BOOKS & AUTHORS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 28 September 1908, Page 1

BOOKS & AUTHORS.

VARIOUS VERSE. TO-MORROW. Life frowns on me to-day Yet she will smile to-morrow ; Trust me, I know her way, . Her moods of mirth and sorrow, Her hours of Lenten gray When none may beg or borrow, Life frowns on me to-day, Yet will she smile to-morrow. To-day Life gives me gloom, To-morrow comes her laughter, With love jests by the moon, With songs that reach the rafter. No rose that died abloom But left new loses after. To-day Life gives me gloom, To-morrow comes her laughter. — Theodosia Garrison, in- "Broadway Magazine." NEW BOOKS. "Th.3 Moth and the Flame." By Alice Maud Meadows. London : " John Milne (3* 6d, 2s 6dJ. The accomplished novel reader will at once divine that 'The Flame" of the title page is some particularly attractive woman, and the "Moth" some hopelessly infatuated man. The realistic picture oa the cow of the volume will assist those who have less imagination. This is, in fact, the story. A beautiful, fascinating young widow, Cora Westwood, who has had what is euphoniously termed "a past," wishes to break with the partner of her liason, and to "range herself by marrying a devoted, wealthy, and highly respectable lover. Jose Navarra, "the moth," objects. Cora calmly points out to him that at one time she desired nothing better than to bear his name, which he refused, dreading the certain poverty that marriage would entail. Now he would waive that obstacle and marry; but Cora 's love has grown cold, and she quietly informs him that .she no longer loves him, but lias decided to marry Lumley. It is another rendering of the old nursery rhyme — He who will not when he may, When he will he shall have nay. N'avarra refuses to take his congee, and Cora, knowing his passionate nature, tempornrises. The marriage with Lumley takes place without interruption, but on the same evening Jore appears before the bride and urges her to elope with him. She asks him to go into the streets and get her some violets, and in his haste and excitement he is knocked ihiwn and injured by a passing vehicle. C.D-a lias a respite; but he appears iiyaiii, frequents her receptions, and, Ins mind becoming unhinged, finally murders her. The issues of this: simple plot are confused by the conduct of Stephen Lumley's grown-up daughter, who hates and is fiercely jealous of her stepmother, acting in such a way that she is accused of the murder, and only escapes on Jose's confession and suicide. The story is sensational and sentimental : it has no literary merit and no real study of character, and though tho plot is well worked out the characters who take part in it are terribly wooden. The English is slipshod and full of careless errors in construction and grammar; moreover, the book has been most carelessly put through the press, whole words beingr l«ft out or misplaced. The moral, if any, would appear to be taken from another nur. scry rhyme, "What is sauce for- the goose is sauce for the gander"—^ statement on which there is much difference of opinion among grown-ups.