CURRENT LITERATURE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17889, 17 September 1921, Page 1 (Supplement)

CURRENT LITERATURE.

NOTES ON NEW BOOKS.

BT CRITIC.

The price of English fiction is high. When, combined with this, the quality of this matter is light and unsatisfying, the general reader is driven to ponder on the fable of the goose and the golden eggs. Everyone reads that British, and even some American, publishers are curtailing the output of books. Every New Zealand readerand there are many of them who value good fiction— puzzled as to why so much that is palpably inferior is passed on to the public at a high price. If the works of acknowledged authors were sold at these present prices and the less attractive books offered for less money, the former might be induced to put their work upon the market more freely. As things are, II must be somewhat 'discouraging to those who havje something to write about, and who write that something well, to study the shelves of the modern seller of British fiction.

CHARACTERISTIC FICTION. "Fanny, the Fibber'*— Mrs. Horace Tremlett {Hujtchinson, London).Fannyt Allender is oat of work. Guided by a sudden inspiration, she calls at the house of her late employer, and boldly claims that be is her father, and her mother one Miss Morton, who had been go-* verness in the Warren household. Mrs. Warren, a placid, kind woman, knowing only that the typiste is in need of a home, allows her to stay at the house, much to her husband's annoyance. To get rid of the girl he gives Fanny a cheque for a hundred pounds, and the typiste disappears. Mrs. Warren's brother meets her and suggests employment with Mr. Brand, a company promoter, who is anxious to snare a South African named Ross. Allison dabbles in Brand's speculation, and Fanny invests £50 in it. Mrs. Warren sees a cheque butt, and discovers that the girl has had a hundred pounds. Mr. Warren's denial of paternity is not convincing, and his wife leaves him. The, girl confides to Ross, who is falling in love with her, that she is the daughter of Miss Morton, and he is in despair, because the ex-governess' had been his wife. Out of all the intricacy, the story runs to smoothness. Fanny is really the grand-daughter of Mrs. Grimthorpe, the old aunt of the Warrens, and this being made known, she marries her African, the Warrens are re-united, and Mr. Brand retires to Ostend, with the astounding promise given by a certain Lady Fenton that she will come with him. " The Silent Shore"—by Helen Prothero Lewis (Hutchinson, London). — When Galian Kinglake is due to return from Canada to marry Daphne Sinclair, i he is knocked down by a motor-lorry, I taken to a Liverpool hospital, and entirely loses his memory. Simultaneously with his expected arrival in London, his scapegrace brother Tony is met by Daphne and claimed as her betrothed. He instantly conceives the plan of marrying her under his brother's name. Arrangements for the wedding are proceeding smoothly when a nurse brings Galian to London. Tony hustles him off to a mental hospital,- from which Galian escapes. By the aid'-'o'f a friendly motorist he reaches London again, and is assisted by another hotel acquaintance to the home of Miss Sinclair, where the deceitful Tony is staying. His memory is still blank, and, overwhelmed with shame when Tony, alias Galian, te"Hs him what a profligate he has been in the past, he leaves the house, and at the inn he meets Hilda Erskine, who had nursed him at Liverpool. She knows the true identity, and she hurries to stop the wedding. She is too late for this, but Daphne, hearing the story, will hold no communication with her husband. The servants treat him with disrespectj but be refuses to Heave the house. Then the refuge of so many. novelists disreputable wife is produced, the loudlydressed, vulgar-tongued lady with a past. She finishes what Miss Erskine has begun, and Tony leaves in humiliation, Galian's memory returns, and all is happy.

"Helen Marsden"— M. Morgan Gib bon (Hutchinson, London). —Helen, the '' little daughter cf Anglo-Indians, is in a clergyman's household, where she receives instruction of a very restricted kind and ample correction, together with Billy Lawson. Suddenly comes the news that her father has died. Adrian Marsden takes her to the home where die lives with his sister and his stepmother. There is sudden illness and tragedy at the rectory, and Billy Lawson becomes the adopted son of the Harrisons. Helen's mother arrives from India with two other children and Adrian's house overflows. His sister Joan marries Evan Crewdson, and his stepmother is provided with another home. The obvious result of it all is that he marries the widow Nancy Marsden. When a country farm is bequeathed- to him he gives up his legal practice and takes his family to Roothmgs. Here Helen's character develops, but she is always in trouble. She likes study and games, but it vexes her to see her sister Betty capture all the admiration. Betty becomes engaged to Billy Lawson, then prefers an Australian who had played tennis with Helen. Finally, Helen and Billy learn that they love each other. The best characterisation of the book is that of Adrian Marsden. who has to bear the burdens of his stepmother's pose of delicacy, of his sister's quarrels with her husband, of his wife's pretty helplessness, and of Helen's misfit in most places. A good deal of incidental matter is woven among the threads of the plot.

" My Three Husbands »' (Methuen and Co., London), is a volume with no name on tho coyer, while only initials appear inside. It is well described by the publisher as "The diverting and very candid auto* biography of a thrice-married woman who, now for the third time a widow, is not unwilling to try again, as she claims to i have acquired sufficient experience to ensure success." The people she writes about are not the people whose names and photographs we see in the papers, and she does not, therefore, minister to the craving for smart gossip. Her first husband was called Edward ; he was older than she; she was very innocent and very ignorant, and there was a certain amount of trouble before she settled down with him. He was a soldier, and when he was killed she was the fairly happy mother of three children. Within a year or so she married a doctor whom she had known in India, but he was a disappointment. Her third matrimonial experience was with a baronet, who caught her rearing a book on Mrs. Barrett Browning, a woman who knew how to win and keep a husband, and who had a wonderful way of turning her liabilities into assets. Sir George was made to go to the war. Shortly after he returned he died in her arms of an overdose of veronal. This is f. brief outline of the story, but the book v freely sprinkled with good epigrams and maxims, a few of which we give :— "Men are almost always loyal; very few women." *' A woman who has toppled off the pedestal upon which her husband has placed her might just as well set about earning a divorce." " If you want to be really popular with men, become a widow." " Black always sets off golden hair; so I have always mourned my husbands for the full period." " To flirt properly, one must be feeling fit." ,J Never pay a doctor's bill immediately. If you do, he will think that he under- : estimated your value." " If a man knows you have been a good wife to two husbands, and loved them, naturally he feels fairly certain that you will love him and make him a good wife. Practice always does make perfect."