LITERATURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3331, 16 January 1918, Page 52

LITERATURE.

BOOK NOTICES

"The Ruling Vice." By Paul Trent London, Melbourne, and Toronto: Ward, Locke, and Co. (Cloth; 45.)

Mr Paul Trent's new book tells how Nalda Gilchrist, a very young and beautiful heiress, suddenly thrown on her own resources, is detached from her country home and simple pleasures and cast amid a dissipated London set by her cousin Olive Delaire, whose object is to exploit Nalda and live in ease and comfort at her expense. With this object in view Olive introduces Nalda into a set of gamblers who "don't play for chocolates," knowing—what her cousin does not know —that, through her mother, the young girl inherits a tendency to the vice of gambling, hitherto kept'in complete abeyance by the care of her lately dead father. To bait the trap Olive makes her acquainted with two men—Jeffrey Lang and Mark Lindsay,—wilfully transposing their characters and assuring her that Lang is fascinating, a universal ladykiller, and that she must on no account fall too deeply in love with him; while Lindsay is dismissed as "stern, forbidding, and altogether impossible." The real fact, being that Olive herself is in love with LincTsay, who is a rich man, and is scheming to marry him, while Lang is her card-sharping partner, quite prepared to take part in "rooking the pigeon" who has fallen into their hands. Lindsay falls in love with Nalda at once, attracted by her innocent beauty and her solitary position as a dove among hawks. But he is powerless to save her from the wrath of the now infuriated Olive, doubly bent on securing her prey. The two struggle together for the soul of the infatuated girl. She marries Lindsay, and for a time all goes well; then, once more tempted by "the Tuling vice," Nalda sets her husband at defiance, leaves him, and plunges into the wildest dissipation, being ultimately taken prisoner in a "police raid on the private gambling hell of which Olive Delaire is one of the proprietors. _ For some time Nalda has been wearying of her folly, and longing to get back to her husband and to peace; and this proves the turning point of her career: she is saved from disgrace and ruin and restored to the arms of her faithful husband and protector, who at once charters a yacht and takes her for a long cruise in the Mediterranean, where all is forgiven and forgotten in the happiness of a new honeymoon.

"The Temptation of Mary Lister." By E. Everett-Green. London: Stanley Paid and Co. (Second edition; 4s, 2s 6d.)

Two young women, of the same name (Mary Lister) embark on the same vessel bound from Australia to England. Both are orphans, without near relatives or close friends either in England or in the colonies; but their positions are very different. One, already rich, is on her way to the Homeland to obtain a great property left to her by her grandfather, who has quarrelled with all his other relatives; the other girl is going to try and earn her own living. The rich Mary Lister falls ill on the voyage, and a stewardess, fancying they may be related, asks the poor Mary Lister to take temporary charge of her namesake. The two girls get much attached to each other, and before tho rich Mary Lister dies she persuades her namesake to personate her, and coaches her well up in her part. Number two objects, but her objections are gradually overruled, and when number one is burled at sea the other Mary Lister yields to the temptation, which, appears so easy of accomplishment, and can apparently do no s harm to anyone. Of course, all sorts of unforseen. difficulties crop up. Among others, a clause in the grandfather's will providing that, in case of his granddaugnter's death unmarried, the property shall go to a distant cousin. Mary naturally feels that she is cheating this man of his rights, and when she falls in love with him and sees that for j?one reason or other he doubts her bona fides the position becomes greatly complicated. The plot is good and well developed and the story quite readable.

"The Wonder Book of the Navy." Edit-cd by Harry Golding. London, Melbourno, and Toronto : Ward, Locke, and Co. (Boards, illustrated, 55 .-)

This latest addition to Messrs Ward, Locke, aiid Co.'s really wonderful series of "Wonder Books" will be welcomed with delight by the young people for whom it is intended —girls as well as boys. It is in truth a mine of information on every subject connected with our "strong, sdenfc defenders"; and the absolute reliability pf the information thus provided is touched for bv the statement on the title page that " this book ha« beer, passed for publication by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty." The information thus supplied embraces every imaginable point connected with the life and work of our sailors in every capacity,

from the Lord High Admiral to the smallest cabin-boy, and among the many delightful articles we noticed one by Gerard Fiennes, entitled " Names Tlicy Have in the Navy," which gives a most amusing resume of special shing names and nicknames as applied to soma of the " Brass Hale? " and less important persons by their comrades on the upper ar.tl lower decks. Like all •such nicknames, some are vividly appropriate, while tho meaning of others is far to seek. For example, it is difficult, to see why the Blue Marines should be called "Bullocks" and the Red Marines " Turkeys " ; while " Chips' 1 and " Chippy Chaps " for the carpenter and his ratings is, of course, very obvious. There are also some pretty and illustrative stories, such as " The Fortunes of War," by M. G. Johnstone; " H.M.S. Blackbird," by "Sub."; and : 'His First Command," by M. G. Johnstone, which record the doings of certain very young and very daring hei'oes, which will be read with great delight. The book is splendidly got up, and illustrated with 16 coloured plates of xmusual merit, and nearly 300 other pictures, mostly from photos. Among the coloured plates are some fine examples of " National Naval Flags" and "International Code Pennants," of great interest, all .calculated to fan the deep-seated interest in our navy and its doings, which is one of the deepest sources of interest at the present time. Among the other pictures of more than transient value we may particularise "Britannia's Bulwarks," from the original painting by Charles J. De Lacy, showing in the centre a full-rigged battleship, with all her guns in position, at the head of a line of similar craft tapering away into the distance, a sunset sky above and a welter of white water foaming round the bows. "The Roaring Lion,'' from the original painting by Arthur J. W. Burgess, R. 1., shows a ship of the same calibre in action on a cloudy day in midocean, great jets of water marking the spots where her shells, or those of her opponent, strike the waves. "A 'British Battleship off Gibraltar," "Bound East: Units of the Grand Fleet at Sea," " A Battle Squadron on Line Ahead," " Hornets of the Seas: Destroyers at Speed," " The Launch of a Battleship," and others are all from original paintings by wellknown artists, including " The Empire's Call : Units of the Australian Navy Leaving Sydney Harbour," from the original painting by Arthur J. W. Burgess, R.I. Any one of these excellent reproductions is well worth the price asked for the whole of this really "Wonder Book."