BOOK NOTICES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2284, 9 December 1897, Page 43

BOOK NOTICES.

JACK : THE STORY OF A SCAPEGRACE. By. E. M. Bryant.

London : S. W. Partridge and Co. Demedin: New Zealand Bible and Tract D.spot.

Probably in no department of literature has a greater change come of late years than in that designed for tbe edification of tbe yonng. Up till within the last few years a " good " book was invariably a dull one^ Every story had to be a true one? for fiction was fiction, be ifc never so beautiful. We thiak it was General Booth who excused the lively character of Salvation Army music by saying that the devil had far too locg a monopoly of the best music, and_possibly the purveyors of religious literature have come to the same conclusion with respect to literature. Hence has been created a mass of healthy fiction. It in recognised that readers must have fiction, and it is considered better that they should have it pure. " Jack "is the story of an incorrigible lad who has been expelled from a public school for a boyish and mischievous freak. He is good down at the foundation, and-, being placed in the house of a clergyman who teaches several lade, becomes amenable to tbe influence of maternal love and turns out a perfect knight, with only occasional lapses into scrapes. . As a picture of domestic life and an English clergyman's home, it is -perfect. " Jack " would make a good present for a lad, especially one who is inclined to be wild.