LITERATURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3212, 6 October 1915, Page 76

LITERATURE.

BOOK NOTICES

“The Adventures of ’ Cigarette.” By John Roland. London and Edinburgh : W. Blackwood and Sons. (3s 6d, 2s 6d.)

This is a collection of breathless suggestive adventures, in which the spiritual significance is but thinly disguised, showing the close relationship between religion and life; thus taking part in that crusade against the separation of body and spirit, wnich is to be detected in all the best modern literature. “Cigarette” is a kind of “ Beloved Vagabond ” with a conscience. He is a vagabond by instinct and deliberate choice. Though many trifling incidents show him to be of noble birth, he prefers to be a wanderer without home and without possessions. He attaches himself to Kurt Wiegant, a young Bavarian carpenter, who has just passed through his apprenticeship, and is about to start on his “ Wander Year.” Kurt is a good-natured boy with a weak will, who has already surrendered to more than oiie serious temptation, of which he is disposed to make too light. His father is anxious about him, and insists that he shall accept Cigarette’s offer of companionship, made in the following terms: “‘Now that you are your own master, you will soon be starting off on your wander year. But you are young vet, and you will not find life easy on the road. You will meet much good there and much evil. Which of the two you choose as your companion will depend on your eyesight. And I have on idea that you are still more than half blind. Let me teach you to see.’ ” Kurt has no desire to “ see ” at the bidding of another, but his father’s will constrains him; moreover, Cigarette’s confession as to his object in life attracts him. “ My life-work, young esquire, is like that of all noble knights.. I go through the world seeking to do good. Not striving, as the fashion was in times past, to right men’s wrongs, for that is quite impossible, but trying to make the wrongs, once done, easier to bear. Not succouring the innocent, but lending a hand to the guilty In an age like ours the innocent anpear to need no help; they axe protected by law and public opinion. And of the really guiltless there are few, and those most uninteresting. That has been always so. Even when knights abounded on the highways, I am inclined to think that many a fair lady who clamoured to be delivered from the dungeon of some cruel giant was not without blame for her unhappy plight. She had probably met the giant more than halfway, and persuaded him to ravish her from a stupid maiden home, considering too much of a man better than too little. . . . We shan’t lack exciting adventures, we two. There will be giants to overcome, and dragons, and wicked magicians. Only they won’t always appear in such form as one might reasonably expect them to assume.” Cigarette’s promise and his prophecy are admirably fulfilled. In the eight adventures which follow there are never wanting the giant, the dragon, and the wicked magician, though they are often so skilfully disguised as the World, the Flesh, and the Devil that Kurt alone would never have discovered their identity, any more than that of the Knight Errant who trudged along by his side. Nor must these stories ba looked upon as mere allegories, unless wo would look upon all life in that way. They are true adventures, always thrilling, often breathless, of which the surface meaning is sufficiently attractive without looking deeper. Nay, more, the spiritual significance often lies so deep that it is only the initiated who could discover it. Yet the unspoken teaching lias its due effect on the young neopnyte, so that when Kurt’s wander year is over, and he is returned to the bosom of his family, his father is able to declare to Cigarette : “ I gave thee a spoiled puppy, and thou hast brought me back a man. May all the saints be praised.”

“All About Plying.” By Gertrude Bacon. London : Methuen and Co. Invercargill ; G. J. Hicks. (Cloth, illustrated, Is.)

To all who are interested in flying—and who is not ? —this little book will prove most informative and interesting. Miss Bacon tells us first how and why she was attracted to the study of aviation; then gives an account of the pioneers of the art and their work, tracing the successive stages of progress to the solving of the initial problem of the “light engine.” She then explains “ why an aeroplane flies,” the nature of air resistance, “ stability and how to attain it,” and so on. This is followed by a description and classification of the “flying machines” of to-day—the difference between monoplanes, biplanes, aeroplanes, seaplanes, and the principal military machines so mysteriously referred to in our cables by letters. We are next told something about the “ power unit,” the advantages and drawbacks of various engines, “ the problem of the propeller,” and similar technical matters. To this is added a most interesting chapter on “ Heroes of Flight,” in which many great names and deeds are commemorated; and a final chapter on “ Flying in Peace and War,” in which we are told “ how a pilot learns to fly,” what are the sensations aloft, the discomfort of air-sickness, etc. ; also something of the perils and dangers of the sky itself, “ air-pockets,” and “ holes in the wi 1,” etc. Then comes a resume of the “cost of flying,” what the flying machine has done in the present war, and what it may be expected to do. Among other details, it is interesting to learn that at the outbreak of the war Germany had an aeroplane fleet of 1300,- doubtless all of the very best; France had about 800, many very ineffective ; and Great Britain a scratch team of 100 or less. “In seaplanes we have, of course, all along been first.” The -generally received opinion up to the present is “that, while the Ger■man machines excell all others, it is the

British men who have don© the most wonderful work. Flying has to become instinctive, and this instinct has been more rapidly developed in the British than in any other nation.”

“ The Barbarians.” By James Blyth London: John Long. (3s 6d, 2s 6d.)

This is the story of the married lives of two well-placed professional men—a lawyer and a doctor—who have the misfortune to fall in love with and. marry two designing and extravagant girls, these ladies having adopted the career of hospital nurse in the hope of effecting wealthy marriages. They play their cards skilfully to that end, and, having compassed it, very nearly bring themselves and their husbands to ruin. It has seldom been our fate to meet with two more despicable young women—in spite of their amazing beauty. But to accord them the title of “barbarians” appears to do them too much honour, their vices being those of an effete civilisation, which, it is to be hoped, the present war will help to eliminate; while all savage virtues appear to be conspicuous by their absence.

LITERARY NOTES. Lord Curzon of Kocllcston has published a book—“ War Poems and Other Translations”—which has, on the whole, boon favourably received. A neatly-turned epigram is this “Crux forroa” (“The Iron Cross”): Afflxus olim fur cruci; nunc crux furi. In olden days they hanged the thief, And on the cross he clung; But now we’ve turned another leaf — The cross on thieves is hung.

Richard Marsh, a prolific: writer of sensational and mystery novels died a few weeks ago at his house at Hayward’s Heath of heart failure, aged 58. In his 20 years of work as a novelist he produced some 60 books, his best being "The Beetle,” ■‘The Death Whistle.” ‘ A Spoiler of Men,” and “A Master of Deception.” Ho was educated at Eton and Oxford, so his sensation had a certain “tonyness.” Further reminiscences of R. L. Stevenson, as he lived in his Samoan home, are given in Mr iSafroni-Middleton’s “Sailor and Beachcomber,” the author being, like R.L.S. himself, a born vagabond. At the first impression, Stevenson struck the writer as being a rather respectable trader, or a skipper or mate of some ship, but on dis covering him to be the famous author he discovered 1 him ajso to bo in his looks and ways the reverse of respectable —in the eonvent'.oral sense —and the reverse also of a trader, unless indeed his later impression that the outline of Stevenson’s face suggested a Jewish origin might account for the original trader impression. For tho rest, he found Stevenson the manliest, gentlest, kindliest, and least conventional of men, hail-fellow-well-met with every native or Jack Tar, derelict or wastrel, and loved most of ell by those he most loved l — children. Mrs Stevenson was no less unconventional, “a downright good fellow,” not above giving Stevenson a sounding kiss in public as a prelude and preparation for an equally public and resonant scolding. She seems to have acted as Stevenson’s “flapper” in those moments of abstraction which alternated with moods of boyish or almost girlish talkativeness. Perhaps Mr Philip Gibbs has not quite been able to live up to the ambitious title of the book which he calls “The Soul of tho War,” but he has certainly painted a very striking phantasmagoria, based on things which he saw and heard during the first six months of the fighting in Flanders. Fie writes picturesquely as usual, and the immense gravity of the matters which he now chronicles has given his .pen just that needed which was sometimes lacking in his previous work. Hence the present volume seems to us to mark his greatest literary success. His account of the last stand of the Belgians, largely drawn from his own experiences gained at a short distance in roar of the actual fighting line, and frequently under shell-fire, is perhaps the best chapter in an admirable and extremely interesting book. The effects of the war on the sale of books shows that the trade has been affected in a curiously unequal manner (says The Times Literary Supplement). Some of the old-established London booksellers have suffered heavily, but the provincial trade is more flourishing than before the war. . . . Probably there never have been so many cheap reprints sold in any previous year as during the last 12 months. . . . One of the unexpected results has been a remarkable development in tho number of cheap editions of English novels sent to Russia—a traffic hardly noticeable before the war. The total number of new boolis has fallen off _ considerably, but more novels are now being circulated than at the beginning of the war. To-day people are turning with relief from the war news to fiction.

Villa, the Mexican guerilla leader, appears in a rather new light in Mr John Reed’s volume, “Insurgent Mexico.” His extraordinary self-reliance and capacity for dominating others are illustrated by bis issue and enforcement of paper money, guaranteed by no signature but his own; he seems to have rare swiftness in decision, and a hatred/ of all ceremony. The author tells us that: “The common soldiers adore him for h'S bravery and his coarse, blunt humour. Often I have seen him slouched on his cot in the little red caboose in which ho always travelled, cracking jokes familiarly with 20 ragged privates sprawled on the floor, chairs, and tables. When the army was entraining or detraining. Villa, personally would be on hand in a dirty old suit, without a collar, kicking mules in the stomach and pushing horses in and out of the stock cars. Getting thirsty all of a sudden, he would grab some soldier’s can teen and drain it, in spite of the indignant protests of its owner ; and then tell him to go over to the river, and sav that Pancho Villa said that he should fill it there.”

The death is armonnoed of Madame Linda Villari. wife of flic celebrated Professor Villari. so many of -whose books are wi ll known in English translations published by Mr T. Fisher Unwin. Professor Villari’s “Life and Times of Savonarola,” “Life and Times of Machiavelli.” “The Barbar : an Invasions of Italy.” “The History of Florence,” “Studies Historical and Critical.” were -all translated by his gifted wife. Madams Yillnri was tho daughter of James White. M.P., well remembered as the colleague of Professor Fawcett when both sat as Liberals for Brighton. Tiro name of Madame Villari’s first husband was Vincenzo Mazini, and her daughter by this marriage. Co stanza, is the wife of the distinguished artist William TTulton. Madame VilTari was tho author of “On Tuscan Hills

and Venetian Waters,” and of two novels, Camilla's Girlhood” and “When I Was a Ohild.” Her sen, Luigi Yillari, author of <( “7 ovann i Segantini, his Life and Work,” Fire and Sword in the Caucasus,” “Russia L nder the Great Shadow,” and many other books, who has been a great traveller, uj now serving with the Italian cavalry at the front.