LITERATURE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18760, 13 January 1923, Page 2

LITERATURE.

EX-PREMIER AND EX-KAISER.t the sin of the angels. Br Constant Reader. Tt :s curious how under the influence of “the recent Shakespearean season ninny lamiliar phrases come trippingly to (he tongue. “Fling away ambition,” cried Wol--6 e -v |o Cromwell, “By that sin fell the xV i S ’ K> " oarl riian > then, tho image of ids Maker, hope to win by't?” An answer to the question is suggested by two books having a remarkable relation the one to tho other “Mr Lloyd George; a Biography,” EwA 1 Raymond, and “My Memoirs, Jofß-1913, ’ by the ox-Kaiser William 11.

In both books the period of history covered is t.io same; in both books tho personality ot an autocrat is stamped on the pages. And it is permissible to inquire whether, if the sm of (ho angels in tho ambition ot Kaiser U illiam the Second was responsible for the outbreak of the Great War. whether m i'i 11 ,^ U 1 in the ambition of Mr Lioyd George has not been responsible for the plight and perplexity of tho present hour. The parallel which can bo drawn between the ex-Prcrnicr and the ex-Kaiser is a curious one. Of .Mr Lloyd George, Mr E. I. Raymond says: “With his advent to fud power tho Cabinet system went altogether. Government at onco became scarcely Jess personal than in Stuart days. Under other names and in other forms tho Whitehall of another age returned with startling abruptness. Iho Cabinet's place was taken oy what our ancestors would have called a Oahal--a body owing its existence purely to the Prime Minister’s fancy and subservient to linn as no Cabinet was subservient, to the most, imperious Prime Minister between Walpom and Mr Asquith. The House of Commons ceased to have much importance beyond that of a convenient theatre for the more impressive kind of Ministerial declaration. Ministers felt no occasion to trouble about its confidence; tho necessary thing was to retain by deceit or trick that of tho Minister. Unknown men exercised the most despotic powers on the simple authority of Mr Lloyd George’s ‘Go and get busy.’ . . . In a week the whole face of English political life was changed.” The manner in which the leading democratic spirit of his day, in the person of Mr Lloyd George, by degrees developed until ho posed as tho greatest autocrat of the period is brilliantly traced with much incisivoness of phrase by Mr Raymond, who carries tho parallel between ex-Prernier and ox-Kaiser a little further when he writes:

Mr George as an orator has been subject at various times to unduly high praise and to unjust disparagement. But oven his greatest speeches are seldom worth reading in full after the occasion has passed There are isolated passages of groat beauty, often—though more rarely of late years—touches of true poetry; his similes have sometimes bettered the best of the German Emperor’s, who sometimes contrived among much bombast to introduce a figure of high dignity; indeed, it might bo possible to show a real similarity between me oratorical methods, and even the mental processes, of these opposed autocrats.

Tho value of Mr Raymond’s experiment in biography rests on the fact that, he attempts to reveal tho working of those mental processes in the case of Mr Llovd George, and the revelation is both skilful and subtle. Mr Raymond rejoices in contrasts almost as much as he pictures in parallels. He compares Mr George, in the early ’nineties, with the hero of Monto Cristo before he lays bands on his treasure, and says: All this must be borne in mind by those who find astonishing the contrast between the “class bitterness” of tho early Lloyd

George and the more kindly and tolerant attitude of the maturer statesman. He spoke bitterly because ho felt bitterly, as most brilliant men do who find them-

selves constantly hampered by the meanness of circumstance. They easily persuade themselves that this lesenlmont, is not selfish; that they do well to bo angry, not because of the injustice to themselves, but because cf the insult to God who made them. Air George, always wanting, but never worshipping money, fond of comfort, but also loving largo gestures, was rather exceptionally unfortunate. Until comparatively late in life, his financial position was insecure and he was continually associated with or in opposition to men, whose very income tax, eveiv on the old assessment, would have been esteemed by him a handsome . income. Other men no better off might console themselves with the thought that their education, birth, or connection gave them a certain equality. But Air George, while almost too conscious of great talents, had no balsam for the wounds inflicted by the “proud man’s contumely”: and there is little doubt fh.at tho acidity of ms earlier political utterance was largely due to the fact that he was disdained and neglected by tho rich men of his own

party. That “acidity’’ has a rare example in a speech made during the discussion on (he famous Budget of April, 1909. “The real odd thing, writes Mr Raymond, “was the manner in wlijch Budget lunacy affected the cold hard men of the world of finance, those whom our novelists and playwrights represent as above the sway of vulgar passions. Thus Lord Rothschild, forgetting (bo caution which generally' distinguishes men of his race and calling, consented to make a chiefly inaudible protest against the Budget at a City of London meeting. It was a rich gift to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. “Wo too much of Lord Rothschild,” retorted Mr George at a political luncheon the day after:—

We are not to have temperance reform in this country. Why? Because Lord Rothschild has sent a circular to the Peers to say so. We must have more Dreadnoughts, Why? Because Lord Rothschild has told us so at a meeting—the City. We must not pay for them when we have got them. Why? Because Lord Rothschild says no. You must not have an estate duty and a super tax. Why? Because Lord Rothschild has sent a protest on behalf of the bankers to say ho won’t stand it. You must not have a tax on reversions. Why ? Because Lord Rothschild as chairman of an in-

surance company said he wouldn’t stand it. You must not have a tax on un-

developed land. Why? Because Lord Rothschild is chairman of an industrial

housing company. You must not have Old Ago Pensions. Why? Because Lord Rothschild was a member of a committee that said it could not bo done. Are we really to have all the ways of reform, financial and social, blocked by a notice board; “No thoroughfare: By order of Nathaniel Rothschild?’’ So marvellous was the transformation of a brio? 30 years (hat Mr Raymond questions whether Mr Lloyd George did not come to regard himself as the agent of a Divine Providence, almost in the same way as the ex-Kaiser undoubtedly regarded himself “Now the 'little Welsh solicitor,’ the 'cad of the Cabinet,’ ‘half-puntaloon and half-highwayman,” was beyond doubt tho most powerful and conspicuous personage in the British Empire, perhaps the most powerful and conspicuous personage in the world. Those who had most meanly reviled his origin, those who had assailed him with tho coarsest invective, those who had denounced him as tho most dangerous or jeered at him as tho most flimsy of demagogues, were now cither his closest colleagues or his meekest sycophants, fawned on him for (he crumbs ho could throw them or revelled in the loss comprehensible ecstasy of disinterested abasement.” Against the picture of those early days of poverty, persecution, and prejudice, Mr Raymond places another perspective :

His personal affairs had prospered. As an individual, lie bad been placed in a position of independence by Air Andrew Carnegie’s legacy of two thousand a year. As a servant of the State ho was now

splendidly housed at Chequers, and ais week-ends among the becchon glories of (hat Buckinghamshire pleasance might well compensate for aaiy shortcomings of Downing street, which with its rabbitwarren of huts for secretaries and clerks had shed any pretensions it might have had to ho a home. As head of the Coali (ion his power and prestige were appar-

ently higher than at any previous time. In neither House could fie discern a possible rival; in the Cabinet his authority, if actually not greater than in the days of the war, was far more assured. Those of its members who were not his creatures wore now apparently bound to him by the mere law of self-preservation.

However boundless Mr Lloyd George's ambitions in other directions and however carried away by his love of power, Mr Raymond acquits the ex-Premier of any scheme for self-aggrandisement, and this

n) “Mr Lloyd George: A Biography." By E. T. Raymond. Illustrated. London and Auckland : \v. Collin?, Son?, and Co. Dunedin: Whitcombe and Torahs. (15s net.) 12) “My Memoirs, 1878-1018.“ By Ex-Kaiser Wilhelm 11. London and Melbourne ;■ Cassell and Co. Dunedin; Wihtcombe and Tombs. (26s net)

especially after careful examination of the evidence in the Marconi scandal case, indeed, in a footnote, the point is emphasised of Mr; George’s “disdain for money” as instanced in tho giftimr to charity of the immense sum of £100,(X)0 earned by writing his Memoirs. Tho contrast with the case of (he ex-Kaiser is very striking. Mr Raymond analyses closely the causes leading up to tho Prime Minister’s full from place and power. “His hold on the popular mind had fatally weakened. Ho could still, of course, hold a groat meeting entranced. He could still play on an audience, whether in the country or the House of Commons, as

if it wore an instrument. But ho no longer roused strong emotion in the masses whom the voice of the most industrious orator cannot reach. In 1900 the common people detested him. In 1809 (hose who were not bewitched were in the main amused by him. In the years of the war those who did not execrate idolised him. In 1922 the general public merely accented him ns part of the fixed and apparently unchangeable order of things. Ho had become an institution, and few - institutions rouse enthusiasm. People wore not ungrateful for ms war services; they resented any attack or criticism on the ground of anything he had done or neglected up to the Armistice as if it weio something in the nature of blasphemy. They were not captious even regarding the peacetime dictatorship; hb might not have managed quite well, but the'task was colossal, and who could have done better? They

were apparently not anxious for a change; change seemed duller even than continuance ill routine. They were, in a word, not hostile, or umecognising, or complaining. They were simply very tired. For once Mr George .had made a mistake in class psychology. He had neglected the sound rule of non bis in idem. During the war his energy had acted on England as a brass band on a tired regiment. His mistake after the war was that he went on with

the dose. He imagined that England still wanted waking up. It was a very bad mistake indeed. England wanted politically nothing so much as to go to sleep, and Mi George, who could dance gracefully in land reform stbots or tread majestically in quasimilitary jack-boots, has never had a talent for list slippers.” Mr Raymond can turn a neat epigram, ns for instance; “Who made the Boer War it is not for the present writer to discuss. He is content to note that the Boor War made Mr Lloyd George.” In another place he writes: “By an unfortunate chance, the end of tho war found each of the greater Allies under the rule c-f a one-man Gov-

eminent. Mr George was master of Britain, M. Clomenceau of France, Mr Wilson of the United States. Each of those eminent men had so managed affairs that it was almost impossible to delegate authority. They, and they alone, had all the threads of policy in their hearts; they and they alone possessed the knowledge, the power, and the prestige to represent their countries. Each in his own way had shown an almost equal intolerance of any trend of rivalry.” At the present moment, with the threat of another European crisis apparently imminent, Mr Raymond’s survey of the part played by Mr Lloyd George in the making of the Versailles Treaty will be found fascinating in the extreme. Ho quotes M. Andre Tardieu in ‘‘The Truth About the Treaty” ns saying: “Those who knew how to talk to the British Prime Minister could always bring him back to fundamental principles.” On which Mr Raymond comments; — '

In face of the comparatively simple questions of tho war, Mr George’s intense energy and conviction preserved him from all but the minimum of vacillation. But here surrounded by every kind of complexity, continually encountering facts and . theories of which he had scarcely heard, ho woe a harp on which many hands could play many turtes. . . . Hence it was never easy to .predict on which side of a fence he would descend, still less easy to feel assured that, having leaped, ho would not leap back again. Mr Raymond points out that as with the Versailles Treaty, so in the Turkish negotiations, Mr Lloyd George showed “ a similar, want of decision.’’,,. Indeed, “of,all the leading figures at the conference, Mr George was the one who least knew, ns regarded tho more general issues, exactly what he wanted. President Wilson wanted the millennium, and might at least have got the League of Nations if lie could have induced ids countrymen to accept it. M. Clemenceau wanted above all security for Franco, after that compensation for France. The aims of Signor Orlando, of M. Vonizelos, of M. Passitch, even of the Emir Feisul, were intelligible enough. But Air George never quite succeeded in fixing in his mind what ho did want; he sometimes failed, even to fix in other people's minds what he did not want. After February ho almost forgot to demand tho Kaiser’s head. For some time longer he wanted probably to ‘make Germany pay!’ But in tho end he seems to have been chiefly anxious to make Germany sign. By the summer of 1919 the statesman who had fared so, gaily to France, with high hopes of a peace at once sternly just and benignly healing, was a. weary and disillusioned man, mainly anxious to be back to Downing street and Walton Heath.”

Mr Raymond declares that while “ Mr George reads French fluently, he cannot speak the language, or follow wiih any certainty a conversation between Frenchmen. ... If Mr George had been in a position to address Frenchmen fluently in their own tongue the history of the war and peace might have been considerably modified.”

Mr Raymond points out that his election to Parliament incidentally established him as the owner of an easily remembered name “a search of Hansard fails to discover him under the ■‘G’s.’ He is already ‘Lloyd George.’ In public life all sorts of trifles count and there is a clear advantage in having either one uncommon name or two common ones.” In face of such an admission it is a distinct blemish in- Mh Raymond’s biography that ho refers almost without exception to “Mr George.” In ■•omparison with Mr Raymond’s brilliant writing the ex-Kaiser’s “Memoirs” appear dull if not stodgy At the same time an interest attaches to them inseparable from all documents throwing light on the origin and conduct of the war. The book is an ex-parte statement comprising care fully selected matter and setting out to prove: First, that the O-ar of Russia and not Germany was responsible for the outbreak of war; second, that Great Britain and Franco, and not Germany, were prepared for war in July, 1914; and thirdly, that the. British soldiers and not the Germans were the destroyers of the art treasures in Belgium and France. A quotation in this connection will suffice; After an advance into Northern France I immediately ordered that art treasures

bo protected. Art-historians and professors were assigned to each army and these travelled about inspecting, photographing, and describing churches, chateaux and ca.stles. . . . On account of my ear© and the self-sacrificing work of German art experts and soldiers and often at the risk of their lives—art treasures worth billions wore preserved for their French owners and for French towns. This was done by the Huns: the bodies.

These and other similar startling statements are made on the ex-Kaiser’s ipsedixit and without a particle of documentary proof. The ex-Kaiser insists as a '“basic idea,” that “the aims of the Entente'could lie attained only through a war, those of Germany only without a war” ; and ho make? his facts fit Unit idea. With his hand upon his heart ho avows, “1 nm actuated solely by a desire to help towards proving Germany’s innocence of having brought on the world war,” and he adds: “Never have 1 had warlike ambitions. In my youth niy father had given mo terrible descriptions of the battle fields of 1870 and 1871, and I felt no inclination to bring such misery, on a collossally larger scale, upon the German people and the whole of civilised mankind.” He denounces the “unjust Treaty of Versailles” ami looks forward to the time when. 1 ‘after . years of the heaviest trial will come the liberation from a yoke imposed justly upon a great, strong, honest nation. Then every

one of us again will bo glad and proud that he is a German.” The ex-Kaiser’s concluding apologia will be read with mixed feelings:—“God is my witness,” ho declares, “that I have always wished what was best for rny country and my people. . . . I bear my personal fate with resignation for the Lord knows what He dees, and what Ho wishes, lie knows why Ho subjects rno to (his tost. I shall boar everything with patience and await whatsoever God still holds in store for mo.”

HOLIDAY READING

NOTES ON NEW NOVELS. When R. L. Stevenson wrote “Treasure Island,” ho provided a model for the numberless efforts of a host of storytellers. In “The Return of Club-foot” (London: Herbert Jenkins. Dunedin; Whitcombe and

Tombs) the search for a buried treasure on an uninhabited island in the Pacific is made a sequel to the Great War, and for the purpose of his story Mr Valentino Williams resurrects the villain of his previous shocker “Tho Man With The Club-foot.” The outbreak of war in August, 1914, was the reason of tho burying of the treasure with a cryptogram device by a Gorman naval officer, and “The Man With Tho Clubfoot,” head of a huge German secret organisation, endeavours to locate the treasure. To him is opposed Major Desmond Okewood, D. 5.0., of the British Intelligence Corps, who has accidentally happened on the secret cf the treasure, and who has for allies .Sir Alexander Garth and his yacht Naomi, to say nothing of his daughter Marjorie, a charming girl, who plays a leading part in the romance. Black Pablo and his gang a.re a pretty lot of ruffians, and Desmond and Marjorie get into some very tight, places, but of course the treasure was theirs from tho start. Desmond cabled to Marjorie “When will you marry me?” and Marjorie promptly replied, “Whenever you like.” The story leaves in doubt the fate of Old Club-foot, and there remains the possibility that ho may provide material for another shocker. An increasing number cf stories of undoubted American origin are issued by British publishers, and this is tho case witli “El Diablo,” by Bray ton Norton. (London and Sydney: Hoddor and Stoughton. Dunedin: Whitcomb© and Tombs). Richard Gregory, of tho Legouh Fisli Cannery, and Bill Lang, owner of the fishing fleet, meet their death while exploring the mystery of the island of El Diablo in a manner that suggests foul play. Kenneth Gregory, son of Richard, who inherits the Fish Cannery, and “Dickie” Lang, daughter of the fishing fleet captain, join forces both to run the fishing business and to solve the mystery of the murders of their respective fathers. They have to fight one Mascola, who, with a gang of aliens, backed by unscrupulous financiers and speculators, aim at monopolising the fishing business', and. incidentally, shrouding the mystery of El Diablo. There are exciting encounters between the rival fishing fleets and many mysterious incidents, and for a while the efforts of Kenneth and “Dickie” seemed doomed to failure. Accidentally Kenneth discovers that the island secretes a “dope” factory, where extensive operations in cocaine smuggling are carried on, and the Government officials come to their aid and give them a supreme triumph over their enemies. The story is well told amid unusual surroundings, and the denouement is wildly exciting with a suitable finale.

“Mortimer’s Gold,” by Harold Horn (London and Sydney: Hodder and Stoughton. Dunedin: Whitcombe and Tombs) is an amateurish and not too-con-vincing attempt at a treasure story, the scene of which is laid in the Lake Huron region. Delving into ancient records, Richard Mortimer. D. 5.0., discovers a heritage of buried treasure left by an ancient seafaring ancestor, and sets forth in tho quest. The fact that he is in love and desires the means to mai'ry adds zest to tho adventure; but on the eve of success he is foiled by the stepfather of the girl he hopes to wed. The story is studded with jealousies, kidnappings, and encounters with desperate banditti, in short all tho .accompaniments of a film melodrama. But “Mortimer’s Gold” lacks the essentials of a really good story.

“Wost,” by Charles Aldeu Seltzer (New York: The Century Co. Dunedin: Whitcombe and Tombs) is another story in which shootings, lynohings, and suchlike occur in almost every chapter. Josephine Hamilton goes West to visit her friend Betty, and at once becomes the subject of admiration by three men—Steel Brannon, ranch foreman, and hero of tho piece; Denver, a double-dyed villain; and Satan Lnttimer, a reckless horse thief. Lattimor kidnaps Josephine, who is rescued by Brannon, but this main incident is encircled by numerous exciting adventures. Mr Seltzer manages to got the right atmosphere,, but the story halts a little, and the action in places is rather slow. But tho frequent shootings cover a multitude of lapses.

Mr Stewart Edward White is a skilful dopicter of romance, and lie knows the American backwoods well. In “On Tiptoe,” described as “ft romance of the Redwoods” (London and Sydney: Hodder and Stoughton. Dunedin: Whitcombe and Tombs), the scene is laid on ft Californian red-wood forest, the hero.being an idealist, Larry Dovonport by name. Larry has discovered a means of extracting electricity from the air, and thinks to see the device employed to end all human toil, making the world the paradise it ought to be. In the heart of the forest be encounters a party comprising Grinstead. a financial magnate interested in hydro-electricity, his creature Gardiner, and his servant Timmins, not forgetting Burton Grimstead, the magnate’s daughter, and two dogs, a “Pom” and an Irish terrier. Grimstead and Gardiner hail the discovery ns an opportunity to amass unheard of wealth, and well-nigh succeed in their piratical enterprise, hut are foiled by Larry, Burton, and Timmins. The idea underlying the story is fantastical enough but it is full of chtrm, And conveys a sterling moral. “On Tiptoe” is likely to be a favourite.

“Tho Mysterious Office,” by Jennetto Lee (London and Melbourne; Hurst and Blackett. Dunedin: Whitcombe and Tombs), is a sample of detective story in great vogue of late, in which justice is temnered with mercy. Millicont Newberry is head of a detective agency which takes im cases when all other attempts have failed,'but only on condition that she shall bo empowered to mete out. sentence and impose the penalty. A sum of money—-twenty-five thousand dollars —has mysteriously disappeared from the office of John Geary, and under circumstances which precluded outside interposition. The deed was done by someone in the office, and all (ho staff are so devoted to John Geary that he hesitates to suspect tnem. Millicent Newberry gets to work, and with such success that one after another the office staff confess (ho crime in order to cover up the supposed criminality of another member. Still the solution of the theft is as far off as over. Tire final explanation is thoroughly satisfactory, and this is the highest praise that can bo given to a book of this kind. “The Mysterious Office” makes capital reading.

One of the republics created by the Versailles Treaty—Goritza by nanie—makes the scene for Mr Burton A. Stevenson’s novel “The Kingmakers” (London and Melbourne: Hutchinson and Co. Dunedin: Whitcombe and Tombs), and the hero is Joliffe, an American journalist, “the historian of the war, the interpreter of the peace conference, the champion of the League of Nations, the saviour of Central Europe.” Joliffe, thanks to a beautiful woman, the Countess Remond. whom ho meets at Monte Carlo, finds himself caught in a whirlpool of intrigue, passion, and devotion, and with remarkable results. Mr Stevenson has scarcely the touch of an Anthony Hope in an imaginary 7 historical romance of this sort, but he does exceedingly* well and has turned out a re-nx 1 able novel. Ireland and. the Irish is a fertile koii tor the novel writer, and in “ Alas, That Spring” (London and Melbourne: Hutchinson and Co. Du.ncdin: ‘Whitcombe and

J. oinks), Mrs Elinor Mordaunt has made an acute study of some phases of the Irish character. Henrietta Rorke makes a fascinating heroine, whoso happiness is marred by an act of foolishness when, quite a girl, she spent the night in a cave with Lord Shaeh, her passionate young lover. After only two years of happy married life Lord Shaen becomes entangled with a designing actress, and faced with his unfaithfulness he taunts bis wife with her pre-marital episode. Henrietta, her heart broken, commits suicide, and /Lord Shaeq is filled with remorse. • Tire plot is on quite conventional lines, but the story is redeemed by tiie charm of the Irish atmosphere. . When a father cf pronounced political views and aspirations-to a seat in the Cabinet of a capitalistic Government has a strong-minded daughter in love with a ■Socialist agitator, there is likely to be dissensions in the family circle. This is the theme of “Follow lily Leader,” by Ma>Agnes Hamilton (London: Jonathan Cape. Dunedin: Whitcombe and Tombs), and the picture of the family circle of Mr Heriol—“John Heriot, M.F., of Heriot’s Paper Mills. Heriot and Watts’ Printing Works the Heriot Paper, Pulp, and Timber Group, and, though not so many people realised it. the London Evening Guard’ 7 ’ —is remarkably well done. Jane Heriot is her father’s daughter, but her love for Colquhoun, the Glasgow Socialist, places her in opposition to -her father's desires and wishes. But in a hotly-contested bv-eloction Jane is found fighting for her father, who has always been her hero against the man she loves. Inc events of the election are vividly described, and the political interest of the story is considerable. The power of the book consists in the light it throws upon the influence of the domestic drama upon great political happenings and vice versa. Mrs Hamilton has done good work in her previous stories, but in ‘‘Follow My Leader” she has touched a high note. The story is a thoughtful one and essentially of the present day. There ore readers who tire of murder mysteries, who recoil from the detective drama, a.nd who view with weariness the Wild West story, but to whom the sirr-le recital of everyday domesticity irresistibly appeals. In “Miss Mapp” (London and Melbourne ; Hutchinson and Co. Dunedin: Whitcombe and Tombs), Mr E. F. Benson has sketched insist delightfully the doings and beings of a little group of people in an English seaside township, a sort of ‘ ‘Cran-. ford” in modern dress. “Miss Elizabetn Mapp might have ben forty” ; so the story opens, but her ago was no barrier to i-cr interest iu Major Flint and Captain Puffin and other of the residents of the seaside resort of the little town of Tilling. Mrs Plaistow. Miss Isabel Poppit, and Mrs Bartlett are ’ all delightfully described and the bridge parties and other social amenities of the residents are written up with rohsh. | Mr Benson is at his best in this sort of story, and in ‘‘Mias Mapp” he has hit it off to a tee.

A domestic drama of another sort is Mr H. A.. Yachell’s “Chang© Partners” (London and Melbourne: Hutchinson and l Co. Dunedin : Wihitoombe and Tombs). Henry Kilby, K.C.. and John Bovington, the great engineer, friends in bachelor days both confessed to boredom in married life and planned a trip to Brittonv where they proposed to be boys again. Their respective wives, apprised of the intentions of tneir husbands conferred and conspired with the result that they also took boat and train to Brittany and got on the track of their unsuspecting spouses. Kilby knew not M'rs Bovington, neither was Bovington acquainted with Mrs Kilby, relying on which ignorance either wife laid siege to the other’s husband and with real and astounding success. Mr Vachell has contrived, out of this uncommon situation, a story of charm, enlivened by much gastronomic love, not a. little information about good wine and a great deal of description of the joys of Brittany. “Change Partners” is described as “A Vagabondage”; it is surely the right book for a summer holiday.

If Mr Vachall has fold of a change of partners by mutual consent, Mr Michael Aden in “Piracy” (London and Auckland : IV. Collins Sons and Co. Dunedin: Whit com be and Tombs) describes a somewhat diffeernt situation. The story is described as a history of England, of two loves and of an ideal; the scone is London and the period 1910-1922. Ivor Pelham Mcdey is introduced at the ago of 18 at the public school of Marton and the reason is explained why he did not go to the University of Oxford. After the war, aged thirty-two and minus an arm, ho lays successive siege to Magdalene Grey and Virginia) Lndiy Tarlfron. Mr Arlen writes wittily and well as his previous books “A London Adventure” ’ and “The Romantic Lady” abundantly testify and in ‘‘Piracy” described at “A Romantic Chronicle of These Days” ho has surpassed himself. Readers who like a brilliant book, full of good meat and a capital story to boot will revel in “Piracy.”

Mr Robert Hichens is a prolific writer and extremely versatile, but in “December Love” he puts a great strain on the imagination of his readers. Alick Craven, aged 29, is represented as divided in his attentions and affection between Lady A dal a Sellingw'ork, “the most charming old woman in London,” whose loss of fifty thousand pounds worth of jewels created a sensation, and the young, beautiful, brillliant, and wealthy Beryl Van Tuyn. The contest between this June and December love is complicated by the presence of

Nicolas Arabain, king of the underworld, who has a hold on Beryl and who having made off with her jewels casts her aside. Another influence in the story is Sir Seymour, who has been faithful to Adela all his life. Out of these hackneyed materials Mr Hiohens has made a story which yvliile it may pass, does not add to the literary reputation of the author of “Dodo.”

“Minuet and Fox-Trot (London and MeL borne: Hutchison and Co. ' Dunedin:] Whitcombe and Tombs) is the title of a volume of short stories by these well-known collaborators Agrnes and Egerton Castle, The stories take a wide range and the opening story, frorn which the book takes its title is as exciting as it is unconvincing with its picture of smart society after the yvar, its night clubs and opium dena. ‘Gold Muzzle,” another of the stories, tells of pirates and treasure and Liverpool in the 18th Century.