BOOK NOTICES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11642, 27 January 1900, Page 2

BOOK NOTICES.

"The Enchanter." B.y U. L. Silberrad. London: Macmillau and, Co. Dunedin:

Braithwitite.

This is an interesting and unusual story, carefully and artistically planned, and well worth reading. The Enchanter is a real enchanter, a modern student of Black Magic, who, to quote his own words, " If the biggest blackguard unhung in Europe is also the greatest genius, mine is the best brain in Europe or in Asia; it is a fine brain, and I have used it well. I love power—it is all I haye ever loved ;—I am no human creature to love woman or child, but I love power and I have it." How he obtained and uses this power, by what unscrupulous means lie gains liis, knowledge, and how cruelly he exercises it, these things are indicated," rather than told, yet the portrait of Maledict Screed lives and breathes on the canvas. To fight and conquer this mediosyal survival we have a splendid typs of the modern man, a true "heir of the centuries," well developed on every side of his nature ; a great scientist, who yet retains the simple faith of a little child ; a strong man who kjiows tlie secrets of land and water; a mechanical genhis who can make money .and spend it; ,a naturalist who loves every .thing from a, beetle upwards and downwards, and ever remembers that he is " his brother's keeper"; .a post who hoars voices and sees sights inaudible and invisible to other men ; and yet a man endowed with a fund of practical common sense equal to any emergency. The character of Nicholas Pycroft is well conceived, and excellently Sustained. It is perhaps slightly idealised, but it is a fine ideal and worthy of admiration; strength and gentleness, knowledge and modesty, being admirably. blended. The heroine, Ira Chauncey, is a less original character, —she is modern, highly educated, and nearly as much interested in magic and old parchment as tjie Enchanter himself. She is an athlete, capable of sustained feats of mountaineering, that make the reader hold his breath; and withal "beautiful as .the gods" with "hair of.sunset gold." The setting is worthy of the characters, a stretch of eastern fen country where the sea and. the riVei fight for the possession, of the land, and finally tear down the Enchanter's tower between them. The description of this fight, of the wild forces of Nature let loose in " one of the worst storms that ever ■ occurred on the East Coast" is most powerfully told. Another excellent bit of word-painting is that of the mountain gorges, of the Himalayas, and the sunrise "when nil around there seemed a strange still radiance, the light without shade or source that precedes the sunrise. Everything was bathed in it, sleeping, in it; jpokihg in its tranquil holiness as if it had always been so, as if neither man nor time ivere known there. It.was as if there were a new heaven and a new earth, and they two were alone there. And the pale sky flushed . faintly rose, behind the solitary mountain, and the rose grew brighter and brighter, until it was touched with gold and crimson, with a thousand indescribable colours ; till every mountain peak was .alive with the splendour, till the dawn ripened into day. And the world was new created in all the freshness of childhood." Very fine, too, is the description of the homes of the hero and heroine. Hers, an ancient manor house once part of a monastery, solemn and still, full of memories of the past, of the "Monks who used to walk there" with bent heads, and hearts full of earthly passions; and.later of the men and women of her own family long since passed away, but not without "leaving behind some fragments of their personality, not terrible, awe-inspiring phantoms, but the poor, patient, frayed ends of humanity; like, yes, .jiike that faded water-colour of a smiling lady. The whole room was full of faded smiles." And later on Ira sees the saddest of these ghosts, the ghost of herself ps o child—"a little, pale-faced, redhaired girl, dancing by herself among the shadows." Nicholas's home, the farm of Ratsbarrow, is the very antithesis of Bishop's Lands, yet it too. is peopled with ghosts—" happy, silent ghosts that dwell in the sunshine of women who stirred the dust in the attics with their skirts when the sea-wind blew in at the windows: of cheery-faced men whose step could be heard in the west kitchen when, the big beams creaked and wheezed with wooden laughter: ghosts of past-folks' lives and past fonts' thought; ghosts of past apples and roses: ijpt haunting and saddening with their presence, but brightening and enriching the old home witn a wealth of happy memories." The minor scones and characters are also.well drawn, rind contain many a fine touch of humour, as, when Nicholas's father, anxious to get rid ■of his unwelcome housekeeper, "Cousin Debby," suggests that it is the duty of his 17-year-old son to sacrifice himself on the slirine of matrimony and thus bring in a legitimate mistress. The horrified boy declares, "Father, I can't.. I can't do it." To which the old man calmly replies that he supposes he must; "'but there's no call to be in a hurry. There's a busy time coming, and Deb has just got her hand in. I shan't bother about if till after hay and harvest." The. choosing of the lady, the discussion of her merits and demerits, afford a medium for many serio-comic scenes, and life-like sketches of country life and manners in the eastern counties. ' It's no good buying a pig in a poke," said the father. " I mean to be quite sure I've got the right woman before I think of putting her in Debby's place." So the Crisps and the Spavvins—^Patience, Rose, and Rebecca, etc., are passed in review and the choice made, which does not prove altogether a happy one. " The Enchanter "is a book well worth rending, and far above the average novel of the day.

"The Gold Star Line." By L. T. Moade and Robert Eustace. London: Ward, Lock, and Co. Diinedin: Braithwaite.

A collection of half a dozen spirited short stories told by " George Conway, purser of the Morning Star passenger steamer of the. GoldStar Line." Each tale is complete in itself, containing one welltold, incident, as a short story should, yet there is a, thread of continuous interest running from one to the other and serving as a string to a chaplet of beads, joining them into one harmonious whole. Mrs -Monde's skill as a novelist is well known, and she has found, an. excellent

collaborator in Mr Eustace. How it is done —whethei'i one finds the facts and the other the fiction, or whether the two artists will alternate '.chapters—we cannot of course tell; but .the result is entirely satisfactory. - Mr C'oiiway is an ideal purser, with the combined talents of an amateur detective and the heavy father in a melodrama! He has a natural instinct for mysteries, and can scent a crime as a dog scents a hare, yet nothing pleases him more than to help on a love affair, and 'say, " Bless' you, my children," at the end of the last act." We fancy that pursers do not generally have such liberty of independent action as that enjoyed by this gentleman, and we should not advise them to try to stop a passenger steamer in mid-channel by the. false crypf .-!' A man overboard " unless they wish to get into serious trouble. But that is a detail. The stories are interesting and well written, with, an air of truth that quite carries away the reader, and might well cause mm Jo' forget the length of a journey by road or rail.

" A Secret of the Sea, and other Colonial Stories." By Lux. London: Grant Richards. ChrisCchurch: Simpson and Williams. A very pleasant and readable collection of short stories by a colonial aijthqr, whose name is well known as a. prize-taker in many local competitions, fl'lie stories convey an excellent moral, and speak many /a kind word for the oppressed and downtrodden. "Nelly" is a touching sketch, and we can well believe that it is founded on fact, such facts being only too common. "Mrs Miggs" and ■"Too .Too" are bright little sketches. ." A Few Years Hence" carries the reader over an interval of 30 years, and shows our tradespeople taking a week's holiday whenever it pleases them, and shutting up all their shops. Smoking and prams are prohibited iii the streets (why not matinee hats and' over-crowded cars?);,: the "forward" (i.e., liberal) 1 party lias become too.forward and given place to the " staples." : but the possible^ millennium is a little spoiled by the univer-' saiity of reformed dress, lady M.H.R.'s, and men who do the housework and nurse the babies. Lux is perhaps a little too didactic: stories should can1} their own moral, inferred rather than expressed. We can. heartily commend this well-bound and well-got-up volume, which- would make an excellent prize or gift book.

"Some Experiences of an Irish R.M." By E. E. Somerville and Martin Ross. London; Longmans,. Green, and Co. Auckland: Upton and Co.

It is quite a treat to take up such a book as this, full to overflowing with Irish wit and humour, comic but not coarse, ridicuous but not too improbable. Most of tho incidents might easily have occurred in-real life, especially in Ireland, where, emphatically, it is always tlio unexpected that happens ; but it is the manner in which they are met; Hie standpoint from which they are regarded ; the unconscious humour of actors and onlookers, which) constitute their charm. This " Attic salt" of humour is, to the fortunate possessor, a better heritage than gold or lands ; it renders existence in a house with only " a

portion of the roof intact" not only possible, but enjoyable. The state of the walls may be such " that visitors could write their names on the green mould," but the tenant makes tjie best of it. Dogs may carry off " the master's dinner," leaving only scraps enough "to put through the mincer for his sandwiches." Stolen foxes may be found on his premises, but the genuine Irishman, sees the comic element, laughs, and no longer nurses his wrath. " These " Experiences" remind one of Charles Lover at his best. " The hunting, shooting, racing, yachting, smuggling, stories are all alike inimitable. Phillippa's hunting on foot and on cycle; Flurry Jvnox's love affairs and horse-dealing iniquities ; the R.M.s own most unprofessional doings, are one and all delicious. The style is also good, clear, racy, and incisive. We defy anyone to read these sketches . without enjoyment ; they would be better for the "digestion than many patent medicines.

"New Zealand Cookery Book, 1900." This admirable little book, is ..compiled by Mrs R. D. Harman, teacher of cooker}', Girls' High School, Christclnirch, and Mrs R. Gardner, School of Domestic Instruction, Christchurch. It consists of some five hundred recipes and a number of valuable general hints on the principles of stock-making and the cooking of moats, vegetables, and cakes, besides chapters devoted to invalid cookery, confectionery, and the bottling of fruits. The arrangement of the recipes is excellent, and enough in itself to commend the book to practical housekeepers. Add to this that the recipes themselves are economical, thoroughly up to date, and follow the best methods; and that the price of the book is Is 6d, and-we give good reason why this collection of recipes by experienced teachers of cooking should be jn the hands of New Zealand housewives.