BOOKS REVIEWED.

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 103, 22 July 1927, Page 12

BOOKS REVIEWED.

FOUR WAYFARERS. NEW series of reprints, and several are excellent, can be said to rival Dent’s “Wayfarers’ Library.” It has always been strong in romance and belles lettres, chosen with unfailing tact from the best in modern literature. The alphabetical list of authors and titles, from Anstsy (“Baboo Jabberjee”) to Zangwill (“Children of the Ghetto”), is a standing temptation to send a bookseller an order for a complete set; but it is a temptation best resisted, for such wholesale greed robs one of the pleasure of “picking up,” at happy random, now this and now that pleasant companion. Blessed the reader who hits upon any of the four new additions to the library— Hudson’s “Afoot in England” is on e | of his most lovable books, lovable for ! that combination of the seeing eye, the feeling heart, the deeply, quietly thoughtful mind with which Hudson approached nature. And his prose—so sweetly exact, like the touch of cool, ministering fingers on the brow. “Q’s” early novel, “The Blue Pavilions” needs no recommendation. It is a. story to which one surrenders, all content. A striking book, “Lord” George Sanger’s “Seventy Years a Showman.” But it has been out of print for many years, simply because, by some strange twist of public fancy, it did not attract the attention it deserved when it was first published, in 1910 Yet consider the personality of the writer. He was England’s greatest showman. Sanger’s circus was a national institution, in which even Queen Victoria took a lively interest. He did not retire from ownership of it until 1905. Yet his clear memories went back to the reign of William the Fourth. Moreover, Sanger was able to tell his story with graphic simplicity. Again and again, as we read his earlier chapters, we see characters of Dickens in the very life leaping into clear-cut view. His book is ti storehouse of historical pictures, as well as an absorbing autobiography. Other and greater essayists have written on topics as commonplace; but few have had the same unfailing appeal to the common folk as “Alpha of the Plough.” In “Many Furrows,” now added to the Wayfarers’ Library, the author rambles delightfullj' from Fleet Street to Devon, through winter and summer, in company and alone; and always the reader feels that his subjects, from bees at swarming time to naming the baby, are handled by a man rich, above all else, in human understandtag. “Seventy Years ' a Showman.” “Lord” George Sanger; “The Blue Pavilions.” Sir Arthur Quiller-Coucli; “Afoot in England.” \V. H. Hudson; “Many Furrows.” “Alpha of the Plough.” All published by J. M. Dent and Sons, in the “Wayfarers’ Library.” Our copies from the publishers. What Advertising Will Do!

Jim Crawley was one of those peculiarly English young men, possessed of all the virtues, imbued with an intense desire to do something—precisely what that something was Jim did not know. And he was sadly in need of money.

An advertisement in “The Times” — in an English novel no advertisement is ever inserted in any paper but “The Times,” and, if it were, a young man like Jim would never have read it—was worded thus:

WANTED.—A Confidential SecretaryAcquainted with the British Aristocracy'. Services purely' nomnal. Salary, £IOO per month. Only an American, of course, would insert an advertisement like that. But there it was—capital letters and all. And that was how Jim and Bill Boyd, the Texas millionaire, became acquainted. Naturally Jihi fitted the role admirably, and he quite enjoyed the job until nasty' old Lord Fairleigh, whose youth in America was not all that it should have been, kidnapped the genial ex-broncho rider. Then the fun was fast and furious. For those who would enjoy' all the ingredients of a good old-fashioned melodrama, “The Paper Chase” will provide the required thi’ills. “The Paper Chase,” by' Flearnden Balfour. Our copy' from the publishers, Hodder and Stoughton, London. “The Big House” To be left money and a very fine property' is, we always understood, a very pleasant experience. Apparently' it may entail occasional difficulties. So found Victoria, a very lively little lady, who grew up to be very beautiful in the beautiful State of Maine, U.S.A. Her grandfather—parent of her dead mother—cut out his sons from his will, and left the Big House to the granddaughter. who bore so striking a resemblance to her lovely mother. Thus Victoria became the leader of a very truculent clan of relations. They cheated her, but they could not cheat her of the happiness that came with the real man in her second love affair. Readers will like Victoria. “The Big House,” Mildren Wasson, Methuen and Co., Ltd., London. Our copy from the publishers.

Ar» International Machiavelll. In his previous novel, “The Seven Sleepers,” Francis Beeding did not satisfactorily dispose of that Machiavelli of international politics. Professor Kreutzemark and his satellites, and in his latest, “The Hidden Kingdom,” this stormy petrel has transferred his activities from the World War and is engaged in stirring up strife among the hord-es of Asia. The story opens in Spain, where the author gives a faithful and thrilling description of a bullfight, and incidentally reintroduces the characters of his former novel. The action then shifts to the heart of Mongolia, and intrigues and counter-plots are described in rapid succession. The locale of the story gives opportunity for a colourful setting, which is taken full advantage of and the thrills are many and often. A good story of the secret service and one that will make you decide to put another shovel of coals on the fire at night and sit up late. “The Hidden Kingdom.” Francis Beeding. Hodder and Stoughton. Our copy comes from the publishers’ Australian representative. A Tory Idealist. Mr Austin Hopkinson, M.P. for the Mossley Division of Lancashire, has written a clear, forceful exposition ol his view's on the relation between capital and labour. It is called “The Hope of the Workers.” But Mr Hopkinson is much less original in defining that hope, or the means of realising it, than he is vigorous in denouncing the perils and fallacies of socialism. He makes out a quite brilliantly effective case, partly by the use of fallaciously simple Illustrations: but his simplifications of complex problems are perhaps justified by his having written the book in the first place for a constituency of workers, and the fact that they slightly falsify the truth means, on th e whole, only that his conclusions are a little too sweeping and not that they are fundamentally false. It would be easy to pull Mr Hopkinson up over for instance, such inconsistencies as between pages 13 and 15, over certain aspects of his view's on Social Reform and “leaving Nature to do her w r ork,” over his pe culiar account of the great Coal Strike, and over many points of state ment and argument besides; but it is fairer to take the book as a w'hole and to say that, within its limits, it is a striking and wholesome analysis of political and economic quackery. Further, the lessons to be drawn from the analysis are sharply pointed and timely. And the book is, above all welcome as an expression of the best Tory opinion on the obligations of in dustrialists to their employees in par ticular and in general to the body corporate of the State. It is a vigor ous, refreshing book, and should be widely read. “The Hope of the Workers.” Austin Hop kinson, M.P. Martin Hopkinson and Co. Ltd. Our copy from the publisher. “A Well-Meaning Man.” The illicit love affair of a married man and a girl is an old theme for the novelist, but W. B. Maxwell, in his latest book, “The Case of Bevafi Yorke,” gives the story a new' tw'ist. without the traditional nastiness. The result is an engrossing and thoughtful piece of work. The novel concerns Bevan Yorke, an eminent Egyptolo gist and a gentleman (no distinction meant), Ursula Dibden, his girl as sistant, and Yorke’s w'ife Cecil Yorke’s gentleness and his desperate efforts to conduct his love affair like a man of honour make such a story that one is unw'illing to reach the in evitable tragic ending. This is a novel that has lived up to the “blurb” of the publisher, and the character-studies of Yorke, “that mosl dangerous of all living creatures —s really well-meaning man,” Ursula Dib den, a girl, in the old phrase, “trans forpied by love.” and Yorke’s patric ian wife are three of the finest ii modern English fiction. “The Case of Bevan Yorke.” W. B Maxwell. Ernest Benn, Ltd., London.

“Corson of the J.C.” Clarence E. Mulford knows how to pack a yarn with incident and maintain interest. There is in his latest the mystery of a murder —not the killing of a man in a row', but a cold-blooded shooting down from concealment. Suspicion finally forms a chain of evidence which hangs the man. The reader can best spare for that painful experience. Some of the cowboy characters*are particularly shrewd and interesting, and it may be surprising, but it is none the less true, that the story doesn’t seem to lose any interest by its complete freedom from “love passages.” “Corson of the J.C.” Clarence E. Mulford, Hodder and Stoughton, London. Our copy from the publishers. Building Society Movement Aiming to provide a simple yet authoritative study of the history, structure and working of the building society movement, Harold Bellman, general manager of the foremost London society, achieves his object in his recently published work. The grow'th of the movement is traced from a small back parlour in a Birmingham inn in 1781 up to the present time when it counts its members in millions and operates in all the civilised parts of the globe. He shows clearly how' the movement has evolved through a series of setbacks, till to-day the work it performs in the encouragement of thrift, and in promoting the ideal of home-ownership has called forth the unstinted praise of leaders of opinion in all walks of life. In presenting the scope and procedure of the movement the author deals also with America and the Dominions, and not the least important section of the work touches on Continental housing conditions. “The Building Society Movement,” by Harold Bellman. Our copy comes to hand direct from the publishers, Messrs. Methuen and Co., Ltd.. London.