FRESH FICTION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15553, 7 September 1912, Page 14

FRESH FICTION.

Tho John Lane Company will publish a novel by William J. Locke entitled "The Joyous Adventures of Anstido Pujol," In Joyous Adventures there is said to be much of llio enthusiasm, the humour, and tho bolicmianism that endeared the author's " The Beloved Vagabond " to the reading public. On their new fiction list the Cassells hnvo a novel by Warwick Deeping, " Tho House of Spies"." The scene of the story is laid in England at the.lime of llu> Napoleonic wars, when considerable apprehension was felt among the country people along the coast ot the prospect of a French invasion.

A volume of short stories promised for early publication will be entitled "Tho Moon Endureth : Tales and Fancies," by John Bnclian. These stories aro said to deal "with the mysteries mid ironies of life rather, than with its prosaic facts." A number of them have appeajed in tho Atlantic Monthly and Blackwood's Magazine.

In "The Bed Hand of Ulster" the Rev. W. A. Hannay, who is known as G. A. Birmingham, has written n political novel on tho Home Hide question. What will Ulster do when the bill is passed is .-i riddle to which Mr Birmingham, with his usual humour, gives an answer. The book will bo published by Messrs Smith Elder.

On the list of forthcoming fiction is a volume of short stories hy Marguerite Audoux, author of " Mario Claire. 1 ' It is c-allcd " Vakerinc mid Other Stories," and deals with various types of feminine, French life, from (lie smuggler's daughter, who gives the title to the book, to the old peasant woman brought to Paris against her will'under stress of poverty. The book has been translated by John N. Raphael. A novel called "The Cost of It," by Klcnor Mordaunt, author of "Tho Ship of Solace," etc., is also promised. The hero of the novel is the son of an English baronet, who discovers that his mother, whom his father has deserted, is of mixed while and black blood. The scciio of the story is hid on this mother's sugar plantation' in a far-Eastern British island possession, where tho population is made up of half-caste'mixtures of English and French, natives and negroes.

11. G. Wells's new novel wilt appear in London simultaneously with its appearanco in America. Tho title of tho story is " Marriage," and in it Mr Wells continues his contribution to tho philosophy of a happy marriage that he partially " touched on in.the "New Machiavelli." The heroine is of n different typo from most of this author's women, and round her desire to spend money, and .tho way in which sho finally ruins her husband, the story is wound. In " Mightier than the Sword "—a novel published by Mr T. Fisher Unwin —Mr Alphonse Comiandcr gives an amazingly vivid picture of a- journalist's life. The story opens in a country town and closes in France, but its main subject is Fleet street, the Fleet street of the newest journalism. Tho outstanding quality of the book is its first-hand genuineness; every page is derived from personal experience. In no other novel, probably, has so convincing a picture of modern journalism been presented; the reader is mnclo to see tho inside of n great newspaper office, to share in tho sensations of the reporter or the special correspondent as he speeds on his quest of news, and to '."I the intenso fascination of the throbbing life of Fleet street. There is love-

making in the book, ami conflict* of love and ambition aro skiltuly drawn, buttho real mistress of tho h«ro is the street itself, a relentless tyrant to all her lovers, to some u crushing- monster, Among the new books .of fiction U a novel by Edith Wharton called " The Ifccf." The l-lrcine hinges upon the fact that " there always comes a period in married life when the matrimonial ship is in danger of being driven upon a reef, and it describes in psychological delail the conflict in tcmpeniment between the man and the woman, hor the sceno of her story Mre Wharton Iras chosen Paris and the' outlying country districts. Her principal <sharact«rs aro (i. croup of Americans, one of whom is a young; gM who has been obliged to «vm her living as a companion ami a secretary, and another the widow of a rich American living hi France,