BOOKS and BOOKMEN

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 17130, 4 September 1926, Page 9

BOOKS and BOOKMEN

CRI'ELLEST I,AV\ IX Till WOULD.''

MR. UILBERT FRANKAU TASTES PBOMiurnox.

SHABBY" ENGLAND

Air. Gilbert. Frnnknu, the famous novelist, luis returned from a four months' tour of America, convinced that England as a nation is rapidly becoming what he terms " shabby genteel." His formula lor arresting the process consists

of throwing nut trade union and other icstrictions, firmly sitting on Commimists and kindred disturbers, and adopting American ideas of ollieieucy.

" But," he said sadly to a Daily Express 'representative, " Ibe troiihle is over here we've all such infernal gentlemen."

lie was asked : '' Would von make us :,!! ' Babbitts ' !*'

(Babbitt was. of course, (he central figure of a fanions American novel, portraying the life of a middle-class American num.)

. " Well, they called me Babbill over there." Mr. Fraukati .replied, '•and 1 said J was prowl to be a P.abbiil. I'd r.ertainly rather be a Babbitt than one of the idle, rich."' " America is building now." Mr. Frnnkau continued, " hdl when rJie lias finished building she will have the culture. Even to-day she has better architecture, than we have, and architecture is the foundation stone of the arts. Her hotels and public buildings are hettcthan ours—yes, and. her monuments!" EFFICIENT WIVES.

The American efficiency which Mr. Fiankan admires and advocate,? spreads even 10 the women.

" Nobody wants n sloppy wife, who can't keep house or sew or cook," be declared. 'American women are trying iiard to do their jobs, Women are ashamed if thev make a failure."

Apparently America is efficient in spite of and not because of prohibition. according to the novelist. "If you take the ' pub' out of republic you leave ' relic,' " he said, " and that's what happened in America. Prohibition is the cruellest law in the world; the rich man can get what- lie wants to drink, while the poor man can't get his beer. I never had any difficulty getting what I wanted to drink from one end of the country to the other. " ' Prohibition is better than having nothing to drink,' is a favorite epigram over there. " America thinks we are the maddest, people on the earth, the way we run our business—and 1 am not sine they're wrong. But the hundred per cent American realises that we saved America twice, once in the war, and a second lime, most, of them think, by the general strike."

"TitK BLCE CASTLE." ].. M. Montgomery is already widely known, and popular, wherever known, on account oi the line series of splendid stories for which have appeared under that name. But the author has broken new ground in this latest work, and has produced a story loi adults which is sine of the heartiest appreciation from the readers into whose lucky hands it falls. The plot is quite an original one. Valancy Stirling, better known as "Doss," has lived the rather dull twenty-nine years, of tier lite in the happy hut. humdrum home of her respectable family in Canada. Jtojnauee never comes to her except in glorious dreams of a Castle in Spain—the possession of every self-respecting young tad and lass of imagination. There are delightful pictures oi' family life, and some line characterisations, so that each of the characters appear really to live. One day the doctor announces that Doss is suffering from an incurable heart disease. 'The drab monotony of her life reveals itself more poignantly than ever in the light of this verdict. She realises that she has never really lived, and resolves that she .will fill into the uncertain, remaining years as much of the joy of living as she can pack. She yearns for romance—lo possess her Blue Castle in Spain—and in her passional e desire to know life and drink il to ils lees, she is swept into marriage with a young handsome ne'er-do -week The young couple begin their married life on a delightful island in a remote northern lake, and the husband, who is misunderstood, rather than a failure, Inrns out a splendid young fellow. The pictures of life in the Canadian backblocks are delightful and the story ends happily with Doss in the posseession of her Blue Castle, and a fine young husband for knight. The storyis a fascinating one and will make the general reader hope that L. M. Montgomery will give more attention in future' to fiction that makes a more, general appeal than hooks written specially for girls. The Cornstalk Company are to he congratulated on this addition to the list, of line books published by them. We heartily commend the hook to all who are in search of an interesting and unusual story, lightened with humor, and warm with the radiance of a happy Jove romance.

FREE DRINKS

(By John Markworlh)

When Professor Meiklojohn discovered how to make synthetic, whisky he was preparing trouble for his family and much employment for two crooks who wished to take the easiest way of possessing themselves of the secret and, consequently, free drinks. Fortunately for the Professor's peace of mind he possessed a daughter, Ann, who had enough determination and strength of mind to counteract the susceptibilities of her brother James, who was young enough to believe that goodness and beauty were invariably associated in womanhood, which miscalculation of his was taken advantage of by a fascinating lady named Sylvia, who was. like to have proved a dangerous acquaintance. How the unscrupulous gamy Attempted to steal the professor's secret and almost succeeded; how James escaped from bis entanglement ; and how Ann acquired more than a fortune in baffling the conspirators. These are leading incidents, in a. well, told and exciting story which works up to a irJhoax which i,s completely unexpected. Tassel and Co. are the publishers.

MR SINCLAIR LEWIS IX A CANADIAN sETTIXr;.

HE-MEN AND A YODNG WIFE

"Mantrap." by Sinclair Lewis. Mr. Sinclair Lewis, author of "Babbitt" and. "Main Street," and "Martin Arrowsmifb.'' has gOn c farther afield m his latest novel I ban New York offices, farther afield even than the depressing townships of the Middle West. In "Mantrap" we are among he-men in the wilds of Northern Canada. Listen to the names. (The hero. Ralph Prescotl. a prosperous little New York lawyer, is a bout' to start, on holiday). "He flipped open a linen-backed map bearing the legend. "Mantray River and Vicinity.' There was Winnipeg, at the lower right-hand edge; there was the Flambeau River; there were Lake Warwick and the Mantrap River, Mantrap Landing and Lac Qui Rove. Ghost Squaw' River and Ghost Rapids* Lost River and Weeping River and Lake Midnight." There is a 10l of history in names. The list above recalls the Indian civilisation, and the French civilisation, and the British civilisation. lhaiT'or two hundred years disputed that part of Canada, Present t, "nervy" with overwork in New York, decided to. take a trip among the great open spaces, lured by the invitation of his business acquaintance, Wesson Woodbury. The first half of the bonk deals with the opening of that, trip, and tells how Present t is bored and bullied by Woodbury, whose character portrait is one of the most devilish things that Mr. Sinclair Lewis has_ yet dona Woodbury, among other things, insists that the Dip is no real trip unless every one is as hardily uncomfortable as possible. Is lie not a 100 per cent, he-man? There is a world of pathos iu Prcseolt's vow to himself concerning a small travelling pillow included in ins baggage, which has excited ridicule: "I won't throw away my little pillow. I'll sneak it along with inc." The second part of the book begins with Prcscott finding Woodbury insufferable, parting company with him, and throwing in his lot with Joe 1 Easter, a trapper and storekeeper at _ Mantrap Landing, an outpost of civilisation, which boasts no more than a few log cabins, a score of whites, and a few score of seedy Indians. Hero he is among the real bad men. and here he proceeds to fall in Jove with the young wife of Joe Easter—-the man who. in his hour of need, has been particularly kind to him.

The description of society in the small outpost is extraordinarily .good, with its portraits of Pop Buck.' t.he veteran of sixty, with his pockets "like wheatsacks sewn to the tent of bis worn jacket," who boasts that in bis palmy days he used to kill an ox by twisting its head, and of MeOrairty and Mrs. McCrairty. Then there is something about the liquor that is drunk—"a powerful, determined, single-minded explosive, colorless as water and effective as cholera. Ralph drank one glass, mercifully so .cozened with ginger ale that if did not taste like vitriol, but entirely like gasolene." Also admirable " is th<j sketch of the voung wife Alverna, who has been a. city mauicurisl. and gallantly keeps up her little coifi.'oliies and witticisms, in the roughest of camps. The end of fh&, book is unsatisfactory. 1. really don't think Mr Lewis knew what to do'with it. After that long elopement, with its extremes of danger in which the girl had shown something like heroic qualities, J. don't believe Loth her husband and Ralph would have let her go without a word. The book is. highly exciting reading up to that point, and Mr. Lewis is as acute in bis observation of the picturesque North as he was in seeing the drabness of Main-street.

M. C'LEMENCEAU'S NEW ROOIv

A PLEA FOR TOLERANCE

PARIS, July 14. The philosophical reflection to which, after his crowded years in the political arena, M. George C'lemeneean is devoting the evening of his days, has found expression in a new book, "Au Soiv do la Pcnsee," winch has as sub-title, "Authority, Liberty, Tolerance.'' Humanity, he says, in oho chapter, is now sufficiently advanced to realise that all men are collaborators in the shaping ot human destiny. Thero is, above all, one virtue to be recommended as a means of securing the happy accomplishment of our personal evolution and that of civilisation in gen eral: toleiance. which facilitates indulgence in our dealings one with another, and opens up all avenues of light to the expression of the human spirit. Up to the present, time it has been aslyscl of men. but without very great success, that they should love one another, but pel haps thev will he less reluctant to appreciate the wisdom of mutual toleration. For the encouragement of mankind in this direction it ma v be well to remind them occasionally that they are linked one with another, and that neither good nor evil can touch one's neighbor without having some effect upon ouesdf. With these two conclusions, that tolerance facilitates and embellishes life- aud that universal solidarity links us ail in all accidents of joy or suffering, it would seem that we hold the keys of our civilisation. ... I do not seek a paradise on earth any more than in the clouds. Civilisation will follow the destiny of civilised man in the current of events. Tt is for us to extract from our little moment of life nil it may contain oj human nobility during centuries which are less than & single hammer-stroke in the space of eternity.

" THE HIGH RISK."

BY IRENE STILES

" On gods or fools the high risk falls. —Rupert Brooke's lines supply the text for this story of Ann Hullett, daughter of David Hullett and Nita, Ins revueactress wife. David had tired of Nita, and her ways, and passed out of the story, so Ann never knew him. Ann at live was sent to Aunt Fanny in Sua. sex. and there she stayed until she was thirteen ; so it was really Aunt Fanny who moulded Ann's character. Her development thereafter forms the story —a story that possesses a. power and fascination that will make it one of the most remarkable books of the season. Ann is seen at school, where her association with Moina Lysaght provides an unsurpassed study of girl psychology : and the period' during which the girls, having left- school, are studying for a career, affords vivid; pictures of student life, involving "affairs" between boy and girl students, in one of which Ann meets Tony Martin—and tragedy. The trend of the storv from this point need not he outlined. Nulfie.e it thai though Ann achieves success, her triumph is turned to bitterness. For a first novel this is a. noteworthy hook, and if the promise here shown h fulfilled, the author will lake a high place our prosetnt-day writers of fiction. Cnssel znd Co. are the publishers. MEZZANINE. (By E. P. Benson}, The storv .here related is one to which the 'title is apt, for it concerns the domesticity of a couple who, hftV-

ing lons been in happiest married relationship, 'have reached the " iajidelletloor or life, their enthusiasms mellowed and softened into a deep understanding of each other. But Elizabeth, the wife, looks doubtfully towards the future: she js verging on fifty, whilst her Walter is ten years younger. There is a strong link between the two because his Mar experience has left Walter .an invalid for years and it was JJtisabeUA* devoted rums nig that brought hack to her husband vigor and health. Tony, their little boy. is the joy of their life. Into this happiness comes Margaret. Elizabeth's niece —in the first beauty of womanhood; wines iilso a more disturbing element—Evie, who had jilted Walter in pre-war days for a Jord, but who evidently is not unwilling to poach o.n Elizabeth's preserve. Evie's hunting of Walter is .untiring and relentless and Bo effective that heartache ajid misery is Elizabeth's portion for many a day. a misery deepened by the death of Tony and her own il'lueis; but just when Evie's victory seems certain the nxa.sk falls for a moment .and Walter sees the tiger underneath. The book is intense with quiet power, and—it is almost patronising to say so of E. F. Benson\< work—the various characters are instinct, with livitiK realism. Casse] and Co. are the publishers.