WITH PAPER-KNIFE AND PEN.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1262, 7 May 1896, Page 12

WITH PAPER-KNIFE AND PEN.

"The Sowers," by Henry Scton Morriman Macmillan's Colonial Library. (Welling ton : S. and W. Mackay.)

Those who read Mr Merriman's capital novel, " With Edged Tools," do not need any recommendation to take up bis latest published work, which we have no hesitation in describing as the best story of modern Russia that we have yet read. Wc would go further than this and say that "The Sowers" is, iu our opinion, the best novel of the kind that lias been published during the past two or three years. The background is Russian, but a leading character, and one of the most disagreeable, is an Englishwoman, Etta Sydney Bamborough, who is as selfish as she is heartless. Mrs Bamborough, with her husband, had discovered and treacherously betrayed the secrets of the Charity League, not a Nihilistic organisation, such as wo wore fully prepared to find it, but a philanthropic association formed by some of the more enlightened landholders with the view of improving the material and intellectual welfare of the peasants. Such organisations, however benevolent their aims, are not favoured by the Russian Government, and the betrayal of its secrets caused several of the leaders to bo exiled to Siberia. The chief of the League is one Prince Paul Howard Alexis, an Englishman on his mother's side. He has immense estates in the province of Tver, escapes'detoction and visits and befriends the poor peasants on his properties, disguised as a benevolent, but eccentric, physician, known only as the " The Moscow Doctor." The prince meets Etta Bamborough in England and marries her, ignorant, of course, of her shady past. Her husband had died, and she was on the lookout for a wealthy husband. Alexis takes her to Russia, to which country she is, however, very loth to go, and the plot then becomes very exciting. The villain of the story, a French diplomat (the Baron de Chauxville) —the only character in the book who might be called ".stagey"—had loved Etta before the prince came on the scene, and now plots the Russian's ruin. De Chauxville, rejected by the woman, manages to discover her secret, and then threatens her with exposure. But the prince's Gorman manager, Karl Steinmetz —a finely-drawn, delightful character —is full of loyalty to the husband, and although he, too, knows the wretched Etta's secret, ho shields her against Be Chauxville, an old opponent of hi.,. Eventually, there is open war between the two, and a scene in which the bluff, burly German has a private interview with the polished Frenchman, and horsewhips him, is one of the most exciting in modern fiction, so brilliant is the combat of brain-power which precedes the physical struggle. An attack on Paul's castle, made by the peasantry (all ignorant of the prince's identity) leads to the death of Etta and the Frenchman; but previous to this the poor nobleman knows the full extent of his wife's bygone treachery. In a concluding chapter, the prince finds consolation for his past troubles in a peaceful marriage with a fair English cousin. Such is a necessarily brief and crude recapitulation of the main points in a plot which is constantly developing the most exciting incidents. The rottenness of tho foundations upon which Russian society is based is described most vividly by Mr Morriman, but, for our own part, wo found most pleasure in the plots and counterplots of Do Chauxville and Steinmetz. Tho way in which the honest, loyal German outwits the ever-plotting Frenchman is admirably worked out by tho author, and some of tho dialogue borders on the brilliant. Wo can conscientiously recommend "The Sowers" to our readers as one

of the best written and most interesting novels wo have read for many months.

" The Things that Matter," by Francis Gribble. Hcinomann's Colonial Library. (London: William Heiueman.)

This is yet another "sex problem "novel, cleverly written, readable enough in its happy hits at artistic life iu Loudon and the eccentricities of tho members of the famous Pioneer Club, but ending with a miserable tragedy, '.there is no love in tho marriage of the artist, Waller Temple, and Eleanor Daunt, tho young wife, who after a few months of London seeks to advance, to develop, to "emancipate herself:" there is nothing but mutual liking. Tho husband, who never really understands his wife, neglects her for a music hall dancer, an old model. The wife takes to frequenting the Pioneer Club, writes a " problem " novel and falls into such a state of unwholesome, morbid, self-consciousness that she ends her life with poison, having first tried, but failed, to win her husband's love by becoming what she calls a " doll woman." Her anxiety to gain her husband's love is very pathetically told, and in the closing scene the author rises to the height of true tragedy. The very night the wretched Eleanor ends her life—the idea of suicide, of " effacing herself," being suggested by a, passage in Turgetiieff's (the Russian novelist's) well-known " Virgin Soil" —ho has left his dancing girl forever; but his resolve to reform comes too late. Tho strength of the story is undeniable, and in the sketches of artistic and literary society the author gives us quite a gallery of clear-cut portraits, but there is an unwholesome atmosphere throughout, and pity for the unfortunato heroine did not prevent us at least from having a feeling of intense relief that we had reached the final page of a story which, however cleverly told, was so unpleasant.

•'A Lost Endeavouk," by Guy Bootliby. Macmillan's Colonial Library. (Wellington : S. and W. Mackay.) Mr Guy Bootliby is better known by his two longer stories, " In Strange Company," and "A. Bid for Fortune," than by his two shorter but remarkably clever sketches of Thursday Island Life, to wit, " The Marriage of Esther," and the story now before us. In " A Lost Endeavour" wo are introduced once again to the rough dissipation of the bechc dc mcr Ushers and pearlers of the island. The hero is an unhappy exile of good family, dying by inches of consumption, and a hopeless drunkard. To him comes as a friend and consoler a French woman, Celeste, an e:.cipee from New Caledonia, who expiates her wrong-doing in earlier life by a loving devotion to the friendless wreck. The story has a tragic end, which, indeed, one almost expects, so deep is the prevailing gloom throughout the narrative. To the ordinary novel reader "A Lost Endeavour" has none of the charm of "A Bid for Fori line," with its mysterious Dr Nikola, but it is incomparably better literate 'o.

" The Old Pastures," by Mrs Lcith Adams. Macmillan's Colonial Library.

(Wellington : S. and W. Mackay.) Mrs Adams, wo notice, dedicates her novel to Mr Thomas Hardy, and like that gentleman evidently aims at giving a faithful presentment of English rustic life. Truth to tell, however, the execution is not equal to the aim. The Warwickshire rustics to whom she introduces us are far from being as interesting as those in the ever-charming Wessex stories of Mr Hardy, and she copies Mr Hardy's own and worst fault in being at times very prolix. But "The Old Paste-es " is a healthy, interesting story for all that and will give delight, we doubt not, :o many a reader for whom Mr Hardy's fioiion is too fullflavoured. There is a very charming heroine, to whom, however, Mrs Adams might have given a less uncouth name than Johanna, and much pretty love-mak-ing. Furthermore, the story lias a very happy conclusion, which is more than can be said of all Mr Hardy's stories. A well-drawn character is an old rustic, "Granny Digger," whoso quaint speech and homely proverbial philosophy are most entertaining, and an unfortunate woman, Mary Gilbert, who is suspected of witchcraft, is also a notable personage in the story. There is nothing very brilliant in "Tim Old Pastures," but on (he other hand thvre is no trace of the boresoino "sex problem" in it, nor of immorality excused as " unconventionality " or openly champione I as being a legitimate accessory to " advanced " ideas. Fur all, this much thanks. "The Old Pastures" is u thoroughly readable story and, unlike so many .-lories of (lie present day, can bo safely "left about" without Mrs Grundy (if such a person be not dead) fearing for any bad effects of tho morality of the "young person." " Mahiieen's Faiki.no," by Jane Harlow. Macmillan's Colonial Library. (Welliiejbm: S. and W. Mackay.) Miss .Jane Barlow is to Ireland just now what Barrio, Crockett and lan Maclarcn are to Scotland. By her " Irish Idylls," published a year or two ago, .die stamped herself as a writer who possesses a keen sense of the pathetic, a graceful literary stylo, and an iniimate knowledge of rustic life which has provided her with a host of interesting and original types. The volume now before us includes eight separate sketches, mostly, but not all, dealing with Irish peasant life and character. The little story " .Maureen's Fairing" is a slight but happy little sketch of a blind peasant girl and her "courting" by two aspirants, in "A Cream Coloured Cactus " there is more of the' humorous touch, and one or two of the other stories hero and there on the broadly farcical. Miss Barlow writes delightful English, and each of her character sketches is as clearly cut and finely polished as a choice intaglio. Though far below "Irish Idylls" both in \ interest of incident and in literary merit,

" Maureen's Fairing " and the accompanying sketches are well worth perusal.

• " TheTkcjipet Major" and "Theßeturn ok the Native," by Thomas Hardy. Macmillan's Colonial Library. (Wellington : S. and W. Mackay.) ! Mr Hardy's later novels, more especially "Toss" and "Judo the Obscure," aroused J a storm of controversy, and have certainly j alienated from their author much of the j admiration and affection he gained by (lie earlier of the famous Wessex series. Here, m the two novels now republished by Messrs Macmillan and Co. in their cheap, handy, and in every way admirable Colonial Library, we have two of the oil favourites. "Tho Trumpet Major" has always been agreat favourite of ours. It deals largely with Buonaparte's threatened descent upon the shores of Southern England and with the excitement which, naturally enough, was caused amongst the rustics of the southern and, mere especially, the coastal counties. j Brimful of lively incident, a. perfect portrait gallery of'character sketches, "The I Trumpet Major" is a novel which ought to \ live. Bather one such story than ten Toss's or twenty .hides, obscure or renowned. Love," jealousy, pride'—all the human passions are bore; and as for him who will deny tho attribute of genius to Hardy after reading this line story—why, we give him up as a pagan, a. Philistine of the Philistines. In "The Return of the Native," by the sain" author, a more tragic note is struck. Again we are in Wessex, with tho same quaintly spoken but- terribly human farmers and their labourers whom Hardy's genius has made so famous, and again, as so often before, the author proves that the strongest passions of life come alike to rich and poor and that the whole gamut of human tragedy can be run through inaquict little community to v Inch at first thought one might imagine passion were utterly foreign and unknown. The. heroine of the story" the beautiful, ambitious, unfortunate Eustutia, with her strain of Levantine blood which makes her so alien in temperament as compared with the villagers, is one of Hardy's best creations, and the story as a whole is replete with dramatic situations and clever dialogue. A library without a " set " of Thomas Hardy, more especially his earlier works, is but a poor affair. These novels are not only worth reading once but can be placed lovingly on the shelves, again and again to be taken down and if not" read through from first to last chapter, at any rate to lie " dipped into," always —if our own experience prove good' with others—with recurring and increasing pleasure. With the exception of ".'hide the Obscure," all Hardy's novels are now obtainable in Macmillan's Colonial Library at the moderate price jf I.'-; (id in paper covers ami 3s Gd in cloth. C. Wilson.