BOOK NOTICES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14381, 26 November 1908, Page 8

BOOK NOTICES

"The Blotting-book." By R. P. Benson. London: W. Heinemann. (Cloth. 2s 6d.) It is impossible for Mr E. F. Benson to write anything which does not carry with it his peculiar distinction of style and mastery over tlie subtleties of language; and, though "The Blotting-book" is ;\ story of not more than half, the usual length, it does not suffer from that brevity, the interest being concentrated in one direction and all side issues carefully . eliminated. The title suggests the central motif of the talc, which is the discovery of a crime by means of the cvidonco furnished by the tell-tale sheet of a new blotting-book, not available until after the crime had been committed. It is a simple and not original expedient, but the author rarely seeks anything specially striking in his plots, contenting himself with depicting the play of circumstance on character and character on circumstances. He is not primarily a detective: he is a psychologist. In the present volume our interest % centred on the carefully-elabor-ated character of a hypocrite who is not, all a hypocrite; a liar who would fain have been truthful; a fraudtilent trustee who ivished to be honest; a man capable of appreciating all the virtue's in others, and even desiring them for himself; a man who took pleasure in helping and encouraging young people, and was always anxious " to give them another chance "; and yet a man who committed a deliberate murder, and 'then plotted and schemed with devilish cunning to,lay the blame of his crime on a perfectly innocent man—one to whom ho had stood in loco parentis, and whom he really lovedr And so great i 6 Mr Benson's skill; that this fraudulent trustee, this cruel murderer, this false friend does not excite the horror and indignation of the reader, but rather moves him to a terrible sympathy. A touch of 'true / brotherhood, a-realisation of the Dime "neither do I contemn thee.", The temptation is so. .natural, the downward steps so apparently inevitable, that he is struck with a kind of remorseful terror as of one who should say: • "R, is Fate; who may escape?'. And it is only on a deeper study that; the result of habit, forming, deepening, strengthening the, grove of conduct, becomes evident as the underlying object of a powerful story. The minor charactcrs T for, in truth, it is,the middle-aged criminal on whom' the interest centres—are sketched with all Mr Benson's humorous, kindly analysis. The delightful, slightly old-fashioned Mrs Assheton and her per-fectly-appointed house, in which nothing is ever out of order, no observance is ever missed,! and the mistress and servants alike sacrifice, "so to speak, on the:altar of their own, 6e)f-respeet," is an attractive picture in every detail, and may one day be valuable as a realistic presentment of a state of leisured, refined ease -free from ostentation, which is already dubbed "old* i fashioned," and is rapidly passing away. The passionate, excitable Maurice AGsheton is a splendid example of unsuspecting, generous, hot-blooded youth, capable of slaying a man in the heat of> passion, but utterly incapable of hiding the crime,-whose carelessness arouses suspicion and whose innocence often appears like guilt. In-the' trial (which is mercifully condensed) we have a good example of Mr Benson's scathing criticism of the: manners and customs of .his contemporaries: those "men and women,-most of whom would have 6hud:dered to see a dog beaten or a tired horse made, to: go an-extra-mile, who settledthemselvos in their, places with a rustle of .satisfaction at, the thought of seeing a> man brought before them in the shame of suspected murdier, and promised themselves an interesting and thrilling couple of .days in, observing the gallows'.march,nearer to him, land in watching his mental, agony. . i , They who would,.and. perhaps did, subscribe to benevolent nstitutions fqr the relief i of suffering. among the animals would willingly have paid a-higher rate'to .observe the suffering of a man. He was so interesting! He was'so young and. good-looking!'- N What a depraved monster he must have been! And that little package in .tissue paper which the judge brought in and laid on the bench; the black cap, was it not? That showed:what the judge thought about it all!. How. thrilling!" And later on; "The court had- become terribly hot, but the public ■were too humane to mind that.., . ■ i . A • criminal ( was .being chased towards.'the gallows, and they followed his, progress there-;, with breathless interest v'. : •';' they .were finding themselves quite beautifully thrilled. , , , The noose tightened." "The Magnate." By Robert Elson. , ; London: W. Heinemann. (Cloth, 65.) If imitation be the sincerest flattery, as we have been so often told, then. Mr William de Morgan must surely plume himself on _ having. ■> achieved that - desire of all artists—the founding of a school. The influence of. tlie master breathes from every page of the presumably young neophyte i author of "The Magnate"; -but-whereas I in Mr de Morgan the discursive-style, tlie' curious' intentional lapses' from- the first' person to'the third, and from'the third back to the first, the intimate little co-; incidences with the reader, are all natural! and spontaneous, and apparently unstudied, i With. Mr Elson conscious effort is everywhere apparent. Mr de' Morgan's stories now like deep, placid streams through wide campaigns; Mr Elson's is like an artificial fountain. The one is luminous,the other; sparkles. Yet after all, this is' only saying that the disciple is not greater than lug master, Mr de Morgan is already a more than middle-aged man, drawing from vast stores of experience'. A younger man must depend more on sympathy and intuition; for there is a proverb which eays, " Seeing sorrow is not like supping sorrow,. Experience is the great teacher, though ,t is not given to all men to translate her lessons, into, the vulgar tongue.'' Mr Elson s heroine is a somewhat annoyine young.percon When first introduced to the reader she is acting as ladyhelp to a plebeian iamily on, their annual: holiday to, Hfracombe,- where she meets "the mag-' mate on the sands, and is rescued by him' from the -rising tide in the romantic fashion Wth which we are aU ' so well acquainted; Of course, "the mag-' nate .does not wear diamonds in his teeth, or otherwise advertise ,hispossessions and. Janet accepts him on his te value, dubbing him, in h er own mind, the commonplace man." Janet is described as a.superlatively beautiful young pawn,-.. 'There are many women, socalled beauties, whose claim to'the title is open to but no one can doubt ton"; and then follows a categorical",-' ventory of the lady's charms, af er ro r of which Ih de_ Morgan would never have been g.ulty,-since ho knows-„on e better-' that beauty.«.» the eye of the beholder. SL t f' °/ llor mmiix[ S with John 52 t ™ f beaut 7 has-only been a ti & ( ai i d in^ d of i- had. brought her endless annovance and shame. And incident after incident enher attraction, drove her. shrinking soul n upon itself, Most of all, she relented the universal implication that beauty was an asset to be converted into the things' desired of those who lack material wealth ß " to- these sentences we have the key to the anal and undeveloped; the sex instinct ft she bates hatred the beauty which arouses it, 'Her Me is sordid and revolting, vet when Holden offers her a way § escape she hesitates, and finally eonseilta to marry him on a purely platonic basis, ihey are to live as "brother and sister." this point the story becomes more vital. John surrounds his bride with the evidences of his wealth, and she accepts, without a. murmur.-.. Like Cinderella, she becomes at once the centre of all imaginable splendour, and she accepts it-as to the manner born, acknowledging no debt to the fairy godmother. Her beauty justifies Ins choice in the eyes of men and even women.., Her heartless folly and extravagance show him the danger of his expert- ; nient. She plays with fire. She Haunts her husband's wealth. She defies the women. She flirts with the men, avenging herself for tlie wrongs received from both sexes. And John stands by wailing the success or failure of lu's great experiment. She may drag his name through the mud, and h». is apparently indifferent; it is only when her own is jeopardised by her inconceivable folly that he uses hie l»rspnnl prestige and his enormous wealth

to rescue her from the consequences of her mad escapade. /John Holden himself i 8 "a fine character, far superior, to, his wife, who i« indeed—but ,for her beauty—extremely ordinary. He 'is -one of those embodied* forces which occasionally rise to the Burface in all ages, sUcnt, unaggressive, not to be denied. Found to-day m the industrial world, where they apply the same indomitable foipe, which in previous agea conquered and subdued neighbouring and hostile races, to'the conquest of poverty and) the acquisition of material wealth. They resemble " a vast machine under the guidance of a master intelligence, organising and directing an infinitude of human activities." Alexander sighed in vain for new worlds to' conquer :• the king of finance finds no limit, to, the realms that he can conquer. But John Holden .ia •human, and.has his weak point. The. reader delights in this weak point, and it is ' the true charm of the story. All the qualities that won his money go to win ' John's w if e an d to the''greatest of all Jus., speculations, showing that the money is a , mere accessory to the personality. Without it" John Holden would have been John Holden fitill-enereetic, courageous, resourceful, keen. . . He hand co* Ivast businesses and controlled, multitudes of men, not. because he was ?, milhonaire, but because he could do itbetter than anybody else. The man was the magioian, not ,his'money." I n the same way hesees in the unformed girl, with.-the sleeping soul, and with infinite fotutace he bide!. l 2 tXw and secures his prize. All this is worth tel mg and worth telling in some detail, but Mr Llson might have condensed hia book and gained in power by so doingand we do.especially hope that in future he will curb his passion for catalogues whether they relate' to a lady's personal s charms or to her wardrobe. The descripiron of Janet's'trousseau'reads like t!nv advertisement of a modern modiste. Mr Ebon's collaborator in these matters is probably the ";kdy correspondent" of a fashionable,, journal. In future wo should advise him to go "on his, own.'! His own is vory good. . .^...■ '■ ' ■ ■ . "A Record 'Mystery." "By Rue Sage.;; Published for the. author by J. W. Kettlewell,. Sydney. (Paper, 11 full- ; page illustrations; 3a 6d, 2s'6d.) The scene of /'this ! story is laid' in* Victoria,, and the author claims' for. it,that it b a "detective.story founded oh-foct," the fact having occurred in the early sixties, and proved a enigma to the crmwrexploitere ! j.of the local; Scotland Yard... He furtlier informs us in a selflaudatory preface, (evidently intended to aid the htey or incompetent reviewer, that the narrative is replete with startlinj?. '' dramatic situations, .both pathetic and ' humorous, whilst .(realistic, contingencies "' follow in rapid .succession, . , ? The wiique-like characters .are made to Vetrav. themselves through the medium.« colloqtual dialogue," etc. the above gives a fair example of the author's style., Its ,' curious redundancy, aadi misuse of words lare apparent throughout tlie .whole volume, so that the reader is.' often: in .doubt, whetherthe book has been.badlyedited or carelessly put; through the press.' Errors ' of the author or of the.printer are only too frequent.'Thus on page 246 we read of a, similar such plan to the one carried out/,', and on ; the same page "ostracising \ himself from those whom,- to all seeming, had helped to steer his barque." ' These faults, however, are those of a', beginner, and a little more care and study 'will show Rue' Sage" how to avoid them. The '. story-ittel! ! fc weiH.nameqj. and:is truly - sensational.. The chief, character'in the'' unravelling, of the " mystery" is a : young detective,; whose real .name was G T Browne • who.was at time Irving in, the Victorian Constabulary, afterwardsT,be- . came inspector and chief of the>Detective Department,. Wellington ,(New Zealand), '■: and recently .died after an eventful career ' of over 40 years. His clever methods and ' lightning changes amuse the-reader, and' carry lum pleasantly along. ,Nor is the story without sentiment and' occasional touches of" humour; : . : The volume is neatly got ; up,''well' printed on good paper, and adorned with II lull-page illustrations by D. H.Sou'ter. and other \well-knownl Sydney artists. ' Rue Sage" has also considerable skill with the pencil as well!as,the' pen, as is ' k%l tK' c W Httle carder" Avis 1 in »ej' Y —which accompanies, and- advertises the novel; "The'Record;Mystery" from, its realistic and' colonial : \settinK should appeal to all Australians;'."and wo' doubt not, notwithstanding .its,'.crudities and, defects, that'it Will' meet with a considerable measure of appreciation and success. ' • ■ ~ ' '.'.:■'.. l;' „ 'Mr-- Heinemiron has-, sentins three .of >' his little books of the " Favourite Classics ■"-,series—".The Lady of the Lake;-', Milton's Shorter Poems, and ",' "'Evan- ' ; getuie ; " Each ontains- an introduction/ ' which, adds to the interest and'value of these little pocket volumes, and thelatest.-', additions to the.'-list should;,prove aawel- :' come as their predecessors. •:';.. -."