NEW NOVELS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20058, 22 September 1928, Page 7 (Supplement)

NEW NOVELS.

JOHN BUCHAN'S LATEST. "The Runagates' Club," by John Buchan (Hodder and Stoughton). " Nor Many Waters," by Alec "Waush (Chapman an. Hall). " The Sun Hawk," by Robert "W. Chambers (C'assell) At ' The Runagates' Club," one of those improbable institutions that exist to provide an excuse for a tired novelist's offering of short stories, arcs met many familiar characters from earlier Buchan books, including Sir Richard Hannay, the Duke of Burminster, Mr. Palliser Yeates, and Sir Edward Leithen. "It became the fashion once a month for a member to entertain the company with a more or less complete narrative." Hence these tales. Many of them seek to provide a ghostly thrill, notably " The Wind in the Portico," but the power of pagan gods is becoming a rather threadbare theme. Indeed, though the settings of the stones range from Greenland's icy mountains to the coral strands of the Indian Ocean, and though the author dredges up foi the reader's pleasure a varied assortment of queer happenings something is lacking—that touch of genius that makes Kipling's "End of the Passage" a masterpiece of horror. Mr. Buchan is far more successful in " The Frying-Pan arid the Fire." a rollicking tale of a wager between the Duke of Burminster and Archie Roylanco, and how it led to the appearance of the Duke in " a morning coat, a ticky ulster and an unspeakable bowler" before an influential deputation by a brass band " The Last Crusade" is an amusing story of the power of the press, showing how n sermon preached by an obscure Wesleyan parson at -m equally obscure " dorp" in the Karroo, kindled by the gentle aid of up to-date journalism, a (lame that menaced Moscow and delivered an aged patriarch from the brutal Bolsheviks. * * » * * •' Nor Many Waters" may be regarded from two points of view. From one it is merely a clever piece of special plead | big in favour of easier divorce; from the other the tragedy of James Merrick and Marian Eagar, two likeable people caught so cruell" in the net of circumstance that w! hover way they turn happiness is im possible for them. The argument gains in force from the very moderation with which the case is presented. Herbert Eagar, the husband, though technically guilty of both cruelty and infidelity, is no monster It ts the law, says the author, that makes divorce a hateful business. " Merrick recalled the Herbert Eagar he had met two months back—a decent, simple fellow sincerely worried because his wife had left him, anxious to make amends, wanting her back because he loved her And now there was tins other Eagar, tyrannical and spiteful, fighting for the mere sake of fighting, want ing his wife back so that he might be re venged on her." And suddenly it comes to Merrick that the case must not proceed Win or lose, Marian will be befouled by the grubby publicity of the thing. So she returns to her husband and the two leave for Australia where they may build up a new life—a sober and practical solution of the difficulty more in accordance with the demands of real life than of high romance. " Nor Many Waters." in its tenderness and humanity, marks a great advance on anything its author has yet achieved. * * * * * If the emotions and acts of real life seem to some readers intolerably dull and unromantic, let them turn to R. W. Chambers' " Sun Hawk" and gaze upon nim as he conges " sauntering out of flame shot darkness, fully dressed in his uniform of mareehal-de-camp, wearing steel corselet. spurred boots and three-cornered, plumed hat deeply hound with gold." Such is Count Frontenac with his " lionlike mouth" and the "steady golden glare in his lion's eyes." The time is the reign of Louis the. Sun-King, and the story tells how Dick Stanhope, who takes service under Frontenac, follows him to Canada and fights there " for France, for Louis, for love, and for all that the world holds dear." A gallant swashbuckling yarn that will please all who like that kind of thing. <