LITERARY CHAT

New Zealand Illustrated Magazine, Volume VII, Issue 3, 1 December 1902, Page 244

LITERARY CHAT

By "THE SAGE."

Marie Corelli invariably selects striking titles for her books. " Temporal Power/ a study in supremacy, is the latest, which has just been forwarded for review by Messrs Wildman, Lyell and Arey. On her title page she sets her text : " For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places ;" and the reader will find that she sticks to it religiously. She wrestles most pertinaciously with one and all. Her severest critic, if amongst such a number one could be picked who held that position, can not help but admire the indomitable courage with which she grasps the most difficult subjects, and the assured, offhand manner in which she deals with them. No ordinary everyday hero or heroine will satisfy her. Whether her principals be saints or sinners, the Master Christian or the Sorrowful Satan himself, matters not a jot to her, but it is absolutely essential that they be " some class " in their respective professions. The charm of her books undoubtedly lies in the curiosity aroused as to how she, Marie Corelli, will make characters, which one is thankful one never meets oneself in every day life, act and speak, rather than the expectation

of finding them drawn accurately true to life. For, whatever her critics may say, her books have a charm, and a very valuable one to the author — that of drawing in the dollars. Everyone reads them, and certainly everyone will read " Temporal Power/ The choice, of the King as the principal power to be wrestled with will insure that. A great curiosity will be doubtless aroused to see how many of the royal failings will be laid &are. It will be also interesting -to watch and see in the light of future events whether Marie Corelli is a true prophet, or whether His Majesty declines to accept the role mapped out for him by her. When so much wrestling has to be done, it is obviously the best plan to pit the contestants against one another and this is done generously. The King finds his nineteen-year-old bride on their wedding day affirming, " I do not love you, because I can love no man. For the rest I am your wife ; and as your wife I give myself to you and to your nation wholly and in all things— save love." This is an unpleasant state of affairs, hut not uncommon, we are led to believe, even in less exalted circles. As to the lady's assertion that she can love no man, the answer of the little boy when asked if he could play the fiddle, " I don't know ;

I've never tried/ appears to have more reason in it. The King, after being content for three years to act passively in all things as his ministers advised, suddenly resolved to find out for himself the corruption of the State, to be no longer fooled by his advisers, but to really reign. His first wrestle is with the Church, and as temporal sovereign he gives Monsignor Del Fortis, his spiritual opponent, a bad fail. Then he directs his energies to his Ministry, and to a monster of iniquity, yclept the Press. He meets Sergius Thord, a Revolutionist, and the beautiful Lotys, who supplies blood from her veins for the signing of oaths of initiation in order to make them sufficiently binding. Matters are complicated by _ the King and Sergius, both falling madly in love with Lotys, for His Majesty has a turn that way. The King institutes a double personality, and one of his sons dares to marry for love Gloria, a lovely Island girl. There are endless other characters and complications, which are handled in Marie Corelli's best style.

" Tommy Cornstalk " is the appropriate title of J. H. M. Abbott's work on the late war, now published in Longman's Colonial Library, and handed in for review by Messrs Upton and Co. The author, who was a corporal in the First Australian Horse, claims that as " War Correspondents, Doctors, Members of Parliament, Lords and Lookers-on have, all and sundry, had their say in book form as to what they have seen and what they have thought about it," lie does not see why the Australian soldier should not " show other Australians, who had not the good fortune to serve in South Africa, what some phases of campaigning were like, as viewed from the standpoint of the Australian ranks, and, as an Australian how tinners have impressed him." He has done this so well that the reader cannot fail to be

deeply grateful to him for attemuting it. While other works on the same subject have, perhaps, excelled this from the point of view of literary excellence, I have not yet met one which gives such a realistic idea of the veldt, of the long and wearisome marches, the bivouac with its oftimes very scanty fare, the dangers of outpost duties, the battle at long range with a practically unseen foe, the improvised field hospital, the different constituents of the army, and the Boer himself. Almost it makes one wonder if one was not there oneself. Praise is bestowed equally on victor and vanquished where merited, and, on the other hand, faults and failings are pointed out with the clearness and conciseness of an apt but entirely unprejudiced critic. Tn the chapter dealing with the Veldt a " Rimington Tiger " gives the author his opinion of his native land, which should make intending emigrants pause and consider. " It's not fit for a white man to live in. Yd like to try a thousand acres ? Well, y're better out of it, a long chalk. Locusts, rinderpest, scab, fluke, foot-rot ! Droughts, floods, fires, fever, that's what it is ! Crops ! What's the use of crops when there's locusts to eat 'em ? Good as Australia ? Well, Australia ain't much then. You take it from me — keep clear of Africa, leave farming to the Kaffirs. Mining's the only thing, an' y' haven't a dog's show without capital. The country's no dam good !" Another extract from the chapter dealing with the merits of the various components of the army should prove of interest. It runs thus : " But the writer does not think that any Australian who has served in Africa will quarrel with him for stating what he honestly believes to be true — namely, that of all the troops engaged in this arduous war, none were quite so good as the " Maorilanders/' Never once, in all the annals of it, did they fail to do the right thing at the right time. Always they were

ready when wanted, always to bo relied on in ' tight corners," always sure and constant in everything they did/ In another place, after quoting an English officer's remark : "Ah ! You Australians always do well !" he adds : " But the New Zealanders did, in the humble opinion of the writer at any rate, just a little better.'' This outspoken candour is very pleasing ; it gives the New Zealand reader a high opinion of the author's discrimination and the accuracy of detail which is so noticeable a feature of the book.

From Messrs Wildman and Lyell I have received two recent additions to Methuen's Colonial Library — " Holy Matrimony," by Dorothea Gerard, and " Mrs Clyde," by Julien Gordon.

" Holy Matrimony " opens with a sprightly discussion on the subject in General von Falkenthal's draw-ing-room, commenced by the Baroness Bruckner with the words, " Old-fashioned ? Who calls love matches old fashioned ? I consider them to be an invention of the age/ And the concluding paragraph of the book is this practical conclusion from the same old lady's pen : "In the present reign of luxury, of custom, of hollow appearances, one thing is quite clear —engrave it on your minds, ye mothers of daughters — to marry ! ]t does not do without money, but also it does not do with money alone— nor will it ever do with it alone so long as hearts are young and blood is warm. Yet the reign of happy poverty may be coming ; but that day cannot dawn till we have all risen together, we poor ones, we loving ones of the earth ; until we have struck out for our rights, until the tyrannical, the poisonous luxury of our age is dead!" Of the book itself it is sufficient to say that the way it leads up to this conclusion is one of special interest to young people

about to marry, as well as those who have already tried the experiment for themselves with varying success. Into the plot of the story many pearls of wisdom are woven. The Baroness is a splendid character — " very large, very dark, with a man's voice, a commanding presence, a box of cigarettes perpetually at her elbow, and almost invariably frayed skirt, and the air of a Roman matron." The other characters are equally well delineated, and " Holy Matrimony " will be considered by many one of this author's best productions.

"Mrs Clyde" is an American society novel. Gabriella Dunham, one of several daughters of a millowner, is engaged to a worthy little man who wears a little cloak, and is trying to make a fortune for her at Manila. But she was getting tired of waiting, being already twenty-four, and also of her native place, Dunham. She visits a married friend at Boston, and meets a certain Lord Dearborn. The leader of society at Boston is Mrs Dennison Fay Prentiss, and Clara Devereux, Gabriella's friend, deplores the fact that she has received no invitation to her "At Home.'' But Lord Dearborn secures her one. When Gabriella had first heard him mentioned, she had replied, " What, that old married thing I" Now she fell completely under his influence. At his suggestion she threw over her lover. But the noble lord shocked her by attempting" to take her in his arms, and she revolted and fled home. Arrived here she found her father's mill had collapsed ; he was in difficulties. Mr Clyde, a wealthy piano merchant of fifty, proposes to marry her, and help her father. She accepts him, hoping to make a great success in society with his money, but finds there are difficulties. She has naturally other much more trying varieties of the Dearborn episode. The book is written in a bright, attractive style, and the characters are well drawn.

" The tenth report of the Department of Agriculture, 1902/' has just come to hand. It is certainly both in get-up and matter a credit to the Department. It gives a vast amount of most useful information under the different headings of Reports of the Secretary for Agriculture, Inspectors of Stock and Produce Commissioner, New Zealand Hemp, Chemicals, Poultry, Dairying, Veterinary Science, Experimental Stations, Biology and Horticulture, Tables of Exports and Agricultural Statistics. It is profusely illustrated with a great variety of reproductions, the frontispiece being a photo of the Hon. T. Y. Duncan, Minister for Agriculture. The Department is certainly doing excellent work, which should bear good fruit.

Just as this is going to press, and therefore too late to review this month, the mai] brought me from the publishers, Messrs Swan, Sonnenschein and Co., an advance copy of Mr Michael Flurscheim's new book, " Clue to the Economic Labyrinth," which he has dedicated to the people of New Zealand. It will receive notice in next month's Literary Chat.