who is engaged in salvage work on the Cornish coast, and whilst there rescues a young lady from tho wreck, at tho Lizard, of an outward-bound Belgian liner. On board the steamer is a runaway banker, who has with him some thousands of pounds in English and French notes. The journalist falls in lovo with the girl he lias rescued, hut soon discovers that sho is in some wayconcerned In tho disposal of the stolen notes. He sets to work to play the detective, hoping to clear the young lady of all suspicion, and to save her frornar rest, this enterprise leading him into a long series of curious adventures. It would bo unfair to Mr Drako to give away tlio full plot of his story, which is written with great vivacity, being throughout an exceptionally readable novel. The local colour of the French scenes is pleasantly picturesque.

SHADOWS. “Shadows,” by H. Grahame. Richards (Hutchinson and Go., per Whitcombe and Tombs), is the story of a likeable, but irresponsible young Englishman, Ronald Clinton, whom some of his relatives are inclined to consider a “waster,” and who, for some timo, is decidedly under a cloud. How the hero goes to the front as a private and “makes good” at Ypves and elsewhere is told u-itli much spirit, and the interweaving of a pretty lovo story with the record of the hero’s youthful esca-

pades and of his experiences at the front helps to make the story very acceptable.

FLOWER OF THE DUST. Mr John O'xenliam’s latest novel, “Flower of the Dust” (Hoddcr and Stoughton), lias for heroine a girl of humble birth, whoso first experiences of life aro on a canal barge, but who afterwards becomes a nurse. Hilary Brown is a very loveable character, and deserves a better fortune than to die like her husband, tho victim of the murderous Chinese Boxers. Mr Oxcnham takes his heroine, at one stage of her career, to his. favourite Brittany, and his sketches of Breton life aro as charming as ever. There is a fine flavour of romance, in tlio love story of the heroine, who eventually marries a doctor whom, as a youth, she had rescued from drowning, and tlio heroine herself is a singularly fresh and charming girl, who is sure to become a warm favourite with all who read the story of her decidedly much varied experiences. A wholesome, pi©tty stoiy, to which, however, a happier ending would have been (in the opinion of most readers) more desirable.