i8 
Land Sc Water 
August 2 2, 19 1 8 
The Reader's Diary 
Recent Novels 
IT would be rather unfair, perhaps, to say that Sir 
Anthony Hope Hawkins (or should one still refer to 
Mr. "Anthony Hope" ?) has lived all this time on the 
reputation of two books. The Dolly Dialogues and The 
Prisoner of Zenda. But it would be just to say that 
these were the grappling irons with which he fastened his 
public inalienably to him ; and he has done little since — 
that has been successful — that has not been markedly like 
•one of them and frequently a httle like both. His new 
book, Captain Dieppe (Skeffington, 5s. net) appeared some 
vears ago in a periodical, and is described by the pub- 
lishers as "a story of The Prisoner of Zenda period" ; 
and so Sir Anthony's admirers know what to expect, 
that is to say, a tirst-class imbroglio, a lovely lady in 
distress, and a good deal of verj' urbane swashbucklery. 
Captain Dieppe is a political adventurer who has in- 
trigued with might and main in botli the Old World 
•and the New. As the story opens he is character- 
istically crossing a frontier in great haste, with papers 
of an explosive 'type in his breast-pocket, and observing 
to himself, in the wind and rain, " Mark this, it is to 
very few that there comes a life so interesting as mine." 
And when the Count of Fieramondi offers him shelter from 
the weather, and when he observes that "the Count lived in 
solitude ; half his house — and that the other half — was 
brilliantly lighted ; and he left his bedroom because of a 
cat," the reader knows that the story is up and can settle 
himself for a breathless business in which the intrigue, 
however breathless, will- always be pohshed, and in 
which heroes and villains alike will possess a certain 
allowance of wit. It would be unfair, perhaps, to disclose 
the story. It includes a blackmailer, a police-agent, end- 
less misunderstandings, mystifications and gallantries, a 
desperate hand-to-hand struggle, a river in flood, the 
reconciliation of a wedded couple, and the betrothal 
■of Captain Dieppe ; and it does not take \'ery long to 
read. 
Mr. Morley Roberts is one of the best writers of magazine 
stories that we have ; and I still cherish with affection the 
memory of a tale by him about a mad hatter, which appeared 
in some magazine a few years ago and which riveted my 
.attention long enough for me to read it three times in the 
bar of a country inn. His new collection. The Madonna of 
the Beech Wood (Mills & Boon, 6s. net) contains nothing 
quite so good as that masterpiece of lunacy ; but it has 
two exercises in the same style of unbridled farce. The Acting 
Duchess and The Ace of Hearts, and these are quite good 
•enough to go on with. Good farce is so rare, rarer in books 
than on the, stage, where a chair suddenly removed or light- 
hearted play with a soda-water syphon makes an immediate 
appeal that is not so easily conveyed in print. And when 
Mr. Roberts really takes the bit between his teeth, con- 
ventions cease to exist and one moves in a world where 
almost anything may — and most things frequently do — 
happen. I cannot say that his sentimental stories make 
the same appeal to me, for though they do move the reader 
by their sentiment, they do not completely wash out his 
mind with pity and they leave him feeling rather resentful 
that his feelings have been so easily played on by the man 
horribly disfigured in the war, who married a beautiful 
blind girl, or the broken minister in the Far West, suddenly 
called on to baptise the child of the wife who had broken him 
by running away with another man. But these tales prosper 
in the magazines ; and Mr. Roberts turns them out with a 
deftness that is almost inhuman. 
Miss Mary Johnston breaks new ground for her in The 
Wanderers (Constable, 7s. 6d. net). This bOok^a large book 
— consists of a series of sketches or short stories illustrating 
stages in the development of humanity from the first deliber- 
ate use of fire to the French Revolution. But it expresses 
something more or something less than this ambitious scheme. 
It is, in effect, a feminist pamphlet, and sees the evolution 
of the race crystallised in the increasing subjection of women 
to men, a process for which, according to Miss Johnston, 
both sexes must bear an equal responsibility. The tendency 
of the book rather cramps its qualities as a work of imagina- 
tion ; but perhaps the author would sooner have it judged 
as a pamphlet than as a romance. But pamphleteering and 
romancing do not mix very well anywhere ; and Miss John- 
ston's book might have been more vivid if it had been less 
tendencious. 
Life in a Barge 
A Floating Home (Chatto & Windus, 12s. 6d. net) is the 
story of how Mr. and Mrs. Cyril lonides contrived to solve 
the problem of living without paying rent or rates ; and it 
is told by Mr. lonides and Mr. J. B. Atkins, and illustrated 
by reproductions of water-colours by Mr. Arnold Bennett. 
As for the water-colours, there is a remark attributed to 
Dr. Johnson about a dog dancing on its hind legs, which 
rises to the mind immediately, before one has looked at them. 
It was not the dancing that one found interesting, said Dr. 
Johnson, but the fact that the dog could dance ; and I 
suppose if Mr. Bennett annoiuiced that he proposed to give a 
pianoforte recital at the Wigmore Hall, or an exhibition of step- 
dancing at the Hippodrome, one would take tickets at once 
without considering whether the performance would be good or . 
not. But the comparison is really unfair to Mr. Bennett, whose 
water-colours are surprisingly pleasant to look at and who has 
captured very charmirgly the atmosphere and colours of the 
east coast rivers. The book itself is also surprisingly good. The 
story is told throughout in the first person by Mr. lonides, but 
responsibility for it is divided in some quite obscure way 
between him and Mr. Atkins. It relates, in the first place, 
how the great idea of a floating home, always a dream with 
him as with many other persons, suddenly presented itself 
in a practical shape ; and how eventually the Will Arding 
was bought, renamed the Ark Royal, refitted (and incidentally 
disinfected) and transformed into "an up-to-date and com- 
modious residence," which could be moored near a railway 
station, whence the skipper could proceed to his ofiice in 
town every morning. This process, and the financial details 
therewith connected, are set out in a practical manner and 
supplemented by a statement of expenditure and a. plan 
of the remodelled barge. In the second place, the book 
gives less practical impressions of life afloat and the peculiar- 
ities and beauties of the Essex coast and rivers and those who 
inhabit them. The bargemen of Essex, to whose fellowship 
Mr. and Mrs. lonides found themselves thus admitted, are 
an altogether admirable class, the realities of whom Mr. 
W. W. Jacobs' barge skippers are, according to Mr. Atkins, 
the abstractions. They lead a healthy, various, and independ- 
ent life, calculated entirely according to the tides, and they 
speak a vigorous, strong-flavoured dialect which the authors 
have studied with care and with good results. The book is 
to be recommended, not only as a guide to this sort of adven- 
ture for those who wish to undertake it, but also as an enter- 
tainment for those who prefer to experience the pleasures 
and perils of the sea within the covers of books. 
Other Volumes 
Among other books of interest which I have received I 
may mention the second volume of The Crime, by the author 
of J' Accuse (Hodder & Stoughton, los. 6d. net). This con- 
tinues the German author's indictment of Germany's case 
and examines, in great detail, the theory that our enemies 
began a "preventive" war to avoid being crushed by an 
aggressive coalition at some later date. It is usefuJ, no 
doubt, to have all these facts clearly stated and restated ; 
but it cannot be said that the author's rejection of the theory 
does much more than add another voice to the witnesses 
who have already testified. Alsace-Lorraine ; Past, Present, 
and Future, by Mr. Coleman Phillipson (Fisher Unwin, 
25s. net), is a contribution to the discussion of peace terms 
by an international lawyer of great reputation, whose book 
on Termination of War and Treaties of Peace is already recog- 
nised as a work of considerable value. The question of 
Alsace-Lorraine depends on a number of considerations, 
many of which are imperfectly known in this country ; and 
Mr. Phillipson resolves the matter into its elements with 
lucidity, and impartiality. He leans towards the solution 
of an autonomous State, or even possibly an independent 
State within the German Empire ; but he sets out the factors 
of the problem clearly enough for any reader to judge for 
himself. Musings in Macedonia, by J. V. Seligman (Allen 
and Unwin, 5s. net), is an amusing account of the experiences 
of a Supply Officer with the Salonica Force. It bears evi- 
dence of having been compiled from letters home, the reception 
of which provoked, perhaps, the compilation. The author is 
young — he was just leaving his public school when the war 
began — and he is inclined to spread his wit a little thin ; 
but his high spirits and reflective humour may serve to pass 
an idle hour or two. Peter Bell. 
