NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 4806, 8 November 1902, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS

“A Flying Post.” By Tresliam Quaines. "vVard, Look and Co., London and Melbourne. “I should have no objection to seeing the story in print now that the period of silence imposed - upon Moltke has elapsed,” observes one of the characters in this thrilling narrative of the FrancoGerman war, and so the author has put it into the head of Major John Manderville, who served with Yon Moltke to tell something of episodes -connected with that bloody struggle and of incidents in the siege of Paris. After much talk that is interesting about pigeonshooting and ballooning, the Major Cads himself in the French lines. It is in his treatment as a spy and in his stirring adventures among the French that all the interest of the novel centres. There is a great deal that is unreal in the narrative, but that will not take from its being an absorbing story.

"Dorothy Vernon, of Haddon Hall.” By Charles Major. Macmillan and Co., London.

This is a story of stirring interest. It tells how Dorothy, the daughter of Sir George .Vernon, of Haddon Hall, Derbyshire, wedded after many trials and disappointments the heir of a house with which, her father was at _ enmity. There are many notable Historical characters mentioned in the romance, including Queen Elizabeth, Mary Queen of Soots, Leicester and others of that romantic period. The imagination of the writer has been allowed full play in a work which nevertheless exhibits some faithfulness to historical fact. It is well-written, and worth reading.

“L’Hasa at Last.” By J. Macdonald Oxley. Ward. Lock, and Co., London and Melbourne.

In this work the author gives to Colonel Stannard of the Indian Army and his son, no less adventurous than himself, the honour of. discovering a passage to the mysterious capital of Thibet by way of China. There are many exciting incidents and hairbreadth .. escapes by flood and field. The progress of the courageous twain and their groat company of followers, is facilitated by a friendly native who knows the country. The author allows his imagination to carry him. away, and the p: obability of

reaching the fabled capital in the way described is very remote. Tho author, however, wields a graphic pen. His adventures are realistic, and may be all actually true. His description of the people and tho country beyond the Himalayas may be! regarded as correct. As a book of adventure it can bo recommended, and as being suited to the taste of boys of sixteen to is admirable, although not a tew grown up men and women will tako pleasure in following the adventures of the Colonel and his son.

“In tho Bush Shade.” By Henry Lambert Thompson, author of “Musings in Melody,” “Sonnets and Rondeaus,” etc.

This artistically got up booklet of poems is published by Messrs Thompson and* Co., of Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane and Loudon, and we are indebted to Messrs Herbert Baillie and Co., of Wellington, for a review copy. Tho author, who writes from Hamilton College, Hamilton, Victoria, has tho poetic soul that is attuned to Nature’s melodies and the poetio eye that appreciates the grand and beautiful; hut his versification is not of the deftest, nor is his composition so correct as one would expect from his collegiate surroundings. For example, a number of his sonnets are in structure. In one, on “A Tropical Storm,” we find two limping Alexandrines. Tho fifth lino reads: “Its desolation, and the deep seems never stirred,” while the concluding lino—in which position an Alexandrine, if effective, may be allowed, halts thus: “And all tho fury that a tropic storm

attains.” Again, in the sonnet, “To Nature,” occurs the grammatical solecism “thou doth,”, and tho violent license, “has stolo.” In another we have, “How liko to night and day is lifo and death, } when there is not the least excuse for using the' singular verb. Several sonnets have linos of four feet instead of five: and one opens with the astounding jumble of bad metre, grammar and sense:—

“Miles on miles, in the distance wide away, . • , ■ In measureless acres of jet black | an a The Darling Downs stretch round on every hand, . ■ Where o’er its paddocks flocks number-

less stray, And far out west these plateaux vol-

canic lay.” In this quotation, “its” should distinctly be “their,” and “lay” is a vulgar error for “lie.” Mr Thompson ought to explain what he means when he writes: “So God without the finite heavens wot, Beyond our ken, may hear us sing and pray.” Tho suspicion that tho author suffers from that distressing mental malady called “eoholalia”—'the repetition of words without meaning—is-aroused by the occurrence of such lines as: “Dim columns on dim columns hurry by, Roll within roll their rolls ingathering.” We have hy no means mentioned all ibo glaring flaws in this booklet of forty pages; but enough has been said to show that Mr Thompson, while possessing poetic taste and fire, has much to learn in tho way of chaste, correct and musical expression. ,