546 



The Review of Reviews. 



id a liright example to her neighbours. It cannot 

 ; called enlivening, however, for the reader rages 

 jainst the husband, and the conventional bright 

 iding is very much -missing. 



A Superman in Being, by Litchfield Woods, 

 itephen Swift. 6s.). Snaggs, the Superman, is a 

 )ld and original creation, and Mr. Woods must feel 



considerably re- 

 lieved to have 

 got the ebulli- 

 ent professor 

 safely to press 

 before his mas- 

 terful spirit re- 

 sented such de- 

 finite treatment. 

 Imagine a person 

 combining the 

 qualities of Ches- 

 terton and Ber- 

 nard Shaw, with 

 a strong flavour- 

 ing of Sherlock 

 Holmes ; and 

 then think of 

 the possibilities. 

 Needless to say, 

 Mr. Woods has 

 not neglected 

 them in building 

 up a story of 

 unusual merit, 

 here is a heroine — " Eyes " — natural and lovable. 

 It the Professor is character, plot, play and all, 

 id the others are but marionettes in his hands. The 

 jok will be read and discussed, and possesses the 

 irdonable fault of being a little too clever; but if we 

 ust have supermen, we can comfortably sur\'ive the 

 ■nial malice of Professor Snaggs. 

 The Honour of Bayard, by Michael W. Kaye. 

 Ireening. 6s.). A splendid presentment of Bayard, 

 sans peur et sans reproc/ie," bringing before the reader 

 16 man and his times with force and fidelity. The 

 cality is Venosa in Italy, in which town Bayard and 

 e French were besieged by the Spaniards. The love 

 lisode, and the torture of the woman who is tempted 

 .sacrifice her country in order to save her husband, 

 ay be purely romance, but the theme is as rea'l as 

 iman nature. 



The Court of the Angels, by Justus Forman (Ward 

 )ck. 6s.). Mr. Forman gives us here a charming 

 •ench " Colonel Newcome," and although, unlike 

 m, the later days of the Marquis Saint-Cere are 

 led with honours, he, too, is not allowed personal 

 ppiness. The story, which opens in the Latin 

 jiirter, is told in biographical fashion, the writer 

 ing an impecunious English journalist, and his 



'Iwtograt'li l-y\ \J. A. yonrs. 



Mr. Litchfield Woods. 



friends being a run-away princess, a delightful American 

 girl, and a melancholy young French viscount. The open- 

 ing is ratherslow but the plot is worked upmost skilfulh'. 



Two novels with plenty of stirring incidents are 

 The Sin of Yotith, by L. Mortimer (John Long. 6s.) ; 

 and Rogues in Arcady, by Sir William Magnay (VA'ard, 

 Lock. 6s.). In the first the " Youth" deceives a French 

 peasant girl with a mock marriage, and, believing her 

 faithless, leaves her. Later on he marries and has two 

 children. His wife dies, and the French girl insists upon 

 his marrying her, and leaving her all his money to 

 prevent a scandal. The difficulties which ensue keep 

 up the interest to the last page. " Arcady " is a 

 pleasant English hunting county to which the young 

 Australian heir to the Hall comes on the death of the 

 owner. The agent-cousin meets him, and endeavours 

 to scheme the heir into a marriage with his daughter. 

 The trouble comes when the hero finds that he has 

 dropped into a nest of thieves ; but our author naturally 

 enables him to extricate liis friends with credit at 

 the finish. 



Found — A Man, by F. A. Faukes. (Kegan, Paul. 

 3s. 6d.) Deighton, the hero of the novel, being certain 

 that Peace Conferences fail because of red tape, etc., 

 sets himself to bring the sovereigns into concert, with 

 the result that the rulers of Europe and the U.S.A. 

 President sign an International Treaty at Cambridge, 

 but only the furore created by his imprisonment in 

 Siberia enables him to effect his purpose. The author 

 claims that some of the incidents related are based 

 upon actual experience. 



A Son of Perdition, by Fergus Hume. (Rider. 6s.) 

 It is curious to realise how far the author of " The 

 Mystery of a Hansom Cab " has travelled before he 

 could picture, as he does here, the eternal struggle 

 Viet ween our good and bad angels — those who would 

 strengthen the -will to resist evil suggestions and those 

 who do just the opposite. Mr. Hume shows all his 

 accustomed skill in dealing with the plot, but the 

 secret concerns a psychic, not an earthly happening. 

 The actors are re-incarnate from early Chaldean da\s. 

 and the tone is reverent and elevating, if not con\en- 

 tionally religious. 



Upon quite another plane is The Second Woman, by 

 Norma Lorimer (Stanley Paul. 6s.), a book which is 

 wholly of this w^orld, and though it may attract some 

 as a weirdly impressionist picture, most people will be 

 repelled by it. The plot is concerned with the compli- 

 cations of three couples. .'\. adores B.. but she is 

 married to C. and worships him ; however, C. loves 1). : 

 I), and E. have fallen in love, liut E. is engaged to F., 

 who has waited for him eight years. The author has. 

 perhaps, set out to show that a woman can sacrifice 

 everything for the man she loves, but appears to count 

 passion as higher than love, and so the various 

 characters are presented lacking both dignity an(J 

 common sense. 



