NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1715, 11 January 1905, Page 14

NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS

“Lovers at Fault.” By F. Wishaw. George Bell and,Sons, London. Gordon and Gotch, Wellington.

Wo cannot say this book has a plot. It is, however, an effective portrayal of Finnisli character. There is an abundance of whole-souled patriotism among the Finns, and not. a little romance. These are the tools with which Mr Wishaw has carved out his latest story. Haif-a-million Finns sign the “national protest” to the Czar against the ukase depriving Finland of her constitution. Patriots, Russian officials, spies and lovable women are the characters, and with these the author weaves together a pleasing and romantic story. “A Bid For Freedom.” By Guy Boothby. Ward, Lock and Co., London. S. and W. Mackay, Wellington. This story is written in the author’s usual racy style and is characterised by his well-known boldness in conception and skill of execution. It is full of adventure and thrilling incidents and the interest never flags from start* to finish. The plot is laid in the Sultan of Madrapore’s dominions and the story describes very vividly all the tortures and suffering that autocratic personage inflicted on any of his subjects who dared to defy or refuse to pay any tax, just or otherwise, which he cared to impose. The hero of the story, Roger Gavesson, is described as being “the possessor of a striking personality—a handsome, if somewhat rakish face, a sharp and ready wit, an ability to make himself liked by people that I have seldom known equalled. . . . What he was by profession, or where he originally hailed from, nobody ever knew. He appeared to have an intimate acquaintance with most of the out-of-the-way countries of the world, and to my certain knowledge spoke six languages as fluently as he did his own. He was an excellent shot, particularly with a revolver, and at the billiard table could hold his own with most, professionals.” At the opening of the story he was engaged in some dangerous business in Madrapore in which, if he were discovered, would find him thrust into the* prison house of torture known as the Kasbali. Just when he had about accomplished hfs mission and was ready to take his departure, he was set upon and taken before the Sultan and there threatened all kinds of torture worse than death, and was only released on one condition, which he promised to fulfil, and that was to kidnap the Lady Olivia Belhampton, the most beautiful woman in Elnglano, whom the Sultan had taken a fancy to on a visit to England and wished to add her to his harem. She had previously refused him, but that had not much weight with an ungovernable passion and will. Roger was horror-stricken at such a proposal, but found there was no help for it so set out on his questionable journey supplied with plenty of money from the Sultan’s coffers. He* met the lady several times and was so taken by her graciousness, affability and beauty that lie dallied over the mission, he had taken in hand. Then he came across two of the Sultan’s emissaries, who were dogging his path to see whether he was doing what he had engaged to perform and they told him what would happen if he tried to* get out of it. About this time* he went on a pleasure-trip with Lady Olivia, her father and mother, and the Duke and Duchess to Malta and was rather disconcerted to discover that the two* spies liad also followed him. While at. Malta Lady Olivia went out shopping with tile Governor’s A.D.C., and after waiting for lier some time outside the shop the A.D.O. went in search of her, hut absolutely failed to discover lier whereabouts. Her father and mother were distracted and the whole neighbourhood set out to look for her, but all to no purpose. Roger discovered the two spies had also disappeared and feeling very mean and wretched over the despicable part in which ho had been playing set out to rescue her with some of his trusty friends. How he sailed to Madrapore, discovered her in the Sultan’s palace, undertook a. perilous ride to the coast and voyage back to Malta

must* be left to the reader to peruse. Roger’s confession to the Lady Olivia and his determination to go back to interview the Siultan is most realistically and dramatically told, and imist be read to bo appreciated. The book is well illustrated by Henry Austin.

“Tlie Celestial Shrgeon.” By F. F. Montresor. Edward Arnold, London. Gordon and Gotch, Cuba street, Wellington.

A new novel by Miss Montresor is a literary event, the more so as her many admirers have learned to expect the unexpected in her work. “The Celestial Surgeon” contains a group of robust and complex characters, and an extremely interesting clot-, treated with great skill and virility. Jeronime, the sturdy little heroine, is a most lovable personality, and the decidedly equivocal state of life in which, she was horn furnishes the writer with material for a series of dramatic situations. Miss Montresor’s knowledge of human nature ha.s never been seen to more advantage than in the present volume.

“Echo.” By Herbert Strang. Blackie and Son, London.

The chief characters in this story are Bob Fawcett, a young Englishman sent out to Japan a little before the present war began to test the machine used for range-finding on the Japanese warships, and Kobo San who was a descendant of a very ancient Slamurai family. These two personages have several adventures and captures by either Russians or Manchus. In one advanture Bob, after crossing a ravine and climbing precipices, manages to rescue Kobo, but is too late and the Samurai falls in his country’s cause, with his faithful servant Taru at his feet. The story contains the following paragraph :—“lt is now nearly ten years since, on one of the bridges in Olsaka. I watched a battalion of Imperial Guards marching to the China war. The Chinese had been driven across the Yalu and hustled through Manchuria; the Guard were to assist in carrying the war if necessary to the walls of Pekin. There was something in the bearing of those short, sturdy, alert little soldiers to arrest the attention and give food for thought. They had all the purposeful air of our own Gurkhas, with a look of keener intelligence, and a joyous eagerness that thrilled the observer. In the China war the Japanese were for the first time measuring their strength. It was merely practice for the great struggle with the Colossus of the North which all knew to be inevitable, however long delayed. The humbling of China cost Japan little real effort, and we in this country hardly realised all that was at stake when European diplomacy robbed the victor of the fruits of victory.” This book will, no doubt, be much sought after by many, especially boys, who take an interest in the movements of the Russo-Japanese war.

“On the Hop !” A Selection from the Australian Drawings of Livingston Hopkins (“Hop,” of the “Bulletin”). “Bulletin” Newspaper Company, Ltd., Sydney. Gordon and Gotch Proprietary, Ltd., Wellington.

In a handsome volume of about a hundred large folio pages the “Bulletin” Company has issued a collection of sketches by tile artist who, next to Phil May. has made the Sydney weekly’s illustrated pages most popular during the past twenty-one years. The issue is confined to 475 copies to subscribers at a guinea each, with eighteen special signed copies at three guineas each. The collection is a thoroughly representative one, and is prefaced by a, burlesque autobiography of the artist, humorously illustrated. From “Hop, His Troubles,” we learn that the caricaturist, like the poet, is born, not made. “Hop” cannot, however, satisfy the “unities” of biograhpy by a record of early orphanhood and struggles for existence. He was not destined for holy orders, nor had he any of those games of cross-purposes with Fate which the orthodox celebrity experiences. As an American citizen, however, he comes up to expectation in one particular—he served in the Civil War for a “bloodthirsty few months, spent mostly in trying to' capture Richmond and Petersburg with a pick and shovel.” Then he was “local editor and general utility man” on a Western newspaper, after which he filled a clerical situation on “Scribner’s Monthly,” waiting a chance to* distinguish himself in a, “Humorous Department” of that periodical which never materialised. Getting tired of this Micawberish position he started a studio and made a living by selling funny pictures to the papers. It was while thus engaged that he was “discovered” by Mr W. H. Traill of the “Bulletin” and dragged from New York to Australia to fulfil a three years’ engagement—a period that has been multiplied by seven, during which time he has produced as many drawings as would (lie is assured by a statistical friend), if pasted together, “form a ribbon of paper that would reach from the cellar floor of the “Bulletin” building to the dome of the Government Observatory on the planet Mars.” From this body of work the present collection has been chosen almost at random, and the result

is a most* varied and entertaining volume, showing some of the artist’s best and mast characteristic work. The first drawing, for instance, is the well-known “I thought I had a Stamp” ; there are some pages of mother-in-law and women’s suffrage jokes; and there are many “skits” on political events in Australia. Two caricatures by the* “understudy” are included in “The Bulletin in the Wars” and “The Bulletin Out of the Wars.” One of the most savage cartoons is that entitled “The Landing of Our Forefathers,” dedicated to the “Aristocracy” of New South Wales. A very telling one (from the “Bulletin” viewpoint) is that on “Imperial Federation,” showing the lion and kangaroo tied together by their tail and starting on a “tug of war.” The policeman, the Politician, the missionary, the larrikin, and other types come in for a good deal of genial satire. This collection of clever drawings is most valuable, and tho restricted issue will tend to* add a fictitious value to the intrinsic.