ADDITIONS TO LIBRARY

Taranaki Daily News, 24 November 1934, Page 14 (Supplement)

ADDITIONS TO LIBRARY

CAPTURED BY PIRATES HAROLD BELL WRIGHTS LATEST. “HART’ DETECTIVE MYSTERY. The chief librarian of the New Plymouth Public Library reports the following books in popular demand:— General Literature. “Gone Rustic,” by Cecil Roberts. “Red Saunders,’’ by “Sinbad.” “Play Parade,” an omnibus volume by Noel Coward. “Edward Wilson of the Antarctic,” by George Seaver. “Maiden Voyage,” By Margaret Gilruth. “Marriage at 6 a.m.,” by Tom Clarke. Fiction. “Captain Nicholas,” by Hugh Walpole. “The Provincial Lady in America,” by E. M. Delafield. “Spur of Morning,” by Alan Mulgan. “Anthony Adverse,” by Hervey Allen. “Ann and Aurelia,” by Adrian Alington. “This Little World,” by. Francis Brett Young. VICTIMS OF PIRACY. "Pirate Junk,” by Clifford Johnson. (Jonathan Cape, London). This, is the gruesome narrative of three British ship’s officers who were kidnapped by Chinese pirates from the steamer Newchang. It took five and a half month’s negotiations to get them released and the sufferings they endured were appalling. Mr. Johnson incorporates in this book the actual diary he kept during his period Of incarceration although only with the greatest difficulty. Sometimes the diary was written on cigarette paper, and always with the fear that it might be seized and destroyed. There' is no glamour about the modern pirate at close quarters. He is greedy, cruel and incredibly filthy. As'one reads this straightforward record of personal experiences, men laughing at conditions that would have driven most of us to insanity; meeting bullying with contempt or a smile; starving and bound like felons; and through it all remembering they were “white,” the dominant race, one begins to see why the Empire is so far-flung and to be assured that the spirit of adventure and of courage is still an attribute of the Briton. AN AMERICAN CINDERELLA. "Ma Cinderella,” by Harold Bell Wright. (Harper Bros., New York and London). There is just the same deftness in the make up of “Ma Cinderella” that readers of Mr. Wright’s earlier books have learned to expect and to appreciate. In this book he has returned to the “Ozark” country, in southern Missouri, for the setting of the story. The witchery of the hills still possesses Mr. Wright and he can. convey a little of it in his description of those rough mountain holdings, populated by people almost as rugged as the hills themselves. The story is quite pleasant. It concerns a forceful woman who had ruled a turbulent community by strength of personality. As her son comes to manhood his outlook on life runs counter to that of his mother. Circumstances, including of course the attractive girl Mr. Wright so delights to describe, are too much even for the strong-willed Ann Haskel. She is in danger and must leave the hills. ........

Her life as a wealthy woman in a city shows that her virtues of courage and self-sacrifice can be applied among conditions more trying in some respects than those she has left In the end misunderstandings are cleared away, and Ma Cinderella Comes into her own with happiness all around her. RURAL LIFE IN FRANCE. “Dead Woman’s Shoes,” by Charles Braibant. Translated by Vyvyan Holland. (Gollancz). Another dominating woman is the central character of “Dead Woman’s Shoes” a novel of rural life in France in the period Britons usually call “the Victorian era.” It describes the life of a man, bom as the French equivalent to the English “squire of the village,” and shows how his character deteriorated through the dominance of his mother and her determination to “manage” her son’s life for him. It is a long story, but for those who are interested in the study of the. quiet lives of the common folk of any nation this book will have a special appeal. It is frank, almpst Rabbelaisian in some of its descriptions. It does not gloss the failings of the French peasant nor of those to whom he paid, deference—though often under protest. Oppressed by his mother’s dominance, yet impressed by her skill in increasing the family fortune and her own local prestige, the’ principal character, Aime Bertraux wriggles through life unhappily. He cannot marry unless his mother chooses his bride, so lie keeps a mistress in Paris, where he is supposed to be practising law with a view to a political career, and it is not until his death that his mother learns she lias a grandson. Her reactions to that intelligence make an interesting climax to a story that moves sluggishly most of the way. CLEVER DETECTIVE WORK. "The Crooked Lane.” by Frances Noyes Hart. ' (Wm. Heinemann Ltd., London). There is nothing sluggish about “The Crooked Lane.” Incident is piled on incident, the gay people in Washington, among whom the drama is staged, talk as vivaciously as they live, and the murder that sets Karl Sheridan to work is mysterious enough to satisfy the most exacting reader of detective fiction. The secret is well-kept. Suspicion points in many directions and it is only a woman’s wit and daring for the man she loves that prevents Karl Sheridans success from being - complete. While the murderer-hunt is the main feature of this exciting yarn, the minor characters are drawn very cleverly. “Freddy,” Lady Parrish, with a strong vocabulary, a kind heart, and a merciless tongue for friend or enemy could, by herself, have made this book worth writing. _ For those who .like detective stories this will be accounted one hundred per cent, first class.