LITTLE INDABAS: STORIES OF KAFFIR, BOER, AND NATAL LIFE. By J. Mac.

Otago Witness, Issue 2424, 30 August 1900, Page 58

LITTLE INDABAS: STORIES OF KAFFIR, BOER, AND NATAL LIFE. By J. Mac.

London: J. Fisher Unwin. This, latest contribution to "The Overseas Library'" deals with some phases of life in Mvica. There pro five sketches in all, of which we cannot say that any one plcp&e'j u-. The crude workmanship spoils material which is certainly picturesque, and might be highly dramatic. There are numerous, didactic" conclusion? of the writer on British methods both of colonising and Christianising, a plentiful sprinkling of native words, a. certain Zola-like brutality of detail which serves for local colour, atmosphere va- 3^everything—rious extremely unpleasant personages, whose bruin 1 speech is reproduced in its pristine repulsiveness, form a portrait gallery. We arc c,-ad to close as we shut the book.

Most young novel readers have been fascinated by the spell of the mysterious Dr Nikola, and it is in "A Bid for Fortune" that this remarkable man attains, his most subtle attraction, as the coloured covers — a reproduction of tha.t hugh poster of Dr Nikola with the uncanny black cat perched on his shoulder — instantly remind us. The pretty love story of Phyllis Wetherill and Dick Hatteras which runs throughout the book contrasts most admirably vith the darfe, damning plots and occult powers of Dr Nikola ; the strange adventures of Lord Beckenham, and the horrid figure of China. Pete. The book is most excitmg, from start to finish, and to admirers of the Guy Boothby style, is certainly one of the author's best.