Books Literary Gossip

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160692, 3 July 1920, Page 3

Books Literary Gossip

OP INTEREST TQ LOVERS OP READING.

What is said to be the first Japanese novel ever translated into English will shortly be published by Messrs Hutchinson. This is called “An Adopted Husband,” and its author is Futabetei. The story is founded on a strange. Japanese custom of adopting a husband for a daughter where there is no son to carry on the family name. The serious book of the hour is John Maynard Keynes’ “'Economic Con sequences of the Peace,” in which certain aspects of the settlement are severely criticised. It has attracted world-wide attention, is used, as ammunition by nearly every critic of the Treaty, and may eventually make history. It was recently stated that 50,000 copies had been sold in America, and from there comes the announcement that translations into ITepch, German, Italian, Russian, Scandinavian and other tongues have teen arranged for. Mr Keynes is an Eng.ish economist, and was a member of the British Peace Delegation. A mass of wavy brown hair accentuating clear and well-formed features — that is Miss Annette Bryco-Wilson, the young poetess who has recently been discovered at Tedworth Square., Chelsea, S.W. 3, says an exchange. Her first effort was three days before last Armistice Day, and she has since written to such good purpose that a volume of her works is shortly to be published. A little ‘poem entitled “Fairyland” will delight children both young and eld: The dusty white road lay behind me, Before mo a wood, sweet and cool. I entered and walked ’neath the branches Till I came to a sparkling pool. - The cool breeze rustled the bnllrushes. And the birds sang a cradle song. And I laid me down on a mossy bank 1 , And I foil asleep ere long. And I dreamed that a little brown elfin. Who rode on a stem of hay, Was sent by the “weet little . Fairy Queen To guide me on my way. And I saw the beauty that I had missed In that long and duty walk. For I saw the place where the earth and sky kissed. And I heard the picksies talk. •‘Pilate Gave Sentence,” by C. M. Cress well (Methuen) is a picture of life in Jerusalem at the time of Christ. The story deals with the events during the tew days preceding and after the crucifixion. It depicts the intense bigotry of the Jewish, population, the animosities between rival factions, and their common hatred of the Romans. Pontius Pilate, Caiaphas, the High Priest, and other notable nveu of tho period figure in tbo narrative. The condition of the city and character of its population, and the intense religious fervour favouring fanatical outbursts prevailing in the city during Passover week, are presented with remarkable vividness. The central figure of the tragedy is never seen, although once he is heard, and his sayings and influence on the population are features of the story.

In one way Hugh Walpole is the most welcome of all the visiting writers from other lands who have come to the United States a-lecturing, writes Miss Fanny Butcher in an exchange. There have been others who have had a greater international fame, others who have a greater wealth of literary experience, through long years of creative work, but there has never been any one with a more vital interest in America as a producer of literature as well as of dollars. It is not hard to imagine many of our mast distinguished English literary visitors leaving New York with the same unsullied innocence about what American writers are accomplishing with which they landed on' our hospitable shores. There has been a courteous lack of curiosity among most of our visiting lions as to the roarings of .American kings of the literary forest. Perhaps they think us cubs and the roarings yelpings. Hugh Walpole has come, it seems, to discover Amerca more Ilian to be discovered by America. 8

When we think of the average „• workin" woman in the olden times we are apt to recall idyllic pictures of gentle shepherdesses and milk-maids. Queen Elizabeth longed to be a milkmaid in May, because then they “sang ballads all the day and slept sweetly at nights,” and Izaak Walton tells us of “honest Maudlin” and her mother, and of the ballads they sang. Dorothy Osborne, writing to her lover about the maidens tending their cows, tells him that they sat in" the shade “singing of ballads,” and says that, “I talk to them, and find that they want nothing to make them the happiest people in the world but the knowledge that they are so.” The other side to this idyllic picture, points out a reviewer of a recent book on “Woman in the 17th Century,” usually came with marriage. And, again, women were subject to many forgotten disabilities. For the crimes known as “petit treason” thaa were liable to be burnt alive, and for certain other offences they were publicly whipped right down to the year 1817. Not until three years later on was the punishment of a whipping in private abolished. Moreover, a woman could not claim the “benefit of clergy” until 1616, and even then the full privilege of “clergy” was not finally conceded to her until the year 1691. WANGANUI, THE I?IYER TOWN OF NEW ZEALAND (By H. Hector Bolithe) The Otago Witness has the following

reference to “Wanganui,” a booklet written by H. Hector Bolithe, and printed by the Wanganui “Herald”: Thin very attractively illustrated booklet has been issued by the , Wanganui Borough Council. A look through 'it more than satisfies the ideas one has formed of the attractions of this northern fientre, and goes far to justify the sanguine prediction here given that “Wanganui will some day be one of the greatest centres for the outpouring 'of psroduoe in the Southern Hemisphere.” Industries, public buildings and industries, etc,, are finely illustrated. and described in the accompanying letterpress, as also the river so far as it is ascended by tourists. A brief historical sketch of the settlement arid progress of Wanganui is also given. One specially interesting, development of the city is a new garden suburb, which is being formed on Dune Hill. Tire summit' of the hill is surmounted by an elevator tower, from which is worked an elevator certainly unique in this part of the world. It ascends 216 feet through the heart of the hill, and furnishes a swift and easy means of transit between the suburb and the main city.

NEW NOVELS'.' PETER HYDE, M.P., By Paul Trent (A. D. Willis, Ltd.) The latest of the plain, straightforward stories of Paul Trent, which make reading, is “Peter Hyde, M.P.” (London. Ward, Lock). In early boyhood Hyde has been taken from poverty and starvation by one of the veterans of the English trade union movement, who lias unexpectedly inherited a fortune. The hoy is given a curiously mixed education, designed to lit him for becoming “a new type of Labour member” in the House of Commons. Thus, after he has been at a public school he is sent to an engineering works as an apprentice. He then has some university training, but is sent back to the works with the instruction that he must remain a workman, refusing any higher position than that of foreman. He contests a seat against one of his old schoolfellows, Sir Anthony Treherne, who is the Conservative candidate. Aided by bis popularity as a footballer, Hyde is elected, and he enters upon his political duties with confidence; but, after he has gained further experience of industrial conditions, both in England and in America, he sees that, the influence of trade unions on the nation’s work is not always as beneficial as he had supposed. He is placed in an awkwai'd position by his change of views, and further complexities are introduced by his beliefs concerning the war, by his affection for the daughter of a Liberal Prime Minister, and by his discoveries as to his descent. 'The plot is worked out to an ending which most novel readers will regard as satisfactory.

IN THE CRIMSON TIDE, By R. -W. Chambers (H. I. Jones and Son’s.) In “The Crimson Tide,” Mr Robert W. Chambers presents a story of Bolshevistic influences in America, and of the dangers into which women may bo led •by adopting unconventional ideas. A “foreword,” a preface, and an “argument” introduce -the main story, and iii these early pages liberties are taken with recent Russian history. Palla Dumont is represented as having been an American companion to the Grand Duchess Marie, one of the daughters of the ex-Czar, and as having entered upon her novitiate as a Carmelite mm. blie is present when the ex-Czaritza and her daughters are summoned to go to their death, and. does all she can to persuade the Bolshevik guards that she is really Marie. Failing in this, she escapes and joins the Cossacks with a former member of the Women’s Battalion of Death, a Swedish girl named I!se Westward. With some difficulty the girls escape from Russia and voyage to America. Paila, whose temperament is highly emotional, has revolted from religion as a result of her tragic experience, she proclaims that she believes in nothing but humanity, and will follow only the religion of love and service. In New York she establishes a Combat Club for the expression of unusual ideas. A Bolshevik club meets in the same building, and its extravagance's help to bring the members of the other “crank” organisationvback„ to common sense. A love interest runs through the story, and there are many light descriptions of New York life and character in Mr Chambers’ familiar manner.