BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIV, Issue VI, 10 February 1900, Page 274

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN

“THE AVORLD'S DESIRE.”

I am glad to meet “The AA’orld’s Desire” in the blue-green uniform of Longmans’ Colonial Library, for the book deserves even a wider popularity tl an it has already attained. There is certainly a sufficient diversity in the known modes of thought, and expression of the two authors whose names appear on the title page to warrant the expectation of something piquantly interesting in a collaboration from their pens, and “The AVorld’s Desire” does not disappoint such an expectation. The impress of Mr Haggard's powerful, if sometimes rather undisciplined, imagination, is as plainly seen in its pages as are Air Lang's polished scholarship, and that sympathetic appreciation and reproduction of the old Greek spirit and atmosphere which naturally belong to one of Homer's most successful translators. For those who care for such things there is ir fine allegory in the book, and for the rest it is an account, full of strength, colour, and harmony, of the later unrecorded adventures of Helen of Troy and Odysseus. The Pharaoh that knew not Joseph comes into the story, and we look, through Greek eyes, upon the Israelites who spoileel the Egyptians before following Moses anti Aaron into the wilderness. There is a lot of very fair verse effectively introduced, and the reader will meet with one particular piece that is very much more than fair.

“RUPERT, BY THE GRACE OF GOD.” Dashing Prinee Rupert, the gallant and untiring fighter for a losing cause, has ever been as great a favourite in the pages of history and fiction as he was in flesh and blood, in the years of grace w hen he headed King Charles’ cavaliers. So Miss McChesney's present novel, which boasts the gallant Prince for its chief hero, is likely to find many warm admirers, and it deserves to do so, for, though the book is not without its blemishes —most notable among these a not very effectively constructed and developed plot, and a certain touch of unreality about some of the characters and incidents—it shows plenty of care and thought on the part of the writer, contains plenty of bright coloured stirring description of events in the Civil AVar, and is really interesting throughout. “LITTLE NOVELS OF ITALY.” The five stories which lie within the covers of this volume are certainly not all of equal merit and interest. The vagaries of the love-making of the sonnet-writing, aesthetic, Inattrocento gallants, which make the backbone of two of the stories, are described with much humour and evidences of much discriminating reading of the literature of that time; but they are just a trifle tedious. However, these stories are short, and the other three are very brightly and piquantly written and full of strong human interest, AVe retain in our minds, when we close the “Little Novels,” some wonderfully vivid pictures of the strange life of passion and intrigue and desperate adventuring which seethed between the skies and the soil of mediaeval Italy. “RICHARD CARVEL.” The exploits of AA’inston Churchill have brought his name to the knowledge of the millions who are following with the keenest interest the progress of the present war in the Transvaal, but. comparatively few know anything of AA’inston Churchill as a writer of books. Such of his writings as I have come across I have always found much to my liking, and “Richard Carvel” I can honestly pronounce to be really excellent. It is a bulky novel, but it is so vigorously written and so full of interest from start to finish that no one is at all likely to complain that it is too long. The novel In many respects is suggestive of Thackeray's “Virginians,” especially those parts which relate to the hero’s young days in Maryland, at the time when Maryland was still a colony, and to his later experiences in London when he saw life in the company of Lord Holland’s brilliant, son, Charles James Fox. The author gives us charming descriptions of that early Maryland and of the large-hearted, free-spirited Marylanders who dared to be loyal to themselves, though it made them disloyal to their king. The feelings and opinions which prevailed respectively on each side of the Atlantic in regard to the questions which led to the revolt of the American colonies, are much discussed, though the author’s sympathy is wholly on the side of the Americans, whose cause in that war the judgment of posterity has almost universally pronounced to have been a righteous one. A capital love story runs through “Richard Carvel,” startin the first chapter in the child affection of a pair of little playmates, and through the tantalising wilfulness of the charming- heroine, meeting with many ups and downs before it reaches a happy orthodox ending. “STALKY AND CO.” Though not, in my opinion, up to the mark of Rudyard Kipling’s best work, "Stalky and Co.” cannot fail to be read with much entertainment and instruction. The invincible triumvirate’s doings and misdoings certainly form interesting reading, since they are marked by distinct characteristics which set them quite apart from the doings and misdoings of ordinary schoolboys. But we have only to read a little of their conversation and note the fashion in which their ideas are evolved and developed to realise that “Stalky and Co.” are not ordinary schoolboys. How, indeed, could they be? Since the immortal Rudyard Kipling himself, in the person of Beetle, is one of the trio, and not the most remarkable one either, if the author’s admiration for Stalky has not misled him. Still, those three abnormal boys are very human, though perhaps a trifle less human than the masters. The glimjises we have of the latter, directly and through the boys’ eyes, are capital. King, the elaborate giber, is altogether delightful; he is so very real.

“VALDA HAN EM.” This is a story, put into the mouth of an English governess, descriptive of life in the harem of a Turkish .Pasha in Cairo. A tragic love story connected with the good Pasha's beautiful young wife, Valda Hanem, forms motif of the novel, which is written conscientiously and interestingly, and should be very useful in correcting many erroneous notions prevailing in AA’estern civilisation with regard to life in Turkish harems. “MIRANDA OF THE BALCONY.” Those acquainted with Mr Mason’s previous writings will be prepared to like his latest book, now published in MacmiUan’s Colonial Library. “Miranda of the Balcony,” though it is not so aboundingly blessed with exciting and adventurous incidents as “The Courtship of Maurice Buckler,” is, nevertheless, fairly gifted that way, and is a vividly interesting romance. Miranda herself is a charming personage. and, like the rest of the characters, is cleverly drawn. Some of the most thrilling scenes are laid in Morocco. “NO SOUL ABOVE MONEY.” In the power of writing such a story as this —a story of life amidst peaceful rural surroundings, in which a tragedy of the grimmest and most pathetic caste gets itself inextricably the motif of the navel, which is written scarcely be surpassed. He quietly and graphically makes his reader realise, ultimately and affectionately, the scenes and characters he introduces them to, and then he brings on his unexpected tragedy. It adds immensely to the pathos of the situation to find that it is not his bad characters who are the actors in the tragedy, but his good, who, by some baleful fate, are thrust into crime and into the bitterest and most terrible expiation. “No Soul Above Money” is finely written from start to finish, with not a word too much or too little, and strongly holds the reader's interest.

The Australasian edition of the “Review of Reviews” for January, now to hand, contains an article, or rather three articles, which should be of special interest to New Zealanders. Under the title of “AA’hy Mr Seddon AVon the New Zealand Elections” it gives the views of a Government supporter, an Oppositionist, and a New Zealand lady on a question that has been the subject of much discussion here. The Government view of the victory and its cause is presented by the Hon. J. M. Twomey, M.L.C., while the Oppositionist view of the matter is given by Mr Scobie Mackenzie. The New- Zealand woman who contributes her opinion to the enquiry is Stella M. Henderson, M.A., LL.B. Another article in the number of general interest to Australasians is the Rev. AV. H. Fitchett’s first paper of a series on “AVhat an Australian Sees in England.” The number is rich as usual in interesting excerpts, and Mr Stead is to the fore in more than one part of the periodical. At the present time, when the microbe of patriotism is so vigorously at work in our blood, a march entitled “Queen of the Isles,” with a portrait of Her Britannic Majesty on the cover, ought to be sure of, meeting with a favourable reception on coming before the public. Such a march, for the piano, by Leopold D. Schurer, has just been sent me by its publisher, Mozart Allan, 70, South Portland-street, Glasgow. In addition to its title, it has other strong claims upon popular favour, for it has a tuneful, well-marked melody, and is extremely easy of execution.