LITERARY CHAT.

New Zealand Illustrated Magazine, Volume 1, Issue 10, 1 July 1900, Page 70

LITERARY CHAT.

By Datwers Hamber

Tlie Wiles of the Wicked is the title of Mr. William Le Queux's latest novel, a volume in Bell's Indian and Colonial Library, published by George Bell and Sons, London and Bombay. The book comes to us from Mr. R. Mackay, of Queen-street, Auckland. The author has written a clever and fascinating book, and though he uses the Galled Back blind man as a thinking but unseeing witness of the tragedy with which the story opens, the subsequent proceedings are so interesting that so much plagiarism may be forgiven. The hero, Wilf ord Heaton, becomes stone blind in early manhood, and one evening is run over by a cab. He is taken into a house, and when recovered from the effects of the accident he hears a murder committed. His sight is returned in a marvellous manner, and afterwards he finds himself a visitor at the house where the tragedy occurred. There he meets and falls in love with a Miss Anson. Leaving the house one night he goes to a friend's rooms, smokes a drugged cigar, knocks his head accidentally, and for six years loses all memory of his previous life. During that period he marries, and becomes a financial magnate. Another accidental blow and his memory returns, though recollection of the past six years' events vanishes. This idea of forgetfulness is most skilfully worked out. Setting himself to unravel the mystery Wilford Heaton eventually succeeds, and in doing so sustains the interest to the end of the last chapter. His lady-love turns out to be a member of the Royal House of Austria, whose romantic history will ever serve the ■writer of novels. Mr. Le Queux's stories are always bright and attractive, and in Tlie Wiles of tlie Wicked he keeps up his reputation.

I do not consider this an altogether appropriate place to refer to a problem exercising many minds in the colony at the present moment, bat I cannot help referring to a work by Ellice Hopkins, published by Wells, Gardner, Darton, and Co., of Paternoster Buildings, London. It is named The Power of Womanhood or Mothers and Sons. It is a book for parents to study, and one worthy of the earnest attention of those iv loco parentis. A difficult subject is handled with so much delicacy and with such great sincerity that the authoress commands high regard. Formation of character rests largely with parents, and a perusal of this work, while harming none, would undoubtedly benefit many.

Messrs. Oassell and Co. have lately published another edition of the late Mr. Archibald Forbes' most excellent book, Memoirs and Studies of War and Peace. This is the fifth reprint of the work, and as the present issue is published at six shillings the public have the opportunity of obtaining a wonderfully entertaining volume containing practically a history of our own times at a very moderate figure. The same firm has also issued the third edition of Mr. Forbes' famous record of The Black Watch, a regiment whose deeds entitle it always to be remembered with the greatest admiration.

One can readily imagine that any work of Mr. Andrew Lang's would meet with a most favourable reception, Therefore it is not surprising to know that the first volume of

the talented writer's A History of Scotland From the Roman Occupation published by Messrs. William Blackwood and Sons, has occasioned a kind of furore. Such a history written by such a Scotsman would be sure to arouse enthusiasm amongst Scotsmen, and at the same time it would delight those other British admirers of the author who are not his countrymen. Mr. Lang writes so independently and so vividly always, that one can quite appi'eciate the following verdict upon his first volume : — " Dry-as-dust facts have been reclothed and revivified ; stirring incidents depicted with freshness and vigour; the result being a history at once attractive, informing and entertaining."

From Messrs. Upton and Co., of Auckland, I have received Mr. J. P. Fitzpatrick's The Transvaal From Within. This most interesting book has met with great success. Eight editions were exhausted between September of last and March of this year, and the copy I have received is one of the ninth, or popular edition. Mr. Fitzpatrick is a South African by birth. He has lived in the Transvaal since 1884, and he was Secretary of the Johannesburg Reform Committee, so he possesses excellent qualifications for telling of the transactions of the South African Republic. After the Reform leaders were released from Pretoria goal Mr. Fitzpatrick was sentenced to three years', banishment, and he spent the time in writing this book. The author very clearly puts the conditions of life in the Transvaal before his readers. He does justice to the Boer whenever possible, but he puts the case of the Uitlander so completely and comprehensively that no one who has read the work can wonder why Great Britain warred with the Transvaal Republic. Mr. Fitzpatrick proves conclusively that the policy and the aspirations of the Transvaal were aggressive and not defensive. He does so without passion and without prejudice, and therefore his work is all the more valuable. President Krager, when the

Chairman of the National Union on Boxing Day, 1895, published tho manifesto containing what the Uitlauders considered their bnro rights, said, after a careful perusal of tho document, " Their rights. Yes, they'll get thetn — over ray dead body !" Mr. Fitzpatrick says volumes of explanation could not hotter illustrate tho Boer attitude and policy towards the English-speaking immigrants, and no one is likely to disagree with him after a study of his book. Of tho man who dreamt of a Dutch Republic stretching from the Zambesi to Capetown, the author says, " In the history of South Africa tho iiguro of the grim old President will loom largo and striking — picturesque, as tho figuro of one who by his character and will made his people ; magnificent, as one who in the faco of blackest fortune never wavered from his aim or faltered in his effort ; who, with a courage that seemed, and still seems, fatuous, but which may well be callod horoic, stood up against the might of tho greatest Empire in the world. And, it may be, pathetic, too, as one whose limitations wore great, one whose training and associations — whoso very successes — had narrowed and embittered and hardened him ; as one who, when tho greatness of success was his to take and to hold, turned his back on tho supremo opportunity, and used his strength and qualities to fight against tho spirit of progress, and all that the eulightraent of the age pronounces to be fitting and necessary to good government and a healthy Stato." This is a brief but strikingly true peri-portrait of the man who has misgoverned his country. In his memorable speech at Bafch ' Lord Rosebery, in justifying tho attitudo bf 'Lord Salisbury's Ministry, made mention' of Mr. Fitzpatrick's book in the following* terms :—- ----" If you wish to read a history of tho internal economy of the Transvaal I would simply suggest that you should procure a book called The Transvaal From Within by Mr. Fitzpatrick, who was a denizen of the Transvaal, and much interested in its progress — a book which seems to me to bear on every page and in every soatence tho mark of truth, and which gives you in

wholesale and in detail an extraordinary, and, I think, I may say, an appalling record of the way in which the Government of the Transvaal was carried on, and the subjection to which it reduced our fellow countrymen there." Lord Rosebery's high opinion of this book is evidently Bhared by the Right Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, for in response to a correspondent who deplored the want of a printed defence of the English Ministerial policy in the Transvaal , the Colonial Secretary said, " I refer you to Mr. Fitzpatrick's book." Mr. Chamberlain could have given no better answer, for Mr. Fitzpatrick's work, which is published by Mr. W. Heinemann, of Bedford Street, London, is a damning yet just record of Boer cruelty and treachery towards the Uitlanders. The author writes pleasantly, and with much literary skill, and thereby adds a charm to a work which is monumental in the completeness of its indictment.

Theo. Douglas, who has written some very readable novels — notably, A liride Elect, Iras : A Mystery, A Legacy of Hate, and Garr of Dimscaur — has in Nemo fashioned an absorbing and a weirdly fascinating story. The book forms a volume of Bell's Indian and Colonial Library, and comes to me from Mr. R. Mackay, of Auckland. Nemo is a Maskelyne and Cooko sort of idea made of springs, wires and a leathery skin. By hypnotism Professor Bannernian impels his daughter's vitality into his machine, and it writes on a blackboard and performs the usual feats of spiritualistic mediums. How this is done and what it leads to the author tells cleverly. The story is an impossible one, but there is no leaving it once commenced, for naturally one wants to find out all about the mystery. The interest is well sustained throughout, and altogether Nemo is a book to be acquainted with.

Mr. Stanley J. Weyman invariably tells a delightful story, and he is never without a

charming heroine. Sophia, his latest publication, is the most recent addition to Longman's Colonial Library. The work has been sent to me from Messrs. Wildman and Lyell, and also from Messrs Upton and Co. I do not think Mr. Weyman has previously composed a story about the times of the Georges, but I do know that Sophia is so skilfully written that one wonders why the author has so long left the period alone. Mr. Weyman has caught the tone of the speech and manners of the time of George 11. most excellently, even though he now and then spares the modern sensibility by smoothing the rough edges which we know existed in the conversation of the day. The heroine is desired by her married sister and her brother-in-law to make a match with Sir Hervey Coke, but as she is eighteen and he is thirty-four Sophia declines. She believes herself in love with an Irish adventurer, who has discovered her wealth and also the fact that if her twin brother marries before he is of age a large amount of his money goes to his sister. The Irishman endeavours to bring about a double marriage. Sophia he destines for himself, and an old flame, Oriana, for the young brother. Sophia elopes from her sister's house, but before she is irrevocably lost she learns the true character of her lover, and Sir Hervey Coke, happening on the scene, a marriage takes place and scandal is averted. Mr. Weyman tells his story most effectively, and the change in the feelings of Sophia is depicted very charmingly. Gratitude of course she has for her preserver, but soon learning her husband's generous nature she comes to love him. Before this is brought about there are some exciting adventures told in Mr. Weyman's well - known attractive and exhilarating style. Lady Betty and Sophia's brother, Sir Thomas Maitland, play pretty comedy in the story, which is as interestingly romantic as the author's works always are. The characters are well drawn, and in Sophia Mr. Weyman furnishes a heroine who, though at first rather foolish, develops into a true and lovable wonia,n.