BOOKS and AUTHORS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVIII, Issue III, 16 January 1897, Page 59

BOOKS and AUTHORS.

A LITERARY CAUSERIE for COLONIAL BOOKBUYERS and BORROWERS. BOOKS marked thus (*) have arrioed in the colony. could at t>a Sfate of writing be ou'cnased in the prin ipai colonial booMsnops, and borrowed at the libra neg For the convenience of country cousins who find difficulty in procuring the latest books ana new editions, the ‘BOOKMAN’ will send to any Neto Zealand address any book which can be obtained No notice •nil, o* course, be taken of requests unaccomoan.ed by remittance tc Tooer postage as well as published price of book. It is requested that only those who find it impossible to procure boohs through the ordinary channels, should take advantage of thio offer. The labour inooloed will be heavy and entirely un remunerative. »»• res or commission being taken. Queries and Correspondence on Literary Matters Invitee All Communications and Commissions must be addm»»e THE BOOKMAN,' Graphic Office. Auckland

at ‘ Fields of Fair Renown.'

This is a very well-written story descriptive of the efforts of a vouug and talented Cornish miner to reach the ‘ fields of

fair renown 'in literature. The journey thither proves long and tedious to him. and, though he is reallv making good progress, he very soon chafes at the length of the proper road and tries doubtful short cuts to get to his journey's end. These doubtful short cuts certainly bring him quickly to wealth and notoriety which, he fondly imagines, constitute the ‘fields of fair renown.' but he has cast away, in the meantime, the best part of himself. He has lest his good principles past regaining, and has stooped to many mean actions, chief among which is the base jilting of the girl who, at much personal sacrifice, had chosen him as her lover in the days of his obscurity. Retribution comes to him in the course of years, but it does not soften or reform him, and he is left, in the end. an unhappv man in the midst of his riches, burdened with the consciousness of misapplied talent, while the good characters of the story go their ways in peace and happiness.

♦ * Sir George T ressady.'

The sight of Mrs Humphrey Ward’s name, on the title page of a novel, is an eloquent guarantee to discerning people

that they may embark on the perusal of the book with the certainty of getting out of it. at least, a good deal of intellectual satisfaction and enjoyment. Sir George Tressady does more than make good that guarantee. Besides, those who have made the acquaintance of Marcella, in the pages of the book of that name, will, no doubt, be very much pleased to renew their knowledge of her in Mrs Ward’s later novel, as the wife of Lord Maxwell. There is little intricacy of plot or complexity of situation in Sir George Tressady. but the authoress is skilled in the fine art of maintaining, without the aid of even mild sensationalism, the reader's intelligent interest in the personages of her story. The bald outline of the storv may be given in a few words. Sir George Tressadv, a pleasant, clever young baronet of pronounced but superficial political news, wins a seat in Parliament and a wife about the same time. This wife. Letty Sewell, is a pretty, smart girl whom he has married under the influence of a strong but transitory fascination, and who has married him for purely selfish reasons, chief among which is her conviction that her highly intelligent and popular husband will make such a career for himself as will bring both her and him into social prominence. The marriage, even before the honeymoon is over, disappoints both of them—Letty's selfish, petty nature is responsible for this, though Sir George’s evasperatingly extravagant and foolish young-old mother is undeniably a great excitant of Letty s unamiable displavs of character. Sir George comes much in contact with the high minded, generous, and beautiful Marcella. Lady Maxwell, who modifies and changes his political views. He falls in love with her. and, finally, to save the devoted wife — who is bound up heart and soul in her husband s political hopes and desires—the grief and disappointment of seeing Lord Maxwell's philanthropically designed Bill thrown out of the House. Sir George goes against his own party, and saves the Maxwell Bill bv a very eloquent speech. The revelation of Sir George's hopeless love for herself comes to the unconscious Marcella with a great shock of horror and pity, but she rises superior to the situation, and. with her delicate-minded husband s aid. strives to put it on a totally different footing. Then she sets herself successfully to the difficult task of converting the bitter animosity of little Letty towards herself into admiring friendship. But. just as the estrangement between Sir George and his wife has given place to a good understanding between them and a growing love. Sir George meets his death in an heroic attempt to rescue some miners who have been imprisoned by an explosion in one of his coal mines. There the story ends. This is merely a bald outline, but those who know Mrs Ward's books can understand with

what a wealth of interest she invests the persons, who appear in the story, their doings and their talk. The novel, in every page of it, abounds with manifestations of skill and thought and care, of eloquent feeling, of artistic restraints on the authoress’ facile pen. Sir George Tressady himself is a wonderfully vividly drawn character. With Letty Mrs Ward has not been quite so successful, I think. Old Lady Tressady is capital, and proclaims herself a life-like character, though we hope that she is not a common phenomenon in London society. Marcella is painted with admirable energy and truth on the whole, but Mrs Ward shows something of a tendency to apotheosize the heroine of the book, and thereby awakens, now and then, a spirit of contradiction in the mind of the reader. The hosts of subsidiary characters introduced into the book are gifted with an animation and individuality that makes them human units, interesting as such even apart from their special claims on our sympathies and antipathies, and contribute largely to make Sir George Tressady attractive reading.

M * A Boyar of the Terrible.’

The Boyars formed a large, powerful and highly - privileged Russian order of knighthood or of something analogous

to the knighthood of Western Europe. The order has long since ceased to exist, as it was abolished by Peter the Great. ‘ The Terrible ’ is Ivan 11., surnamed ‘ The Terrible.’ who was the Grand Duke of Moscow who first assumed the title of Czar of Russia. The book before me is the fictional life story of Alexander Stroganof, one of Ivan’s Boyars, and is written—especially the first portion of it —with much spirit and vigour. It is a true romance of love and adventure, and has a certain freshness about it that pleasantly provokes and sustains the reader’s interest, though some of the adventures do smack strongly of the hackneyed type of Russian adventure, with wolves as its raison d'etre. A Boyar of the Terrible has sufficient vitality to have borne a prolongation. Indeed, the book would have been certainly improved, in my opinion, by making the latter portion of it richer in details regarding the conquest of Siberia and the later years of Ivan’s life.

M 'The Captain of the Pole Star.'

This is a collection of ten short stories, headed by The Captain of the Pole Star, of which some have already appeared in well-known English magazines. But Dr.

Conan Doyle is justified in republishing them, for together with some others, they make a very readable volume of tales. Those who like to have their flesh nicely set a-creeping will find satisfaction in the larger number of these tales, for that deals with the weird, mysterious, and horrible element in things human and extra human. While those who relish above all things a good laugh are likely to get it by reading ‘ The Great Keinplatz Experiment,’ ‘ A Literary Mosaic,’ etc.

< ‘ A Sketch of the Natural History of Australia.’

This book is no more and no less than what it professes to be in its title. Em bracing, as it does, such a wide field for its subject, it cannot enter, within the compass of its covers, upon that

learned minutiae of detail which sometimes spells cumbrous prolixity. It, therefore, will appeal to the general reader who likes his information to be given him in a short, pithy, and not too much specialised form. Mr Aflabo is to be congratulated on the clearness and conciseness of his classification of beasts, birds and fish. He writes in an easy, popular style, and his book is still further popularised by a number of helpful illustrations by Mr F. Seth.

‘ Deeds That Won the Empire.’

This is the republication of certain articles, bearing that title, which have beenprimarlypublished in the Melbourne Argus. There is promise of more to

follow, for the book claims only to be the first series of these articles. Such articles cannot but serve a good and useful end by revivifying, in the minds of the people of this far-off quarter of the British Empire, the memory of the heroic deeds of our countrymen of the past, and making us glad that it is English blood that pulsates in our hearts. * What England was let not her sons forget ’ is an exhortation that cannot be too often addressed to the English folk under the Southern Cross, and the publication of a book like Deeds That Won t/ie Empire is a mute but by no means ineffective exhortation to this end.

* Camps, Quarters, and Casual Places.*

This is a charming olla podrida of tales, articles, descriptive sketches, reminiscences, and forecastings, of which the respective locations seem to be pretty well

scattered over the habitable globe. This diversity of situation is, perhaps, only what may be expected, when we remember that the contents of the book flow from the

pen of a war correspondent. For war, like Satan of old, goes to and fro on the surface of the earth, and war correspondents follow in its track—or, in the case of the more knowing ones—go before it. Therefore, the places on this planet, with which Archibald Forbes has no personal acquaintance, must be few and far between. He has carried with him wherever he has gone an eagle eye, capable of seeing everything, and a brain capable of interpreting aright what the eye saw. - If we add to these an evidently good visual memory and a note-book, we can easily understand why Mr Forbes can write, and write so well on people, places and things, many and varied. Between the many good literary items that make this book, it would be invidious to draw comparisons, so I shall content myself with recommending it, holus bolus, to the general reader, who cannot tail to find much in it to instruct and amuse him.

We have received for review from Messrs G. Ricordi and Co., 265, Regent-street, London, a ‘ Capriccio for Violin’ with pianoforte accompaniment, and two songs —* A Mandoline Serenade’ and ‘Love Will Light the Way.’ The violin Capriccio and its pianoforte accompaniment are by A. Simonetti. The melody is smooth and rather pretty, and the music is not too difficult of execution. The ‘Mandoline Serenade,’ which is published in four keys in G, in F, in E, and in D, is by N apoleone Zardo, and the words by Percy Pinkerton with an Italian translation by Pietro Mazzoni. Both music and words are sweet and effective and appropriate to the theme, though the melody of the former is not very pronounced as, perhaps, best fits a serenade. ‘ Dove Will Light the Way ’ is by George F. Horan, the words by J. Anthony McDonald. It is published in the key of G. The words are not of a very high order of merit, but the music is pretty, the melody and the accomjaniment being also both simple and ‘ catchy.’

* " Sir George Tressady,’ by Mrs Humphrey Ward : Macmillan and Co. (through Messrs Wildman and Lyell). * ‘ Fields of Fair Renown,' by Joseph Hocking: Ward, Lock, and Bowden (Wildman and Lyell). * ‘ A Boyar of the Terrible,’ by Fred Wishaw : Longmans, Green and Co. * * The Captain of the Pole Star,' by A. Conan Doyle: Longmans, Green and Co. * ‘ASketch of the Natural History of Australia,'by Frederick Aflalo : Macmillan and Co. (Wildman and Lyell). * ‘ Deeds that Won the Empire,’ by ‘ Vedette’: Australasian Review of Reviews, Melbourne. * 'Camps, Quarters, and Casual Places.’ by Archibald Forbes. L.L.D.: Macmillan and Co. (Wildman and Lyell).