WITH PAPER-KNIFE AND PEN

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1507, 17 January 1901, Page 28

WITH PAPER-KNIFE AND PEN

1.-11. Set-on Merrirnan ; “'Men of the Mercantile Marine,” by Frank T. Sullen. {Macmillan s Colonial Library.) London : Macmillan and Co. Wellington : Whit combe and Tombs. HI. r ‘At the Sign of the Cross Keys,” by Paul Creswick. (Bell’s Colonial Library.) Melbourne: George Robertson and Co. Wellington : Whittaker Bros. IV.-V. "The Heart’s Highway,” by Mary EC Wilkins. (John Murray’s . Colonial Library.) “The Autobiography of a- Charwoman,” by H. Wakeham. (Bell’s Colonial • Library .*) Wellington: Whitcombe and Tombs. Mr Henry Seton Merrirnan, whose “Sowers” at* once stamped him as a novelist of far above the ordinary ruck of iatterday writers of fiction, nas gone to Corsica- for the scene of hi? latest story, “The Isle of Unrest” (I.). The period is the decade previous to the outbreak of the Franco-German war, and .the hero, a young French officer, of Corsican. birth, Lory de Vasselot. Between the Vessel ots and the Peru ocas, a family whose estates adjoin those of the former, bad reigned for many years a terrible vendetta, and the legacy of hatred and bloodshed is still in force when the story opens. It seems incredible that such an insane and wicked custom as the vendetta, a relic of the worst savagery of the middle ages, • should have survived the growth of civilisation and progress, but it is difficult for English people to understand the Latin races ah' any time, and in many ways the Corsicans are still a people apart from ordinary European influences. Fate ordains that Lory de Vasselot shell fall in love, with a beautiful Parisienne, Denise Lange, whose dead father’s cousin, Mattel Perucca, dies suddenly andleayes the lady an estate in. Corsica. How the feud betwen the Peruccas aryl the de Vasselcts is affected by this event, and in what way it.is ended, we shall not say, but must refer our readers to Mr Merrirnan’s fascinating pages. The author of “The Sowers” has not, in' this, his latest work, striven so much to invent .those sparkling epigrams with which .the pages of “The Sowers”’ and '‘With Edged Tools” were studded, but in striking incident and well-drawn character sketches “The Isle of Unrest” is singularly rich. The elder Vasselot is a specially picturesque character, and the eon is a gallant, manly fellow. As for Denise, we venture to predict that every- reader of Mr Merrirnan’s story—and may they be many —will vote her an exceptionally charming heroine. “The Isle of Unrest” is a novel we can cordially recommend. The book is well illustrated. (Price, 2s 6d- paper, 3s 6cl cloth.)

Another recent .addition to Mr Macmillan’s Colonial Library is Mr Frank P. Bui leu’s ‘'Men of the Mercantile Marine” (II.), being “The Polity of the Mercantile Marine for Longshore Readers.Mr Bullen’s name is well known to most people by this time as the author of that remarkably able and picturesque account of the old whaling days, ‘'The Cruise of the Cachalot,” and his almost equally interesting book, “The Log of a Sea Waif.” The scope of the latest volume from his pen is correctly outlined in the sub-title quoted above. The author sketches, with a bright and vigorous pen, every conceivable phase of life on board a sailing ship. Like an older and equally popular writer, Mr Clarke Russell, Mr Bullen has a deep affection for the “wind-jammers,” and never ceases to emphasise the value of a sailing ship as “the only school wherein to train a thorough seafarer.” He does not, however, entirely neglect that side of maritime life which is peculiar to steamers, but the majority of his chapters deal with the Commencing with the master, or captain, he takes each officer in turn, and explains his duties and daily life, sketches his ambitions and his'chances of success. Next comes the turn of the mates, and gradually each member of the ship’s company, “bosun,” carpenter, sail maker, steward, cook, apprentices, ship’s boy, “A.B.’s” and “ordinaries,” are dealt with, separate chapters being devoted to each. Two final chapters describe the sea life of the engineers and firemen. The book may be roughly described as a landsman’s encyclopaedia of th,e mercantile marine, and he who ” u ;

eial greatness, on sea and on land alike. The chapters on the modern British seaman, and the author’s remarks on the Naval Reserve, question contain many theories and suggestions which should be of value. They are certainly of the highest interest to all who are concerned as' to the- ever-increasing l ’invasion of British ships By foreign seamen. It is impossible to speak too highly in praise of Mr Builen’s easy, direct and eminently “readable” style. He puts the pleasure? and troubles, the rewards ' and drawbacks of the modern “sailorman’s' life- (both officers’ and seamen’s;, in the clearest possible light. Every boy of an adventurous turn of mind, who may be hankering after a. -sr-a. career, is strongly advised to turn to Mr BnJlen’s capital book. (Price, 2s Cd 3s 6d doth.)- ~ “At the Shift of the Cross Iveys,'’ by Paul Creswick” (III.), is an interesting romance of eighteenth century life in London. Some of the incidents are wildly improbable, and the author’s introduction of that- famous charlatan, Bahsamo, Count Oagliostrc, as one cf hi? leading characters, is a mistake. Only Carlyle—and Dumas—can make Balsamo lire before us; in less skilful hands he becomes the most extravagant- of personified phantasies. Nor can we say that . Mr Creswick’s hero, John Bering, a young West Country gentleman who comes to London and sinks into the contemptible character of a professional card-sharper, impresses us very favourably. When he does reform, for love of a fair young lady, whose brother he has swindled, better nature triumphs, and he comes out in handsome moral colours. But, in the first instance, he fell rather too easily info the arms of the scampish “Brethren of the Cross Keys” to create a favourable impression upon tile reader. The initiation ceremony in vogue with the “Cross Keys” is a- trifle stagey, but Deririgs's persecution by his old associates, when they suspect him of treachery, affords the author scope for the introduction of many stirring incidents. Phillip- de Vaux, who first leads Bering astray, and becomes his friend, afterwards, however, by a peculiarly dirty piece of work, threatening to oust "him in the affections of his sweetheart, is a well-drawn character. The story is readable enough, but in no wise notable. (Price, 2s 6d paper, 8s 6d doth.) Yet another novel on what is now becoming the well-worn subject of Jife m ’•Ole Virgin ay.” Miss Johnston’s “By Order of the Company,” and Paul Ford’s “Janice Meredith” were both capital stories with Virginia for a background, and now we have a third novel possessing the. same scenario. This is' Miss Mary E. Wilkins’ “The Heart's Highway” (IV -V a story which lias enjoyed an enormous popularity in America, and will, we have no doubt, find a new host of admirers in these colonies. -Miss Wilkins is well knojvn to novel readers by her charming stories of simple country life in the Neve England states. In her latest effort she breaks new ground and makes what we believe is. for her, a first essay in historical romance, achieving a. decided 1 success. The period is the later part of the seventeenth century, and the principal characters are Harry Wingfield, a- young English gentleman of good birth, and Mary Cavendish, the daughter of a family of equally good descent who had settled in Virginia. Wingfield had' been wrongfully • charged, and unjustly convicted, of a, crime in England, and arrives in Virginia with a. dishonoured! name. He finds friends, however, in the Cavendishes, who had known his family in the Old Country, and who hold him innocent. The young fellow promptly falls in ioy e with the belle of the district, to whom h’e acts for a time in the' capacity of tutor. Trouble, under many forms, is strewn over the path of true love, and the out look for Wingfield is scon gloomy enough. Miss Wilkins utilises an historical incident, when she describes how the Virginia planters, furious at the British Navigation Act. which injured the profit of their trade in tobacco, cut down the-young plants and indulge in behaviour of. a riotous, not to say ope liv rebellious nature. Mary CavendVh becomes involved in the planters’ plots, and is threatened with grave misfortune. Wingfield, however, shields her and is himself arrested: as a- rioter and put in the stocks. The scene where tin* young man is in this humiliating position end is openly joined' by his lady-love in her finest bravery of costume is a novel and well described episode. Needless co say that all ends happily for the lovers, Harry’s name being fully cleared of dishonour. Miss Wilkins- has drawn some very picturesque characters, including rakish English noblemen, tippling English officers, rough-spoken! but honest Virginian planters, a pretty waiting maid or two, and the inevitable jovial, roistering parson, who acts as a general good angel to the characters who are in trouble. There is. of course, in a romance of this kind, not so much, scope for that quiet humour and simple charm which have pleased readers of Miss Wilkin’s many New England stories, but in what is, for this writer, a new field and almost a new style, she has succeeded - bmU ttiil

Mass Annie Wakejiaan’s. “Autobiography of a Charwoman” (V.). is not, as some might expect from its title, a- book of Cockney humour of the .style affected by Mr J, K. Jerome or Mr Barry Pain. It is written throughout, it is true, in. what is generally understood l to be the Cockney dialect, but it is for from being a “xuuny book.” On the contrary the autobiography cf Betty Dobbs is a human document of no small Interest—eve and value also—to students and would-be initiator? of social reform. It. is the lifestory cf a woman of the people, cf what we are pleased t-c tali the “lower orders,” a wonisn who had infinite sorrows and misfortunes, and yet- ever maintained a. gallant spirit of unflinching patience and pluck. From her start in life as a poor •servant girl, villainously betrayed by a pitiful rascal in the shape or man—of whom, .however, such is the mystery c-f woman's nature. Me cherishes almost to the last a kindly memory—to her two her rearing of a family, her battling with the • ever-present problem ox poverty, jright through to the closing scene of death, the reader cannot but follow this life-story with irresistible fascination. It- is not- all dreariness anfj ugliness, not all sorrow and misfortune. The poor have their small joys and make much of them, and Betsy Dobbs had that best cf equipments for the battle of life, a sunny cheerfulness which rose superior to the most, unlovely and disheartening environment*. One rises from a perusal of Miss Wake-ham’s story with a. fuller, and, it is to- he noped, more charitable conception of what is called “slum life” -in London. In her own - way this poor Cockney charwoman is as true a. heroine as ever lived. Very rightly does the author, m a. preface which should certainly be read, describe her as a “gentle., woman of the- slums.” There is none of the repulsive - so-called “realism” —c-f the grubbing in muck-heaps kind l —who has disfigured more than one story of East End lire that has- achieved 1 a certain ta-me,- and the e fleet of t-hfe book is net- na the least d'epressing, but rather the contrary, notwithstanding that- the serious note must necessarily• be innoeimost. “'The Autobiography of a Charwoman’ 5 is vastly more" entertaining than half-a-dozen novels of the day. Miss Wakeham is to be congratulated upon one of two- tiling. Either she has been marvellously fortunate in being able to chronicle a genuine life history, or she has carefully gathered together and cleverly utilised material for a fiction which is a triumph of vxaisemb-lance. Price 2s fid paper. 8s fid cloth.