The Library Corner

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20014, 3 December 1927, Page 13 (Supplement)

The Library Corner

By

“Bibliophile”

“Some Books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”—Bacon.

“THE LITTLE BROWN HOUSE” (By MARY CONWAY OEMLER. Cornstalk Publishing Coy., Sydney, per Angus and Robertson, Sydney). Two charming stories are included iu this volume and the reader regrets their brevity, or else wishes there wore one or two more. The first describes the longing for the “homely’’ life felt by a brilliant society woman, the steps she took to obtain it, and her delight, after forty years of married life, at finding that her husband has the same desire. The second story, “The Youngest Officer,” has for its hero a gallant little laddie, an officer’s son, and describes how a deed of bravery by him led to a reconciliation with the grandparents from whom his father had been estranged. The authoress of 44 Thy Butterfly Man” writes with all her old delicacy of touch combined with knowledge of human nature, and the result is two real human stories which one is the better for reading. 4 ‘THE SLAVE JUNK.” (By FRANK L. PACKARD. Hodder and Stoughton, London, per W. 8. Smart, Sydney). Here is a clinking good story of perilous adventure in the China seas which ( well repays the time spent in its perusal. Tom Kingsley is found adrift in a boat at sea, dead. Among the contents of his pockets are two small ivory idols, for the possession of which men subsequently endure peril and commit murder. The reason is that they hold the secret of hidden treasure. They are hollow and within one is a cypher giving the location of the treasure, while the other contains the key to the cypher. The dead man’s effects are sent to his brother Robert, but there are others who are aware of their existence and robberies cause them to change hands several times. Robert ’s son, Bob. is charged by his father to recover them and avenge his uncle’s death. These aims are finally accomplished, but not without his going through hair-raising adventures and narrow escapes. A love story is woven through the record of adventure which lends additional interest to a capitallywritten yarn. “KITTY” (By WARWICK DEEPING. Cassell and Co. Ltd., London, per 11. I. Jones and Son, Ltd., Wanganui). Sufficiently well-known already as a writer of good stories, Warwick Deeping’s reputation will assuredly not suffer by reason of his latest. Kitty, a plucky and practical young Londoner contracts a war marriage, her husband being a young officer brought up in the lap of luxury and in utter uselessness by a cold and selfish mother, who despises the class to which Kitty belongs. He is paralysed by a shell, and his mother promptly secures control of him on his being invalided and helps him apart from his wife. But Kitty is a determined young thing and, in the battle of wits which ensues, she beats the mother, carries her husband off. teaches him how to cam a living and finally effects his cure. There is a delightful freshness about the way this story is told, the characterisation is < xcellent, and modern points of view on various subjects are presented from an original and common-sense angle. Without a doubt one of Mr. Deeping’s best books! “QUINTON’S ROCK.” (By E. KANE WEBB. Hodder and Stoughton, Loudon, per W. 8. Smart, Sydney). A quaint local custom followed twice a year on an island manor on the south coast of England forms the basis of “Quinton’s Rock.” Bill Quinton and his forbears, together with their ton antry, have observed the custom for centuries and believe that ill luck will follow its non-observance. His shallow and heartless wife does her best, to jeer him out of it, and a continued run of bad fortune inclines him to the belief that the notion of the custom bringing good luck is a mistaken one. One of his friends, Paul Gerard, is a likable scapegrace, who will do anything for a friend, but who is ready to break the law because he is desperately iu uecd of money. The wife also has a friend. Victor Rodrignez, a “dope” smuggler, who entices Paul into his schemes and leaves him to take the consequences. Alsu he robs Bill of his wife, besides swindling other people out of th?-?’ money. However, matters are finally put right and prosperity returns to die island. Presented to the reader in a style which rivets attention, it will appeal to all who take it up. “A KNIGHT AND A DAY.” (By K. R. G. BROWNE. Cassell and Co., Ltd.. London, per H. 1. Jones and Son. Ltd., Wanganui l . Anyone who happens to be disgruntled by the weather or by any other circumstance may be recommended to try this story as something -o keep the blues at a. distance. It tells of a young man and a young woman who meet by chance at a lonely seaside resort. Fate leads them to the

I acquaintance of a rich but vulgar person whose, chief passion is his collection of old masters, his standard of ! value being mostly at so much jr r squaie fool. However, they are really valuable. One is coveted by an American, richer and even more vulg'.r. who employs a man to steal it, /hich he docs. Then the excitement begins. The youthful pair at first referred to, take up the chase. They succeed in their aim, but the situations they find themselves in and the adventures they go through need to be read about before they can be adequately realised. The book evokes one long laugh from th® first page io the last, and as an example of genuine, humour nothing better hui been written this publishing season. “THE WALL OF SHIELDS.” (By E. O. BROWNE. Hodder and Stoughton, London, per W. fc. Smart, Sydney). In 1066, King Harold was sutrouaded by a wall of English, shields at Hastings, but the fates fought against him. Fifteen years later, the English company of the Varangian Guards raised a similar wall of shields at Durazzo against the Norman invaders of the Roman Empire of the East, and once again the Normans prevailed. The intervening years were filled with, many vicissitudes for Edmund Sidrocson, who survived Hastings to fall at Durazzo. One of those who refused to surrender to William, he fought on till there wa» scarce an Englishman left to fight. Then he 4 ‘came in” and swore fealty to the Norman King. But like many another English knave, he found hit* possessions shrunken and he and his friends were persecuted beyond endurance. Finally, he betook himself to Constantinople and, as many Englishmen had done before him, took service with the Emperor. With a flavour of “ Hereward the Wake,” this book gives a faithful, one might say an appallingly faithful description of the ravages which followed the Norman Conquest of England, while the personal fortun is of the various characters add a touch of human interest which enhances ns reading value. “JEREMY AT CRALE.” (By HUGH WALPOLE. Cassell an I Co., Ltd., London, per 11. 1. Jones and Son, Ltd., Wanganui). Mr. Hugh Walpole has previously given us stories about Jeremy Cole, and in this we find him a senior boy «L Crale School and achieving his youthful ambition of a place in the first fifteen. The book contains an account of a football match which—if the expression be permitted—is worth going miles to read. But it deals with moro than play, striking as it does a serious note in presenting a boy’s realisation of growing responsibilities and recognition of what lies ahead of him. It is a thoroughly wholesome story of school life and one which will impress not. only boys, but many who have lefV their boyhood behind them. “CINDERS” (By FRED WRIGHT AND MARGOT FOI.LIOTT. Cornstalk Publishing Coy Sydney, per Angus and Robertson, Sydney). An old lady who owns a very profitable hotel on the Riviera makes an eccentric will which disinherits her nephew and leaves it to a lonely old professor living in a London boarding* ' ouse. He enters into possession, taking with him “Cinders,” the little • 4 slavey ” of the house, the only one who understands him and loves him for his own worth. Fortunate it iS that he does so, for he is immediately the object and very nearly ihe victinf of several attempts to swindle him ouk of the hotel. Dur. “Cinders” is watchful, and the nephew, njs chivalry aroused, helps her to foil the villains. Naturally they fall in Jove and the professor, who does not want the hotel, gives It to them for a wedding present. There are here all the element! of an excellent story, and the joint authors make the most of their oppo rtunity, recounting the adventures of “Cinders” and her lover in a way that holds the reader till the satisfying elusion. “MR. HENRY BUTTON” (By LESLIE DESPARD. Holder and Stoughton, London, per W. 8. Smart, Sydney). 44 The Amazing Adventures of Mr. Henry Button,” to give this book it* full title, recounts what befell a corpulent little Cockney grocer’s clerk when he spent his holiday on a walking font iu Cornwall. He was persuaded to go by a friend for the purpose—unknown to Button, of course —of personating a private detective whom he resembled. The detective is on the track of a scoundrelly gang who are exploiting a dangerous secret which will lay all thn Governments of the world and tk.e world itself al their feet. They .tail, of course, and receive their just du<, but Button and also his friends have anything but. a pleasant time. Told with much humour, the story is at th® same time, full of rapid action and, as a “thrill” story is quite one of best.