In An Easy Chair.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13979, 14 August 1909, Page 3 (Supplement)

In An Easy Chair.

BOOKS AND WRITERS

Miss Katherine Tynan's book ("'Ct nixi'us ant! Others'') has si> much -he :iir of u completer novel thai ihe present reader was actually well into the second story before he realised that the tirst had ended, and wondered what else there was to liapp.-n. and how. the new characters would be connected with the old. .Somehow it is disappointing tn li" 1 ' that- a book ntfe hail thought to consist of one long tale is a hunch of short imcs. The reason is, that it is a mental effort to grasp new situations and new characters; it is like being .introduced to a nundier ot new people all at once. That is the objection to short stories in book tor hi : they are too much like a crowded "at home." One only wants to inn in and talk to a few real friends and come out again. Miss Tynan s stories, taken singly in this way, are well worth reading, anil range beyond the Emerald Isle for their plots and episodes. '

The author (F.lla Macmahon) of "Fancy O'Brien" gives a study ol a phase "of Irish life in a remarkably strong :»nd original piece ot work. Although it is a tragedy, grim and sordid enough, yet it contains a considerable element of humour.- as the ln-st tragedy often does, the 1 ililit ot laughter throwing into stronger relief the shadows of misery. The plot is familiar, a tale of seduction and desertion. followed by a iathej- s vengeance, but freshness ot treatment entirVlv redeems it Pom bein<T commonplace. and the situation is rendered still mere owinn -to the Tiish standard of "hasfitv which prevails anions' the Irish. The humo.ur tint Is so welcome a foil to such tale enters maiiily in the person of an old woman who keeps *» small shon in a suburb of T)uhlin, and whose crnversation is of the p**\vW kind uscdl* associated with the ily nr cl school of Scottish fiction. Mrs F-rrellv is a distinct creation: s'»«* adds to the gaiety of novel-rraders.

and My True T "to " e~ini > "" , s from Rr-stol. a"d its t : *le recalls '' th" Ronnie, brin'iie lian!. -c o' T-omnnd the;- story hails neither from, homii" Scotland nor the West Tt ; 5 - aii A T i'-erican storv pure and simple. The' facility of divorce in the Stntrs lias just furnished Airs Humphry Ward with a snhject in lior latest neyel. f Daphne." .and this tale also illustrates the marriage customs -of niodeni America. : A situation in which'a in:ju f;»lls in love with the wile ot his yriith, vvßoni he liad niarvied twentv vears before. and who had since lived for f»Weon >Vars'' with another man, is something of'a novx-ltv. Its interest rather nr.ts iiito" the shade the love affairs ot their daughter, the nominal heroine, who itliermeditim of reconciliation between her parents. It is a case oi tuin -pulchra, mater pnlchrior. There is a certain artificiality about most Americans in fiction; they never seem to talk naturally, but always lor effect. Tlu> appear to think less of what t 1 than of tho manner m which thov -ox S themselves. In the present sfpry. however, the are <Vfiite natural and unaffected.

'•'•The Forsaken Garden." (Jessie A. Davis), ue take it. though we are not nuite sure, was the heart ok -Nora Am'"r Tt.k voung lady, from a sense Z( filial dntv." decided to nurse and look •ifter her invalid father tor as years as might he necessary rather tlian marry the young man whom she loved with a faithtul and abiding p^" -ion. It was "V p 01 . tIIo . SP ''I 1 !" . ; atsravs occurring in life, in wmfh righ ran tints with right, and as , "" more to said, so Michael lelt Ir land, sadlv, to earn his living-m London. The life of a young innn all uloh'e in London is trying, to say no wore than that, ami it was too trying fcir Michael. So-just for the sake oi "etting married, and because he knew "ho loved him passionately, he married Jiis employer's daughter, and on the evening of tlie wedding he saw an announcement in the paper that Mr Am-<<r-r was dead, and that, consequently, \ora was free. »Miss IJavis does not make haste to kill off Michael's wile, :is we rather expected she would, its is -usually done in these cases. When that lady does die, it is much too fate in the dav for anything compensatorily delightful" to happen. All one may say 1-, that things were not quite so bad as Ley might have been.

Japanese Education. ' by Ila r.m Dr.fl\.ku Kikuehi. —We have been tau"!Hfc to think that it is the mission of the Western World to t. ach the Eastern World. We have often said :o fnirselvpa. flatteringly. Can any good thing come out of the East: 1 We are to understand —slowly, but vet to underst.ind—that perhaps it can "•• Mavhe," we said to ourselves, "there vjs. the wisdom of the Fast while yet Ihe West was barbarian. Hut ue Jiavtt comported ourselves with the se ,-ond thought, " Ah. but the Fast has learned not,tiing since long agfs ago, tor-rotten . nothing, while we have been learning all the time. ' Now we are learning to recorsider this sort 01 atlitride."and certainly we are learning jluit Japan may be able to teach us Baron Kikuehi, who at one time"was Minister or Education in Ja.>•lll delivered at the University -i London two courses of lectures 0.1 •Japanese duration during the I-.aster sfid summer terms ol 100.. One series dealt with educational administration from the pedagogic standpoint, and both were very informing. -Now Jsaron Kikuehi has recast his lectures into this book, which should have quite :t special interest for English educationalists. Jt tells them everything Thev need care t*T kno\i alwiut education in Japan, and there is much which we as a nation may well desire to knou. Apart from its information, and even Mowing for the lecture form, the js readable. It is like a talk aoo<:c si large subject. by a man who -ii>ows that subject well —moreover, a i.i'.k which often carries him into chapters 01 Japanese history.

. In "The World, the Flesh. ami tho C;f K -ino,'' Miss Gertrude AVr.nlpn tolls us t' ie story of a mild. innocent. innocuous voting man, who had won the atfectfa'i an iniperious young woman, •ind iiicil.rrod tho poisonous hatred ol a black-hoaried villain. Tho blackhearted vilfrJn set himself to' .separate tho innocent vounp: man t'mui Hi/? imperious voting ■ woman, because, in ! > ( : - rascallv wav, hp .desired to marry licr liimself. for slie frutl preat possessions. So by fnrtive methods he managed to «<et the innocent vomit? man to _Mi>nte Carlo, where he subtly seduced him into gambling. and introduced him into extremely detrimental comimnv. Not even the gilded gamins halls oi Monte Carlo, the wild revelrv of thr carnival .at Nice, in which the young mail was .the wildest ok' revellers, or the constant •company ok* young wohuiii impoitnl .from Belgium for the basest ol purposes •could open the youth's eyes to the ajrimy .side of life, ami- in n lit oi chivalrous altruism he actually inarne.il tfie young woman from Belgium, ; j lul then* on" learning the truth about her from tho villain, jumped over a clltt The tumble Jiroke Ins head and <iam;aged his memory, and it was not nn,tit some vears afterwards, when tnf <yoimt; woman ironi Belgium turned »l }

unexpectedly to claim her rights as liis wife, that ho. awoke to a full recollection'of the egregious folly into whirl) he had boon trapped. However, it was all right. Our readers will doubtless wonder how it could lie all right, or anything but all wrong, in these entangled circumstances, but then, not having read "The World, the Flesh, and the Casino," as we have they do not know the full measure ol -Miss Gertrude Warden's ingenuity.