INTEREST IN BOOKS

Taranaki Daily News, 13 April 1935, Page 14 (Supplement)

INTEREST IN BOOKS

PUBLISHERS’ CHOICE. FLINGING AWAY A THRONE. AUSTRALIAN BUSH ROMANCE. “Saraband for Dead Lovcra.” by Helen Simpson. William Heinemann Ltd.. London. A. J. Fyfe Ltd., New Plymouth. Officials histories do not say very much about Princess Sophia-Dorothea, banished wife of the Elector of Hanover who became King George I of England. Miss Simpson has expanded the official story and has made out of it an interesting and intriguing narrative. The story opens with the betrothal of George Louis,- Prince- of Hanover to Sophia-Dorothea, daughter of the Duke of Zelle, brother of the Bishop-Duke Augustus of Hanover, and his French wife who had been his mistress for many years before their marriage legitimised their daughter’s birth.

It was a piece of sordid bargaining that made Sophia-Dorothea daughter-in-law of the Bishop-Duke, and it was his mistress, Baroness Platen, who had, for purposes of her own, put the scheme afoot. It was the Duchess Sophia, granddaughter of Charles'! of England and wife of the Bishop-Duke who was the most difficult to convince. She believed in the Divine right of royalty to rule, and still more in the necessity for royalty marrying royal blood. Sophia could never forget that the Duchess of Zelle was not of royal breeding and it was that fact and not her youthful indiscretions which made Duchess Sophia loathe the idea of her son marrying Sophia-Dorothea of Zelle. However, the maiden’s wishes, her mother’s fears and her father’s hesitation were all over-ruled when the stern, calculating Duchess Sophia was convinced that marriage to her son was for that' son’s benefit. The wodding meant the linking of the Zelle estates to those of Hanover and further assistance to the ambition of the Bishop-Duke to become the Elector of his State. Sophia-Dorothea hated her Prince,' and he made no secret of his preference for other mistresses. Two children, a boy and a girl were born, and with the succession secured the estrangement between the Prince' and Princess became notorious. It was a period when treachery and corruption was part of every European Court. Etiquette was more important than honesty or faithfulness, the courtesan wielded greater powers than the wife and place-seeking was the price of husbands’ pliancy. The Duchess Sophia, stem Lutheran as she was, moved amongst the Court officials and favourites as a Queen. By sheer force of character and her own royal dignity she kept her authority. The most daring of her husband’s mistresses knew that the Duchess, afterwards the Electress, had but one aim, to see her son on the throne of England with a son to follow him. As for SophiaDorothea his pretty young wife, the Electress would uphold her daughter-in-law’s rightful position also, provided she made no parade of Jier hatred of her husband that might upset public opinion in England, Stripped of all the tinsel and swashbuckling of this minor German Court there is not much that .is heroic in this story. Sophia-Dorothea was a pretty, easy-going woman who longed for love and admiration but had few' principles to guide her. When the • handsome Swedish officer, Konigsmark, made love to her she was as simpering and as foolish as any of her serving-maids might have been with a handsome trooper. The old Electress warned her, GeorgeLouis became suspicious, and Konigsmark, who had been foolish enough to make an enemy of Baroness Platen, was murdered by the favourite’s' order. The Princess’ marriage was annulled and she was imprisoned in a castle that had been part of her dowry. Sophia-Dorothea was not the stuff of which heroic queens are made. As her mother-in-law told her with brutal frankness, she Was “not a woman of intelligence, you have not the means to drive a fantasy to success.” So the right to share a throne was tossed away for a passion that had already become a fetter to the man. Perhaps Fate was kinder to the Princess than she thought, for she was at least spared the agony of seeing Konigsmark’s affection turn to •hatred or neglect. It is e robust story, told with the frankness of the time. For those who like history rewritten to show the men and women behind the scenes of which historians write so coolly, this book will make strong appeal. “Earth’s Quality,” by Winifred Birkett. Angus and Robertson, Sydney. A. J. Fyfe Ltd., New Plymouth. This is an attractive volume. It is a story of an old-established Australian sheep run and of the Weldon family that owned it. The first few pages are somewhat lugubrious, and the reader suspects he is to have but one of the gloomy stories of health and strength thrown away in a struggle with droughts,. diseases and some hateful financial institution. As a matter of fact there is little that is unhappy in this book, and a good deal more of sunshine. Old John Weldon found a grandson to his liking, and one who appreciated the traditions of “Laverock,” although he admitted to his father that he would rather grow wheat than wool. Charles Weldon, the last of old John’s sons, is an enigma to his father. He was a successful author, though his father condemned his use of his wife’s diary and love letters for publication. One feels that the author means' Charles to be a likeable character, but he is just, a l>ttle too precious and self-satisfied to be real.

Tinonee Fraser, a plucky Australian girl who has to overcome her father’s erratic foolishness as well as earn her living, is very charming and quite a real person. She is just the right sort for quiet steady-going Alec Weldon, and it is rather refreshing to read a postwar love story where affection gets what an Australian would call “a fair spin.” Laverock flourishing again, old John Weldon assured " he is of use in the world, Alec and Tinonee in love with each other, and his father and Stella Arthur, daughter of a neighbour, also affianced indicated happiness so general as to tempt the gods. They have their revenge but although sharp it is not overwhelming—all things considered. This is an entertaining and pleasant volume, with buoyancy and healthiness its principal characteristics.