Review of Keviews, 1/9/13. 



BOOKS /N BRIEF. 



73: 



The. Man frvm Xovhcrc. liv Victor Bridfps 

 vMills & Boon.) 

 This is one of Messrs. Boon's series of 

 notable first novels. It is a sensational 

 story the style of which the reader will 

 not be inclined to criticise, foi- it grips 

 the attention, from the exciting opening 

 when two men (who are the exact doubles 

 one of the other) meet on the Embank- 

 ment, to its dramatic close. 



That Which Is Written. Bv Sybil C. Smith. 

 (Methuen.) 

 Stories with the iSouth African veld for a 

 locale are welcome, because they give us 

 pictures of unusual lives, and the charac- 

 ters often seem to us abnormal, because 

 we cannot realise the atmosphere in which 

 they live, in a counti-y witli which so 

 much of romance is associated. Practi- 

 cally the interest of the story before us is 

 centred in the daughter of an incapable 

 widow, who, with her two sons and another 

 daughter, have made some little attempt 

 at farming. The younger girl, whose 

 vivid nature detects the monotony of their 

 poverty, is going to turn out badly, one 

 is sure, though in this book we get no 

 farther than the manner in which she 

 leaves her home. Carlotta, the elder, is, 

 in reality, a noble woman; she has, how- 

 ever, from her very isolation, fallen into 

 the hands of a scoundrel, and when she 

 meets the m^an who is really her peer, the 

 struggle between her principles and her 

 love is almost beyond her strengtli to sup- 

 port. It is the old, old story, but in a 

 new dress and new circumstances, and so 

 strongly and forcefully put that it cannot 

 easily be forgotten. 



ricusurrs (ind FaUtces. By Juliet W. Tomp- 

 kins. (Hodder.) 



The adorable Marie Rose is a clieerful 

 young American, who ihas travelled so 

 incessantly that "Home, sweet home" is 

 a trashy song to her. A delightful frien<l 

 resolves to teach ilier what "Home" 

 means ; so, on the principle that the best 

 way to teach sv/imming is to throw the 

 learner into the water, she induces the 

 girl to take a flat, and then leaves her 

 there without maid, meat, or knowledge. 

 The drastic treatment brings about the 

 desired result — and the acquaintance of a 

 man who can cook, a tenant of the flat 

 opposite. 



Mil Father's Son. By W. W. Penn. (Hod- 

 der.) 

 This is a depressing book, the moral of 

 which might be that it is hardly the first 

 generation of univ<'rsity men entering into 

 business who will find life therein a suc- 

 cess. W. W. Penn, the son of a poor pub- 

 lisher, of a family where skimp and scrape 

 lias been the rule of life, gets a University 

 scholarship, but has neither the moral 

 stamina nor the worldly wisdom for his 

 position. He tells lies, becomes fl thief, 

 and- flies the country; yet through it all 

 we know that a little sympathetic intelli- 

 oence on the part of his family would have 



preventwl the whole catastrophe, whilst, 

 in spite of all, the father and mother have 

 real heroism. 



Detained Inj the King. By Arthur Maltby. 

 (Ham Smith.) 

 A story giving some of the hideous de- 

 tails of the work of Jeffrey's and Kirk in 

 Edinburgh. At this distance of time such 

 horrors as the burning alive of some huu- 

 <lreds of Covenanters seems scarcely cred- 

 ible. The heroine is Grizel Cochrane, who, 

 with the help of the Countess of Dorches- 

 ter, saved her father's life. The action 

 is rather slow, but Grizel is very charm- 

 ing. 



Ris .iniericaii Wife. By George H. Jessop. 

 (Long.) 

 A capital story, in which the hero nearly 

 loses his beautiful American wife through 

 his ambition, for it is not very easy for 

 her to understand that his Parliamentary 

 duties must often come before his duty to 

 his wife. There are one or two comical 

 Irish stories, which, though they may be 

 chestnuts, never lose in the telling. 



lied Miraf/e. By 1. A. R. Wylie. (Mills 

 & Boon.) 

 A powerful novel in a somewhat sombre 

 setting. Richard Earquhar is a young 

 officer whose father has fled the country 

 because he is supposed to have sold plans 

 to a foreign nation. His mother tells him 

 more than once that she was not a suit- 

 able wife, because she is a womanly 

 woman. (Mi.ss Wylie has in her mind the 

 old idea that vanity, delicacy, and love of 

 luxury are the special qualities of a 

 woman.) Richard falls in love with a 

 girl who is almost a replica of his mother. 

 The sacrifice of the father is repeate<l by 

 the son, and both, quite ignorant one of 

 the other, enlLst in the Erench Eoreign 

 Legion. The glimpses of devilish treat- 

 ment of the soldiers whicli one gets are 

 revelations of fiendi.sh brutality, but no 

 doubt Miss Wylie has drawn from facts. 

 The chief events of this fine drama occur 

 in Algeria. 



The Wilderness Lovers. Bv E. H. Punshon. 

 (Hodder.) 

 A curious tale, as wild as tlie scene in 

 which it is laid. Ear away in the west 

 of the United States two men had re- 

 tirt>d to the mountains because a million- 

 aire Ahab had taken their vineyard. Pur- 

 sued by '"Ahab" one is caught and shot; 

 the otlier escapes. Maddened by the fact 

 that his brother's wife is with child, Ncx-ent 

 Baker rides to the plains and kidnaps a 

 woman to care for his sister-in-law. This 

 woman, a prim little English traveller, 

 had never obtained the love she craved 

 for, even from her Jiusband, who has him- 

 self, only since their journey began, rea- 

 listxi that he loved Ena. Here are, in- 

 deed, th<> elejnents of tragedy, for kid- 

 napper and kidnapped are young, and 

 liav<> the beauty of youth. The various 

 characters are set before us in so realistic 

 a fashion that we .seem to live and move 

 with them. 



