NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 5474, 31 December 1904, Page 13

NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS

'The Manor School.” By L. T. Meade. W. and 11. Chalmers, Edinburgh. Gordon and Gotch, Wellington. Among the many hooks issued as suitable for presentations, there are few better than those written by Mrs L. T. Meade for young people. Her tone is always elevating and her moral sound. The parents of Christian Mitford, when they leave for Persia, arrange that their daughter, who has just turned thirteen, should stay behind and attend a pri vate school. This decision is a perfect nightmare and horror to Christian, who listens to evil advice, runs away, and is sorely punished by having to live the life of the slums for a time. When she took her place in Penweme School, she joined a school society which brought her into no end of trouble. The story of her former escapade is known to one or two of her fellow-pupils, who use it so as to cause her suffering in body and mind. She has a severe illness before the matter is cleared up, and she starts with a clean slate, and Penwerne school becomes again to Christian the happiest of places. This work, like others of its class from Messrs Chambers’s extensive list are neatly yet strongly bound and are beautifully illustrated. “Walsh, the Wonder Worker.” By G. Manville Fenn. W. and R. Cham hers, Edinburgh. Gordon and Gotch, Cuba street, Wellington. Mr Fenn wields a graphic pen in an exciting and clever story. The heroes of this work are Alf Carr, of the Forgo Farm, and Frank Wargrave, of the Manor. They have a splendid time in their rambles in the country, and manage to draw into their young lives plenty of excitment and adventure. They attempt to unravel the mystery surrounding the person of Mr Walsh, who from his clever experiments in chemistry is known among country folks as the “wonder-worker.” Another character is one Morrison, a spy on Walsh’s doings, and when fire breaks out in the works they perform wonderful deeds of daring. The mystery is at length solved, and the story is bright and entertaining. “A Hero of Lucknow.” By F. S. Brereton. Blackie and Son, Old Bailey, Loudon. J. W. Davidson, Wellington. Captain Brereton has written another of his thrilling tales, this time of the Indian mutiny. It is essentially a boy’s book. The heroes, Claude and Reg Watson, are stationed at Rowpoor when the mutiny breaks out. With difficulty they escape from the place and reach Cawnpore, where they help the defenders. By good fortune they slip away before the commencement of the terrible massacre which followed the capitulation, hut are soon after separated, Claude becoming a prisoner of Indoo Khan, the rebel leader of Rowpoor. He is dragged to Lucknow, where his adventures are thrilling. Ultimately he eludes his captors and gains the defences. But his adventures have not ended. Thanks to the knowledge which he has obtained of the city he is able to carry out successfully a hazardous expedition, and eventually reaches Delhi. He takes part in the capture of that city, and then marches to the relief of Lucknow. It is nicely illustrated from drawings by Professor Rainey, R.I. “The Shadow on the Wall.” By M. E. Coleridge. Edward Arnold, London. S. and W. Maokay, Wellington. This is a thrilling story of modern life. Round the central figure, “a man of iron and ice,” Miss Coleridge has woven a tale in which the imaginative qualities, so largely answerable for the great success of her other novels, arc seen to their full advantage. It is impossible in the space at our command to describe the atmosphere of mystery with which the story is heavily surcharged. Every sentence is incisive and every word spoken is characteristic of the striking individualities in which the nook Abounds. Readers of “The King with Two Faces” need have no cause to regret the author’s temporary desertion of history for the present day.