FEUILLETON.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIX, Issue 16, 16 April 1913, Page 43

FEUILLETON.

Offer to Colonial Novelists. /y\ ESSRS. Hodder and Stoughton 4I I advise that they are offering JI I 1 a great prize novel eompeti“y tion for colonial authors for the nest novel, the scene of which ie laid in their colony or dependency. The novel may picture the present-day conditions or past history of the country from which such novel is issued. A sum of £l,OOO will be divided equally among the four prize-winners, and the territory embraced is:— '(1) The Dominion of Canada and Newfoundland. [(2) The Commonwealth of Australia and New Zealand. [(3) The Empire of India. 1(4) British Africa, or any other colony or dependency not mentioned in classes 1,2, 3. The competition is open to ail writers, ■wherever at present residing, vvlio are connected witli the colony or dependency •by birth or by residence of not le?s than one year. No author may submit more than two Rooks- Novels submitted for adjudication must not be more than 150,000 wo,rds in length, but it is recommended that they should contain between 80,000 and 120,000 words. (The novel submitted must be original work, no adaptation or translation from foreign writers being allowed. Collaboration is permitted. The adjudicators for tire work are:—Canada, Sir Parker; Australasia, Mr. Charles Carvlce; India, Mr. A. E. W. Mason; Africa, Sir W. Rider Haggard. The offer iri open from now until March 31st, 1914, so that sufficient time is allowed |o write for the full particulars and conditions, laid down. There is no mention of second or third prizes, but it is possible that any novel submitted would, if up to the Hodder and Stoughton standard, be considered, with a view to its ultimate publication. Intending competitors wishing to save time can obtain full particulars of this competition from Upton and Co., Champtaloup and Edmiston, or Wildman and Arey. Some New Publications. Amongst (new Jfsetion, I potice Mr. Eden Phillpott’s “Widecombe Fair” (John Murrav). As is customary, the Acen&s of Mr. Phillpott’s new story are set in rural Devonshire. But the pessimistic note and the despairing outlook on life is almost mussing in this story, which depicts a striking and attractive comedy of village life. It is. in fact, a Composite picture of the life of the Devonshire village presented, and is decidedly the pleasantest book I can reinember Mr. Phillpott ever to ha\e written in its class. Lancastrians may be interested to hear that Messrs. Long- • man have or are about shortly to issue a work by Air. Ernest Evans, of Burnley. .The work, which is at once historic and economic, ‘‘ traces the connection between the physical features and the distribution •pf the industries and population of the •Country,” and should receive a cordial welcome from all Lancastrians, since it gives a great deal of much-needed information in an eminently readable and attractive form. In her new novel, entitled ‘The Beloved Enemy” (Methuen), Madame Albanesi presents two studies in temperaments —one of a rough, st r ong, /Character, warped by bitter and strange ‘experiences; the other of a sunny-heaited girl, who from being impulsive and even heartless, develops gradually into 0. Voman of strong feeling, fine coinage, and very real sympathy. Another -jvork of fiction issued by thits firni rLed Into the Wilderness,” by William G. Bailey. The hero of the story, John Martin, a missionary in a rarely-visited island in the East, id ‘‘tempted of the jdevil,” and falls. First, he yields |o a. braving for drink, and then to allurement* of another kind, in the person of a beautiful half-caste girl. Her dradeath seems to him God’s punishment lor his offences, and he thinks he has sinned beyond redemption. His despair touches the verge of madness, but In the end he finds faith and peaceThose readers interested in the world’s npeace jnovement” will acclaim “The • Peace Movement of America/’ which U the title of a volume by Julius Morltzen, gad which has just been issued by George

Putnam and Sons. The work, besides (being of topical trend. i«s of special and attractive interest. Its frontispiece is a reproduction of a photograph showing Mr. Bryce ami Mr. Knox signing the Anglo-American Arbitration Treaties of August 3rd. 1911, in the presence of President Taft and other members of his Cabinet. In view of Mr. Taft’s latest declaration regarding the Panama ( anal dues, this illustration has exceptional significance. Conceraing the Author of “ Red Harvest.” So intensely realistic and detailed was the description given by Mr Newman Flower in h:» “Bed Harvest” of the

interior of the Royal Palace at Belgrade, and of the assassination within its walls of King Alexander and Queen Draga, that I feel that little apology is needed

for my former expression of the belief that Mr Flower knew his Belgrade by per*one-1 visitation. But the January “Bookman” tells the story of how “Red Harvest” came to be written —a story that, while it disposes of the supposition that Mr Flower had made himself personally acquainted with his scenes as a ■whole, speaks volumes for the fitness of Mr Flower’s continuance in bis new sphere of literary activity. Says the “Bookman” regarding “Red Harvest*': “Not long since Mr Flower met a man in Paris who had been associated with the assassination, and he told a remarkable story, which Mr Flower resolved to retell in the form ot -fiction, and ‘Red Harvest’ is the result. Mr Flower is wellknown among the society of Dorset as a keen student of Thomas Hardy, and better known to the rest of us as editor of those popular monthlies, ‘The Storyteller’ and ‘Cassell’s Magazine of Fiction.’ ‘I remember very gratefully,’ he says, ‘the first advice given to me by a former Cassell editor, Mr Max Pemberton, who told me the only sound recipe for writing a story was: ‘First have your story to tell —then tell it.’ He adds that in his capacity of editor he has always based on this maxim his Judgment of st or io*, submitted to him. (With what success he has applied it to the writing of his own first novel we shall know when we come to read it.” “Red Harvest” has. t think, triumphantly demonstrated the soundness of the Pemberton recipe. Mr Flower had a story to tell, ami in “Red Harvest” he told it superlatively well. “ Toby’s Second Innings.”

Smith, Elder and Co. have issued the second -instaiment of Sir Henry Lucy’s reminiscences of Parliamentary life, entitled “Forty Year* in the Wilderness. More Passages by the Way.” Like the first, this second volume is eminently

interesting and informative reading, and is written with the geniality an I wit peculiar to Sir Henry Lucy, who lias been the Toby, M.P., of “Punch,” tn nee about 1880. 10/6 is the price of thio second volume, and those readers who have read or possess the first instalment will wot begrudge the price of this second, whose gossipy, witty pages will make him acquainted at secondhand with the most famous Parliamentary and other personages of Sir Henry’s time. Interesting to Industrial Workers. No one. it will be admitted, could with more expertness and propriety write a book on Industrial Organisation than Mr Edward Cadbury, and his book, “Experiments in Industrial Organisation,*’ with a preface by W- J. Ashley, Ph. D.. should be read with keen interest lir.th by employers and employed. Professor Ashley in his preface avers “That the experiments described in this book are full of valuable suggestions to the business man and no less to those who look to the State, o r to the great union or syndicate

as the future ruler of industry.” The tremendous success of the Bourneville industry is offered as an example of what may be done when the aim of the employer is “a combination of business efficiency together with an all-round development of the workers as individuals and citizens.” That the lovalty of the

worker to his own class and its organisations has not been lessened in the Bourneville atmosphere and spirit of co-opera-tion and good-will, may he taken for granted since trade unions are encour-

aged by the firm. Mr. Edward ('a»ll»‘”y indeed, notes that there is a distinct piovemeiit in trades unionism. He sa “The better education of the employe* is lieginniiig to have its effect. There a now in the works strong branches of v r ous unions, and the membership is in creasing steadily. This sign of awaken ing industrial consciousness is found al • among the girls, and a branch of t : e National Federation of Women Workers has been established.” “People,” concludes the “Bookman” reviewer of this admirable work, “who really want to know what can be done in these days of keen foreign competition and social unrest, must read ‘Experiments in Industrial Organisation’ for themselves. They will not be disapjMunted. For whether *t is the selection or the education of employees, the discipline of the works, the methods of remuneration and organisation, the provisions for health and safety, and the industrial conditions that are explained, it is all of interest, informing, and illuminative.’’ “ The New Moliere.” A “Bookman” review of “The Tv liniqoe of Bernard Shaw’s Plays,” by Augustin Ramon, the English translation of which is by Frank Maurice (C. W. Daniel. Ltd. 2/- net) is so good that I do not hesrtate to append it in full, since many Dominion readers are dubious as to Mr. Shaw’s real literary merit. Mr. Shaw’s chief recognition has come from the Continent and from France especially. The •‘Bookman” critic, Mr. George Sampson, says: Mr. Hyndman in his late “Reminiscences” wonders what Mr. Shaw might have been had his great gifts been nourished on the best cooking, washed down with Burgundy born in a good year. A more diffi cult problem still is to imagine the regimen that would raise the commentators <>n Shaw to the plane of even tolerable interest. Many readers will renirm her the desolating stream of exegesis poured out some time ago by devout Wamicrians, some backwashes of it. by the way, splash up even now. to the delight of the profane and the distress n the faithful. The Shaw stream is rapidly attaining the same proportions and the same character. Small wonder, then, that the younger generation are loginning m blaspheme openly, to pronounce him “awfully ninetyisli,” and to expos** him as a humbug who cribbed his wit from Oscar Wilde? his views of life from Samuel Butler, and his dramatic methods from Moliere. Master of Stage Mecliauisoi. A day or two ago a critic of this < ■ k> . declared to me that the only noticeab’e quality of Shaw was his mastery of stag* mechanism. He did not explain why h • and his kind will insist on talking t > everybody at length about the man ri whom they don’t believe; but anyhow, the judgment was remarkable. 'I nrii t » the review of the plays published in isiis. and you will find Mr Shaw credited wit ' various literary qualities, but unani mously denied the possession of the litcrarv sense. One very friendly writer

remarked of “Plays. Pleasant and Unpleasant,’’ that the author grouped together "as much good and bad work in one book as perhaps was ever brought together in these two kinds since the printing of books began. There is a kind of play-writing which the French call ‘Le Theatre Impossible,’ which they print in books that make excellent reading, but which no sane stage manager would put on the boards. With one exception, Mr Shaw's plays are of this impossible kind.’’ The one exception is t’Arms and the Man"; for it was difficult to deny, even in those bleak days of the drama, that a thing that had already achieved a fair run was really playable. But observe: 1913 asserts that Mr bhaw’s most noticeable quality is a command of stage mechanism; 1898 asserted that Mr Shaw’s most noticeable defect was a lack of stage technique and (in the quoted instance) appealed to the French. And now. here is a French critic delivering nine lectures at the Sorbonne upon the plays of this questionable person, choosing to publish one of them as a separate booklet, and selecting for that purpose a lecture devoted solely to the Molierish technique of the Shavian drama. Thus the latest critic allows him both the literary excellences conceded by 1898. and the dramatie gifts acknowledged by 1913. Perhaps there is something in Shaw, after all. “I wish it were possible,’’ concludes Mr Sampson, “to phrase M. Augustin Hamon’s lecture. I hope I haven’t read it with my eyes shut, for it seems to do little more than say that Shaw’s plays are humorous because they are funny, and to support that desperate statement by solemn appeals to Bergson. Mery probably it would read much better in its place among, the other lectures. We shall see. Incidentally. I ask whether the character called Bryan in one place. Brian in another, and clearly intended for Bohun, is A French version of the legal gentleman (whom Mr Shaw borrowed from “Great Expectations,’’ or is merely a whim of the translators. Likewise, who are “Bramsdcm." "Peter Kerigan,” and “Judge Howard Allan?" Can the last be intended for "Maud Hallam?”