A LITERARY CORNER

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 11783, 20 March 1924, Page 4

A LITERARY CORNER

(R.A.L.) “MY ODYSSEY.” Jack MacLaren. (Angus and Robertson, Sydney, etc.) If anybody is anxious to take to trading in island places, and especially New Guinea, let him read this entertaining, graphio book. He will learn what a multitude of perils await him by sea and land. He will he at close quarters with savage natives, very helpful at times and at times liable to sudden murder for no apparent reason whatever. He will understand the unreliability of the glibbest reports, he will realise the difficulties and hardships of travel in wilds inhabited by inconvenient and unreasonable tribes. He will appreciate the splendid seamanship of the kanakas. He will enjoy the book as a reliable book of travel, and he wifi most likely obey its injunction of: “Don’t.” “TWO STRONG MEN.’* Sydney Grier. (Blackwood and Sous, London.) A typioal Indian story in Mr Grier’s very best manner. It shows the intricacies of the relations between the highest officials, and the various manners and customs of Indian society. It shows the strength of the mixed marriage problem. Above all the book may be regarded as an aspiration for the unity of the Indian peoples under the British Raj; the natives enjoyinig a certain measure of autonomy, with satisfaction in the full realisation of their best ideals. There is moreover a fine love story carried on in the face of the universal leaning towards promotion, which is often the governing motive of official Anglo-Indian ambition. The brightness of the writing will be a great help to the popularity and underOTanding of the story. “APRON STRINGS.’-’ “THE. HEART OF A MATD.’t Richard Marsh. (John Long, London.) These are two reprints in cheap form, and therefore very welcome, of two stories of this popular author’s very best, “WIDE SEAS AND MANY LANDS.’* A. Mason. (Whitoombe and Tombs, for Jonathan Cope, London.) A man who has bad a life of uncommon adventure, and possesses the gift of narrative does well to write his reminiscences. Mr Mason has these qualifications. His book is therefore eminently readable Readers may be tempted to think there is something of the unreality of the notorious De Rougemont, but they will doubtless remember that even the notorious. Rougemont has been vindicated by subsequent discoveries. In fact, he will remember what Charles Reads discovered by diligent reading of newspapers and traded successfully on, viz., that truth is stranger a good deal than fiction. Experiences of Hie sea before the mast, gold digging in wild parts of Nevada, terming in California, and similar things make up the stock-in-trade as it were. And the reminisoenoes introduce us to curious human typos with still more curious stories, these said types being put before us with great graphic power, “ON THE TRACK.” Henry Lawson. (Angus and Robertson, Sydney.) A reprint in cheap form of a characteristic story. “SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION.” “THE CRUISE OF THE CACHALOT.” “ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES.” —John Murray, Loudon. These are the first three volumes of "The Modern English Series,” a most promising publication creditable to the enterprise of this well-known publisher. The first is a selection, from Scott’s diaries, introduced by a noble quotation telling what the author proposed to do for nia great story, and regretting that the fragments as he put them down from day to day of hardship and suffering will have to tell the story for him after the discovery of his remains and those of his unfortunate brave comrades. The other two are just reprints of famous stories to which this publication gives an extension of popular life. “FILM STRUCK.” Adolphus Raymond. (Stanley Paul, London.) A startling story this of many vicissitudes. difficulties, and dangers besetting the path of the ambitious aspirant after the honours and fame of film ambition. Their warning effect ought not to be lost on the world of enthusiasts—for the most part giddy flappers ■—who look at the world through the spectacles of ignorance and credulity. “MIDDLE MISTS.” Aisliie Farrall. (Fisher Unwin, London.) The evil that may come of a thwarted love affair, followed by a marriage contracted in the confused stupidity of pique, under pressure of unthinking, well-meaning parents, is the theme of many novelists. Of course there follows the inevitable triangle, when the sundered lovers meet, and it is discovered ■ that neither was to blame for the ending of the original affair. This triangle is handled here with great judgment and sympathy, and a success which the most fastidious of tho friends of the conventions must admire greatly. “THE WRONG SHADOW.” Harold Brighouse. (Australian Publishing Co., Sydney, for Chapman and Dodd, London.) Mr Basset has, like everyone else, his own shadow. At a oritical moment in the life of a charming young lady another shadow gets itself mistaken for his, and there is a diverting story. It is oomio, tragic, eventful, and i® ed out in post-war London and in Florence, with the aid of a crowd of real figures who between them straighten out the mystery of the wrong shadow in a manner that gives the reader that touch of novelty .which is so much desired by the blase readers of the fiction of tha day. “BIG STRONG MAN.” Charman Edwards. (Robertson, Mullen, Melbourne.) Weakness helped by strength makes much of this story. There is a fine description of Cornish life, and there are some very well drawn characters. Also incidents of great interest. But the story lias one fault. It sacrifices virtue to vicious irresolution. Its moral it that good people must die that vicious ones may be .rewarded. ,We see no reason, as Talleyrand once

said to an office seeker who urged that he must live. The book is a tower of iniquity, cruel in the firmest intention —typically much “modernism.” “TRIUMPH.” May Edwards. (Chapman and Dodd, London and Sydney.) The moral of this story is much better. The hero is indebted to the heroine’s advice and example for hie successful rise to greatness from poverty into which he had been hurled through no fault of hie own. Never having been taught to fend f°r himself, having just joyed along like the young of the idle rich, he meets the heroine and is made a man. The heroine has a very difficult row to hoe on her side, and hoes it uncommonly well It does one good to read of such heroic high principled striving. The characters are very vigorously and truly drawn, and the incidents are very varied and interesting. And what is more, the satisfaction of the reader is most legitimate. “KAKEEN.” Jean Mason Smith- (George ADsrip and Unwin, London.) The interest of this story is derived from tho Arab tribes of the Soudan admirably done throughout. An oasis off the beaten track, unvnsited for c»ntutrios, a/nd feared for supernatural reasons by the Arabs; a beautiful girl living with an old man she regards as her father; an English gentleman in search of a brother, who han buried himself in these wilds for reasons of his own—there the story begins. It proefeeds through the departure for the civilised world of the F.-nglishTng.n and the young desert girl. _ The girl is kidnapped by an Arab chief, recovered by the Englishman, who is captured by the Arabs, after he Ims transferred the girl to a strong caravan, and is rescued by his lost ' brother, holding the position of an Arab chief, and set free. The brother is killed by his tribal followers, and the lovers reach safety, where it is discovered that the desert girl is English, and was lost in the desert at any early age. And all is well at the end of this yerv well written tale.