BOOK NOTICES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2215, 13 August 1896, Page 44

BOOK NOTICES.

THE DWARF'S CHAMBER. Bjf Febgtos Htjm& London, New York, «ny Melbourne « Ward, Look, and Bowden. Duaedin : J. Bmithwaifee, V The Dwarf's Chamber," as being the longed and most elaborate item in this colleofcionof short stories, naturally gives its name to the! book. We doubt whether in these pages therd is anything o&lcul&ted either to add to or detr*ot from the reputatiom of the author, who apparently finds the niche he fills in the world of fiction both comfortable and remunerative, since ho certainly aspires to do higher place* But Fergus Hume has his own , public, and' to those people who enjoy his style Ihe tele 3 com* ". prised in this colletioa will prove eminently 1 readable. Some of them, such as "Miss JonM than" and "The Turquoise Skull," we hivealready made acquaintance with in the.Eng*; lish magaz'ues. They reappear, however, in ' the volume under notice with all the capital illustrations whioh then enriched them, together . with the added advantages of the excellent type and paper whioh are distinctive of Messrs Ward, Lock, and Boyrden's Colonial Library. " The Dwarf a Chamber" is a pretty story, and with but slight difference of treaiment would have made » very charming. children's tale, 10. quaint and dainty is the tiny dwarf herself, so artistic her surroundings, and so delightedly improbable the whole carefaljy-compiled plot. In " The Turquoise iSkull." '• The Dead Man's Diamonds," and «« The Greenstone God," we have Fergus Hume at his best, dealing with all the shattered decroas of the Social and moral decalogue, and adding the "sauce piquant" of an imagination still almost at nimble as when it took the "shilling snooker" publio by storm with 'LThe Mystery of a Hansom CaV' I Other numberj in the varied collection are, somewhat; less sensational, and it is possible that in *bne or two episodeo, suoh" as "The Ivory Leg and the Diamonds," "The ' Rainbow 'Camellia," &0., the-author approaohes-as nearly as he may to a touch of humoar, bub this effort we distinctly deprecate. Fergus Hume will bo Fergus Hume always: if \ nob strikingly sensational, then at- least mjledramatic ; if nofc, melodramatic — nothing. ' * Having, we hope, made ib appiretft that ia "The Dwarf's Chamber" the reader may indulge a va?ied taste, from the strong moat of senaationaliim to the milder fare of conventional episode, we shall leave fu:th'er detail to such experience as may be gained 'by reading the work itself.