April 5, 1917 
LAND & WATER 
Books to Read 
By Lucian Oldershaw 
17 
THE new! fur. relaxation in these strenuous times 
is shown by the growing demand at the Utwaries 
for fiction of all kiixls. Very few men and w omen 
to-day hi^vc the time for serious reading, 
and fewer still' .liayt;; the ineUnation to read anything 
Mhich does not take their minds off the tasks ai>d anxieties 
of the war. Lutf,jjs sample some of tlie lighta- fare 
that the new publishing season is providing. 
;|c _ * * * * 
There is much enthusiasm, esjiccially amongst women, 
for the works of Mr.. E. Temple Thurston. He can talk 
intimately with them about things which even the most 
ardent Suffragist ' among us (and I suppose since Mr. 
Asquith's speech wciare all, except me, ardent Suffragists), 
would sluink from discussing in their presence. And 
the men who would like to be doing the same if they 
dared also enjoy his books. 1 admit I do, and 1 iiavc 
enjoyed few as much as his latest, Enchantment (TvFi^her 
Unwin, 6s.). In this debonair romance, in which an 
Irish gentleman, too much addicted to drink, makes a 
bargain with his God which leads his youngest and most 
spirited daughter to the gates of a Convent, Mr. Temple 
ThiHston h^s put forth all his powers (and they are con- 
siderable) of glamour, humour and sentiment. The 
Irishman and his stout serving women, to say nothing of 
Father Casey and the old wine-merchant with a guilty 
secret, are enough in themselves to give to Enchantment 
the same popularity that was awarded to The City -of 
Beautiful Nunsense. ..'. . 
•sr" J. * * * * 
Mrs. Perrin'sldtnirable novels of Anglo-Indian life 
appeal to a different class ' of reader to that affected 
b}' . Mr. Temple Thurston's more flamboyant work. 
Her latest book Sepaiatioti (Cassell and Co., 6s.), is a 
good example of her restrained and effective workman- 
ship and of her power of presenting a life-like pictiire of 
certain social conditions. Take, for example, her pipture 
of the household of the unfortunate Guy Basiiett'.s 
mother-in-law in Kensington, 'and her picture ofi the 
' half-caste'^ estate in India, and note how vivid ana how 
distinct each picture is and how well her spirit of cbmedy 
]:)lays on the salient features of each. The theme of the 
book, the difficulties of a husband whose work takes 
him to India whither his wife refuses to go after one 
experiment, has possibilities which Mrs. Perrin makes 
good use of. The book, holds one's interest as soon 
as the persons of the tale liave been properly introduced. 
Sfl •!£ * 'P 'P 
So much for novelists known to the public. Here 
are two writers of first novels who remind me of what I 
had to say the other day, apropos of Miss Clemcnce 
Dane's remarkable Rc^iinent vj Women. Zella Sees 
Herself, by E. M. Delafield (Heinemann, 6s. net), is 
certainly another of those fifst novels that sets the 
reader w ondering whether a new star of the first magni- 
tude has arisen in the fimianieijt of literature. It is a 
striking study of a young gi?!,. whose desire to shine in 
whatever surroundings stie finds herself leads to an 
almost complete atrophy of her own real persopajity. 
Some of the satire of the book is admirable, and in the 
egregious parson, Gifesley, in Red Pottage, I have come 
across no character study of its kind so well sustained 
and so truly comic in couception as this new author's 
;Mrs. Lloyd Evans. She iij the quintessence of all that 
is banal in an aunt; and I salute the writer who has 
seen her so clearly and has. probably suffered in silent 
agony under the relentless drip of her conversation. I 
hasten to add that 1 have no aunt at all like Mrs. Lloyd 
Evans ! The study of life in a Convent school, where 
Zella is converted, or rather converts herself, to the faith 
of her companions ; is another interesting and effective 
piece of work. In shorty Zella Sees Herself is one of the 
first novels one reads and, iL there is time, reads again. 
The Stars in their Courses, b,y Hilda M. Sharp (Fisher 
Unwin, 6s.) , seems at first sight to be an exception to the 
rule that first novels interest as much by what they 
promise as by what they achieve. It is really the famous 
exception that proves the rule. There is a kind of 
achievement that promises little. Here is a novel on 
conventional lines, written with the ease and confidence 
that usually mark experience rather than experiment. 
There is no erratic brilliance from which much may be 
hoped for. It is just a good I'cadable novel wliich miglit 
as well be the author's fifth as her first. 
* * * * * 
A true love of natm-e and^some power of observation 
are to be found in J. C. Lynn's Birds in a Wood (Duck- 
worth, 5s. net), the book being named after whatsis 
certainly the best of a collectipn of little essays on out- 
of-door life. Mr. Lynn sees with a poet's eye, as when 
he thus describes a troop of gold-crests flitting through 
a wood : " They are like dead leaves blown off by a 
gust of wind, sported with by the elements." Some- 
times his effects are blurred by too much detail, 
sometimes by careless writing. Perhaps it may be the 
fault of the editor who has prepared his soldier-brother's 
book for the press and who is so diffident about it that I 
hesitate to find fault — especially as I have enjoyed a 
book that smacks so sweetly of the English country side. 
N.B. — See pa^e 5. 
.NEWSAGENTS. 
1917 
or "Che "Proprietors of LAND & WATER, 
5, Chancery Lane, London, W.C 2. 
T^lease deliver " Lar^d & Water " weekly ^ritil further notice to the following 
address : 
^ame 
Jlddress in fulL 
TERMS 
For Great BritaitJ* Ireland or Canada 
Elsewhere Abroad • 
OF SUBSCRIPTION : 
£1 15 per annum post free. 
£1 19 6 .. 
