PUBLICATIONS

New Zealand Tablet, 10 December 1914, Page 47

PUBLICATIONS

Nellie Doran. A Story of Australian Rome and School Life. By Miriam Agatha. E. J. Dwyer, Sydney, 240 pp. 2/6 net; post free 2/9. This book, which has been honored by a warmly appreciative preface from the pen of his Grace Archbishop Duhig, is sure to find favor with a large circle of readers in Australasia. Our convent girls will read with delight these simply written little scenes descriptive of their familiar daily life, and will recognise them as the work of one who has an intimate knowledge of the surroundings which she paints so sympathetically. The girls we meet in Nellie Horan, while far from unnatural goodness, and strong in- individuality, take full advantage of the great graces of their school life, and cannot but be profitable company for a school-girl reader. And should the book find its way into, nonCatholic surroundings, it would without doubt do good work in dispelling, by its simple and convincing fidelity to truth, the extraordinary ideas cherished by some of our separated brethren with regard to convents, and showing the real nature of the peaceful, happy, and innocent lives lived within cloister walls. Because we hope Miriam Agatha will write more stories like this one, we venture to suggest to her that in future books it might be possible to convey a little better idea of the discipline and order which always prevail in a convent boarding-school. These charming St. Mary’s girls wander from room to room and from task to task a little too much at their own sweet wills, to be possible. Also, they sometimes talk among themselves in an unnaturally stilted manner. When a few score girls in their teens are living together, the standard of conversational style is unfortunately hardly as high as that of Nellie and her companions. “ The very excellent type, binding, and general appearance of this book will make it especially suitable as a gift during the approaching Christmas season. A Soldier of the Ley ion. By C. N. and A. M. Williamson. Methuen and Co., London. 314 pp. This, while hardly up to the level of some of the author’s former charming books, will be found a very interesting and well-written story, the plot being woven round the Foreign Legion of France. The scene is laid for the most part in Algeria, but there is hardly enough word-painting of that country to satisfy Williamson readers, who have learned to expect many vivid and delightful descriptive pages in every new Williamson novel. The hero, however, is a dashing young- Irishman of chivalrous and lovable character, and the heroine is a sweet half-Irish and half-French girl ; so their many adventures together ought to find a large circle of readers. The complete triumph gained by the chivalrous purity of the manly hero over the powers of evil gives the book a fine moral tone, and it has the recommendation of being perhaps the first novel .to ,be published which contains an allusion to the present European war. The last sentence of A Soldier of the Legion depicts Max Doran as fighting at the front with the allied armies, while his . newly-made bride waits and prays, for his safe return. ■ , ;