BOOKS and AUTHORS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVI, Issue VIII, 22 February 1896, Page 206

BOOKS and AUTHORS.

A LITERARY CAUSERIE for COLONIAL BOOKBUYERS and BORROWERS. BOOKS marked thus (*) have arrived in the colony, and could at the time of writing be purchased in the principal colonial bookshops, and borrowed at the libraries. For the convenience of country cousins who find difficulty in procuring the latest books ana new editions, the ‘BOOKMAN’ will send to any New Zealand address any book which can be obtained. No notice will, of course, be taken of requests unaccompanied by remittance to couer postage as well as published price of book. It is requested that only those who find it impossible to procure books through the ordinary channels, should take advantage of this offer. The labour involved will be heavy and entirely unremunerative, no ‘ees or commission being taken. Queries and Correspondence on Literary Matters Invited. AU Communications and Commissions must be addressed THE BOOK MA N,’ Graphic Office, Auckland. x . The Education of Antonia is a work * Education ,• . , which places Miss F. Emily Phillips in of Antonia. tlle very g rst ran k o f the lady novelists of the day, and in some, not unimportant, respects it puts her in advance of even Mrs Humphrey Ward and Miss Sarah Grand. She has probably a more impartial mind than the latter ; she is carried away by no enthusiasm of hatred or exaggerated regard ; while for those rare qualities in her sex, wit and humour, she not only eclipses Mrs Ward, but there is no woman, with the possible exception of Mrs George Moore, whose light is not diminished before her. In Antonia Miss Phillips has drawn a wholly delightful character, a girl with whom all the male personages of the book may fall irretrievably in love without raising the reader’s bile or summoning any other emotion than that of sympathy. She is a girl, in fact, it would do any man good to fall in love with no matter what was the event. ‘ Scatter-brained ’ is Antonia’s definition of herself ; in other words she has a lightning-like perception that carries her to the extreme end of a subject, while those around her are merely stumbling on the threshold. In addition to this charming central figure the book contains a wealth of splendid character drawing. Colonel Owen, John and Owen Teuterden, their cousin George Tenterdon, are all life-like and vigorous creations. George is particularly well done.

Some of Mr Tenterden’s little peculiarities did not tend to make him an ideal travelling companion, descending, watch in hand, at every station with such playful irony as— 1 Don’t let me hurry you, guard. We

are only three minutes late as yet, and you may as well make it up to ten.’ Nor did Antonia really admire that disposition which made Mr Tenterden very careful not to give the porter more than twopence for carrying their bags, and, generally, cut necessary largesse very fine indeed, so that all the coachmen and waiters who had any experience of him looked sad when they saw him coming—an exacting master and a careful gent as looked twice at every sixpence and made it threepence if hecould. But although like Mrs Gilpin, he had a frugal mind, Mr Tanterden was at the same time a very magnificent bashaw, with what seemed to the girls quite regal views as to the accommodation proper for his party, and a fastidiousness about his cookery. . . These were merely Antonia’s private criticisms, not uttered even to Mary, and their expedition was considered by all three to be a brilliant success. Mr Tenterden returning, as he had started, in bland good humour.’ Outside George Eliot it is rare to find such drawing of the male creature by a person of the opposite sex. George, however, is only one of the minor characters, and it is in his cousins John and Owen that Miss Phillips shows her real greatness. Even the famous lady abovementioned never drew a more manly figure than John Tenterden, and even his democratic brother Owen, with his rare beauty and poetic tendencies —perilous with temptation as such a character must be to a woman —is a man every inch of him. George Tenterden is a wealthy mid-owner. His cousin John is managing a branch factory for him. Antonia was sitting in the deep bayed window of the hall while the three men were talking together. She could only gather that George Tenterden was full of pleased satisfaction with John, but pressing upon him at the same time some course he skilfully avoided committing himself to She did not understand the fragments of conversation that came to her about piecework, lists of prices, ‘ speeding-up ’ the engines, trades unions, but she was interested in Owen’s thunder-cloud of expression, and waited every moment for the lightning. ‘ You can pretty well dictate to your hands here,’ said George Teuterden ; ‘ that’s the beauty of it. Why, do you suppose -ve are all going afield out of the towns ?’ ‘ Working out a bigger system than you have ken of, I should say,’ said Owen not very civilly. The lightning began to play a little, and presently Antonia heard George Tenterden say angrily, turning to John, * Why, he’s mad ! He’s as mad as a March hare ! What d’ye mean by such foolery, Owen ?’ he cried. ‘ The hands are a long sight better off than the masters. They have not got to pay their own wages I’ Owen started up, ‘No ? Then where do their wages come from ? Who does pay them ?’ John smiled ‘Come, George, we’d better quit,’he said coolly. ‘ The young ’un will jaw to all time if you give him such a lead as that.’ Antonia is an artist whose pictures are not particularly successful. Her next sketch was in the old avenue, and there Owen came to carry her easel and box. ‘ I feel as if I had been set too difficult a copy,’ said Antonia. ‘I thought it was a translation you were about,’ said Owen, ‘ into French.’ Antonia glanced indignantly at him, but presently putting her square brushes in a row upon the grass made confession. ‘ It is true,’ she said, ‘ I am not thinking so much of what I see as how to see it in someone else’s manner. But one must always begin that way.’ ‘ The utility of the process depends upon who the someone is, does it not ?’ asked Owen. ‘lt is Mrs Tomkins,’ said Antonia, meekly. ‘ She has been in Paris, and I hate her, but her work is ever so chic. ’ ‘ And you think the everlasting hills might really be made chic ?’ said Owen. ‘ How they should rejoice and clap their hands together.’ ‘ Oh, it’t is so difficult to talk to anyone who does not understand about art !’ objected Antonia. . . . You people who don’t know all think there’s such a divinity doth hedge the artist, but he is only a professor of sleight-of-hand. There is Kingsley talking of Raphael with his spirit of beauty painting over and over again that simple thing, the mother and her child, and always unable to realise his vision of it. I suppose he did it, in fact, because it paid well. Draw the head oval and arch the eyebrows and you say, “ How saintly 1” ’ Antonia sketched in little heads to illustrate her lecture. ‘ Put the lines in square ; that’s Michael Angelo ; how powerful I Raphael’s tricks are out of fashion just now,’ said Antonia, ‘ and other men are in ; but is there really more what you call truthfulness in one set of tricks than in another ?’ ‘And that is how the gospel is preached in Chelsea ?’ asked Owen. I would willingly linger longer over this clever and charming volume, which I put down with regret, and in the hope of again meeting the author at no distant date. • Education of Antonia ’: F. Emily Phillips. Macmillan and Co. 3s 6d cloth ; 2s 6d paper.