WITH PAPER-KNIFE AND PEN.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1509, 31 January 1901, Page 28

WITH PAPER-KNIFE AND PEN.

I. —“The Origin of Species,” by Charles Darwin. New and cheaper edition. London: John Murray. Wellington : Whitcombe and Tombs. 11. -lll.—“Long Live the King,” by Guy Boothby; “Hate the Destroyer,” by Norman Silver. London and Melbourne : Ward, Lock and Co. Wellington : S. and W. Mackay. iv.—“A Boer of To-Day,” by George Cossins. London : George Allen. V. —“The Gateless Barrier,” by Lucas Malet. (Methuen’s Colonial Library.) London : Methuen and Co. Wellington : Whitcombe and Tombs. VI. —“His Last Plunge,” by Nat Gould. London: George, Routledge and Sons. VII. —“A Coronet of Shame,” bv Charles Garvice. London: Sands and Co. Wellington : Whitcombe and Tombs.

It has long been a complaint amongst such students of science and literature whose pockets are not aver liberally lined with cash that the price of certain standard works, necessary to their studies, should be extremely high. In one ease, however, there is no longer need for grumbling, and it is to be hoped that the example set bv Mr John Minay m publishing a. half-crown edition of Darwin’s “Origin of Species’’ (I.) will be widely followed. It is an edition printed in clear and handsome type and bound in a stout and comely style which is in every way satisfactory, indeed its general' appearance, both outward and typographical, is vastly superior to that of the six shilling edition which was its predecessor. A fine photogravure portrait of the author serves as an interesting and welcome frontispiece. It is too late in the day to enter into a lengthy disquisition on the merits or alleged shortcomings of a work which nearly half a century ago caused such a sensation m scientific circles and in the religious world. Though not arousing the same storm of adverse criticism which was to greet its successor, “The Descent of ,Man” (published in 1871), “The Origin of Species” upset, a host- of hitherto almost universally accepted theories. It was largely tne result of investigations made by Darwin when he was naturalist on board H.M.S. Beagle, and it represented also over twenty years further and patient study on the author'’s return tc. England. It gave rise to a series of experiments and investigations by scientific .men in Great Britain, Germany, and America, which have been of the highest value, and al thorn to some slight extent, the theories it set forth had been anticipated by Robert Chambers’s “Vestiges .of 1 Creation* it went. so much further, and challenged existing surmises and theories so much more boldly that it practically effaced the former work. In its present, cheap and handsome form the work will no doubt appeal to many to whom hitherto it has been known merely by name. It is to be hoped that the publishers will not wait until the copyright period has almost ended before giving us a similar edition of “The Descent' of Man.” The price is haif-a-crown.

Our old friend, Mr Guy Boothby, has not. been in “such good form/’ as a sporting phrase has it, for a long time past, as he is in his capital story “Long Live the King” (II.) a handsomely bound and well illustrated edition of which has just- been published by Messrs . Ward, Lock and' Co. The hypercritical may see a tendency to copy Mr Anthony Hope, and the exact position of Pannpnia, the imaginary European <©tate whose Crown Prince, Maximilian, wearies of his position and disappears from Europe. has already been satirically described as being “first door round the corner from Ruritania. ; Nevertheless Mr Boothby’s story is quite original and interestng enough to bear comparison with some if not all of Mr Hope’s novels, and to come ouc. of the ordeal with credit. The hem goes to South America, and . landing at Rio de Janeiro* becomes involved in a series of sensational and exciting adventures whilst on the search for a store of diamonds representing almost fabulous wealth; Mr Boothby has never put his imagination to better purpose than in working out the adventures of Max and his devoted brother Paul, and 1 for the benefit of the fairer portion, of our readers we may say he has never told a prettier or more truly romantic love story. On more than one occasion during the past twelve months fault has been found with Mr Boothby for overrapidity of production, and a carelessness Sn working out his plot. But, in “Long Live the King” he has come -up again into the very front rank of modem weavers of romance. It is a pleasantly written/ most fascinating novel, which is well worth reading. A special word of

praise is due to Mr Edwaru Read for his illustrations. They are exceedingly well done and add much to the general attractiveness of the well told story. (Price 3s Gd.) The intensity, the ferocity, the deadliness of the enmity which Edward Morton, alias Calvert, the hero of Mr R. Norman Silver’s story/ "Hate the Destroyer” (III.) bears towards the wealthy engineer and speculator, Robert Tangye, reminds us of Edmond Dantes and his feelings toward Danglars in Dumas’s famous “Monte Christo.” In each case the hatred is the result of dastardly xreacherv bv the man who is the object of the hatred. Calvert and Tangye had been engaged in prospecting icr minerals in the Ural Mounains. A rich mine ot silver had been discovered by Calvert , . who would generously share with his friend. The latter, however, dominated by selfish greed, treacherously assaults Calvert and leaves him for dead, returning to London to become a millionaire as the result of Calvert’s discovery. Five years elapse and there appears in London a man named Merton. This is Calvert in disguise. He had' recovered and made a fortune out of other mines and now seeks vengeance, a double vengeance, for while ho had lain a pauper and a cripple in a Russian hospital the girl he had been engaged to in London, had died of grief at receiving no news from her lover. To trace the full story of Morton’s, or Calvert’s, vengeance would occupy too much of our space. He buys up shares in Tangye’s companies, and nearly ruins him, he murders his enemy's only daughter, and attempts other crimes, being at such times in a temporary fit of homicidal mania of which, and its result; he has afterwards no recollection. Gradually the family lie befriends, the family oi his dead love, be comes involved with that of the Tangyes, and the plot becomes yet more complicated. Not until his enemy is dead, and Calvert has tried but failed to murder Tangye’s son, who under* another name loves and is loved by a sister of the murderer’s dead fiancee, does the vendetta end, and with that end the madman’s career of hate —and life —ends also. It is a most thrilling story that Mr Silver recounts, a.nd if it savours of the melodramatic the reader, /who is carried away by the rapidity of the action and the vigour of the narrative-will be inclined to overlook the fault. As a sensational story “Hate the Destroyer” is one of considerable merit. The book is illustrated by Mr J. E. Henry, and like all 'Messrs Ward Look’s novels, is' well printed and neatly bound. The price is 3s 6d.

Mr George Cossins, a copy of whose “Boer of To-Day—a Story of the Trans • vaal” (IV.) has been sent us by the publisher, Mr George Allen, London will be remembered by some of our readers as the author of that distinctly clever Australian story, “The Wings of Silence,” which appeared a couple of years or so ago. Mr Cossins must now be credited with having written what is by far the best of the many novels published recently whose background has been South Africa. The hero is a young Boer, Jan Van de Venter. Jan has English relations, and is sent by a rich ! u,ncle to be educated in the country which Oom Paul holds in suck hearty dislike. He is a brainy lad, of more than average youthful ambition, and he dreams ever of the great position he will make for himself in the political world of the Transvaal. Love for a time interrupts his castle building, but- the English girl’s refusal of his suit embitters him against her race and he returns to South Africa, in spite of his English university educa_ tion, a - pronounced Afrikander, and determined to show -the haughty and beautiful. Margaret Lindsay. that she . has acted ' foolishly in refusing: one who must rise to high honour. In the Transvaal,, however,, he finds his projects of political reform and 3elf aggrandisement none too, easy of . accomplishment. _ . Kruger,. Leyds and . others of the “Pretoria gang” look askance at his .ideas and' suspect him of pro-British sympathies. If, in. England, lie wore too much a Dutchman for ..Margaret Lindsay, he is, in the Transvaal,, too mu*K a “rooinek” for pom Paul and Co. So for a while lie., goes farming, disgusted with the political atmosphere , discontented with his surrounding®, an egotist and a soured mhn. Then the war breaks .out and he joins the Boer ranks. Gradually, the effects of his English education and training fade away, and he ends by undertaking the work of a spy,, and utilizing his knowledge of English in favour qf England’s foes. In the end his hitherto hid_ , den. better nature asserts itself, and the. last scene in his life’s story is that •which does him most credit. He befriends the very man,, an English officer, who had married the woman he, Venter, had loved and before he dies, sums up in a telling phrase the reason of his failure to right South Africa’s wrongs: “I failed,” said Jan shortly, “because I was too Dutch to be an .Englishman, too English, to be a Boer ; neither party would have me.” The story is full of clever touches, many leading actors in the South African drama being introduced as characters, and it is evident that the author has closely studied South African politics, and has been successful with his ; local colour, Some of the leading events in the war are made the subject of very effective descriptions. “A Boer of ToDay” may be merely fiction, bu?E it af- , fords not, a few suggestive ideas as to the complexity of the South African

problem and the difficulty of dealing with a race, of whom the greater majority are so densely ignorant of aught that goes on without tneir own narrow environment. Price 6s cloth.

“Luca-s Malet” is not so successful in her latest novel, ‘The Gateless Barrier” (V.), as she was in her earlier noveils, “Garissima” and “Colonel Enderby’s Wife." She makes an excursion into Spookland, and in the manner of her doing so, exacts rather too heavy a toll of credulity to be given by readers outside the ranks of the Pyschical Research Society. Nevertheless, there is much that is attractive in her story of Lawrence Rivers, and his extraordinary experiences with the embodied spirit—as the author will have it —of the unhappy love of one of his ancestors. The leading motif in the story is more than wildly improbable, but it- is worked out with great ingenuity, and, if it is not convincing, at least it affords scope for some very pretty writing. The author is peculiarly successful in her description of what might be called the general atmosphere of eeriness which prevails at the manor house of Stoke Rivers, and if we cannot altogether accept the ghostly young ladv r who had been bricked up a hundred years ago behind the wall of the yellow drawing, room as. a possibility, especially in her midnight “philandering” with the handsome —and rtarried—Lawrence, at least the author must be credited with having scoied a real success in the character of old Mr Rivera with his agnosticism, lii.s artistic tastes and his detestation of women. There is a Scotch lawyer, also, of whom we see but too little, and a well-meaning, but tweak, creature of a curate is very amusing. Those of our readers who are interested in spirit manifestations,.and the occult generally, will doubtless find, special pleasure in Lucas M-a let's story. For the general and sceptically-inclined reader, it;, must remain simply a well-tokl romance . “Lucas Malet’.s” literary style has always had a quiet distinction of its own. There are passages in ‘"The Gateless Barrier” which well maintain the reputation. (Price 2s 6d paper, 3s 6d cloth.)

Nat Gould, who has, not inappropriately, been called “the . Australian Hawley Smart,” continues to turn out his tales of the turf in such rapid succession as to render him/ on the score of productive powers, at least, quite a formidable rival to the now proverbially prolific Boothby. In his latest story, “His last plunge,” his hero, Gay Limiley, “comes a cropper” over the failure of his horse Gonsalvo to win ...e Derby, and emigrates to Queensland, where he takes charge of the racing stables of Edmund Boyeson, a squatter and keen sportsman. Gonsolvo is bought by Boyeson, and; wins the Brisbane and Melbourne Cups. Lumley, though lucky with his equine charges, is, for. a time at least, unlucky in love, but eventually •marries the daughter of a rich squatter. The story is replete with the turf intrigues usually found in Mr Gould’s novels, and equallv. as usual, the rogue comes to grief and the honest man prospers. “His last Plunge” is a well-writ-ten yarn of its kind, and will add to its author’s already well-earned . popularity with that section of the reading.public which takes delight in this, parti cular class of' fiction. (Price. 2s boards,. )

To the se who like a. well-tokl novel pn somewhat old-fashioned lines:—the lines, say, of Miss Braddon’s earlier stories—we can recommend “A Coronet.*of Shame,” , by Charles Garvice (VII.). It is a trifle long—not often nowadays - do author and publisher combine to . give us a novel running into 508 pages—but quantity is not. a bad fault when the quality is fair. . The hero . is Bruce, Lord Ravenhurst, a young nobleman, who loves and-is loved by Jess Newton, the daughter of a South* African mbuveau riche . The lady’s father hold® th» British aristocracy in no great favour, and he taboos- the match/ ■ but later bn, when in South* Africa, : the young , man behaves very gallantly in' a fight with the- Zulus, he relents. , Unfortunately, when Bruce and the old gentleman, return to England, the former hailed a hero by the press, the path of true love becomes strewn with exceptionally sharp thorns*. In'his younger days Bruce had had a friend, one Deborah Blunt, an aotress with whom he had had certain low© passages. "Discovering his love for Jes», Deborah had sworn vengeance, and pad become a willing tool in the hands of on© Henry Glave. Glave had personated Bruce—he was an admirable amateur actor—and had married Deborah, in Bruce’s name at a register office. When Bruce is home again, and goes to claim hi* love, Deborah comes forward and boldly demands her husband. . Bruce raves, but all the evidence is against him. Jess however’ is faithful, and for the good reason that before her lover had gone to South Africa, she had! secretly married him, a fortnight previous to the date of the GlaveDeborah trick. For a time matters are a little mixed, but Deborah meets with an accident, and, before dying, expose® Glave’s villainy, other evidence as to which.had been brought to. light by on© of Bruce’s chums. . Virtue - is victorious, and villainy, in . the person of Glare, retires to. Peru. Jess is a very charming heroine, and Hie Bohemian . “Deb. ” is a character with which , the author has evidently taken pains. Glare, the rif-

lain, we found a trifle stagey, and lrs impersonation of Bruce altogether too risky an affair for such a clever man to have ventured. However, we must not be too exigeant in this class of fiction, and Mr Gat vice’s story is, at any rate, very readable. (Price, os 6J. cloth.)