BOOKS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10363, 18 May 1895, Page 2

BOOKS.

'The Parasite; a Novel. By Conan Doyle, vSVsstminst'er: - Constable and' Co. ■'■ Can- - edin: Wise and Co. . *' :> ■

This is a.Jshort book to : be called a

vNpvel,'' for it.may be^ read in; a couple of. hours; but it is, good-reading .from first to last. It is the'diarj of one Gilroy, Professor of ?hyßioiogy,.age 34. .He is a ; gceptic as to the marvels of mesmerism: meets k certain ■Miss Penelosa, axrippie; age .about 40, said to., possess mesmeric power. Further, the .professor! loves, and js going presently to. 'marry; k good and'beautiful; young girl named Agatha Marderi." Professor Gilroy; is; much interested in ihesmerisnii, .for purely, iscientific,reasprig, and submits.ijithielf by.way-of-.experirhent to the. inlluenceiofc; Miss! Penelosa.' -v-The/'womap, conceive'S'a^passion for.hini.andto his'horrorj ;w"orka..rip.otfJhiitt^or,hlar'Swn:end/a. TBenfolC loV?Vdajs:]^E vaitf stfciggle'dnijbisiip^t iiaiinst^ the' womapla p.owefcdaya^ :of .horror, the hi?- ? tpry of ;wbich>:he'. dfily-records; -;- He' -loathe;?! her,- and^retf sKe constrains ,him?t6 go to; rfe^, •andeven tcT'taiaKe love to.her.'' Granting thle* existence- of ;a" niesmeric power, the situaition isremiriently conceivable.. He succeeds, however, in fonipg: her schemes of love, and ;then.sbi? tries what:slie,can!do;by way of. hate<j': She rnakes-him-'play'sucti.ianticsbe-fore his clas^that;he idses' his ■professorship. He (is at'Uast.tmade tb'e : instrument of p,.. 1: against:tKe- laSy ■he-ik "eti-l gaged to marry.- Ultimately, hbwever, heis. saved by the..death of the woman.' Tne whole coriception/pf 'ine'''story' is striking, an.di:the .works it but with .great literary skill.'. 2%e -Parasite iavrell worth rsading. Mention: -Bhould • alao be ■ made of the dainty form of; the book:: it' belongs to I.the very pretty "Acme?1 series.

■ Joanna -Traill, .'Spinster/ '■" By> 'Annie'E; ';: •/; HotoswoßTH.^ London: William; Heiae- ]' Jnjaiin.... -.:;'•.:.-■/.'...• ■^■■'^v'-^-'-- ~'.-i'7--■''■„'; '

~; ;.When we were within;a : few pages 6£. the end of ■ this bookiwe;were ready with'the verdict—"an entirely beautiful story." Bui one must not holla till one quifcs^ the wood; and we mighFvhave' reinemberea that few authors nowadays/and: ho authoress, cam '■'~ write a tale without, committing a murder?:' so chat^after.ail; we .closed the.book, hot in ! tears;- but1' Iwftn H"gnasHiing fof !teetbi': Joanna,! TrailL, ris.rf so/ good a v.woman as -. ,tp, b'eji almost-igreat : vthough we.venture to^ thinkf that no, womari. so ...cartilaginousv as ;sh;e -wa'sat tbe: mSfure.age.pf3s:couldhave developed, into the noble woman she became at. the age ■t>f- 40',; when-.that remorseless Fat'ey Annie Bi Holds'worth, with herabhorred shears chose to " slit. Dhe thin-spun life." ' Thgre can be little/doubt about Annie Holdsworth's talent for tejling- a? story.':: She does not ambitiously; and therefore foolishly, overcrowd her canvas. she wishes to show is how a rarely beautiful, though not particularly strong,: nature; 'by fbrae, of . sheer love - and Christian.; goodness rescues a "young soul from a life of infamy. Joanna iTraiU;-,entirely succeeds in her noble and difficult task, • But the chances, were against the succeßS'oiE the:experim«rit; and if the authoress; as we believe she does, means us to infer that what was done by Miss. Traill could be done with m-ost Magdalens— if only ithere; was; inbre^^ Christian charitjy in the wbrid—wo'.'believe; her" tii). "be ."mistaken.' .Therefore; we think that Annie Hoidswbrth; •violates the principles of.;-ier art when'she inairectlyi' gifds^- at'i'sticie'ty -for- the ;hard measure.it deals to; certain ;62enders, '■',: ; If society is harshlin-this iodatter it is not Altogether because it lacksicharity,;but. because it has been1, able;, tp find no other means of protecting itself, i ißeautiful as this story is< Joanna Traill's plan, with its system of concealments, .is. questionable even in point of morality, and .^ou'lid be practicable only in exceptional cases like that of Christine Dow. Though noble work may. be done by. the Joanna Trailis'of -the; world, it cannot be said that the Joanna Traill method reaches the: heart of the matter;.'

ilphodes.-; By; G. S. Stseet.' London: William Heinemann. Dunedin: Wise and

These sketches are interesting hot so much on account of ..their undeniable cleverness as for the frankness with which they express the prevailing sentiment, or want of sentiment,.of their time. You can hardly take up a, , book nowadays dealing -with modern society that, you do riotN find the same-philosophy of life, if not accepted, then sedulously rejected. Joanna Traill has it on every page, though it appears only , faintly between the Hues. To future students of literature this philosophy of life vrill bs tho characteristic note of the closing decade of this century. It is pessimism ■and. its., father-, is : .Schopenhauer, though ifc'.is of ancient ■ lineage, going back 'through the Utilitarians to Heraclitus; •if not' to SoioniiDn. fßut..the peculiarity.bf Mr Street is thai; he isa laughing pessimist.' Believing things to be very bad, he yet accepts: them as they ate with the "serenity of a philosopher. Be as virtuous as.you choose, he gives you little credit for it,; be as vicious, and he does not seem to blame you. Kismet I You must live your nature, whatever it is; and if you are an earwig, why should I be moved that you are not an elephant. Mr Street finds the world a vain, mean, and shallow .place:; but-it amuses him, and he does not rail at it or propose or hope to make it better. The episodes are taken'mostly f rom ' the lives of the English middle class unemployed, who have,little to think of bnt amusement; and most of' the episodes deal with the relations of the sexes.: They are written in excellent style—simply, neatly, and forcibly,— without any great straining after smartness. The sketches often remind us of the style of essay fashionable a couple of centuries ago, when Addison and Steale in the Spectatoi satirised the society people of their time But of course Mr Street, though he does the same thing, is in manner most modem ol the moderns. This, for instance, is how h« sketches one of his people: " From tbe tiim that he was 20 till now that he was 35 he hat never done aay thing that hedid not likedoing, When a book failed to interest him he put v down; when an acquaintance bored him hi Slopped it. He remained nowhere if he fel inclined to go anyr/hore else, and outrage; no convention if it soiled him to conform ti it. He had several intellectual interest which he had never studiad thoroughly, am several artistic intGrests which he gratilisi casually. He had financed an actress am manageress who 'only talked to him abou

her servants, and he had refused to elope with a really clever and beautiful woman of whom he was really fond. It was a question of mood, he said. He was well,born and rich, and his relations had refused .to quarrel with him. A man not without affections, he was used to men in his set dying; not without pasaiocs, it was some y^ars since passion had givan him. pain. He was not in the least brutal in lais attitude towards women: when they interested him intellectually he listened to thorn; when physically, he made love to them; when they did both, he did both. The curse, of his life and his temper, he used to say, was reasonableness."

William Laud. 'By William Holden Button, B.D. London: Methven and

Co. Danedih: Wise and Co.

■This is- one of a series of 'such Mono1-'' graphs, edited by H. C. Beeching, M.A., undef the title of " Ladders of! Religion?' We Should have thought that a biography of Laud would have made lively reading, considering the stirring time's in which he lived, and. the. large part he played in them. We cannot help thinking, however, that Mr Hutton has made his book as dull as was possible with his subject. He contrives somehow to dwarf his subject—though he does not lack zeal in defending Laud ; indeed there is a little too much of defence. According to; this biographer Laud's chief service to the Church of England was to vindicate its claim to an unbroken historic continuity—" Laud never consciously departed from the standards of the English,: or of th,e. tJniversal, Church. In-'this lay ~the value of the service which he rendered to England. ' At a time, when political difficulties and religious enthusiasms were tending more than ever to accentuate the differences between the great body of the Latin Church and the foreign reformed sects, Laud's determination and force asserted, with a clearness which it was impossible tb mistake, the claim of the English Church to be part of the continuous historic fold, joined still, in spits of division, by the origcatholic, faith. How. far the claim-was justified may! be a point for theologians-to dispute upon; it is impossible to deny that it was made and repeated by Lartd with! a power' that impressed it on succeeding generations."