NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1610, 7 January 1903, Page 28

NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS

“A Life at Stake.” By Percy Andreoe. Ward, Lock and Co., London and Melbourne. S. and W. Mackay, Wellington.

In Mr Andreae’s latest we are told of a nurse named Miss Forsyth, who is sent by the matron of Guy’s /Hospital to attend a case of suicidal melancholia; her patient is a young athlete apparently in the best of spirits. He lives alone with his mother and his mother’s ward, a beautiful but haughty girl with whom he is generally supposed to be in love. There is an air of mystery about the house, which the author is very clever in suggesting and creating without committing himself t-o definite statement; hut one midnight in August matters reach a crisis. The patient is discovered in the bedroom of his mother’s ward with a knife in his hand, and his act is regarded by his relatives as another indication of his insanity. There are, however, many inexplicable derails connected with the incident which convince Nurse Forsyth that her patient is not really insane; and the interest of the book consists in the unravelling of these details. Mr Andreas is exceedingly clever in the unfolding of his plot; the story is exciting, dramatic and convincing.

“The Future of Phyllis.” By Adeline Sergeant. John Long, London. Whitoombe and Tombs, Wellington.

This is a clean, fresh, well-told tale, which most girls and women, and a good many of the sterner sex will digest with pleasure. Phyllis, or Felicite, to give her her due baptismal name, is a singularly beautiful baby born to a small tradesman. The mother dying, she is temporarily adopted by the local doctor. Under his advice her father, who begins to get on in the world, sends her to a high-class girls’ school, where she spends all her time, never even visiting her home till she is “finished.” The truth is that her father has become a publican, much to his pecuniary advantage. -Then he sustains some money losses, and Phyllis has to assume control over his household, which lives above the gin palace. The contrast between now and thie old surroundings, (and the (various 1 difficulties land complications that ensue, is exceedingly well developed. To wind up the story, a “decadent” young man of means, who has fallen in love with Phyllis in her happier days, turns up and marries her. The South African war has made a man of him, and all sides bless the wedding they had formerly banned.

“Tangled up in Beulah Land.” By P. Mowbray. Constable and Co., London. Whitoombe and Tombs, Wellington.

There is a good deal of Stockton-like artifice and whimsicality about this little comedy, which is played out among the Pennsylvanian hills, by an American father, his son, a lady who is an actress, and some others. The American father is a middle-aged man, a widower, with a grown-up son, whom he addresses as “comrade.” This youth of nineteen has been kept tied to his father’s apron-strings and generally nursed and coddled. Suddenly the father discovers that his Charlie has fallen in love with an actress. The awful affair must go no further. He announces his own intention to marry the girl, and Charles, in his turn, is horrified. They both consult in secret Miss Petunia, Charlie’s aunt, and the result is they all find themselves out of wicked New York, and far from the fascinating actress in the rural quiet of Tuscaloo, in the land of Beulah. But here, in the house of the friend they visit, is the actress herself, playing a new and difficult part. Things get dreadfully tangled up of course, and humorous incidents are fairly plentiful ere the author brings his story to its appointed close.

“Captain Ma-cklin.” By R. H. Davis. Wm. Heinemann, London. H. Baillie and Co., Wellington.

Mr Davis can be congratulated on having produced in "Captain Macklin” an excellent book of adventure for boys, and it will enable him to rise high in the eyes of “our boysf” as an entertaining story writer. The hero has many surprising experiences. - After his dismissal from West Point for a boyish ‘breach of discipline, Royal Macklin searches the newspapers, and succeeds in finding a Central American • State where he may indulge his warlike ardour by participating in an insurrection. In view of his sudden and somewhat selfish interest in the cause, the lofty patriotic pose that he adopts to certain unscrupulous rebels is rather amusing. Pursuing the revolutionary general to his lair, he points out to this veteran of a score of campaigns half a dozen defects in Ms military arrangements in as many seconds; bnt bo far from resenting. this, the officer accuses himself of jcarelesstness, give® the cadet a captaincy, and proceeds forthwith to love him a® an adopted son. The extravagance of the heroic feats subsequently achieved by Mankind is partly redeemed by the frank presentation of an egotistic but courageous -character, which recall® Du-

mas’s immortal Gascon. The sketchy; quality of the feminine interest will appeal to the schoolboy, for girls are introduced only to be avoided, and the hero avows his intention to wed war, not woman.

“Stronger than Love.” By the late Mrs Alexander. T. Fisher Unwin, „ London. S. and W. Maokay, W ellington.

For many years this author produced novel after novel of a readable and pleasant character, but while this hook was in the press she sent in her own proofs to be revised by the Great Master. Those who have read “The Wooing (ft” recall a delightful novel, but the present story will not rank with that effort, and it is evident that the hand was already flagging when the book was being written. This is especially true of the dialogue. The characters talk with a propriety of language such ai; never was on sea or land. The correctness is kept np throughout a long book, with the result that the reader is apt to get tired, especially as the leaven of excitement is minute in quantity.

“The Last Alive.” By J. MacLaren Cobban. Grant Richards, London. S. and W. Mackay, Lambton quay.

Mr Cobban usually produces stories that are well worth reading, and most of his work has deserved a greater popularity than seems to have been accorded it. In the work before us he gives a capital story of the sensational sort.. It concerns itself with a tontine set up in the will of a cynical Company promoter, land the criminal devices whereby Frank Parris, who has been the testator’s secretary, attempts to become .the sole survivor of the five men named in. the will. The plot is ingeniously worked out, and the book affords entertainment from beginning to end.

“French Commercial Correspondence.” By Chas. Glauser, Ph.D., arranged and adapted by W. Mansfield Poole, M.A. John Murray, London. Whitoombe and Tombs, Wellington.

This work, intended for use in the highest forms of commercial schools and for the students at commercial institutes and colleges of university rank, has been ably adapted by Mr Poole from Dr Glauser’s “Cours gradue de Cbrrespondanoe et d’Operations commercial es.” It is written entirely in French, the only English In the book being the translation of the terms and phrases to be used in some of the exercises. The various chapters are sub-divided into sections, each of which opens with a description of the operations to be dealt with and an explanartdon of the technical terms, etc., that are used; and then follow the models of letters, formulas and exercises. Every variety of commercial subject is apparently treated of, and by advanced «students the book is certain to be found exceedingly useful and instructive.