RECENT FICTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20602, 28 June 1930, Page 8 (Supplement)

RECENT FICTION.

£IOOO PRIZE NOVEL# *' The Ship of Truth," by Lottico Cooper (Hodder and Stoughto'n). " Tho Rcdornption ol Morley Darville," by Stephen McKonna (Cassell). " The Gate 3 of Paradise," by Robort Hichens (Caseell). " Susan Outside," by Sheila Macdonald (CaAßell). " Cimarron," by Edna Feiber (Heinemann). . What is there in the announcement of a prue novel that rouso3 iri the reader a faintly antagonistic response ? Possibly, subconscious envy, more probably a distasto for tho blatancy of modern advertising mothods. Tho idea of a prize religious novel is still moro repellent, yet tho reserve with which one approaches " The Ship of Truth " soon thaws in its atmosphoro of freshness and sincerity. Tho titlo is derived from >fnscfield's lovely lines beginning: Man with his burning eoul Has but an hour of breath To build a ship of truth In which his boul may sail. « . . Tho story tells of the spiritual wanderings of Clement Dyson, a young Anj-lo-Catholic incumbent of a poor Yorkshire parish. Compellod by religious doubts to resign his ministry, ho is faced with tho material problem of finding work to support his wife and two children. After somo hardships and privation Dyson regains both spiritual and material comfort. His " burning soul," after voyaging on dark seas conies in tho ship of truth to where " stars like globes " illuminate tho waters. More pleasant than profound, "The Ship of Truth" is a charming story with a cleanly fragrance only too unusual in the novels of to-day. **« ' * " I wonder that you will still bo writing. Nobody marks you." The disdainful words of Beatrice, with a trifling alteration, might well bo addressed to Mr. Stephen McKcnna. Ho possesses a graceful stylo and tho tcchiquo of novelwriting is at his finger-tips. Tho only drawback is that he has nothing to say. " Tho Redemption of Morley Darville " is tho story of a peevish and effeminate creature, who at 29 lives on his parents, while girding at their Victorian limitations. Tho author of two highbrow unsuccessful novels, Darvillo lashes in his reviews the best seller, Rcbin Allardyce, but is not too proud to acbept tho novelist' 3 ossistance in entering a society above his own. Darvillo proceeds to exhibit himself as a bounder of the most virulent typo, and tho end of tho book leaves tho reader wondering what meaning the author attaches to tho word " redemption." k *** * . *

" Tho Gates of Paradise " is the opening talo in a volumo of short stories by Robert Hichens. Readers of " Barbary Sheep " and " The Garden of Allah," who expect from Mr. Ilichens mystery, moonlight and tho desert, will find what they want in " Tho Inn," but tho collection has a wido rango both of setting and subject. Tho author's sophisticated style gives point and charm to plots that in less practised hands would reveal themselves aa commonplace or melodramatic.

"Susan Outsido " is tho young sister (in spirit) of " Sally in Rhodesia " and just as gay and effervescent as that dolightful little lady. Susan herself is an English girl who goes out to spend a year with her brother who is mining in Rhodesia. " Outside " is the hinterland, all Rhodesia, in fact, beyond the actual limits of tho towns. The story of tho year is told in letters to a friend in England and though they are by no means guide-books to the country which, as Susan truly remarks, anyone can obtain on applicaion to the High Commissioner, she does touch most interestingly on the hoary antiquity of tho mining industry in Rhodesia. Centuries beforo tho Romans discovered Britain, the Phoenicians, by means of slaves, were scientifically mining the country and shipping tho proceeds to Arabia. It will not surprise tho lover of romance to hoar that Susan, when she leaves her brother at the end of the year, does not return to England, but to which of tho many young men she meets this alteration in programme is duo, will not bo divulged here.

Miss Edna Ferber has already proved in " Showboat" her power to recreate the atmosphere of bygone days in America. " Cimarron" tells the' story of the growth of Oklahoma from the day of the sensational opening of that lawless noman's land to settlement by the whites. Were not all the wild doings substantiated by the sober records of the Oklahoma State History ono might well doubt that a timo as late as the eighties of last contury could have witnessed such sceno3 of lawlessness. Against this lurid background moves the giant figure of Yancey Cravat, with his golden voice, his lofty ideals, and his insatiable thirst, ;l mixture of strength and weakness, of the idealist and tho charlatan. The character-draw-ing throughout is beyond praise and ovcry episode is so cleverly built up round the main tbeme that the book may well rank as an epic of " tho eunbonnet and the sombrero," of tho masculine and the feminine eloments ip the building up of that fearful and' wonderful thing —American civilisation.