CURRENT LITERATURE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18457, 21 July 1923, Page 4 (Supplement)

CURRENT LITERATURE.

NOTES ON NEW BOOKS.

BY CRITIC.

Superstition is one of the oldest of human attributes: it flourishes in ignorance : it in opposed to education. In the "peasantry of South Western England, in that of Ireland, to mention only two small parts of the British Empire, it is said to bo not yet extinct. The old story of a death cart which traversed the moors of Cornwall was taken advantage of by smugglers to transport their goods; for shrewd brains existed even in the accepted time of pixies. It has been asserted that superstition is largely mad© use of even yet by Irish reactionaries. It may blend into belief in the occult as practised by sprue of the spiritistic faiths. Its influence on men has been tremendous: it ii still, in older worlds, responsible for harm to young growing generations. Perhaps one of tho best ways of dispersing it is to present simple fiction in which a reasonable daylight explanation is given of what at night may easily become a terrifying mystery. When a people can laugh at it, the myth is powerless to. hurt; and every ghost which is proved to be due to human agency rings tho knell of a score of others.

FICTION. " The Vanished Moor "—by John Trevenax. (Mills and Boon, London).— a story this leaves something to bo desired. It is confusing at times and its plot shows a certain weakness. But as a portrait of the South-western peasant farmer of England, a century ago, even the roughnesses of the. style helping, if is good representation. One sees into the mind of the storekeeper turned farmer, who rears his son for the ministry and whose coarseness over-rides his gentility, even while the finer simplicitv of his nature turns him into a devotee of angling. The woman fought for by two men, a small farmer a.nd his shepherd, is a passiva instrument until the child enters her life when she becomes a tigress. The covetous landowner, always chafing under the result of the fight, never losing hope, presents a powerful picture of all-absorbing passion. In the other medley of characters which serve to utterly conceal the plot and to confuse the reader, when separated into entities, are some masterly studies. But the book requires patience. The parallel dramas are played in the house of Dearden the would-be aristocrat farmer and in that of Coaker a shepherd high up on a desolate moor. In his simplicity the shepherd thinks of buying a child for his wife ; the purchase is made at a fair. A man with a g'ft for disguise and able to take full advantage of Cornish superstition, takes a leading hand. But Coaker now disappears; Parson Dearden ib knocked senseless on the moor; Holmer begins to persecute Defiance Coaker. The babv gets to Dearden's house. Now follows a muddled story, threaded through with Holmer's passion for Defiance, her Determination to have the baby. Parson Dearden, for weeks unconscious, forming | a kind of centre-piece. A girl under the protection of the German envoy, in London, and the queer pedler, Vagmorn, have their hands on the stnnzs; all forcing Seth Helmcr into crime— these elements make up a story full cf incident, and tangled up with fa?-"* superstitions. "The Manuscript of Youth "— by Diana Patrick (Hutchinson, London).— A moving story of girlhood ' pining with the convincing picture of a deli- J cate mother, a widow, with strong ah- j sorption in herself, and her two children, j ! Jocelvn, the bov, Isobel, the- somewhat neglected girl. Mrs. Chapeldene has two admirers, one an ex-shopkeeper, the other ; a solicitor. The former marries Ins house- j ' keeper. the latter uses her capital. Her j father is asked for help. He, a York-j shireman : gives it on conditions. Mrs. : Chapeldene has to accept but does it in i the role of confirmed invalid with an attendant. Isobel loves uer grandfather, Mid shows natural aptitude for all beauti- | ful things. Jocelyn, dreaming of being a violinist, is less happy- Their friend is a, bov whose drunkard father is the Rev. j Lambert Stapleton. Jocelvn. in a J quixotic moment, befriends one AueiaiMe Badcliffe, typist* at his grandfather's [ mil's- thinks it necessary to marry her. Isobel contrives that in the journey to London the Rev. Stapleton shall join the two. Then follows the struggle lor recognition. Rex as an author, Jocelyn as musician. Adelaide lodged with a comfortable woman, falls in love with a train porter and so disappears from the story. Rex is successful: Jocelyn is adopted by a rich cousin. War —Jocelyn's death — Rex's temptation to use his friend's manuscriptthese lead up to the finales of Isobel's talent as writer —and their marriage. There may be too much detail in this ! j novel, and the gods, may be over I kind to Diana Patrick's young people, I but it is better work than her Tasmanian j ; story and it bah many pages of fine i realism.

"Sea-Salted," by J. Allen Dunn (Hurst and Blackett, Loudon).—A narrative after the style of "Westward Ho'' with cno adventure, after the other. Hylwin, nephew of Zadik, the astrologer, runs away from charms and elixirs and

joins Drake's ship on a voyage to South America. Fights with Spaniard, the booty of galleons 1 Drake is forced to leave some sailors behind, being hard pressed by Spanish ships. He sends by Indian hands a letter and a map and promises to return. Adventure is thick .and fast. A termagant girl causes much trouble to her admirer. The English build a boat, then kill the crew of a galleon, in which they sail for" England, where the South American maiden is discovered to be of Norse origin and where Drake, now Mayor of Pymouth, is awaiting the coming of the Armada.

"Men, Maids, and The Mustard Pot," by Gilbert Frankau (Hutchinson, London). —Tales about men and about girls, in society and out of it, with better ones about a horse, from its colour, called The Mustard Pot, who from a circus life, becomes a mighty hunter with a weakness for bolting. MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. "The Blue Island," by Pardoe Woodman and Estelle Stead (Hutchinson, London). —Purporting to be a communication from W. T. Stead to his daughter, thi3 narrative gives the late journalist's impressions of the next world. It is a blue land. "A great predominance of blue rays in the light and that is why it, is so great a place for mental recovery." There is a great sense of self-absorption.

Th<tf6 are interesting buildings, music, books, riding, swimming, games, knowledge of every kind—but with the gradual discarding of useless earth habits contentment comes; the only thing that can save the world is the beneficent action of constructive thought : the individual i hardships of life are due to wrong thinking : keep a sharp eye on your mental actionsthey matter — and more makes an interesting and harmless exposition of the next life. "Australian Cotton," by Nicholas Dillon Healy, (Australian Publishing Coy.).— A careful' work, detailing the methods of cotton growing, gathering, packing, etc. i -—comparing the industry with that in ' America and insisting that the Empire needs new cotton fields. Hta maintains that cotton growing is pre-eminently a '■ community settlement industry, an industry of the people, to be carried by the people for the people, that Australia has the .right sort of land and climate and that white people can satisfactorily work at this industry. " A History of Puhoi,"— D. V. Silk (N.Z. Tablet Publishing Co.. Dunedin)— is an interesting account of the Bohemian Settlement at Puhoi, which was first started just 60 years ago. The second contingent of Puhoi pioneers arrived three years after—in 1866. Father Silk is happy in his historical narrative of the early days of this settlement. "The Journal of a Year's Residence in America," (Chapman and Dodd, London, Australasian Publishing Coy., Sydney).— This well-known diary of Cobbett's residence in America from 1817 to 1819 is still fresh reading. "The King's English," by John Bygott and A. J. Lawford Jones, (Jarrold3, I/ondon). —A practical help to students and to all persons who prefer correct speaking to incorrect and who wish for a guide to the best course of reading standard works in English literature. Reading is an aid to writing. ''To read" state the authors "means something more than to carry a book about and wear a look as intelligent as an Egyptian mummy; it means something more than to run your eyes along the lines and up and down the pages; it means something more than to turn I the leaves at the rate of so many the I half hour, something more than to repeat i the words like a Buddhist praying j machine. The exercises—in justification or I correction of sentencesare taken from I examination papers or from standard j authors. Other exercises are in precis I writing, analyses, etc. 11 * ""-—-■■ ■■■—