SOME RECENT FICTION

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7319, 24 December 1910, Page 9

SOME RECENT FICTION

In the Dumas Vein. Mr VT. J. Ecott is a‘ novelist whose name 1 always welcome on a title page, for I have not forgotten those two excellent historical novels, “His Indolence, of Arras” and “The Red Neighbour, both admirable stories of adventure in the days of Louis Quaitorze. Then, too, there . was that amusing story. Iho Background,” in which the author at-' fords such pleasant poops into modern Edinburgh society, especially legal society. Mr Eliott now returns to the "sword and capo” style of novel, and in "A Demoiselle of Trance' (Edinburgh: Wm. Blackwood), has written a very powerful and fascinating romance, the hero being a young atabecavalier, a scion of the Richelieu family, who becomes involved in a series ot adventurous and romantic experiences which , are quite in the Dumas vein. Many of Mr Ecotfs characters, the unlucky Elouquet, the cunning Colbert, the gallant young Comte de tjuichcs, will bo familiar to those who have read and remember that lengthy but delightful romance, "Ee Vicomto do Bragclonne.” Hero, too, is the lovely ibut unhappy Louise de la Valliere, and the masterful young sovereign who rejoices in his freedom from the tutelage and domination of Mazarin— why, even our old friend, D'Artagnan, Captain of the King's Musketeers, is with us again. But Mr Ecotfs plot is bis own, and bis heroine, the charming young maid of honour, Ursule de Blaye, is a character of whom Dumas himself might well have been proud. Important parts are played in the story by Madeleine and Arm a mte Bejart, of Monsieur Moliere’s famous company of comedians. The stbrv; is packed full of adventure, and •is tiu' and away ft ho host novel of its k'lml that I have read for sometime. I can cordially commend it to my readers. "Jim'of the Ranges.” : Miss Lancaster, is’a wonderfully clever lady, who started by writing 'spine' excelpnit short stories in the Kipling vein but now gives us : a Joiig'novel of upcountry ■lite i in -Australia. She is a born storvteller, . and "Jim of the Ranges has’not onlv a good; plot but is remarkuoly well told.’ But quite; conceivable as is .Jim KyneiouV heroism, and interesting as is the story of: his adventures, he is not, to mo in . tlip .least, a very convincing figure.:; Hells picturesque, romttiit.o if Vou will,-but-lie is not the real thing. -There may have.-been tralian bushiuen,: snearers, drovers, camj)-keepors, shepherds, and the' like, who bare talked as do .Miss Lancaster's characters,- but 1 very much doubt-it. On the. otner hand, 1 have nothing but admiration and praise . for the wealth. of.imagination to which the reader.owes such a plenteous feast of stirring incident. A specially excellent' feature of -the : story is tho. truth -- of what 1 may call its "nutture-colour.''-. Just to illustrate this, one 1 short extract;—

ft was very stil,! on the hill-top. The clear air and the sky of sheerest' 1 blue brought lire gum-trees, across the little valley, close and vividj with their - white, t wisted bra aches, and their hunt lied dull'-.leaves. Thread-

ing through them, in search of blosy .souls,'dipped and squabbled'-the- gray wattle-biros, witn tiicir Uiaish, noisy. Clatter making a regular undercurrent to the calls oi mag-pie and rosella, and the strong, glorious song of one unseen lark, flight, left, and before, rose rounded, bush-hills, with

leaf and stem.-distinct, and gleaming in the" fre’hne-vS off the ' .morning

fight. Below sat the little township,; with the whit© track- twisting out of if, and'the white smoke- twisting up to tho sky. (At -the distance 'haze lay like a transparent veil, making- ail of every-uuy life ■‘mysterious ' and boautiiui. .Sweet, well-known scents of gum blossom and wattle and musk anu of faint wood-smoke came to Dotty; ana peace breatued in the' soft breeze that murmured in tin glasses. . , ’

When! is' Miss Lancaster to give us some ‘■nature-colour’. - saetones of her own. IScw Zealand f

"East and Weal.” The well educated,.wealthy Arab, Who, in Cairo, or at AJgiers, is almost a European, but, who, once back in more natural surroundings, in a desert oasis, casts off what has been, a mere temporary veneer, and becomes once more purely Oriental, is becoming quite a familiar character in fiction. Sir Hiclh eus. first introduced hiim to ua .in his

“Barbary Sheep” and : “Bella Donna,” aud : ho has reappeared in . Miss Stevens's fine novel “Tho Veil,” and iff the Williamsons's Algerian story, .“Golden Silence.” In. Jliss Macnamara’s "Seed of Fire” (Edinburgh: Blackwood’s) he is still just as clever, as cunning, as sensual as his earlier prototypes, but at least... he. is not brutal. Indeed, one is inclined to pity, rather, than blame the handsome and manly Said Bey,'the Manor, of .'ah oasis, whither goes Paul Pascarel,; of the Egyptian .-u'ehaelogieal Department, iu the pursuit . of: Jiis official duties. Pascarel and his sister Diane- are' of AngloFrench (parentage, and the Gallic loyo of excitement and romance is stronglydeveloped iu the woman. Adored by ah elderly French professor. at Cairo

she finds his attentions . rather wearisome, and led away by an exotic atmosphere, comes under the spell of .the East—and les beaux yeux of the handsome Said. Haw, at tne oasis, sho plays with fire, and .then is gradually, ‘but surely disillusioned, is told in an exceptionally well written novel which is well wortn reading. The elderly Tresac, and Diane’s friend, Lalla Torrens, who is" emphatically’.'distrustful of the' Oriental character, aro specially Well drawn minor characters, and the amorous but unlucky-, Egyptian possesses a strain of natural :dignity which must gain the reader's full sympathy.

A Genuine “Hair Raiser.” From Messrs - Ward, Lock and Co.. (Wellington :' S. andW; Mackay) coma several ; novels,-, some new, others new editions of .old favourites. Mr "Ambrose' Pratt; 1 in . “The •Living) Mummy/*, gives- us a rich feast of sen-, sation. His- herb is an ardent Egypt©-, ; legist who loves the daughter of a sec-, ond,’and elderly enthusiast in- ancientj Egyptian .-lore. ‘ The plot turns upon, the ; exhumation of the 2000-year-old mummy of one Pthames, and th© al-, most - unnatural -villainy of a Frehchj hypnotist. The scene is laid first ini Egypt and then in London. Mr Pratt certainly possesses a most fertile and vivid imagination, end to say that therS. are many uncanny* happenings in ‘ his cleverly told story is to understate the, case. Those who like to sup on. the . sensational and revel in the gruesome will find a most satisfying menu laid’ out in th© pages of Mr Pratt's book. The shrinking of the mummy or body each time that the mysterious power which accompanies its possession is employed reminds me of Balzac's “Peau Chagrin/’ and an invisible man is no, novelty jto those who remember. Mr H. G. Wells's clover ‘novel.