ADDITIONS TO LIBRARY

Taranaki Daily News, 23 February 1935, Page 14 (Supplement)

ADDITIONS TO LIBRARY

DOMINANT WOMANHOOD SEVENTY years of shopkeeping. MR. P. C. WREN’S LATEST “DYSART” The chief librarian of the New Plymouth Public Library reports the following books in popular demand: — General Literature. “Marriage at 6 a.m.,” by Tom Clarke. “Happy Despatches,” by A. B. (Banjo) Paterson. “Uphill,” an autobiography by Evelyn Wrench. “One’s Company,” a journey to China by Peter Fleming. “Everest 1933,” by Hugh Ruttledge. “Retreat from Glory,” by Bruce Lockhart. Fiction. “The Ginger Griffin,” by Ann Bridge. “This Little World,” by Francis Brett Young. “The BalliolS,” by Alec Waugh. “Harvest in the North,” by James Hodson. “Creation’s Cry,” by Humfrey Jordan. “The Jasmine Farm,” by “Elizabeth.” The following books have been added to the library recently:— “Full Flavour,” by Doris Lfeslie. (John Lanfe the Bodlfey Hfead, Ltd.). A history of four generations of a family engaged to the tobacco trade in London was almost certain to be interesting. It began when the cigar was a privilege of the wealthy, when the habit of smoking was one that was considered of doubtful taste, and when therefore a “West End” tobacco shop in London had something of the atmosphere of a club, a place -where goSsip could be exchanged and where proprietor and customers Could exchange views on the quality and flavour of the goods for sale and upon the politics and social happenings that were of general interest. In such establishments the contacts were much more as between friends, and this was the easier at “Hanson’s” because the proprietor, “Edward Christopher Timothy du Croix,” now Ducrox, Was known to be the son of a French emigre of noble birth whose parents had been guillotined during the Revolution’s worst orgies of hatred. -Edward Ducrox when he was thirty years old fell to love at first sight with Emily Parkes, the seventeen year old daughter of an impecunious apothecary. There were three children of the marriage Catherine, Christopher and Georgina. Christopher died before he was three years old, and the book concerns Chiefly the history of Catherine and Georgina. Edward succeeded to the business known as Hanson’s, but in his hands it gradually deteriorataed. He was a charming' fellow, but had a weakness for good living that was fostered by the class Of customer with whom he foregathered On terms, mote dr less, of aristocratic equality. When he died, the business was near collapse and it Was Catherine’s determination and shrewdness that saved it from disaster. The London of Catherine Ductbx’s childhood was the London Dickens knew and described so pungently. The governess, Miss Foley, is a character Dickens would have delighted to. “She had a moustache; a peculiarity which at her first introduction to this lady Catherine observed with interest, until Miss Foley told her it was rude to stare. Miss Foley’s Sleek black hair was neatly braided to bandeaux arOurid her head; her teeth very Slightly protruded, and she suffered, from indigestion Which gave to the tip bf her fiOse a .pinkish tinge. She always Wore a gown of grey worsted poplin, fashioned bf a nun-like severity, arid collared tad cuffed in white.” This lady “proceeded to impart to Catherine the rudiments of reading, writing and arithmetic, the use Of the globes, and a succession of dates in the history of England, beginning With the Battle bf Hastings arid ending With the coronation Of the Queen.” It WaS when Catherine inquired of her “if God WaS married” that MiSs Foley, who Was deeply religious, “set about teaching Catherine her Own rmworthiness, daily terror of the Evil One who was always Waiting for an opportunity to lead Bad Children to the Fit, a calamity only to be avoided by a rigorous Observance Of the truth, a memorising of the Catechism, rind an unswerving devotion to that Father whose eye was ever Watchfully upon her.” Miss Foley’s efforts were supplemented by three years at “Mrs. Qiiiltef’s Select Academy for the Daughters of Gentlemen at Gravesend,” where “she was tolerated, perhaps a little feared, by her Companions for her self-sufficiency, a spirited independence which they were quick to sense and to resent.” She. Was to need those qualities, for although she Was sought to marriage by quite an eligible young man soon after she left school her father’s death and the realisation that “Hanson’s” was bn the rocks gave Catherine the self-im-posed task of resuscitating the business. For a young woman of her upbringing and in the period of mid-Victorianism the task was herculean. Catherine Succeeded, but at a Cost. The Struggle left her dominating and shrewd, but with more of the self-sufficiency her schoolmates had disliked. These characteristics were to shadow her long life. They cost her the loyalty Of her husband, for having dismissed her earlier lover Catherine made a genuine love match with a man temperamentally/ unfaithful Who chafed at his wife’s management of him, the business, and most people with whom she came. to terms of intimacy. Years later the same dislike was to appear in her daughter, who made a runaway match and died in Capetown. Her grandson refused to accept her dominance and the book closes with the Outbreak Of the Great War and the struggle between the young and old wills still unsettled. For such a history there is necessarily the background of London trade and Society. As a trader Catherine was a success; as a woman the success was not so certain, but aS studies in character and influence she and her relations arid contacts are treated with unusual insight and the sympathy that enhances interest in their lives and work. “Sinbad the Soldier,” by F. 0. Wreft. (johti Murray.) Those who have appreciated Mr. Wren’s Seafaring tad Foreign Legion stories will be glad to have further chapters to the Career of Sinclair Dysart. This time he finds himself a prisoner of aft African desOrt tribe, Of Whom the Chief, to the prisoner’s amazement, is a white man. As his lieutenant Dysart learns much Of the Mussulman’s Outlook on life, and of the intrigue and danger in which the ruler of such a people must exist continuously. Together they make the solemn pilgrimage to Mecca incumbent upon all who would rule Mahommedans, although in this case there was a more personal and sinister reason for the journey. The description of that pilgrimage, the tragedies it involved and the drama with which it ended are told in Mr. Wren’s best style, and, as his readers know, a style that is both satisfying and refreshing.