AMONG THE BOOKS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2523, 23 July 1902, Page 76

AMONG THE BOOKS.

STOLEN SOULS. By William "Le Qtjetjx. v London : Ward, Lock, and Co. Dunedin :" I Braithwaite's Book Arcade. ' Time was when the optimistic reviewer still had hopes of those "better things" of which Mr Le Queux seemed capable. But time has passed, and any hope that may have remained of literary achievements may fitly find its grave in the pages of "Stolen Souls." A collection of short stories of the most impossible and sensational description is strung together with but one thread' !of connection : they all relate to souls j which, in our plain judgment, might withj out much apology be deemed "lost souls." Secret societies, political intrigues, and Nihilist plots all play their useful and important part in the sensational episodes of fair but frail women, mysterious powers, I and foreign princes and adventures. As to j the style of writing, it is exaggerated, careI less, and affected to the point of absurdity. i Serious criticism of "Stolen Souls" is Imi possible. One word describes the whole J book: that word is "trash."

NICHOLAS HOLBROOK.

By Olive Birrell. London : T. Fisher Unvin

"The Evolution of a Gentleman" would constitute an admirable sub-title to this very ably-written book. The reader who is not dismayed by the somewhat sordid lives portrayed in the opening chapter is rewarded by some well-drawn and harmonious studies of character, some excellent theories of life, healtlu'ly and pleasantly worked out, and the satisfaction of reading sterling work, honestly done.

The Nicholas Holbrook of the story is a young man of vast wealth, of considerable culture, and with the refined and ai'tistio tastes of a dreamer, rather than a worker. Ho is, moreover, "the only son of hia mother, and she was a widow." He is the fourth ''Nicholas Holbrook," and knows little of the plane in which hi? great-grand-father laid the foundations of the vast Holbrook fortunes until he accepts a requisition from that constituency to be its representative in Parliament.

Then the young man makes many discoveries, primarily through the venomous personalities of the Opposition press, whose agents glidly seize upon flaws in the family chronicles of which Nicholas is entirely ignorant. Thin, the assertion that a certain branch of the family, first cousins of his own, is. living in the direst poverty in one of the cheap slums of Rivington takes Nicholas down to his possible constituency to investigate for himself the truth of these reports He not only finds the cousins, but also learns for the first time how his greatgrandfather made the n-oney which he now enjoys, mid with which hi.s father (the third Nicholas Holbrook) purchased that fair Sussex estate which has been the ideal home of hi.s own happy life The sweating slums plunged in the damp river mists, the flaming gin-palaces whose beckoning lights stre un far upon the dreary streets, the treeless wilderness of houses where turf and f jard^.r>s are as unknown as in the Desert of Sahara, haunt the young m.-.n.

About tl'e little figure, too, of his worn, tired cousin Dulcie (whom he carries off to his maiden au.il's for re--t and country air) a thousand delicate threads of new interests and new point*, of Mew spm themselves". The gentle Nicholas awakes to responsibilities, pohMbihties hopes and fears of which his well regulated life lud hitherto held no suggestion. The solving of the problems and the winding of the tangled skein of Nicholas's love story are worth reading. The love story, though simple, is unconventional and good.

THE LOST SQUARE By L. T. Meu>e.

London: Ward, Lock, and Co. Dunedin f

Braithwaite's Book Arcade.

In this half-dozen stories the idle traveller may find beguilement, ra"ovided always he be not hard to please ; personally we should prefer our daily paper. The personality which runs through the entire series of odventuious episodes, as insatiable in her hatred as some fallen angel, is one Mademoiselle Delacourt. The discriminating reader -will of cfmrse understand that the lady is beautiful ; the gentleman whom she honours with an undying hatred is, equally, of course, .supposed to be in possession of a political secret — as a matter of fact he knows nothing! It certi-inly is not our province to indicate tlo nature of the marvellous plots and lntngues of which the unhappy Phenays in his .supposed character of the possessor of a political secret, is subjected. Readers will be satisfied with our indication of the kind of fare prepa.roH istn Mi m ••JJie Lost Square."