BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIV, Issue XV, 14 April 1900, Page 685

BOOKS AND BOOKMEN.

PARSON KELLY.”

Andrew Lang, collaborating with A. K. W. Mason, has not produced in “Parson Kelly” a book equal in artistic finish and vivid colour to “The World’s Desire.” in which he had Rider Haggard for his fellow-worker. Still there is no denying that “Paison Kelly” is a novel full of virility and bound to excite a strong interest. New and highly dramatic situations are not few. and a piquant flavour is added to most of these situations by what rarely enters successfully into the novel of to-day—a strong element of humour. It is in the reign of the first George that “Parson Kelly” flourishes, and then he only flourishes under the rose, as it were, for his allegiance is given not to King George but to the king across the water. The parson puts in his time gaily plotting for his exiled king in company with his bosom friend, rash. happy-go-lucky Nicholas de Wogan, and it is the adventures which these two encounter in their business and private capacity that make the book. One’s sympathy is rather alienated from the hero by the fact of his cloth. The reader is never allowed to forget that Mr Kelly is a parson, while, at the same time, he is running full tilt against all accepted ideas of what is becoming in a clergyman. If Mr Kelly were a layman, however. we could have reconciled ourselves readily enough to his free and easy rules of living, and done full justice to his excellencies of character and disposition. The authors seem to have happily caught the tone of the. social life in the times they write of, and well known characters, who figured conspicuously in the eye of the world of that day. are hit off with much skill and accuracy of portraiture.

“DONNA TERESA.” A charming story of a part of the lives of some English people living in Italy. It is a quiet story in which sensational interest —though sensational interest is not awanting—is quite subordinate to the revelation and development of character in the central figures. Donna Teresa herself, and her sister Sylvia, though absolutely opposite types of good and true womankind, ■are both admirably drawn; and Wilbraham, the lover in Huon. of both, stands out in the pages before me an actual living man with all his faults and virtues. The appreciative and affectionate descriptions of scenes in and about Rome make very pleasant reading. The few Italians who come with any degree of prominence into the story are evidently sketched by one who is not a superficial observer of human nature.

YEOMAN FLEETWOOD. Mrs Francis Blundell, while presenting the public in “Yeoman Fleetwood” with a story which is written well and thoughtfully, has committed a mistake in making it so long. 'The threads of interest in the tale are not sufficiently strong to support the strain of its length. The love of a Iran for a woman forms no doubt a sufficiently adequate motif for ninetenths of the novels written, but it wants a handsome embroidery of incident, more or less exciting, to make it carry a reader interested through four hundred pages of close type. This story takes an unconscionably long time to get under way, and even when it does begin to move it certainly does not move at anything a proaching a quick pace. Description and comenintary by the authoress takes up room that would have been more aptly occupied by action of some sort or another, and it seems only when we are nearing the end of the hook that we get a. sense that something is happening. Book V. of Macmillan’s Australasian Readers has just come into my hands, and 1 note with pleasure what a very attractive collection of instructive reading it provides for our young folks. Few youngsters could fail to find something in it to suit their tas-tes, and most children are likely to forget ♦ hat it is a lesson book and dig deep into its contents without their teacher’s aid. The March number of the “Pall Mall Magazine” contains various stories and articles on themes which suggest the present prominence of war and South Africa, in the public mind. Among these is a short poem by Lady Middiet on on General Wane hope, which will inevitably Is* read with much interest. Professor

Lombrosso has an article on the connection between bicycling and crime, which it is difficult to take as seriously as it is evidently meant to be taken. J. Holt-Schooling gives us another of his interesting statistical papers on “Gambling Systems.” The fictional department is well represented in this number, and a fresh instalment of Mrs Steele’s tine serial story lays a deeper claim on the reader’s interest. I'he frontispiece is a handsome photogravure of a portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and there

is also a line engraving of Lelio Orsi's “Walk to Emmaus,” among some other good illustrations.

The March number of “The Mighty Atom,” the bright little magazine written and illustrated by the girls of the “Mighty Atom” Club in Auckland, is just to hand. The entire get up of the periodical reflects great praise on the ingenuity and talent of the writers ami artists, and speaks volumes for the editor. Miss Dora E. Moor, who has brought her staff up to such a creditable state of efficiency.