NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITION

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4307, 16 March 1901, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITION

‘The World’s Great Snare,” by E. Phillips Oppenieim. London; Ward, Lock and Co, Ltd. (Illustrated by J. Ambrose Walton.)

Mr Oppenheim has not detracted from his reputation as- a story-teller in this, his latest creation. Ho has, in fact, made a. book which, though, somewhat orthodox in conception, is nevertheless .so exceedingly weli-written that the reader follows the adventures and experiences detailed-therein with a schoolboy glow of interest. The only incongruous element - about the volume is its .title, winch is inappropriate and misfit. The story opens in a’ mining camp in the Sierras, where- the law is hand-made, and life rendered eventful and uncertain by occasional miscellaneous shootings and other disagreeable processes. It is here that the hero and heroine and the reader first become acquainted —an acquaintanceship which ripens and improves as chapter succeeds chapter throughout the volume. Mr Oppenheim’s Myra has all the ideallic attributes, or nearly so, but bis hero has a composition into which, the clayey element has entered quite largely. The book emphasises the postulate that longsuffering and constancy is possible in a woman, but that a man is apt to forsake the happiness which lies nearest to hand, and to be eggregriously selfish and unthankful for favours received from a loving woman, even if he is aware that the cost to her is the supremest effort, and the supremest selfsacrifice. The author is undoubtedly happier in depicting English life than in his pourtrayal of the American, and therefore the latter part of the book is the more admirable from a literary point of view. “The 1 " World’s Great Snare”—once yon have passed the title page —is an eminently interesting and satisfying novel.

“A Jireaker of Laws,” by WiPett Ridge. London: George Bell and Sons, Wellington: Messrs Whitaker Bros. W. Pett Ridge is more entertaining in his shorter stories than \in this last creation of his. "A Breaker of Laws” is rather long-draw n J out, , considering its motive, which is to depict the various temptations which afflict a Londoner of a certain type when hardened with the incubus of a tnieving instinct. The book is amusing in many respects, and several of the characters are deftly drawn. Some of the dialogue is really smart, but in places there is a palpable overreaching in the effort’ to create a smart effect. . Here are one or two of the good' things; “I don’t say I’m worthy of her, mind,” said the yonng man, “but —” “My hoy,” protested the hairdresser, “womens don't mind that.” “Near her Ladd looked at the scene

with modest triumph, smoking a cigar, the scent of which fought desperately with, the smell of an oil lamp” “Men learned in horseflesh stood around the animals and criticised their points in a way that made one astonished that the animals did not turn round and bite.” Here is a sample of the other sort: “Finnis is what they call a cynic,” remarked Alfred. "What's that?” she asked. “Oh, you: know,” said Alfred, vaguely, "a chap that goes round cynieing at everything he sees.”

'‘Voices in the Night,” by Flora Amite Steel. London: William Heineman.

Mrs Steel has gained that knowledge and experience which places her second only to Rudyard Kipling among novelists of Hindu and Mohammedan life and character, but the effects of her narrow official life are everywhere reflected in the pages of the latest story by the author of “On the Face of the Waters.” A petty local rising which, in these days of “tabloid” journalism, would be dismissed ordinarily in a graph, has, in the hands of this painstaking authoress, been spun out into a narrative covering 363 closely printed pages. Not unnaturally the reading proves somewhat tedious. The immense amount of detail and; the numerous italicised quotations in the vernacular are out of date in a modern novel. Uu Aiintie Khojee, Noonnahal, Jeha-u Aziz, prince of kite-flyers, and Mr Lucanaster are doubtless in the main true to life, but to the reader they are merely lay figures introduced for the sake of giving local, colour to the writer’s wearisome sketches of Indian life. The lives of the native women are to our Western eyes dull and squalid to a degree. The environment of India has a trick of giving an air of distinction to the An-glo-Saxon, as the writer herself admits, but the stereotyped official Englishmen and colourless women we are introduced to in the course of the narrative fail to interest, much less to favourably imprpss.

“Tli© Seen and the Unseen,” by Richard Marsh.

It is sufficient to say that “The Seen and the Unseen” is by the author of ‘ Curios and “Marvels and l Mysteries,” to, tell the reader what manner of book it is and what it deals with. Richard Marsh delights; in the mysterious and the obscure, with a dash of the supernatural to furnish the required weirdness j and he; makes all his stories of the same ingredients. Still, there is no sameness about them. He is a good story-teller, and knows how much hytalk, will not spoil the effect of a “creepy” tale. There is in “The Seen and tho. Unseen” as • little superfluous verbiage as:may be. Every sentence is, neoesary to the tale. The short stories of which'the book is composed are not the best Richard Marsh has written, but they all demand reading and, once begun, cannot be readily laid aside. No great mental effort is required to follow tho plot, and a book of this kind is at a premium for casual reading. In “A Psychological Experiment” the im. possible, in fact the absurd, is provided by a host of small efts, snakes, newts and lizards, which the schemer takes into bis confidence to assist in.extortirig absurd confessions from Lis victims. The reader will probably come to the conclusion that “the Tipster” is the least impossible story in the volume p aek of Cards,” “The Violin,” and. Iho Houseboat” take up considerable space, and: while lacking much Of the characteristics Of tho writings of Richard Marsh, will be found, particularly the last-named, to possess an, interest from a psychological point of view.