Books and Bookmen

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLI, Issue 9, 26 August 1908, Page 51

Books and Bookmen

During Her Majesty's Pleasure t M. E. Braddon. (London George Bell and Sons.) Despite the faet that Miss Braddon has been writing for over a quarter of a century, anything from her pen is seized upon with the greatest avidity.. Nor is there any sign of falling off in “During Her Majesty’s Pleasure,” which, if not as full of mystery as “Lady Audley’o Secret,” has the qualities that come from a deeper understanding of man, his motives, his and his shortcomings. There is the usual tragedy that overshadows all this author’s stories, and the usual worthless man or woman that is at the bottom of it. The usual mystery, too, which is ferreted out by the usual tabby cat, to the temporary undoing of the hero or heroine. There is also the usual sound moral. And, as is not always usual with the novel of to-day, it justifies its existence by the splendid example it affords of a great filial love. Our copy of this book has reached us by the courtesy of Messrs. Wildman and Arey.

A Bounty Boy : Frank T. Bullen. (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1 Adel- . phi Terrace). Those readers lacking in faith, or in some personal knowledge of the descendants of the mutineers of the Bounty of half a century ago, may find it difficult ;to believe that such an idyllic state of things could have existed amongst the descendants of the perpetrators of a crime so cruel, and so- lawless as to be unmatched in the annals of the Royal navy, and which had shaken the United Kingdom to its depths, by the knowledge that the discipline hitherto considered the strongest factor in the management of the united service forces, had proved utterly futile. Mr. Bullen’s motive for writing this book will be found in its short prefatory note, where he says, “I have endeavoured to sketch a community for whom I have the highest admiration, the descendants of the mutineers of the Bounty', who I maintain are a standing proof of the miraculous power of the gospel in the regeneration of mankind when unhindered by sacerdotal interference. And in order to make the subject as full as possible, I have taken one typical islander, the Bounty Boy, out-of his surroundings into the world and told his adventures therein, with a view of showing how the Christian, who is one indeed, may fare.” The most sacerdotal of Mr. Bullen’s readers will thank him for his delineation of “Christmas Bounty Adam.” But sacerdotalism and monarchies are the outcome of large communities, and of civilization, and instituted at their own wish. And the methods of primitive Christianity, as the hero of this book Boon found, are called by other names than Christianity, in kingdoms, and sacerdotal circles. And the Bounty Boy, and “Mary Stewart,” and her father did well when they shook the dust of the ultra-civilized world off their feet, and returned to the Island which its inhabitants had turned into as near, a presentment of Arcadia as could well be by a people who had in their veins the blood ■of those who had once helped to people Avernus. Those “who go down to the sea in ships,” and especially those who are.engaged in the whaling industry will wax enthusiastic over the realistic description given of sperm-whaling in the Pacific, and the expert knowledge shown by Mr. Bullen, who is no tyro at the game of whaling. Of the danger, the etrenuousnesß, and the innumerable hardships that attend the hunting—harpooning, cutting up, and the boiling down of the blubber of these leviathans of the deep, the landsman has not the slightest conception. But Air. Bullen, with marvellous simplicity of detail, has shown all that is worth knowing of the process of whale-fishing, from the sighting of the whale to the consigning of the barrels of crude sperm oil to the hold. Mr. Bullen is nothing if he is not instructive and convincing. And he is more than thia. He is sincere and uplifting. And what Rudyard Kipling has done for “Tommy Atkins,” Mr. Bullen is in a fair way of doing for the sailorman.

Our copy has been received through the courtesy of Messrs. Wildman and Arey. Redemption: Rene Bazin (London), George Bell and Sons). No finer review of this book could be given than that contained in its preface which has been written by its translator, A. S. Rappoport. In this preface Bazin is introduced to the reader as a writer who will open up “A new vista of reflections.” What Mr. W. B. Maxwell has done for the shop girls of England, and of London in particular, Bazin has done for the shop girls of France, and of the milliners of Nantes in particular. Referring to the play “Diana of Dobson’s,” Mr. Rappoport says:—“When witnessing the performance, melancholy thoughts crowded my brain. I thought of all the human beings whom Nature has treated like a very step-mother. She has given them appetites and desires, cravings and inspirations, but—with a grin of irony on her impenetrable face —has thrown them into a social atmosphere where it is an impossibility to satisfy these cravings and aspirations. And what is the result of this craving of Nature? If not endowed with strength of personality and a powerful sense of morality, these beings at the end have to yield to temptations and are swallowed up by the vast stream of vice. Their moral lungs become corroded and they find a premature end. And who will dare to throw the first stone at them? It is of such unhappy beings that Rene Bazin is talking in this novel.” And, further, ho says:—“The obstacle lies in their very profession. This profession refines them and raises them above their class. By their birth they belong to one world, and by their profession and their drcams, to another. They are placed between the luxury in which they dwell by day and the misery of their homes at night; they live in affluence when at work, and in poverty when out of it—■ they are unable to forget the riches which they contemplate and the modest conditions from which they spring.” “Oh, you rich of the earth,” exclaims Bazin, “did you but know of the sad hours linked with the charming creations you wear. Girls from Dobson’s, girls from Kay’s, and girls from Jay’s, here is your history in a few words; here is your psychology and characterisation drawn in a few lines by the pencil of the maser. For the young milliners in De toute son ame, and especially the heroine Henriette Madiot, are not typically French characters. Henriette, Marie, Irma, and Reine are human, and might just as well be placed in a Regent-street establishment as in the work and show-rooms of Aladame Clemence at Nantes. They would serve for the identical picture, which differs only in its framework. The suffering, the struggle, the poignancy will be just the same on the banks of the Thames as on those of the Loire.” “And is it artistic intuition, or conscious design, which makes the author, when drawing the picture of his heroine, say that one might have taken her for an English woman?” Of the system in vogue in the workrooms of France the writer of this article has no reliable knowledge. But while there is still much to be deplored in the system that prevails in the shops and worlf-rooms of England, it is certain that a great amelioration in the lot of this class has been gradually taking place: wages are higher, sanitary and housing conditions in the houses of the poor are better, while free libraries, free education, and free art gallaries are having their effect on the morale ami hitherto vacant minds of the workers, and gradually—though it is greatly to be deplored—women are discovering that there are avenues open to them outside marriage, and also that gauds and ease are an absolutely inadequate return for loss of virtue. Of the quality of this book there can be no two opinions. Written in chastely simple style that is worthy of the highest admiration and emulation, it is worthy of a place amongst the classics. No more delicate appeal has over been made in the interests of the toilers. And no work girl who knows, or reads, her Bazin, can ever be wholly comfortless.

Scarlet Runner : C. N. and A. Al. Williamson. (London: Methuen and Co., 36 Essex Street, W.C.) The uses and misuses to which a motor car ean be put would almost ueem to have been exhausted by the versatile collaborators of this book, "Scarlet Runner,” which is as exciting, and amusing, if not as originally conceived, as "The Lightning Conductor,” “The Botor Chaperon,” etc. Several sensational incidents of topical interest that have appeared in the columns of the great dailies, have evidently been seized upon and worked up into a consecutive story, in which the chauffeur of “Scarlet Runner” figures as top sayer. Briefly outlined, tire story is as follows: "Christopher Race,” accustomed to regard himself as the heir to his Uncle’s (“James Race”) vast wealth, suddenly has his allowance of £BOO a year reduced to £lOO. In a subsequent interview with his uncle, Christopher is informed that his uncle is dissatisfied with the use he has been making of his allowance, and unless he can prove within the next twelve months that he is capable of making money by his own exertions, his uncle will leave his wealth to a charitable institution. In Order to prove his willingness, Christopher sells everything he possesses, except his wearing apparel, buys an up-to-date motor car (Scarlet Runner), qualifies himself as a first-class chauffeur, and advertises himself as willing to hire himself and Scarlet Runner out on tour for the usual consideration. Of his clients,and his, and their adventures, escapades, and hairbreadth escapes from total annihilation, the reader may not be allowed more than a glimpse in this review. Sufficient it is to say, that in generously losing a great motor race, the winning of which had been one of the conditions imposed by James Race, in order that a girl driving a rival motor car might win, the said win meaning to the girl’s father either vast wealth and scientific distinction, or total ruin, Christopher not only wins a wife, but hio uncle’s money, as the girl turns out to be the daughter of the only woman James Race had ever loved. Of love affairs that end in marriage, this book contains ten. Scarlet Runner also is instrumental in placing on the tlaroue the King of Dalvania, in the bringing of criminals to justice, in the acquittal of the innocent; it also helps to bring about a reconciliation between a recalcitrant husband and his wife, and acts the part of fairy prince to the sleeping beauty (in distress). Brings over too, in safety, from Amsterdam in its petrol tank, the diamond presented by the South African magnate to the King. In short,, the only thing this Bayard of a motor (we use the cognomen advisedly, since the collaborators have invested it with human attributes) does not seem to have been able to do (like the elephant of the famous conundrum) was to climb trees. Probably the members of that Riviera dinner party to whom Scarlet Runner is dedicated will be able to extract a glimmer of sense from the book’s 386 pages. But the reader, like the fen country rustic, who, asked his opinion of Toole in his inimitable performance of Terpsichore, is said to have replied “He’s the darndest fool I ever see.” A criticism that would have delighted Toole, ami which is respectfully passed on to the brilliant, but sadly unveraeious and volatile authors of “Scarlet Runner.” We are indebted to Messrs Wildman and Arey for our copy of this book, which to read is to thoroughly enjoy.

DELTA.