The Bookshelf.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVLI, Issue 12, 20 September 1911, Page 46

The Bookshelf.

By

DELTA.

BOOKSHELF FEUILLETONc

Important Notice. IN response to many applications, particularly from the British col<»ni<* c . it has been decided to extend the time allowed for Bending in manuscripts for Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton's £lOOO Prize Novel Competition. The last date for receiving ma.nusrripU is changed from .August 31. 1911, to January 1, 1912, Iby which date ail manuscripts submitted for the competition must be received Iby Messrs. Hodder ami Stoughton. St. Haul's House. Warwick Square. London, •F.U. Novels may be sent at any time previous to this (Lite. A Change of Title. Air. Percival Gil»bon*< new book, which is to be published in the autumn, is tc< bo renamed “Margaret Harding.’’ “Flower of the Peach" was, if wo remember rightly. the title (originally fixed up. Mr. Hibiiou’s novels are pearls of price, and his novel wi|l meet with a cordial reception, we are sure, by all who Bravo been privileged to make his acquaintance through the medium of his writings. A Scientific “ Who’s Wlio.” “Who's Who in Science** is a new annual that Messrs. J. and A. t hurchill have in preparation under the editorship of Mr. IL 11. Stephenson. It will meet a long felt want in the scientific world. It may be argued that whoever is anybody in particular in any branch of art or sriom-e is mentioned in “Who’s Who.’’ But though “Who’s Who*’ grow- in bulk every' year, it is not possible to include a very large percentage in the various ranks of -society. the professions, the arts, and the sciences. So that this publication Is bound to meet with a cordial reception in scientific circles. REVIEWS. When the Red Gods Call: By Beatrice Grimshaw. (London: Mills and Boon. Auckland: Wildman and Arey, 2/(> ami 3 fi.) Miss Grimshaw's skill in the depiction of the islands, and the life of the Pacific, is too well known n this Dominion to

need dilating upon. Miss Grimshaw is one that likes to know the things, places* and conditions of which she writes so vigorously, and with such plentitude of accurate and absorbing detail. In “W hen the Red God Calls’’ the reader is transported to British New Guinea, and is kept there spellbound, while vivid pictures of semi-tropical life and happening are exposed to his now admiring, now indignant or reluctant gaze. Hugh Lynch, an English man of good birth and education, having left the Old Country under a cloud, eventually comes to anchor in British New Guinea. Mistake number one, he marries a native wife, a heinous crime according to white etiquette. and then commits mistake number two by leaving her for a few months, (-n business that would make for their mutual benefit. Whereupon this •‘lnmost Injun” reverts to race. Mistake number three and greatest, again according to white etiquette lie follows and slays her seducer, who is. of course, 1 he usual beach-combing trader. Then leaving this island paradise of his (he had made an island paradise for her, some days sail from the mainland, which his wiie s seducer had been at pains to remove and destroy by pillage and fire) he sailed to the capita] of New Guinea, where he wooes and wins, very much against the Governor's, wish, the Governor’s daughter. Mistake four, we wish We could say -last, he marries his love without telling her his tragic story’. For t’ne rest of this uncommonly adventurous and exciting narrative. which is an uncommonly absorbing one. we refer readers to the book, which needs no advertising. One reader of it. in a community’ of readers, will advertise it sufficiently'. We have read no travel story with such rivetted-atten-tion for years. We are indebted to Messrs. Al ills anil Boon for our copy of a book, which, if only for its marvellously vivid description of the native life, habitations, customs and scenic wonders of the Purari Delta in British New Guinea, is alone worth its price. Mrs Maxon Protests: Bv Anthony Hope. (London: Methuen and Co.. Auckland: Wildman and Arey. 3 G. Co.. Auckland; Wildman and Arey, 3/6.) “Mrs. Maxon Protest**’ j.s but a more modern variation on •‘The Woman Who Did.” -Air*. Maxon is married to the old-fashioned type of man who thinks his

wife’s life should be modelled on the somewhat narrow plan of his own draw 4 ing. Naturally’, “Mrs. Maxon protests” to such purpose that she leaves her husband, who is a rising barrister, of exceedingly comfortable fortune and considerable social prestige, in order to try independence on the £l5O a year which had been left to her by’ her deceased father. Mrs. Maxon takes refuge with a cousin of comfortable means, and of ultraliberal views in many things opposed to conventional ideas. Here she meets two men, one of whom bolsters her up in the course she has adopted, and with whom she eventually enters upon an irregular union, and the other, who really loves her, and would make her his wife if he could with honour, is left lamenting. Of course, the. irregular union ends, as 99 out of every 100 such unions do end, in the man deserting the woman. Mr. Hope’s story is as old as the hills. Nor can we see what point he intended to make by its presentment. It is not enough from a moral point of view that the irregular *tep Airs. Maxon took turned out disastrously. Her final happiness with Dick Donnelly is wrong, both from a moral and a merely conventional point of view, Air. Hope justifies Winnie Maxon's existence on the ground that she “had raised questions in unquestioning people": questioned. for instance, a* to whether it was not strict equity for man and wife to part on a point of incompatibility of temper. It had been better for Cyril and Winnie Alaxon had they met each other half way'. We mentioned that Airs. Alaxon had two lovers—we should have said three. This third lover, the real hero of the book, would have married Airs. Alaxon when she was free, but for the duty and the example he owed to his sovereign and his regiment. This lover is our hero — readers may choose their own. A little more thought given to natural selection and much marital sorrow and trouble and social scandal and bad example might be saved. Tn the meantime, it is absolutely farcical and worse for men and women to solemnly bind themselves by a religious ceremony for better and worse, and then at the first sign of worse, calmly abjure their vows and lightly lay down their responsibilities. Alarriage laws may be, nay. are. faulty: irregular unions are <iimes both against the laws of God and man. And woman for many reasons will always be the greater sufferer. Questions of the kind mooted by Air Hope in this story raise a greater crop of evil than of .good. For one convert to the repeal of the present marriage laws, Air. Hope has made himself morally responsible for 100 seceders from the protection of a law which, however seemingly inadequate in these days of slack morality and increasing laissez fa ire. is the only protection, in the legal sense, woman has from man. Laws are not made for individuals. And in the main the marriage laws have stood that greatest of all tests, viz., time.

The Story Girl: By L. M. ery. (Boston: L. C.Page and Co. Auckland: Wildman and Arev j Readers of “Ann of Green Gables’ will anticipate a treat of no small dimensions from Miss Montgomery. y or w jJl they be disappointed, for "The Story Girl” surpasses by far either that old favourite or “Kahneny of the Orchard.” And yet it is simpler in plot and style than either. It is just a few svlvan chapters culled from the lives of ,i few adults, and of children on the threshold of youth, whose immature intellhreiA had just begun to wrestle with the many and varied problems born of the hopes'’ fears, joys, perplexities, aspiration, and loves, that are peculiar to dawnin" young man and womanhood. The scenes of the book are laid in that Prince Edward’s Island which Miss Montgomery has so familiarised her readers with a» to visualise for them its peculiar charm and scenic: beauties. The Story Girl —Sara Stanley—is equally feli'citonsL whether she is relating the' love stories of the neighbours or her near or defunct relatives, or in ghost stories, that alternately thr.ill and fascinate, or telling the story of the milky way, or of “How" Kissing was Discovered.” In short, Miss Montgomery is a born story-teller, ami she has such a vogue in this Dominion that a description of her personal!'. \ may not come amiss to her readers. Miss Montgomery lias lately been staving with Mr and Mrs L. C. Page, the publishers of her American editions. Boston is the first big city she lias ever visited, ami she is described by the Bostonian journals thus: —"(Miss Montgomery is short and slight, indeed of a form almost chihlislily small, thpugh graceful and symmetrical. She lias an oval face with delicate aquiline features, bluish-grey eyes and an abundance of dark brown hair. Iler pretty pink evening gown somewhat accentuated her frail ant youthful aspect. She has no favour for woman suffrage; she believes in the home-loving woman; we could not imagine her as “a woman of affairs, or aught but the modest, quite little gentlewoman of the warm heart and the vigorous, creative brain that she is.” Bostonians are charmed, it is said, no less with her unique personality than with her books. Of the evidence of the immense popularity of these is is only necessary to refer to the fact that her “Ann of Green Gables,” is selling as well as ever in its twenty-fifth edition, amt "Ann of Avonlea” is now in its fourteenth.

BITS FROM THE VERY LATEST BOOKS.

Convicts—and Ourselves. “ The next time you look with scorn upon a convict, let me beg of you to do one thing. Maybe you are not as bad as 1 am, but do one thing: think of all the crimes you have wanted to commit; think of all the crimes you would have committed if you had had the opporiuneity; think of all the temptations to which you would have yielded had nobody been looking; and then put your hand on your heart and say whether you can justly look with contempt upon a convict.”—“lngersoll: A Hographical Appreciation,” by Herman Jf z Kittredge. A Wagner Idiosyncrasy. " Wagner's sister. Frau Avenarin-. was the first guest to arrive at our little dance at Dresden, and we had to tern down all the floral decorations witii which we meant to impress our l.evmae friends, as the scent made her faint. The idiosyncrasy appawm'; 1 " longs to the family, for whenever \a_ner came to us either the Hower- yr >e had to leave.”—(Baron von rg) I.etters from India,” by Lady Wilson A. C. Macleod). Blackwood, 7,<> net. The Eternal Feminine. “A woman never feels good -he loves someone.” - . “The difference between being 'on I 1 * a woman nnd being leally fond o is not as easily explained to the vuina as to oneself.” "The penalty for a mistake is In am' than the penalty for a sin.’ “ With life, as with fiction, '< is always eager to peep at the last ■ ' 'P ters first, but a man general!) I' 1 ' to take the chapters in their <»•' ' ■ “ Double Lives,” by Francis Gribble, Jeigh Nash.

The Dropped AltcSi. “ A man who hag once murdered the King’s English always feels as if he’d got the body under the sofa. It's like homicidal mania; the poor wretch may be cured, but he lives in terror of an attack returning. He knows it doesn’t matter what he is or what he does; he may live like a saint or write like an archangel; but one aiteh omitted from his conversation will wreck him at the last.” “The Divine Fire,” by May Sinclair. New edition. Eveleigh Nash, 2/.