RECENT FICTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21598, 19 March 1932, Page 4

RECENT FICTION

I *M3to«abury: A Story of Devon." By Eden Rifljpotla (Hutchinson). " unconiiuered Love." By Rlcarda Huch. : Translated by William A, Drake (Eyre and Spottlswoode). “Three Steeples: A Tragedy of Earth.” ■' By Le Boy MacLeod (Cassell). "Thfi Dost Caravan.” By H. de Vere Stacpoole (Collins). “Puck In Petticoats.” By Margaret Behrens (Jenkins), “ The Killers.” By George Owen Baxter (Hodder and Stoughton). " The Body on the Beam." By Anthony Gilbert (Collins). “The Scarlett Murder.” By Wyndham Martyn (Jenkins). (Each 6s net). The Phillpotts Devon Mr Eden Phillpotts, who is both versatile and prolific, • writes well on practically any subject, but he is most honoured, by those who know and can appreciate them, for his Devonshire novels and tales. “ Stdrmbury ” is the latest ox these, a work of ' fiction in which the characters are so lirimed. that we are quite certain they are real, while the story is bo constructed that we feel these rustics have been made to perform in accordance with the requirements of a tale, quite contrary to their own natures and actions. That at least, is the impression “ Storrabury ” leaves. The wise old woman, Willie Yaw, whose shrewd counsel does much to bring three romances to happy fruition; Widow Bessie Veryard, whose obstinacy i and disputatiousness were near to wrecking them; hpr son, Adam, whose drawling, circumlocutory speeches are the voice of the Devon peasant, are. true types, ■ and the same may be said of some dozen others in the book. But when it comes to the circumstantial story of petty jealousies, minor mysteries, and village strategies we are amused but slightly incredulous. Not knowing how life is conducted in Devonshire we should, perhaps, accept the teaching of Mr Phillpotts that it is a sometimes droll, sometimes crude and harsh, and always tortuous affair.

A German Tragedy It is a very different atmosphere from Mr Phillpotts’s neighbourly, ofttimes garrulous, Devonshire which Ricarda Htfch introduces in “Unconquered Love;” This author is said to be one of Germany’s greatest contemporary women writers, and to the assessment the English reader will, with certain reservations, subscribe. The story is unrelievedly tragic—none can object to. that, though we prefer our fiction with a little good nature and humour. _ It proceeds inevitably to the entire extinction of a family—there is nothing in this to which assthetic exception could be taken, though we may not share the grim fatal- > ism of the author. The weakness in the book seems to us to be that the love which is made a symbol is not the devouring and inescapable passion, the great love, which it requires to be. It may be mentioned that when the way at last becomes clear for the lovers to unite, one of them has transferred her affections. This is perhaps factually sound, but artistically is suggests anti-climax. Otherwise this tale, which is of a guilty love and_the dreadful doom that falls on a North German family because of it, has plenty of gloomy peaks, since most of the characters kill themselyes or pine away, save the one who retires to a monastery to write their history. Small-town Prophet

A young American poet, Le Roy MacLeod, whose first .novel is “Three Steeples,’’ likewise draws heavily on. tragedy, though not with such a merciless implacability as Ricardo Huch, This is an ambitious story of small-town life in. the; Middle West, with an impassioned, young preacher as its central character. Bruce Durken returns to his native village as the Methodist minister, zealous, unrelenting, terribly sincere, to learn that His admonitions and exhortations lead his adherents not to a better life but to tragedy and death. Then follows a period of despair, from which he emerges with a new gospel of his own, that is to replace what he conceives to be an outworn. Christianity. As the evangelist of a new faith Bruce discovers his task of salvation no easier to fulfil and learns at last that what his earthy townsfellows most desire is to be left in peace. “ Three Steeples” is an impressive novel for the understanding the author shows of his small-minded characters, the sympathy with which he draws in the portrait of the not over-sympathetic Bruce, Like a great deal of serious American fiction, it is very, very serious indeed.

Very de Vern It is pleasant, after such excursions into dismality, to return to the pleasantly exciting but never exhausting realm of Mr de Vere Stacpoole’s fiction. For this author we have a warm affection. He tells good romantic stories and he tells them well. He is not, admittedly, a maker of great literature, or even of particularly good, but he is every bit as entertaining as a ; lively kineraa film, and his construction is better than most. In “The Lost Caravan,” he relates a highly-coloured story of the love of_ a young French artist for a gipsy girl. We are taken wandering round Central Europe, we are allowed a glimpse of idyllic love on an island in the Adriatic, we are shipped speedily to Sidi-BebAbbes and introduced to the Foreign Legion, of which Mr Stacpoole has a surprisingly unromantic opinion: “ The Legion, stripped of its drums, flags, uniforms, and high-sounding name,, is simply a dirty trick played on the destitute.” The lovers are united, separated, reunited, chased across the desert, then finally sundered by death, ..in a novel which can be thoroughly recommended to give two hours and a half excellent, uncritical entertainment.

A Stolen Baby In fact, Mr Stacpoole’s novel, which is in no way humorous, provides better entertainment for the idle hours than Margaret Behrens’s consciously-rollicking "Puck in Petticoats.” This is not to say that “ Puck in Petticoats ” is not very amusing in parts, but a mild expression of our belief that the authors who can be continuously and uproariously funny for three hundred odd pages are few and far between. The drollery in this novel is considerable, for Miss Behrens has a nimble wit, but it is scarcely adequate to keep us hilariously disposed throughout the unfolding of a story in which the abduction of a baby provides most of the plotting, chasing, and confusion. Perhaps it is that at present we are aware that the abduction of babies is not such a funny business at all.

“ The Killers ” When a clever, unscrupulous gambler and gunman is set to outwit another equally unscrupulous and much less romantic one can expect some exciting results. In this tale there is all the excitement one could desire, and one’s, sympathies are entirely on the side of the knight- errant gunman who, besides striving to win favour with the lady of his choice, is -engaged in clearing the name of her father from a false accusation of murder. The girl’s mother is a featherbrained creature entirely under the influence of her husband’s cousin Edgar, a scheming rascal, who plans to make away with the husband and annex the estate to himself by marrying the woman. By the efforts of Geraldi. the gunmangambler, Edgar’s schemes are frustrated, and love and justice are once again triumphant over malice and evil.-

** The Body on the Beam ” Instead of '' following the traditional lines of a detective story by introducing at the beginning a host of characters, any one of whom might be the criminal, Mr Gilbert begins with the discovery of the body' of a murdered woman. The reader is afforded a thorough insight into the workings of the police detectives as they carefully build up evidence against the woman’s husband, who is eventually arrested. Some of his friends, however, are not satisfied with certain points in the evidence, and they are able, by commencing where _ Scotland Yard finished and paying meticulous attention to small details, to unearth the real murderer. The main interest in the story, from the time the right trail is struck, centres round the gathering of evidence against the culprit.

Anthony Trent Again The popularity which Mr Wyndharn Martyn has acquired for his superdetective, Anthony Trent, w-ill not suffer from publication of his latest “thriller,’ "The Scarlett Murder,” in which Trent once more solves an apparently baffling mvstery. Tbc facts are presented plainly: Adriah Scarlett, an Englishman staying at a New Jersey bouse with a dozen other guests, including Trent, is murdered in his sleeping bag. Of motive there is no

trace, but suspicion centres on three of the last people to see him alive. These are able to establish their innocence, but Trent, one of them, is not satisfied with a mere acquittal and determines to bring the criminal to book. Before he does so many hair-raising adventures are recounted in Mr Martyn’s graphic style, and many interesting sidelights are thrown on certain phases of American life. Y. V. L.