FRESH FICTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14686, 20 November 1909, Page 13

FRESH FICTION

A new novel by " Elizabeth," who wrote the " German Garden," is always welcome, and Messrs Smith, Elder are just issuing one from her pen, "The Oaravaners."'

The new book by the author of "The Lady of the Decoration," Frances Little, has just been published by the Century Company. It is called " Little Sistd of the Snow," and, like its popular predecessor, is a story of Japan.\

A new book by Mr Arnold Bennett, author of " The Old Wives' Tale," entitled "The Glimpse, * "an adventure of the soul," k due with Messrs Chapman and Hall.

One of the events of the year in fiction publishing will be the issue of a. translation ot Sudcrmann's " The Song of Songs " (Has Hohe Lied), a book which has proved a sensational success in Germany, and of which 50,000 copies have been sold.

Miss Maude Goldring's new novel, ''The Tenants of I'ixy Farm," will bo published by Mr Murray early in the t.sason. It is not, as its name may suggest, a fairy talc, but a modern story of life in Mid-SiKscx.

Messrs Hurst and Ulaekett, Ltd., will i.-stie immediately a new novel entitled

" The God of Love," by Mr Justin Hutilly .M'Cavthy. In this romance the author deals with one of the most famous of all the world's love stories, the love of the young Dante for Beatrice l'ortinari.

Tho plot which Mr Thomas M'Kann has chosen for "The Punishment" (Long) is alter classical models, and some readers may think it, too starkly tragic for employment in a novel of liiodan life. The .scene of the story is mainly New York,' and Hie " punishment" is' Hint which lights ( upon a, man for the sins of his vouth.

Xew books by 0. Henry, Maurice.Hew!ett, and Amelic Rives are among the new announcements by Harper and ihothcis. The Hewlett book is a short novel. The 0. Henry contribution'is a volume of short stories. The title of (lie book by Amelie Rives (Princess Troubetzkoy) k- "Trix and Over the Moon," the story of a Virginia horsewoman, which will be published immediately.

A vciy intersting type of the analytical' nov.jl is prevented in "The Glory o'f the Conquered," by Susan Glasfell (Pitman). Tho hcorine is an American girl married to a man science, and the theme is that of tho form taken by her devotion to hiim under peculiar conditions. Here i3.li stone, vein of idealism in the book which will commend it ae a piece- of fiction written under a genuinely axleslic impulse,

Jr.ck London's new novel, "Martin

Eden," lias just been published by the Macmillan Company. The scene of the story is laid almost entirely in Sail Fraucisco, and tteo is much in its development, llio portrayal of its hero, a sailor by training, the pictures of social conditions, etc., to givo rise to the notion that it is somewhilt autobiographic in char-

A new novel by Robert E. Knowlcs, called " The Attic Guest," has been published by Fleming H. Kovell Company. The story purports to be written by a' Southern lad} - , and the opening scenes arc laid in one of our-Southern Atlantio Coast towns. Another novel just published is by W. J. Dawson, author of "A Prophet in Babylon," etc., entitled " Masterman and Son." The motive of this story is derived from the relation of father and son—the opposition fermented between a son of high ideals and a father of questionable principles. London, New York, and British Columbia furnish the scenes for the story. The vogue of the old-fashioned novel, says tho Chicago Dial, shows signs of revival. After an over-abundance of quick-lunch fiction, and the mental dvspepsia eucli hastily-gobbled fare is apt to produce, /the 'leisurely many-course dinner—the orderly romance divided and subdivided into parts and books and chap, ters, and proceeding from proem to climax and from climax to conclusion, with eomttiiing of the unhasting slowness of life itself —is a welcome relief and a restful change. Not yet havo -we in this country or England reverted to the novel issued m monthly or quarterly parts, after the manner of Dickens's' and Thackeray's longer stories; but in Prance one of tho literary successes of tho pnst few years has been JI. Rom am Rolland's -Jean Chnstophc," now in its seventh volumo and in the. third year of its instalment, publication, with no sign of satiety on its readers' part. Long novels axe not lackiiir m current English and' American fiction, such as Mr De Morgan's deliber-ately-moving tales and some of Mrs Humphry Ward's and Mr Churchill's books; but our publishers arc wary about issuing them in any but tho single-volume-' form.

>Mr H. G. Welk's now novel, "Ann Veronica." is reviowed in the London papers to hand this week; and advance copies of the book should reach Dunedin next week. The Pall Mall Gazette, after outlining the story, remarks :— "Mr Wells tells it all with a power, a sincerity, and a wide knowledge of life and of human motive and instinct, which the reader will discover for himself or herself; and yet, judged by its tendency, the book strikes us as dangerous and grossly misleading. It will be greatly discussed, and wo' havo no intention of anticipating tho arguments which will be raised for and against it; but we are rather axious to warn any would-be Ann Veronicas who may read it that, as a rule, such paths as that which Miss Stanley elected to tread end in something very different from the beatitude and prosperity of Professor and "Mrs" Capes; that home may sometimes be dull, but that, after all, there is something in its safety and its social fortifications; that a. girl who decides to be loving and i loyal as a daughter is quite as likely to "fulfil her mission" as one -who laughs such love and loyalty to scorn; and that "independence" is by no means invariably a synonym for happiness. With which, no doubt, hopelessly old-fashioned but, we fancy, not yet altogether discredited reflections, we take leave of a book which contains many dangerous but no dull ones, and is one of the most plausible and superficially attractive incitements to social anarchy we have so far had the somewhat mixed pleasure of encountering."

-The ioilet-watcr industry in Cologno was established in tho beginning of tho seventeenth csntury. At that time tho city numbered about. 50,000 inhabitants, whilo tho present population is 450,000. Tho invontors of toilot-water-eau-de-Colognc-woro Paul Feminis and .Maria Clementine, a Catholic nun. They began on a small sca«>, employing a few persons, whom they did not initiate into the secrete of the whole process, tho last and most important mixtureo being made by tho inventors themselves Paul Feminis loft tho secret with tho l'arma family, whilo the nun bequeathed the secret to one Peter Schalsn who had been her assistant for many years' Both families still carry on the business] and are tho leading manufacturers. There' are about 30 manufacturers of eau-dc Cologne in the city, five of them being of iniportancj.