LITERATURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3500, 12 April 1921, Page 55

LITERATURE.

BOOK NOTICES. •The Trusty Servant,” by O. V. MTailden. London: John Lane. This is a novel of quite unusual interest, ®ne which the reader, having begun, lays down reluctantly, thinks over in the interval, and returns to eagerly with mingled hope and fear as to the ending. For Miss M'Fadden has the gift of making her characters live, and in this latest novel she has devised a plot of specially poignant interest. The book is rather a long one, and too well written to be rushed through hurriedly, or, if so, read to learn the fate of the hero, it will repay rereading. Like Miss M'Faddcn s previous novels, of which ‘‘The Preventive Man” was the last, this story is placed in Dorsetshire, and is of the period of the early nineteenth century. The construction is very skilful, all the threads pf a somewhat complicated plot being well connected. The subsidiary characters are all strongly individual, and every action and circumstance has its vital part in the development of the story. The plot hinges on the recovery, after hanging, of a young man condemned (wrongfully, as the reader soon gathers( for murder. Such an occurrence in itself has obvious dramatic possibilities, and also offers openings for psychological handling. But Miss M'Fadden adds a circumstance of peculiar tragedy; the victim on his recovery has lost all memory of his personal history, and on being told that he is a murderer can find nothing in his consciousness to inform him whether or not the charge is true. The situation is the same as that which forms the plot interest of the late William de Morgan's novel, “Somehow Good.” A sudden shock deprives the hero of memory, and he is left without any clue to his identity. In each case, however, while the subject loses all knowledge of his personal history he retains all his capabilities and emotions, with all the capacities and habits that have become ingrained. Here loss of memory leaves the hero helpless, unable to take a step to recover the past that lay beyond the gaol and the gallows. He has been sentenced on somewhat doubtful evidence, so that a reprieve is granted. But this is lost—stolen, as it turns out, —so the accused man goes to his fate, the execution being bungled owing to the unexpected entry of the Regent into Dorchester. Ail old sculptor of the neighbourhood has seen the young man during his trial, and has bargained with the gaol authorities for his corpse, to employ it as a model for a statue of the slain St. Stephen. The victim recovers in the presence of the sculptor, and he retains him as model, and servantslave rather, since he holds over him the threat of giving him up to undergo a second time the doom of a murderer. Josian Treliane, daughter of the Secretary for Home Affairs, comes to sit as model to the old sculptor, her uncle. And the villain of the story, who has contrived his victim's condemnation for a murder, never committed, conies also, with the stepson of the old sculptor. These two try to induce “the trusty servant,” Demetrius Jordan, to rob and murder his master, and, failing, contrive the old man’s death themselves. Demetrius, who has vainly warned Josian’s father of the crime in preparation, finally gives himself up as his master’s murderer to save from the stain of suspicion the young girl whom he. loves with hopeless devotion. The character of the old sculptor, absorbed in his art almost to the extinction of human feling, might well have been suggested by the classic story of the Greek painter Parrhasius, who is said to have tortured a slave to death in order to obtain a fit model for his picture of the agonising Prometheus. For thrilling plot and powerful treatment this novel has very few rivals in recent fiction. Tone and style are alike admirable. “The trusty servant” more than satisfies anticipations founded on Miss M'Fr.dden’s previous novels, and establishes her reputation as one of the ablest of contemporarv writers of fiction. “Mee-ow! The Book of the Cat.” Melbourne : Melville and Mullen. Let not animal lovers suppose that this is a book about the four-footed domestic cat in its various varieties-—common, Angora-, and Persian, of which latter such fascinating specimens were to he seen at the late p ; ct- show. No; this little brochure consists of epigrams by a prominent Melbourne foci tv ladv who masks her identitv under the pen name of E. M. Leslie, and deprecates criticism bv asking readers to remember that “she is but a garden cat.’’ Some of the sayings arc “cattish,” as “Never tel i your clearest friend anything that she can use against you when she becomes your bitterest enemy” ; the majority are satirical and cynical, but some- are merelv prudential rnaxim-'. of which “It's hard times, and not soft times, that make us” is one of the best. The writer lias the gift of coining pointer! savings. ‘‘Forgiveness and garters lose tneir sunn when they are stretched too often.'’ for instance.' Her book will amuse, and if her epigrams scarcely come up to her own definition. “Epigrams are great truths in tabloid form,” many are true as well ns wittv. “Smart” is the adjective that best characterises them.

trated, is highly interesting, while one of the most attractive articles is “An Interview with Mr Joseph Harker,” the foremost scene painter of the present day. The Storyteller for March is to hand from the publishers (Messrs Cassell and Co., Ltd.), and is, as usual, full of interesting reading matter. All classes of readers are catered for, as a glance at the contributing authors shows. Among others are Frank H. Shaw, Warwick Deeping, “Bartimeus,” Maxim Gorky, Hugh Walpole, etc., etc. The New Magazine for February is a specially enlarged holiday number. Readers of this magazine are kept in touch with the leading plays at Home. This month’s number is “A Night Out,” and a story of the play is given, with the principals and some of the scenes. The fiction section is well selected, and there is a long, complete novel by Beatrice Heron Maxwell. All the other stories are up to the usual high standard.