NOTES ON NEW BOOKS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16026, 18 September 1915, Page 4 (Supplement)

NOTES ON NEW BOOKS.

Bt CRITIC. A TEAR ago "war books" monopolised the book market. Nothing was wanted by the reading public which did not help to satisfy the craving hunger for information on any and every aspect of the world-wide struggle. Novelists were in despair. Publishers dreamed nightly of ruin. Booksellers sadly accumulated stock from arriving shipments. It was imagined that as long as the war lasted this state of affairs would continue, and that even after the war things could never be the same again. The reaction was unforseen, but it came. Relief was sought for over-strained nerves in the change of scene and thoughts that the Arts can give to the imaginative and emotional. Vi e have seen the reaction even in Auckland in the renewed popularity of the drama, the farce, the pantomime, and the scenic picture, in the print-shop displays of domestic scenes and classic incident, not least in the renewed tale of the non was book. There are still mulittides of war books, war prints, and war pictures, but the human mind instinctively seeks occasional relief from unendurable concentration. "IN GERMANY TO-DAY." That this reaction of the mind is to be seen in hypnotised Germany is shown by the well-informed *' Neutral," whose notable studies of Germany in May and June last were contributed to the London Times and are published in popular bookform under the title of "In Germany To-day" (Methuen. London). The whole seventeen "studies" are profoundly interesting, revealing a Germany concentrated on the determination to win and driven by dread of financial ruin unless a vast indemnity can be extorted from the Allies. This particular reaction has come iu a typically solemn German way and is thus expressed : "A great change has come over places of public amusement since the first months of the war. Even as regards the cinemas, and the innumerable war lectures with lantern slides that are given all over the country by speakers who have been to the front, the change is noticeable. The purely Chauvinist note is no longer prominent.. A certain reticence has taken its place. It is true that the places of amusement now draw larger crowds than ever, but their playbills and their -performances are very different. They are the best illustration of the more subdued mood of the people. . . . At the Beginning of the war these same musichalls were filled every night with a noisy crowd drunk with patriotic enthusiasm. Now the crowd drinks its beer and eats its Brodchen, smokes its mild cigars, and lets itself be amused without any flamboyant -manifestations. It was the same at Dresden. Munich, and in other large towns. The contrast appeared to me very striking. My literary friends explained " that the theatres had undergone a similar change. At first- the stage, like the country, was swept, by a tornado of "war passion. The mobilisation, the early battles, the whole panoply of war were reproduced behind the footlights. -The'grim earnestness of the struggle was not realised. " It "was regarded as a boisterous . but sentimental - popular melodrama. . . . Now the war -has.practically disappeared from the German stage. The general tone of th© theatre has reached a high level. The mob ; lias left- If any allusions to the war remain, they " are* quite dispassionate. The classics, including Shakespere, are more t wjdtjly played than ever. ■«The theatre has resumed "its' function of.elevating, teaching, amusing, and recreating, and has thus become an antidote to the poisonous language of the press and the passions of the street."

. A SOUTH ATEICAH NOVEL. -...A leading firm of publishers recently -offered - £1000 as prize-money in. an AllBritish novel . competition. The South African . prize novel, now published, is " Golden.; Glory,!' by F. Horace Rose iHodder . and , Stoughton. London). It tells of _ the search for a , golden crown which- was the fetish .of a. -broken South African people and of the searcher's wanderings that led into Basuto land and incidentally occasioned the crushing defeat of a Zulu invasion. As a popular presentation of the life, thoughts, habits, and customs of indigenous negro peoples before . they were greatly affected by European contact, the book is unique, though the narrative often drags and the ■plot may be inadequate. Any weaknesses, however, will be gladly overlooked by those who appreciate the wealth of native lore readably presented and the living picture it presents of the Basutos and Zulus, with their tribal feuds, "medicine, magic, witch-hunting, and wars. The description of Zulu attacking methods recalls the disastrous battle of Isandwala, where a British force was annihilated : — "The grey light of morning flashed down on a myriad nodding plumes and was flashed back by twenty thousand spears. The sloping hills before the kraal were black with men. whose limbs moved with a slow and Peculiar rhythm as they advanced to give battle. The front of the oncoming army, stretching for three hundred yards or so, moved forward like a human wave, breasting each little rise and swallowing it, then pouring in a steady deluge of humanity down the slope and up the rise in front. Far as the eve could see in that light was an ocean "of plumes. like the white caps on some monstrous black wave which wa breaking on hidden rocks. All alone the lines was the belt of ox-hide shields that glinted in the grey light, and over them the crest of tossing spears.' A battle 1 ' chant was going f'P—a murmur as of the sea heard in the distance, but growine- louder, the wild, sonorous music of which'fell on the ears of Dwarf and Giant and - thrilled them. To be one of that splendid army, slow, inexorable, and victorious, would, "thought Napo. be a joy worth living for; but to fight against it and achieve victory would be a prize for which a man might gladly die! "

"The soldiers of Setlu. massed behind their stone walls, watched silent and fascinated as this mighty host came on. At first the army of invasion advanced with a solid front only a few hundred vards in extent. Then suddenly it opened out on either side; putting forth two horns. Tn this manner the Zulus invariably attacked. th« horns enveloping the enemr on two sides and pns=ib!v closing upon nim in the rear. while the main hodv delivered a frontal attack, supported by the reserve'. Each horn of the armv "umbered about, five thousand men. and (tie attacking body in front another five thousand, leav.no- the same number j n ,; S n^ed°" trengtllen any °' nt ° attack

. the detective stories. The he .-"" lp <' British favourites j th e deteetive steries. some good, "'"•I "*<l, TOostlv indiffpi-or.t r\„ . sine the salver" in ho ♦ ° n< \ can Un ,- anxious relative a t , th ° t '' P!l '. hes nr the i tion in "The Voire C findintr ~t rac' - ! Charles "Ernest Rt*>rrev c A.IT Ni;h«," w 1 for the British tlm, ' Allen- London). in other wars Ctl.T'p finds r " lief ' takes himself aa „ - , German, who as in his vi C 'in hi" 1 J- 1S virtupß "his crimes Mr V taxations as in !*•<. ol th, mnrf„ St r Whth'tl,**''';" 1 ' 1 -o 9 dii:„d Tw^.tit p a nr r ? nd like S 'f airies 'taz-V "J 1 ""* >«». sto!%

white mist, out of which tall tree tops rose like islets from an • ocean bed; and beyond, the dark blue masses of Stilla, fast changing to til© deepest indigo, towered and cut their outlines against the wonderful tropical sky. Rose-tinted cloudlets shot with gold lightly • floated in the depths above, and told of glories hidden by the mountain tops which ' like the woodland giants in the nearer • distance rose ever and anon from mists— which lay along the hollows and recesses, and wreathed the bold escarpments and lined the barrances with the eery, shadowy beauty of the evening. From the garden just below us was wafted the sweet incense of roses, night-flowering and Cape jessamines, lilies and nightflowering cacti." OTHER PUBLICATIONS. Among other publications is a collection of short stories by the inimitable " Ole-Luk-Oie. author of "The Green Curve" collection. This collection. " The Great lab Dope ' (Blackwood, London), may not be the equal of its fascinating predecessor, but it is more than •worth reading to all who enjoy sidelights on military problems. "Betty Wayside,'' bv Louis Stone (Hodder and Stoughton. London), is supposed to be a Sydney story of semiBohemian life, but onlv the scenery is recognisable as Australian. " The Prussian Terror" of Alexandre Dumas (Stanley Paul. London), offered as new to the English public, cannot be considered among the typical works of its famous author, and the Prussian of the Danish War. bad as he was then, was an angel compared to the Prussianised German of to-day. " War Songs," selected by Christopher Stone, with an introduction'written in 1908 by General Hamilton (Clarendon Press. Oxford) is a fine compilation, though many are hardly songs or ballads in the modern sense. All About Flying." by Gertrude Bacon (Methuen, London). is a popular explanation of the new art and its development exceedingly acceptable at the present time.