AMONGST THE BOOKS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5143, 27 October 1884, Page 3

AMONGST THE BOOKS.

(From the "Star's" London Correspondent.) The autumn publishing season has commenced, and till after Christmas tlio reviewers of the Athenaium, Academy, Spectator, Saturday Review, Examiner, and other great critical journals will be kept hard at work. No specially remarkable works are promised in the immediate < future, but early in October we shall have Lieut. Greeley's account oi' his now worldfamous Arctic Expedition, with full explanations or confessions as to the alleged cannibalism. This should be one of the big literary sensations of what Yankees call the " tall " season, and Froude's final volume of the life of Carlylc may be 1 another. Miss Braddou's " Ishmael " was published last week. It is a capital novel, i and will take its placo as one of the most remarkable of the author's works. ' In ] it she has given a vivid pioture of Paris under tho second Empire from the coup j d'etat to 18GS. The hero is the son of the • Couite de Caradec, a French nobleman who < lives in a solitary chateau in Brittany. ] The Couut's dearest friend elopes with his wife, the latter taking her infant son with i her. The Count follows the pair, and after 3 killing his false friend in a duel, abandons wife and child to their fate. The Countess i takes to a fast life and soon dies of drink. < The Count then consents to receive back • his infant son, but treats him as an outcast, ■ hating him because he has his false 1 mother's blood in his veins. Thanks j i to the village cure's kindness, Raymond j 1 (that is the boy's name) gets a fair t • education, but as he grows up, ho j finds his father's coldness unbearable | ] and runs away to Paris. Here he assumes j 1 the name of Ishmael, and becomes a stone- '.

mason. His life amidst the bourgeoise, his upward career,- his enjoyments, his struggles, and his sorrows are all vividly described, intermingled with boldly drawn pictures of historic scenes,- worked inti> the story with consummate skill. To detail the plot further and tell the tale of Islimael's unfortunate marriage, extraordinary success and passionate love, would be to deprive the reader of some of the pleasure derivable from Miss Braddon's latest romance. Suffice it to say that, though inferior as regards sensationalism to works like " Henry Dunbar " and " Phantom Fortune," it is superior to the majority of the author's later works, and will compare very favourably indeed with such stories as " Asphodel," or " Vixen." Charles Reade's "A Perilous Secret" (better known, to you as " Love or Money ") has not, after all, been brought out in three volume form, but is running serially through Temple Bar. This seems poor policy on the Messrs Bentley's part, for the story, besides having been printed in a number of newspapers, is perfectly well known through the drama of the same name. Wilkie Gbllins has patched up and materially improved his new romance " I say No!" since it appeared in; '.-the People. As a murder story, however, this novel can't compare with " Hand and Ring," by Anna Katharine Green, which has just been published in England at five shillings. Miss Green is rapidly becoming facile princcp.ssin. this style of tale. Mrs Louisa Cameron stands very nearly at the .-Head of the second rank of our lady novelists, and improves steadily. Her new. work, " A North Country Maid," though- an old story, is thoroughly readable. It describes the love troubles of a beautiful girl, the daughter of a simple Northumbrian curate, who is, through a combination of circumstances, suddenly thrown into the vortex of London" society ." The- delight of the damsel in the strange new life of luxury and pleasure quickly ■vanishes when her love affairs go wrong, and presently she gets married off to. a. 'licentious nobleman, and made very miserable. Mrs Cameron's method of extricat■ing her heroine from her trouble will -scarcely commend itself to her. readers.. I fancy even the least squeamish of, men would hesitate about marrying a. .victim of ' bigamy. Several notable works, which created, a considerable furore when first published, have just been issued in a cheap form. Prominent amongst them are. Besant's " All in a Garden Fair," and Mrs . Burnett^. "Through one Administration." • The latter is well worth two shillings, if only as a sample of the best sort of American novel. Oswald Crawf urd's " The World. we live in " came out quite recently, but was so popular that Chapman and Hajl, have produced a third edition in one volume, at ss. I don't think Colonial., readers will care for this book. There is too. much " Talkee-talkee " and too. little story in it. Miss Braddon's " Flower, apd Weed " (two shillings) consists of a collection of short stories reprinted from* the magazines and annuals. Some of them, notably " George Caulfield's Journey " and "Dr Carrick," are eminently sensational.. The former has material enough in. it for a three-volume novel. Clark-Russell's "Jack's Courtship," which has been running through Longman's Magazine for the last twelve months draws to a close. I see he is to contribute the serial story to Bdgravia next year. The title will be " A Strange Voyage." Messrs Macmillan have issued the first volume of their English,. Illustrated Magazine. It is handsomely-bound in sea-green cloth, and makes a splendid 7s 6d worth of miscellaneous reading and beautiful illustrations. Next year an attempt is to be made to make the letter-press of this magazine a little lighter. Hugh Conway of " Called Back " fame contributes the serial 6tory which commences in October (the first number of the new volume), and will be entitled " A Family Affair." Chatto and Windus have in the Press for immediate production " The Lover's Creed," by Mrs Cashel Hoey; "Foxglove Manor," by Robert Buchanan; "Beauty and the Beast," by Sarah Tytler ; and " Mercy Holland," by Julian Hawthorne. The best of these will probably be Miss Tytler's story, which has attracted considerable attraction whilst running through Good Words. I think I may fairly claim to have been one of the first to discover the now famous novelette "Called Back." Directly it came out as " Arrowsmith's Christmas Annual," I recommended it favourably to your readers' notice. This was early in November last, and it was not till late in January that the sale of the little work really commenced. In recent letters I mentioned another shilling story of a most exciting and absorbing character, i.e., "The House on the Marsh" by Miss Florence Warden, a tale that rivets the reader's attention from the first page to the last. "The House on the Marsh" and Miss Anna Katherine Green's " Lenvenwarth Case " (also a shilling) are bow selling in tens of thousands, ana in a few weeks lien.ee there will be an equal run on" At the World's Mercy," another novelette by Miss Warden, who, by the way, is also the author of " The White Witch," now running in the Argosy, and " The Iron Hand," at present the leading attraction of the Family Herald. "At the World's Mercy " is not quite such a sensational tale as " The House on the Marsh," but will wile away an odd hour or so pleasantly enough. The success of Miss Warden's tale has led many people to invest in other volumes of the Family Herald story-teller series. Most of them, however, are trash, like "Dora Thorn," which, nevertheless, must please a certain class of readers, for London booksellers tell me ifc and "Wife in Name Only " have an enormous sale. The circulation of the Family Herald averages 275,000.