SOME RECENT FICTION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17883, 31 August 1918, Page 4

SOME RECENT FICTION.

“ CINDERELLA’S SUITORS.” TJie fine promise shown in Miss Isabel Peacocke’s earlier books, “ My Friend Phil ” and “ Patricia Pat,’ is amply redeemed in her latest story*

“Cinderella’s Suitors” (Ward, Lock and Co., per Whitcombs and Tombs).. The heroine is an Auckland girl, who, when occupying a comparatively humble position ns a typist, receives the pleasantly bewildering news that she has come into a fortune of five thousand a year Alexa, or Loxie Leslie, as her friends call hor, is a very charming girl, and is naturally highly elated over her good fortune. There is, however, a condition attached that sho must remain unmarried. Sho sails for Europe in company with a friend, a young widow, and a young journalist who has been “fired” for writing a sensational attack upon the owners of somo slum property, tho said owners including one of the proprietors of tho paper upon which lie has been employed. A very charming love story is gradually developed, and somo pleasant travel pictures introduced. An in-geniously-contrived plot is worked out to an equally clever conclusion, a conclusion which lady readers of tho story will no doubt consider highly satisfactory. Miss Peacocke’s character drawing is gaining in strength as she progresses in her art, and there are several passages in the book which exhibit the author’s firm grasp of certain social possibilities of tho after-war period. The story should specially delight readers of the feminine sex. QUITE O.K. I President Woodrow Wilson has finally exploded a long accepted tradition as to the origin of tho expression “0.K.,” meaning “that’s correct,” “that’s all right.” Tho tradition as given in Vere’s “Americanisms” (as quoted in Fanner and Henley’s ‘ Slang and its Analogues”) was that General Jackson, better known ns “ Old Hickory,” was not much at home in the ar' of spelling, and his friend nnd confidant, Major Jack Downing, found therefore no difficulty in convincing the renders of his “Letters” that the President employed tho letters “0.K.” as an endorsement of applications for office and otjier papers. They were intended to stand for “ All Correct,” which the old gentleman preferred writing “Oil Korroct.” . How it came about that President Wilson exploded this amusing tradition was, according to the New York “Evening Post,” in this way. President Wilson set his staff a puzzle when he initialled his documents with the curious phrase, “Okeh, W.W.” They hazarded guess after guess ns to where the President got the word. They had heard of his wholesome respect for the English language. Finally, after more memoranda similarly marked came to them, one of the assistant secretaries asked the President why ho didn’t use the abbreviation “ 0.k.” “Because it’s wrong,” replied the President, as lie went on signing his mail. “ Look it up in tho latest dictionary,” suggested 'the President to his puzzled inquirer. And hero is part of what was found : O.K.—a humorous or ignorant spell'ng of wh at should he “ okeh,” from the Choc law language, meaning “It. is so,” an .article pronoun, having a distinctive final use; all right; correct; used as an endorsement of a bill. STRAY LEAVES. Our erstwhile visitor, Mr H. B. Irving, the famous actor, is a devoted student of criminology. In his recently published work, “ A Book of Remarkable Criminals,” he quotes a computation made by the late James Payn, the well-known novelist, that one person in every five hundred is an undiscovered murderer, with the comment that “ this gives us all a hope, almost a certainty, that we may reckon one such person at least among our acquaintance ” ; and he adds in a footnote that “ tIA author was one of three men discussing this subject in a London club. They were able to name six persons of their various acquaintance who were, or had been, suspected of being successful murderers.” James Payn introduced a murderer in more than one of his novels (notably in “ Gwendoline’s Harvest,”- by which “ Liber ” well remembers having been thrilled as a boy—it came out in “ Chambers’s Journal ”). It is difficult, however, to accept as credible his story, especially when one remembers that the novelist was a member of the famous Reform Club, the home, so one would have thought, of unquestioned respectability. In a recent American magazine I fiqd a cleverly written article by Michael Monahan, “In Dickens Land: a Reverie.” I notice, however, that the article is illustrated by a picture entitled, “ A Night-time Photograph of the Original ‘ Old Curiosity Shop,’ in Portsmouth Street, London.” How hard tho silly old tradition dies 1 Time after time Mr Harry Fielding Dickens, Dickens’s only surviving son, has declared that there is not one tittle of evidence to show that the claim of the Portsmouth Street shop .to have been the original of Tnttle Nell’s home is in any way justifiable. Many expert authorities on the topography of the story have exposed this sham, vet colonial and American visitors to London still make pious pilgrimnges to tho place nnd buy “ Dickens postcards ” , and the like thereat. A letter from Kipling to the little daughter of Albert Dorrington, the Australian author, in answer to the child’s request for an autograph, appeared recently an “London Opinion.” It reads :

" DenT Miss Billy,—Because I Jo not always answer letters personally I am considered a very husky fellow at times. _ Between you and myself there is a grain of truth in this report, and I am often very terrible when tho post comes in. 11 I'm glad you knew and loved Frank Bullen; ho was also my dear friend, and had a fine royard for you splendid Australians. I- had a boy who came near writing stones about kangaroos and Queensland pearl fishers. But another call came, and Johnny went to France, whore the Btars are still shining, although Johnny’s drum has ceased to beat. Very sincerely.—Rudyard Kipling.”

“Mr Britling Sees It Through,” which is still very much in demand, lias been published in a French edition. The difficulty of translating a colloquialism is well demonstrated by the French title, “M. Britlmg Cominenoe a Voir Cltrir,” “ Mr Britlmg Commences to See Clearly.” This, needless to say, is not at all what Mr Wells meant to convey by the original English. Henri Barbusse, the author of that most remarkable of war books, “Under Fire,” has written a novel on the war between tho sexes. Tho title is “ L’lnferno.” The book has had a tremendous vogue, the English translation having been made, it is announced, from the 100th French edition. It must be remembered, however, that a French edition sometimes only consists of 500 copies. Booklovers will bo glad to leam that the popular firm of Dent has reversed its decision to wait Until tho war is concluded before making any addition to the famous Everyman Library, wliicn already runs into some 700 litles, as seven new volumes have now been added to the list. These have been unpacked at Whiteombe’s and aro meeting with a steady sale from those who appreciate the advantage of being able to secure the pick of the world’s literature at two shillings a volume. Tho new titles are Maine’s “ Ancient Law,” William James’s “ Papers on Philosophy,” Duruy’s “History of France” (two volumes), “ Memoirs of Cardinal Retz ” (two volumes), and a collection of Russian stories by Gogol. 1