NEW BOOKS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18215, 7 October 1922, Page 6 (Supplement)

NEW BOOKS.

BT CRITIC. The day of !hc " tempestuous petticoat" is with us. The Church is dubious about the use of the word " obey " as applied to wives ; and the novelists are declaring that woman settles her own destiny. Thus it is of interest to note the trend of two good novels, bearing on this question, ltyth the heroines have good fighting qualities, spirited young women with all the primitive instincts for scratching and weeping; but the authors decide in both instances that the man must be.tjie dominant male. GENERAL FICTION. 'VAnna Colquhoun by Kathernio jßurdekin (Lano, London)—a vivid story of a professional pianist. The unruly child of an equally undisciplined father, she promises him that she will always keep her word. " It's no virtue," he tells her; "it's only because we're made that way. Hut just you remember this, Anna, when you marry you've given your solemn word and promise to keep you only to your husband. What you do before you marry is between you and your conscience, if you have one. Hut if ever I know that you've been unfaithful to your husband, I'll follow you to the ends of the earth until I iim* you, and I'll give you a worse licking than you can ever begin to imagine." Anna is a genius, and her playing takes the musical world by storm. But since she is absolutely reckless, her conduct invites censure. She flouts convention, and is credited with immorality. But she falls in love with Colin Kinnaird, an artist, and to him she "gives the truth that, wliile being absolutely without respect for opinion, she has remained virtuous. Discovering, however, that she once had egged on a journalist, one Morton Hayes, and had locked him in her Hat xiiitil the early morning hours, out. of desire to clip the wings of his conceit, Kinnaird decrees that, though years have passed, she still owes apology to Hayes for not keeping her implied promise to him. She gives her husband a bad quarter of an hour while the apology (?) is being made. The husband has two or three battles with her. insisting that she shall obey him. But thev are exceedingly happy for four years. Yhen the author deems it. necessary to kill the husband in a motor collision und to so injure the virtuoso's right hand that she can never plav again. We leave her teaching pupils in "a ■girls' school. - The interesting point of the story is that of the man's downright insistence upon the woman's obedience to him. With all her spirit, she has each time t 0 yield to him.

" Saint Teresa "—by Henry SydneyHarrison (Houghton, Mifflin, Boston ; Australian Publishing Cov., Sydney). Teresa do Silver is anything but a saint to Dean Masury, who works in her office as controlling clerk. He resents everything that she does in such arrogant, highhanded fashion ; he suspects her of insincerity, of juggling with the grave issues of munition making in war time. She is physically unattractive though he has' heard her called beautiful. He wants the thousand odd shares in the steel company. When he attains his desire, he discovers thaf by some trick, Saint Teresa still has, by obtaining other shares, the majority of the holding. They have conversation on the subject, and she hurls herself bodily upon him —her adversary. He goes down with a bang. She falls too, a chair is broken, whereupon the " Saint " be labours Masury wiih the chair leg. He boxes her ears. She blocks his feet "with uncanny precision,'' and he ii on the floor again. Then she seizes a rnstv knife, and there is blood. She orders him to take back the lie on bis knees. He refuses, she dashes her head violently into his face, faintly stunning him, and again throws him. Then, when he has disarmed her, she uses her teeth and hangs on to his lip. He compresses her wind-pipe. While s'he is unconscious, and he all but spent, he approaches her with the water bottle to give her a drink, when she takes the fire shovel to him and his senses go. When he is again conscious, lie finds Saint Teresa attending to his hurts. She has bandaged him, cleaned his clothes; she even explains the share deal. But he is obdurate. She begs him to stay on in the company; he refuses. He is pretty badly hurt, but recovers, and on his way to join up for the Front, is forced to receive Teresa de Silver. She is very gentle, very beautiful, quite saintly. Against his 'will, he kisses her and orders her to " keep that—till I come again !" And upon the note of the termagant girl's absolute surrender, > with her "eves indeed lighted as with the torches of heaven," the story ends. It is one of Harrison's best efforts, a little close and long in the reading, but faithfully written up to his fine. conception.

" Conn of The Coral Seas"—by Beatrice Grimshaw (Huist and Blackett, London). —An Irish girl, Deirdre Rose, in order to be free, marries a student and, claiming her income, leaves home to become the writer of sentimental songs. Fortune takes her to the Pacific Islands, where she meets the British and French Resident Officers, also Conn, a handsome adventurer, who is persona grata with the officials, but who is envied for his hidden stores of wealth by Fursey, who leads a troop of ruffians. Conn shows Deirdre the sea cavern and its store of pearls, which he has discovered. Various wild adventures Deirdre Rose, but love triumphs. She has been unable for years to trace the whereabouts of her husband, of whom she last heard in a mental hospital. So, though sire would gladly many Conn, she is not free. But a note discloses him as the aide of the British Commissioner who conveniently dies, while seeking treasure for himself. In the background of the story, Miss Grimshaw uses her knowledge of the Pacific Islands. If there is an excess of melodrama of the " wicked pirate " type, those readers who like sensation, feeling that abundance is given them, "will derive pleasure from the book. THE POETIC MIND. " The Poetic Mind " —by Professor F. C. Prescott (Macmillan, New York). —The true lover of literature,, meaning by that term, all that is fine in English, prose or poem, will rejoice at th'e exhaustive study which Professor Prescott has made of the psychological study of poetry. Basing his researches on the Freudian system, he opens up a splendid mine of thought, analyses the whole complexity of the poet's mind, delves deep into the influence of dreams and phantasies—-the "visionary action of the mind." The imaginative presentation of philosophical truth receives a new presentment. " The primitive Qreek could not discuss the problem of human salvation as we can discuss it; he could not reason and could have no theological thought, but he could imagine a story which was possibly more profound than any' rational system of theology. Satan is merely a mythical personification of all that is evil within ourselves, and even Cocl we can hardly think of except as a person, whereas the. true Kingdom of God is within us. For when we confront tho deepest problems of religion, the reason is powerless. We have to resort to the old faculty of the imagination and picture truths which some day perhaps we shall understand." This to show how every phase of the mind which enters into the making of poetry is dealt with, no single thought of it being allowed to escape the microscopically introspective analysis of a very complex and previously baffling subject.

" A Dictionary of Applied Physics" —edited by Sir Richard Glazebrook (Macmillan, T/ondon). —The nam© of the editor is sufficient to assure those who are looking fo r an authoritative work on their subject that the matter is exhaustively dealt with in the five large volumes issued. The contents of the first volume range over mechanics, engineering and heat, and great names are in the contributors' list, Dawson, Lamb, Ewing, Griffiths, Higgins, etc. Clear diagrammatic illustrations are a featn.ro of the work.