NEW NOVELS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20810, 28 February 1931, Page 8 (Supplement)

NEW NOVELS.

"CHAT# THE CREATOR."

" The Iznit» tion Man," by John Hargrave. (Gollancz.)j ii p OJ . ■flfhat?" by Barbara Cartland. (^ U n l i n |S J Jewelß," by Patrick Wynnton (Boddlrf? nd Stoushton.)

<< J jjjtve called to register the—er—seemingly impossible spontaneous generation of a homunculus, or miniature man, which/ so far as I can ascertain took place fat about 6.19 a.m. on April the first.'/ Thus mused narold Chater who having) after- long years of experiment, achieved the impossible, had an impulse to r|g u l ariso irregularity he had committed complying with the legal formalities °* registration. However, the difficulties in the way daunted him and he contented himself with reporting the matter to the foremost scientific authorises, who, confronted with a miracle, got ol jt of the difficulty in the usual by denying that it had taken place. Then the press got hold of it and in flaring jjeadlines' starred " Chater's Chemical chappie" Bottle Imp in Laboratory," 'if No More Babies Wanted," " To Oust fluman Race?" and finally, after the learned professors' decision " Famous Scientists Declare Chater's Chemical Chappie a Fraud." So the furore died away. But the thing lived, and the story of " Charles Chapman" with his lack of human feelings, his power of picking up thoughts of others, and his disconcerting habit of uttering them at awkward moments makes an extremely readable tale. If there is a criticism to be made, it is that the author at times seems inclined to take his idea seriously. To do this is to turn an excellent joke into a rather horrible reality.

* # * • • Readers who prefer to keep upon the beaten track ot the conventional love story will find something to their taste in Barbara Cartlnnd's pleasantly written tale "For What?" This is the story of Ann McLorn, a young girl *who| having given her love to one man without marries another only to find that the first has now awakened to his real feeling for her. Ou! of the tangle of this not highly original situation the author steers her heroine through rocks and shoals to the haven o f a happy ending. The con : ventionality of the plot is, however, redeemed by the sincerity of the telling. * • • * *

" Wynnton for Adventure," is the slogan upon the cover oi' " The Ten Jewels," and the story itself suggests that its author feels bound to live up to his reputation. . . From the day that the debonair and penniless Commander Roger Mariey came upon the Chateau Martin-quez-Caston, which housed the sinister Countess Cratzau and the lovely Lady Phillida, he never had to complain of a dull moment so long as the story lasted. Priceless jewels, royalist intrigues, murder and madness combine to create an atmosphero which out-Hannibals Weyman's Count Hannibal, and before which Anthony Hope's Ruritanian romance pales its ineffectual fires. " A little is a good thing, but too much is enough," says a Frenchman in one of A. E. W. Mason's stories, vainly seeking the English idiom. " The Ten Jewels" is not only enough but more than enough. " .