LIGHTS OF SYDNEY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2240, 4 February 1897, Page 44

LIGHTS OF SYDNEY.

! Br. Lilian Tubneb.

i London: Oasßell and Co. Daaedini James 1 Hortbnrgb. As this book has already been notioed in our columns, a few words will suffloe for its farther delineation. As a prize story, carrylog off tbe honoars in a competition advertised by the proprietors of Oassell's Magazine, It fairly challenges oritioism. A* the first notable effort of a young writer, it olaims indulgence., Let us therefore say i at once that thert is merit in the book, ; crude and uneven as it is and utterly devoid of the graces of literary ttylt. Thert is considerable ingenuity displayed in the plot for example, and tbera ia an evldtnt desire to depict several fine types of character and to oling to high ideals of conduct and life. If the result in somewhat chaotic let us remember that the writer is , young, and that a serial story demands a ' course of treatment which does not always | lend itself to the perfection of the finished ■ work. Tbe peiionalfty'of the charming, ■waywaVd, red-haired Barbara is very fasoinating ; the two boys, Jim and Jamei, the real " Stmon Pure," and bis double, are interesting enough— it is "the ideal", whioh at once repels aud strikes the reader as an unconj scions imitation of " the boy " episode in I " The- Heavenly Twins." One strong recommendation tbe book possesses —it ends happily. We read ho many books whose conclusion is irretrievably and hopelessly sad, I if not tragic, that one learns to be grateful i for such small mercies as obeerfulntiss and j happiness. Tbe "Lights of Sydney" flash : on a good old-fashioned ending of virtue ' rewarded and vice punished; of youthful ' lovers made happy, and those who have long known the " nees of adversity " being promoted to the pleasures of prosperity. Let us I therefore criticise to further.