LITERATURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3337, 27 February 1918, Page 52

LITERATURE.

I BOOK NOTICES. " The Born Fool." By John Walter Byrd. London: Chatto.and Windus. (Cloth; 6s net.) This is a first novel, and in many respects is both brilliant and striking, being j the sympathetic study of a highly-sensi-i tive child, boy, and .man up to the time ' of his marriage. The story is realistic in its close observance and treatment of fact, and at the same time unusually idealistic in its outlook on the greater things of life. In its setting we have fine Nature studies of different parts of England, commencing in the rich valleys' of the Midlands, where the boy spends much of his time in a delightful,, old-fashioned garden with the mother who leaves him all too soon; thence to the soft, delightful downs and vales of Hampshire and Sussex; and, finally, we leave him in the stern, manufacturing, dreary, cold districts of Yorkshire. Whichever of these is his transitory residence the spell of environment exercises a powerful influence over the nature of Kirk Clinton, who responds to every mood of Nature almost as keenly as did his. favourite, author, Richard Jefferies. Kirk's father is a civil engineer of fame, and Kirk is brought up in his profession. The father from a mistaken impulse of economy and a desire to show his power-refuses him the advantages of a modern college course in .the proiession, so that the boy is practicallv compelled to take an inferior and badly-paid position, as his home is made too uncomfortable for him to remain in it. Kirk likes engineering,, and has an inherited talent for some of its higher, and generally better paid specialisations; but his favourite hobby, and one-for which he has a distinct \flair, is geology, with a minor taste f,or fishing and some other forms of sport. These different occupations of the hero afford very excellent and unusual reading, giving interesting details of engineering difficulties overcome, of geological discoveries and impressions, of interesting persons with whom he is brought into contact, and, who furnish the author with many clear-cut, thumb-nail sketches, bearing every impression of being drawn from life, and are without doubt' an autobiographical record of thrilling experiences in the field of Nature-study. But whether engineering, geologising, or fishing, Kirk lives always in a world of his own—a world .peopled with high ideals, beautiful visions, entrancing dreams. He never sees things or people exactly as they are, and the sordid side of life hurts him so acutely that he is fain to hide it, to cover it up, even from his own sight. His marriage is a fatal error, and the author does wisely not to enlarge upoi: it. For one, so young, so impressionable, so visionary, any ordinary marriage might well have been disastrous ; bat Kirk makes i a double error—first, of allowing himself to be drawn into a promise of marriage by pity instead of love, and then, when, he fully realises his error, in consummating the union, knowing well that he willl have to exercise a lifelong deceit, since the girl's jealous nature is acutely on the watch to detect anv shortcoming on the part of the man whom she loves I with selfish exaggeration, and would fain tie closely to her apron-strings. Kirk cannot bear to disappoint her, as they J are married, and " for the moment Marian . . . was satisfied with the brief, novel, tremendous passion-pleasure of the physical union," while Kirk's feelings "were darkly undershot and stressed by the lack of those sweetest-in-life, wonderfully intimate emotions of the soul and the spirit, which should be so precious and essential in the first blessed, triple consummation of a pair of warm, refined, true lovers." Alas! for poor Kirk. He had committed ) the fata! error, which the author considers '

the result of "centuries and centtiries of | disobedience to law," and he must perforce reap the result of his folly. In this we probably find the explanation of the somewhat cryptic title of an unusual and very interesting story. We shall anxiously look | for Mr Byrd's next book, trusting that it may be a further development of his dei scriptive and psychological powers, which I are of no common order. j "Honour Among Thieves." By Gabrielle j Festing. London and Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons. (Cloth; | 45.) _ _ A briiliant story of the early years of I the last century, when the Napoleonic i wars were well engaging the attention of Europe, and many English people on the south coast lived in terror of the threatened French invasion. From first to last the story conveys an admirable picture of the manners and customs of the period wheri it was still possible for gentlemen to go to bed drunk every night without loss of caste, and occasionally fight a duel in the early hours of «the morning. The tale begins with the marriage of one such man, Sir Charles Mendip, to a young heiress under 16, an innocent and ignorant child who has been practically sold to him by her self-appointed guardian, a lawyer named Rivers. Honor Bassett has been brought up in the country by two gentle, kindly old women, nurse and governess to her deceased mother. She is married in the drawing room of Mr Rivers's bouse, as being more fashionable than a church, and is immediately carried off by her stranger husband, who has already had more to d'rinff than is good for him. She is naturally terrified, and shrinks from his advances; and when a breakdown of their carriage causes a long delay, during which he and his servant get more drink and finally fall asleep, one inside the carriage, and one on the box, Honor slips out unobserved, hides behind a hedge, changes her wedding finery for some ranigh country clothes (obtained at their stopping-place), and in the morning walks along country lanes until she reaches a farm, where she obtains shelter and service with an invalid woman. Meanwhile the coach has gone on. Sir Charles awakes from his drunken sleep to see a ladv friend awaiting him by the roadside. He goes home with her, spends the night playing cards, and learns in the morning that his coach has been upset into the river, horses and driver drowned, and parties of men engaged in dragging the stream for the bodies of himself and his bride. After this the storv follows the adventures of Honor, and justifies the humorous title. The girl has many terrible experiences, but finally finds friends and an excellent protector. But the shock of her troubles and a long: illness affect her memory, so that she but dimly recollects the details of her marriage and escape, and, instead of explaining them properly to her new friends, she j only savs enough to make thgm believe a ; very different, story, and in this miscon- i ceution she marries (believing the first ! marriage to be of "no importance") a man whom she very truly loves, and who is devoted, to her. Then follow a number of very pathetic scenes and misunderstandings, until an unexpected denouement brings a clever and original stony to a satisfactory conclusion. As an admirable picture of the period, told with much realism and feeling, and no small sense of humour, we can recommend "' Honor ! Among Thieves " to all readers. :