BOOKS and AUTHORS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVI, Issue XIX, 9 May 1896, Page 529

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 cover 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 entirety unremunerative, no *ees or commission being taken. Queries and Correspondence on Literary Matters Invited. * All Communications and Commissions must be addressed THE BOOKMAN,’ Graphic Office, Auckland. » • The Exploits The notion that man is a fighting animal, , „ . which has been lately brought into proof Brigadier . , . , „ , , minence by Imperial events, finds good Gerard. justification in contemporary literary taste. After a peace of fifty years—more or less interrupted by the noise of little wars—the Britisher has commenced to build battleships in earnest, and to offer a general invitation to the world to ‘ come on.’ But previous to this the philosopher might have foretold the current of events by noting how during the last decade the literary sympathies of the race have been brought into accord with those of the schoolboy. The schoolboy, being unquestionably the prince of fighting animals, naturally tolerates no book from which the fighting element is absent, and the drift of the popular taste towards books of adventure, which has been so marked a feature of the closing decade of this century, may be taken as an indication of the revival of that ancient spirit of adventure which has given to the Anglo-Saxon his predominant position in the world. The story of adventure has come like everything else, in response to a demand, and whatever one’s individual opinion may be of its type, the point of view of the critic must always be that of one on whose behalf the supply is created. Since Stevenson wrote his first romance of ‘ Treasure Island ’ the number of works of adventure has increased and multiplied, until —omitting the New Woman section which had a different genesi — the chief part of our modern literature is written under the influence of the adventurous spirit. Of these writers not the least successful is Conan Doyle. The ExploitsoJ Brigadier Gerard, now before us, is a good example of its class. It possesses those literary qualities without which no book is tolerated by this cultivated age, while at the same time the power of the sword is in no way diminished by the subtler power of the pen. Clean and strong in style, vivid with life and colour, full of those touches of humour and imagination, and with the powers of invention which have rendered this writer famous, the book is certain to be read and enjoyed. Of the several fine characters which Conan Doyle has given to literature we do not remember any more admirably consistent than that of the Brigadier, a portion of whose stirring adventures are here brought together.

Ursule Mirouet— certainly in this unlike * ' sa e most of Balsae’s books—may be placed ; Mirouet. with perfect safety in the hands of a boarding school miss accustomed only to Bowdlerised editions of the classics of history and fiction. But though a French girl, fresh from her convent, may find the book interesting and perhaps exciting reading, I fear that girls who have looked at life principally through the eyes of our good English novelists will not feel a strong human interest in most of the chief characters that walk between the boards of Ursule Mirouet. They all have very considerably the air of walking the boards of a theatre. Indeed, Ursule herself, in her earlier years, is the true angel child of the stage, and when she grows up develops very characteristically into the etherial, saintly maiden who is really something too rare and good for human nature’s daily food. Dr. Minoret’s heirs and most of the minor characters are drawn with the vivid accuracy and cleverness that so often distinguish Balsae’s character delineation. The heirs, for the most part, act as a sort of chorus to the action of the story, but, unlike the chorus of the old Greek dramas, they are very animated and individualised. The visionary element, which Balsac rather lamely employs as the deus ex michina to undo the plots of the villains, would have been much better left out of the story. We cannot but smile gently at the author's simplicity as we read of the tardily effective manceuvres of good Dr. Minoret’s ghost—though simple would certainly appear to be the last adjective that could be appropriately applied to the man who wrote the series