NEW BOOKS REVIEWED.

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17220, 1 October 1927, Page 13 (Supplement)

NEW BOOKS REVIEWED.

CURRENT LITERATURE.

“Twilight Sloop.” By Edith Wharton

Mrs Wharton’s new novel has all that “illusion of reality” which, as Carl Van Doren said of her years ago, “almost never fails< her, so alertly is her mind on the look-out to avoid vulgar or shoddy romantic elements.” Again she returns for her material to the exclusive circles of New York society. The title is derived from that process by which mothers may be delivered of their children without being conscious for even a moment of pain. But Mrs Wharton extends the meaning of the phrase to the state in which moneped New Yorkers perpetually live. Their money secures for them an apparent exemption from all the common woes of human life. They live and move and have their being in a world in which the one aim is to dodge pain, physical and mental. There is presented a group of people whose days are filled with false duties, pseudo-beliefs, and butterfly interests. Mrs Manford, a capable woman, who has inherited much money from a motor car firm, has divorced her first husband in a ladylike sort of way, and her second husband, a great lawyer, is quite friendly with Hubby No. 1. Mrs Manford’s children by both husbands are also quite friendly. But, unfortunately, a son by the first marriage marries a modern girl who thinks that life cheats her if she is not supplied with a new thrill every day. Boredom sets in until Mr Manford, her stepfather, falls in love with her. Here is a new situation, even in a modern novel. Stepfather competing with stepson for the love of the stepson's wife! “The Great Earthquake of 1923 In Japan,” with a companion volume of maps and diagrams, compiled by the Bureau of Social Affairs, Home Office, Japan. These two magnificently-produced volumes .illustrated with hundreds of photographs, and, in the second volume. with elaborate maps and diagrams, provide a complete review of the appalling disaster that overwhelmed Japan in 1023. The causes and effects of the disaster are discussed illuminatingly from a scientific point of view, and there is a glowing account of the assistance given by foreign Powers.

One of lie most arresting chapters deals with the loss of works of art, objects of historical interest, rare books, and whole libraries. Lastly, the ordinances and laws framed by the Imperial authorities to cope with the disaster are surveyed, and they seem I" have boon models of humanitarian efficiency. “Digger Wit.” . -A noteworthy Australian book is “Digger Aussiositics,” compiled from Die"pages of “Aussie,” It contains a priceless collection of Digger stories, many of them of an apocryphal nature, but none the less entertaining. The touch of the civilian hand, art striving against tL j handicap of ignorance. is here and there discernible; lull bo rich, broad humour of some of Hie stories compensates for the rest. ]i is a pity, however, that a collection of Digger humour should have been enclosed in a cover which seems to depict a village idiot —high collar, red tie. bad leeth. and all. Surely, for a hook with such a title, Ihe old, grimfaced. sardonic soldier, in the tin hat, could have filled the bill. After all, our' Diggers didn’t joke in the midst of torture for the benefit of the village idiot type.

“Yanneck.” By Robert Grant

When James Campbell’s dad said that lie could go to work or starve he did not know about the thousand which Jim had borrowed from a Jew to buy a racehorse, which had broken its neck in its first race. So the youngman availed himself of a friend’s offer and skipped to Egypt, where a job was made specially for him. On the boat he met Yanneck (a burlesque Yankee buyer for a circus), a beautiful young Spanish Don, and a girl. Me made friends with Yanneck, made an enemy ot the Don, and fell in love with the girl. In Egypt his care-free English stupidity got him into treble, first with a fat woman in Alexandria, then with a Pasha who thirsted for blood, then with his boss, and ’ then with half the chancelleries of the civilised world. Vanncck’s part in all this was the getting of Jimmy out of trouble—and it makes amusing reading.

“Undelivered Letters.” By Cosmo Hamilton.

“I am beginning to find,” wrote the American girl in one of the unposted letters to her English husband “that the nicest English people arc those who have spent most of their lives in other countries where they have spoken affectionately of England as ‘Home.’ ” This extract is from Cosmo Hamilton’s latest noved. The author of “Scandal" continues to write brightly scandalous stories of high (and low) life. This one particularly portrays the mental struggles and yearnings of a nice clover American girl wedded to a dull but honest English nobleman. Of course, she gets into serious trouble through the inability of her mate to converse with her searching soul —and all that sort of thing. It is, however, excellently written, an doften amusing.

“Barberry Bush.” Kathleen Norris. This is a clever and convincing study of two temperaments which are hopelessly opposed to and yet bound up with each other. Barry du Spain is a charming, handsome waster, while the girl he marries. Barbara Atherton, is sincere, compassionate, and full of character. Of course, the marriage comes to wreck—and then suddenly it appears tnat it has never been properly solemnised. Her chance of freedom has come, and yet, just as she is about to grasp it, she finds that there is a deeper lie Ilian, legal marriage. It, is Barry himself who solves the problem and gives her a real chance of happiness.