Literary Notes.

Free Lance, Volume XIV, Issue 722, 2 May 1914, Page 23

Literary Notes.

By The Bookworm.

MR. "Archibald Marshall, who "mad© a hit with his latest novel of the. Glinton family, under the title, "The Honour of the Glintons," is now issuing through Messrs. Stanley Paul an excellent story of country life, entitled "Roding Rectory." It is a story, -of jealousy between two men working for the same end ' in an old-fashioned English village. * , * * * A new novel from the pen of Miss*' Rhoda Broughton, under the title, "Concerning a Vow," is also announced by Stanley Paul and Co. ' * * * * Quite a stack of volumes have come to. hand lately for review. Let me plunge therefore in medias res. There is no use in sitting down to survey the .pile. So, without further palaver, here goes: * . * * * "Remarkable "Women of France," by [Lieut.-Colonel Andrew C. P. Haggard,, D.S.O. (Stanley Paid and Co.), is a portly toine of 349 pages printed in large,'clear type on good thick paper and embellished with a frontispiece in photogravure and 16 half-tones. ' The gallant colonel is the elder brother of Rider Haggard of "She" fame, and the itch for writing runs in the family, for I note that he dedicates this volume to his "dear sister," the Baroness Albert d'Anethan, who has also achieved some repute as an authoress. Colonel Haggard has a penchant for French studies, for he has already written up "The Amours of Henfy of Navarre and Marguerite of Valois." * * * * Therefore you will not be too surprised to learn that these "Remarkable Women of France" were nearly all Court favourites. The author, however, explains that they were selected because of their influence on public affairs. They range from Marguerite of Valois to the famous Pompadour, who started life as Mile. Poisson (Miss Fish) and became the real ruler of France during 15 years of Louis XV.'s life. The sketches are brightly done, and give vivid pictures, of the .state of free love which prevailed in the highest circles of the day. For instance, the famous soldier, Maurice , de

Saxe. is mentioned as a natural son of the Elector Frederick Augustus of Saxony, who was also father of about 300 other children by the ladies of his Court and others. This wholesale • father lived in the times with which Colonel Haggard deals. He has turned out an interesting volume, and none of the sketches are wearisome. '.*■ * * * "The Marie Tempest Birthday Book" . (Stanley Paul and Co.) is a dainty little volume of quotations from recent plays in which Miss Tempest has played the leading part. It is surely needless to explain that Marie Tempest has been a reigning favourite with the London public for many years, first as a prima donna -'in light opera, next as a- charming comedy actress, and now as an actressmanageress. . There is a quotation for every day in the year, and the booklet is adorned with character half-tones. * * * * "Barbed Wire," ,by E. Everett-Green (Stanley Paul and Co.), may be termed - a* society novel. It opens with the escape of a pretty and venturesome girl—. the heroine of course —from a convent school outside Genoa. She drops in "at Monte Carlo and wins a fortune, gets robbed in the night train to England, becomes a lady's companion, and, when the lady trips to Egypt, takes a loan of her fine clothes and cuts a dash in society. She discovers a rich, but mad "grandfather— L nick-named . "Old Barbed Wire"—and jumps to the conclusion that his agent and solicitor,. Jasper Trent, is "basely trying to get his fortune and murder the old man. It is only when the mad grandpa tries to murder her, and she is rescued by Trent, that she gets the true "hang" of things. Then she rewards Jasper by marrying him. .It is a novel of average merit. *-* * » "Split Peas," by Headon Hill (Stanley Paul and Co.), as the author candidly explains, is a work of sensational fiction. The leading characters are a captain in the Scarlet Guards, a British Prime Minister's lovely daughter, a Count Von Wildmark (attache of the German Embassy), and an. old German Jew named Holzig, who ii engaged in sowing the seeds of sedition among the household troops. Split peas are used as a secret sign by the conspirators. - The episodes are brisk and lively.- • Hplzio- and Von Wildmark turn out to be identical, and their conspiracy fails after some clever Sherlock. Holmes' work by the Premier's beauteous daughter. It is a good novel to keep you awake.

Enough review for this week. Let us pass on to mere gossip. •** * * Miss Leona Dalrymple has won a £2000 prize in Uncle Sam's Land with her novel, "Diane of the Green Van." The prize should 1 help to boom the sale. The heroine makes a trip in a gipsy van ' from Connecticut to Florida, and the hero follows behind in d hay waggon and kills time by playing tunes upon a tin whistle. Other are 'a secretive Baron, yellow documents concealed in old Spanish candlesticks, a knife stab on a dark night, a Prince from Houdania masquerading as an. organ , grinder, a. stealthy servant skulking behind doors and bushes. * * * * "The Iron Year" is a recent translation of a German novel by Walter Bloein. which has gone through 20 editions in the Fatherland. The "Iron Year," of course, is 1870, and the plot is woven round a German baroness who, as Red Cross nurse, falls in love with a French" captain. The battle pictures are realistically done. •* * * * John Masefield's new book, "The Tragedy of Pompey," a drama in blank verse, went into its second edition within a week of publication. * * * * Thomas Dixon, an American novelist who is much read in Wellington, has made Jeff. Davis (Confederate President) the hero of his new.novel,' ''The Victim," to be published in June. It will be a sort of companion portrait to his story of Lincoln in "The Southerner" (now in its 10th edition). * * * * H. G. Wells is out with a new tale' of. daring imagination, "The World • Set Free." • Joseph Conrad 'is to the fore with "Chance," and Booth Tarkington with "Penrod," a story of boyhood. * * * * The Rev. John Crewes, whose zoo studies are always entertaining, will be sure to order "The Courtship of Animals," by W. P. Pycroft, of tne Zoological Department of the British -Museum. It deals with the love-making of animals of all kinds from ants to apes. Messrs." Greening and Co.' are starting a series of coypright novels at 2s net, handsomely bound in cloth, with illustrated paper jackets. Hie first three volumes are "Lord of Irongray," by J. B. Harris-Burland, "Sable and Motley," by Stephen Andrew, and "The. White Rose," an historical novel by AuguSte Maquet, Alexandre - Dumas' collaborator in "The Three Musketeers" and-"Monte - * * * * Best books, as published month by month in "The; Librarian," have proved so •successful that, in response to a general demand, the .issue of an annual volume has been decided upon.

The newest Sydney weekly is "The Bystander," - which may stand as the first real Australian attempt to, bring out a pictures-and-full paper of the ''Sketch" or "Tatler'' type. To do that w£ll, the brains behind the "Sketch" and "Tatler" are needed, and so far the Sydney r»t>i>er does, not make a specially good show in the intellectual department. We have Miss Jessie Lonnen ub a. frontispiece, and other theatrical likenesses are' scattered ' through .the pages. The printing, is good, but the written. part 1 is too wordy ancl conventional. And there , are too many misprints—' 'warrie" for whare" and Bismarck's name' spelt with the -' 'c" missing. These are matters that call for attention. In one respect the new paper shines—it is full'.'of breezy and interesting personal paragraphs. r . * Hosts of weekly' papers of one sort - and another have been started in Australia at one time and another, and made a various passage to the silent tomb. There' was "The Street" in Brisbane, which took several years on its journey to the .grave. It was started by . Frank Morton, Fordyce Wheeler (then a bank clerk, now Australia's 'boss advertising: man), -and Freddy Way— who is now a Socialist in Auckland. ■ In those days these people were l all .verv young, and fresh, and the "Street" was generally a startler. None of its originators depended on it. for a living, and none had any mon^y,. so the libel-suckers kept off. * Then Morton went_ south, Wheeler tumbled out. of banking into ambitious advertising, and Fred Way (who showed great promise a& a black-and-white man m those day floundered into the school of politics that * kills individuality. Sic transit gloria rnundi, and some other things. •