"THE NEW CLARION."

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11510, 5 October 1915, Page 7

"THE NEW CLARION."

To tell a simple _ story of love, roiiia'' 1 and mvstery is the rather laboured task that Will N. Harben sets himself in his latest book, V Tho X&w CWyvi.'-' The novel runs to close on four hundred paces before the plot reaches a climax which has been evident from the first chapter, and as the action of the novel is confined almost entirely to a little village in the GeorIrxountains, where liie is simple and incident rare, the tale loses much of its piquancy in the long telling. Tf the story had been confined to half its length, and many of the long-drawn-out and somewhat pointless conversations deleted, the novel might conceivably have been lifted from the slough of mediocrity, but the author insists m making his favourite characters speak their homely philosophy to a wearisome extent. The book, however, is not without its redeeming features, and, though laboured in parts, i+ readies a I much higher standard than a good deal of tho ephemeral literature that is I placed o-u the market. In tone it is i heathy, and there is an absence of those 1 problems which give a morbid touch to | many modem works of fiction. The characters axe of tho orthodox . "novel" typs. The hero is all that a | hero should bo; the girl tho apotheosis iof feminity. Of o-jurxe, there is | another girl, of Lighter and more fickle I mould, but the hero, a young man with I intentions, who has hitched his waggon j to a star, simply refuses to allow himself ito lovo tho alluringbbuti t inconstant I maiden, and marries tho girl, who has been waiting patiently while ho struts his fretful course through tho an tho l s I four hundred pages. I Howard Tinsleythe principal character in the book, is a young newspaper I man with ideals and ambitions, whom | the author intends his readers to take | very seriously. But he has so many of ■ the common attributes of the. novel j hero—the square jaw, tho incisive 'maxi- ! ner of speech, the " will to power''— ' that lies loses all the naturalness which we would like him to possess. Mary Trumbley, the heroine of "Tho New Clarion," is a more natural character. She is not forced on the reader's attention quite .io much, and there is a homeliness and reserve about her that fits in well with the part she plays. Cora Langha.ru, thef girl from tho big city, who endeavours to win the immaI eulato heart of Howard, is, of course, most charming tp lock upon, but her gifts, unlike Mary's are more physical ; than spiritual. She is _nol< a badnatured girl, although she is a flirt, and at tho end of the book sho recants and confesses the errors of her ways. Ab- ' ncr Daniel and Pole Baker play rather ; prominent patfts in tho book, but : readers of AVjll X. Harben require no introduction to the quaint- philosophy of Abner Daniel and the drolleries of Pole Baker. Of the minor characters Howard's mother, Mrs Tinsley, is well j drawn, and in many respects die is I truer to life than any of the other 'characters in the book. "The New Clarion " is published-by Harpers, New j York. (Whitcombe and Tombs, Ltd.)—"Gamma."