BOOK NOTICES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16541, 15 November 1915, Page 7

BOOK NOTICES

"The Despot." By Ellen Ada Smith. London: John Long (Ltd.). (3s 6d, 2s 6d.) This clever story emphasises the power which one dominant, overbearing human personality may exercise over others to tiieir great detriment. Such a will, unrestrained by any scruples of ordinary honour' honesty, and humanity, stops at nothing possible of accomplishment. In the story this will is for the most part exercised with good intention for what Paul Manderson considers to be the good of the race. Having elected himself judge, he, brooks no opposition, and the claims of individuals as against the betterment of the race are permitted no place in his scheme. Manderson is a doctor and skilled chemist. He is particularly, interested in all forms of insanity. During his travels in Western Africa he witnesses a native cure for this fell disease. Of course, he inquires into it, obtains the remedy, which is a deadly poison, and experiments on himself and others. He believes that these efforts will be ultimately crowned with success, but the task is arduous and costly. In order to obtain more money for his purpose he lives in a shabby tenement house in Westminster. He spends part of each day as a " beauty doctor " in the West End, but devotes all the rest of his time and labour to laboratory work of the severest kind. This task is ceaseless in its demands, until it. gradually becomes an obsession fed by the personality, pUrse, and person of his dearest friend and the woman whom he professes to love. The tenement house plays an important part in this story, i It is a rookery indeed; but a respectable rookery. It has no claim to be in any way philanthropic, but it provides numerous apartments —chiefly bed-sitting rooms—for a number of respectable, hard-working persons who are considerably above the pauper class. With few exceptions, there is no, acute poverty among them, and they are able to pay • their rent. _ But there is a marked amount of individuality; and from Selina Fennel—the fortunate possessor of an annuity of £50 —to Iris le Marchant, a rising young actress; from Isaacs, a Jew curio dealer, to Paul Manderson, the scientist, each has a personality, a marked character, and an interesting history for the lover and student of humanity who happens to be their landlord. This young man, Arthur Joceline, is the contrast in nature, disposition, and character to "the despot." He is a rich man, a doctor, who does not practise for fees, a strong individualist, and a passionate lover of humanity. He overflows with vitality and goodwill. His very presence, is stimulating. To Manderson Joceline appears the reckless spendthrift of great opportunities: he honestly considers that his life is> being frittered away, and he has no scruples in annexing his money, and afterwards his gay, happy, buoyant personality, in the cause, which he himself considers to be " the cause of the race." How this is done and the part that Iris—a most delightful heroine—plays in the game show the skill and courage, the powers of observation, and close analysis of character which mark Miss Ellen Ada Smith as an author of literary ability and great promise. Not the least of her merits is the clear-sighted justice with which she points out the contrasting qualities of her'several characters.

"The Heart of Joanna." By Robert A. Hamblin. London: John Long (Ltd.). (3s 6d, 2s 6d.) Joanna is the youngest member of a struggling East End family. The father is "a tallow-faced undertaker, with the frame of a giant, but stupid to a degree." The mother is a strong-willed, resolute virago, who has boon " the driving power " of the business, raising her husband from his original status as a journeyman carpenter to the proud positon of owner of an undertaker's shop in an East End main street. Such prosperity has hot been reached without much cheese-paring economy, or without, awful, though concealed, poverty. The four elder children bear the mark of these struggles and privations. Joanna, born in prosperous times, earlv shows a divergence from type, not by her outward beauty, of which she has little, but by her voracious appetite for books in any shape or form. This gradually develops into an abnormal capacity for acquiring and assimilating any form of book knowledge. She takes prizes and scholarships, and rises to be the head of her school. The vulgar family has sense enough to appreciate their uglv duckling, because scholarship of this kind means good billets and good pay. Joanna is an asset, and is so regarded by her shrewd mother, who excuses the girl from paying her board. as her sisters and brothers do, in view of the time when she may be able to support the whole family. Later on this fixed idea comes into conflict with Joanna's love for an excellent young man, in every wafy worthv of her, whom she first encourages and then abruptly dismisses owing to the influence that is brought to boar umon her by her mother. The young man, in these circumstances, falls into grievous temptation, and very nearlv makes shipwreck of his life. In the end Joanna, is dramatically brought to a sense of her error, and of her larger responsibilities. Tho way this is achieved must be gathered from the book itself, which by its humour, its pathos, and it's fidelity to actual life will appeal to lovers of good fiction. It is a first book, the author being, as yet, unknown to fame.