"THE WAVE"

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12081, 9 August 1917, Page 8

"THE WAVE"

MR ALGERNON BLACKWOOD'S LATEST NOVEL. A psychological study which involves Hire nersons. with, superadded, some poetically eloquent' impressions of Egyptian scenery and the semi-mysti-cal Egyptian life is the sum and essence of Mr Algernon's novel, "The "Wave." Tho motif of the story is a curious mental illusion, delusion, obsession, or whatever it may be called, which haunts young Tom Kelverdon and which runs through the. life narrative as die. "(iipsios' Chorus" runs through "The Bohemian Girl." "Since childhood days he had been haunted by a Wave. It appeared with the yc'T Uiiwn of thought, and was his earliest recollection of any vividness. It was iilmi 111,-, first exin-rience of nightmare: a wave of an odd, dun colour, almost tawny, that rose behind him, advanced, curled over in the act of toppling, and then stood still. It threatened, but it did not fall. It paused, hovering in a position contrary to nature; it waited. Something prevented, it was i;i• •;1111. to fall: 111,, riglu- moment had not yet arrived." Tho senso of fatalism known in boyhood possesses Kelverdon all !'.'•■ life and colours his one groat love affair. Letdce Aylmor, his early love, marries another, but the two come together again, and it is in Egypt that their passion nearly, meets tragedy. Lattice in the land of ancient mysteries seems to become a woman of old Egypt: an irresistible, remote feeling singularly changes her nature; the enchanted land dominates her nature, " barbarises " her. There is the necessary triangle; the second man, and tho complicator of Tom's love affair, is his cousin Tony, a naturalist, and born philanderer Interwoven in tb e story with Mr Blackwood's accustomed skill are many cameos of Egypt, as this: ''Tho wonder of the exquisite night took ho.'d of him, senrchins; his heart beyond all power of litnj.'uai(D—the utrungo Egyptian Uenuty Tbe Hiicient. wilderness, so rnlrn boil path tho. stars; tho mournful hills that leaped to touch tho sminkini* moon; the perfumed a;r, the deep old river—each, mid till together, exhaled their innermost essential mapie. Ovpt every separate boulder Rpilt the flood of silver. There were troops of shndows. ... On nil Fides he Bcemod aware of the. powerful Egyptian Rods, their protective help, their familiar guidance, Tho deeps within him opened. Ho had done this thin? before. . . . There were other vaster emblems, too, quite close. To the south, a little, the boulders of the Colossi domed awfully above the flat expanse, and ;.oon he passed tho Runicssrum. th-2 moon just entering the stupendous aisles. Ho saw tho silvery shafts beneath the hupo square pylons. On all sides lay the welter of prodigious ruins, steeped in a power and beauty that seemed borrowed from the scale of the immeasurable heavens. K-aypt laid a great hand upon him; the. cold wind brushed his cheeks."

There, are many passages of beauty equal to this, and, indeed, Mr Algernon's stylo gives one greater pleasure than the subject matter of his story.

"The Wave: An Egyptian Aftermath." By Algernon Blackwood. Macmillan and Co., London; through '•'. lii|e ( )!i)l.e a"d Tombs. Ltd., Christchurch. Price, 4s.