  THE BIG FISH This strange tale of adventure in the mountains of Peru has a certain basis in fact. 'The Big Fish' is the name by which the lost treasure of the Incas is known, and the story describes the search for it, which opens in a London auction room and, after many tragic adventures, ends in the lonely mountains in a manner which neither of the seekers had anticipated, but with which both are satisfied. HER SERENE HIGHNESS Disillusioned, and disgusted with Western civilization, the hero of this story, a man of remarkable force and quality, turns to the ideals of the East, becomes to all intents an Oriental, and makes for himself a great position as the white ruler of a black people in Central India. His wife deserted him in early life under a misunderstanding, goes in search of him, and finding him at last, throws in her lot with his, and succeeds in winning him back; but not until through jealousy and other passions, he is forced to witness the sacrifice of his power and fly for very life. JUDITH LEE: Some Pages from her Life The world has already been introduced to the famous female detective Judith Lee in the pages of the Strand Magazine, where her popularity was very great. The child of parents who were teachers of the oral system to the deaf and dumb, as soon almost as she learnt to speak she learnt to read what people were saying by watching their lips. Devoting her whole life to the improvement of a very singular natural aptitude, and employing it in the discovery and frustration of crime, she has become, as we find in this book, a constant source of wonder and delight, and a very encyclopÆdia of adventure. THE OAKUM PICKERS A story treating of modern social life, and incidentally of the hardships inflicted by certain phases of the Divorce Laws upon the innocent partner in an unhappy marriage. The two very dissimilar women are well delineated and contrasted. Cynthia and Elizabeth, HAUNTING SHADOWS; or, The House of Terror An English girl, brought up under harsh surroundings, considers that opportunity suddenly opens the doors of Life. But these doors swing back to the accompaniment of sinister and terrible things. The very threshold of the new life is a place of terror. A harsh and inexorable fate forces her reluctant feet along a difficult way, where it seems as if none of the joys of existence can lighten the darkness. The story shows with what results to herself and others Elaine Westcourt became an inmate of the 'House of Terror.' A WILDERNESS WOOING A thrilling story of the early French-Canadian pioneers, and the romantic adventures of a young heir to an English earldom. The novel, which is full of excitement and dramatic incident, presents a series of vivid pictures of the days when the great pathfinder La Salle was carrying the lilies of France at utmost hazard into the Western wilds. The love interest is strong, and attractively handled, and even such strange-seeming affairs as the 'Ship of Women' and the marriage market at Quebec have their historical sanction. NANCE OF MANCHESTER Dr. Anthony Belton called Nance 'the bravest girl in Manchester,' and he was a good judge. She assumed maternal cares at an early age, and she lived for her children. Later she took up her residence in the South of England with Mrs. Nolliver, and there struck up a friendship with Miss Denise Martayne, a lady whose gifts had put her in an exalted if not a happy position. It was a friendship that dispelled gloom and created happiness. 'Nance of Manchester' is a tribute to the omnipotence of love. A KINGDOM DIVIDED This new novel by the author of A Painter of Souls may be described as actively controversial. It deals largely with poignant chapters in the life of a young clergyman, and in its pages we find an amazing array of startling facts connected with the march of Ritualism A WOMAN IN THE LIMELIGHT A Woman in the Limelight presents candidly a typical actress of the Musical Comedy Stage, treating of her career and her love affairs with a realism that is convincing, but free of offence. The heroine allures and for a long time retains the devotion and affection of a typical solitary Londoner, who is not less devoted to the bon motif; but the inevitable break occurs. There is plenty of humour and of first-hand knowledge in this study of upper Bohemian life of to-day, and the characters are vividly drawn. BURIED ALIVE This is a reprint of one of Mr. Bennett's most delightful stories. It has been out of print for some time. THE STREET CALLED STRAIGHT The anonymous author of those very interesting novels The Inner Shrine and The Wild Olive has in the new book dealt with a financial man's case of conscience. The story, which is laid for the most part in Boston, illustrates the New England proverb, 'By the street called straight'—should it not be strait?—'we come to the house called beautiful.' IT HAPPENED IN SMYRNA A vivid record of Eastern travel and adventure by a new author, who is introduced to the novel-reading public by no less a sponsor than Baroness von Hutten—the authoress of Pam whose cheery preface in the form of an open letter will be found in Mr. Edgelow's first book. The story opens on a German liner off the East African coast, and leads us via Port Said to Smyrna. There and in the interior of Turkey-in-Asia are laid the scenes of Tony Paynter's adventures. It is in the Smyrna bazaars that he and Sylvia Sayers first encounter the Turk who is destined to play so important a rÔle in their two lives, and it is from Smyrna that, at last, they sail away when all has happily ended. DEVOTED SPARKES Mr. Pett Ridge's new novel, an animated story of London life, concerns a girl sent out to service by her stepmother. Taking the THE ANGLO-INDIANS The background of this novel is the contrast between official life in India and a pensioned existence in England. The theme of the story is the affection, almost amounting to a passion, that the heroine feels towards India, where she has spent part of her childhood and her early girlhood; it leads to a love adventure involving the chief problem between the East and West. THE HEATHER MOON The story of a motor tour in Scotland and many quests. The drama shows us a girl in search of her mother, who has her own reasons for not wishing to be found by a pretty grown-up daughter. A man in search of some lost illusions is also here, and the girl helps him to discover that they are not illusions but splendid truths. Other seekers are a woman in search of love, and her brother in search of materials for a novel. In finding or failing to find these things a romance of a very original kind with many conflicting interests has been evolved. THE QUEST OF THE GOLDEN ROSE By 'The Golden Rose' the author means the Spirit of Romance—Love—and all that pertains thereto. The story tells how three very typical Englishmen—surgeon—artist—barrister—encounter it in odd fashion while tramping the High Alps, and follow it up each in his own peculiar way to his destined end. Their various testings, mental, moral, and physical, make the story, which is replete with the joy, the sorrow, and the tragedy of life. OLIVIA MARY In this, her first new novel to be published since The Glad Heart, Madame Albanesi strikes new ground. Although full of able and sympathetic characterization and that elusive charm which belongs to all her books, this story is unlike any that she has yet written. The author deals with a problem which is the outcome of emotions at once simple, even ordinary, and yet at the same time profound and most touching. SALLY LAMORNA The story of two girls united by kinship and affection, but divided by character and temperament. Lamorna, the elder one, has to look on while her cousin makes a tragedy of her life and successively becomes the victim of a rouÉ and a mischief-monger. Lamorna's own fate is at one time so enmeshed with her cousin's that she requires all her sense and strength to escape from the toils set by a man who would override all scruple and all honour to win her. THE HAPPY FAMILY The Happy Family is a realistic comedy of life in London suburbs. The scenes are laid principally in Kentish Town, with excursions to Hampstead, Highgate, and Gospel Oak; while unusual pictures of the publishing trade form a setting to the highly-important office-life of the chief male characters. The interplay of diverse temperaments, the conflict between the ideal and the actual, are the basis of the story, which, however, is concerned with people rather than problems. DARNELEY PLACE The scene of Mr. Richard Bagot's new novel is laid partly in England and partly in Italy. The story turns upon the double life led by a wealthy English landowner in consequence of the abduction in his more youthful days of the daughter of an old Italian house at a period when he had no prospect of succeeding to the position he subsequently attained. Incidentally, the novel deals with certain phases of Italian Spiritualism, and Mr. Bagot's readers will again resume their acquaintance with some of the most sympathetic characters described in his previous work The Passport. A KNIGHT OF SPAIN This story is laid in the stormy and sombre last half of the sixteenth century, and deals with the fortunes of the Royal House of Spain, the most powerful, cruel, and tragic dynasty of modern Europe. The hero is Charles V's son, the gay, beautiful, and heroic Don Juan of Austria, who rose to an unparalleled renown in Christendom as the victor of Lepanto, intoxicated himself with visions of a crown and the rank of 'Infant' of Spain, and from the moment of his apogee REMITTANCE BILLY In this book Mr. Ashton Hilliers, again finding his material in the world we live in, tells of the quite excusable muddling of a straight, but rather stupid young gentleman, whose ignorance of 'business' is too severely punished by 'business-like relations,' who regard him as hopeless, until he, saved by his love of nature, and befriended by outsiders who see stuff in the fellow, muddles through, to the surprise of his family and himself. There is a nice girl in it, and a militant suffragette, but only two unfortunate marriages, and one of these comes right at last. HONOURS EASY The interest of this story centres in the will of a Professor Clifford, in which a large sum of money is left to the scientist who shall within a specified time finish the testator's life research. Failing its completion the money is to revert to his stepdaughter. Humphrey Wyatt undertakes the task, incidentally falling in love with the stepdaughter, of whose relationship to the Professor he is unaware. What happens before and after he discovers her identity makes a charming romantic ending to the book. LONDON LAVENDER: An Entertainment This will make Mr. Lucas's fourth novel, or 'Entertainment' as he prefers to call his stories; and readers of the preceding three may find some old acquaintances. The scene is again laid principally in London, and again an odd company of types converse and have urbane adventures. THE HOLIDAY ROUND Among our younger humorists none has so quickly found his way to the hearts of readers as 'A. A. M.' of Punch, whose special gift and privilege it is to touch Wednesdays with irresponsibility and fun. He has now brought together a further collection of his contributions to Punch, similar in character to The Day's Play published two years ago. The history of the Rabbits is continued, and is supplemented by 'Little Plays for Amateurs,' 'Stories of Successful Lives,' and many other of his recent dialogues and sketches. THE ROYAL ROAD: Being the Story of the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Edward Hankey of London In the pages of this book the reader follows the courageous spirit of a working man down the alley of life. We hear his laughter; share his joys; and watch the heroic struggle of his soul against the circumstance that is oppressing him. The book, remorseless in its representation of things as they are, is strong in hope: for it finds its inspiration in the Love that shall some day conquer the world. It is a story for all who seek to succour our England in her distress. To read it is to understand something of her troubles of this present time, and to have a glimpse of the glory that shall be revealed in her. A stern book, it is to those who read aright a joyful one. For it is a prophecy of dawn. MARY PECHELL In her new novel Mrs. Belloc Lowndes returns to the manner of Barbara Rebell. It is an ample, spacious tale of English country-house life, laid in a quiet Sussex village, dominated by the ruins of an ancient castle, the scene of the last Lord Wolferstan's lawless but not ignoble passion. The writer shows all her old power of presenting the passion of love in each of its Protean phases. Mary Pechell herself is a lovely, gracious figure, whose compelling charm the reader feels from the first. In half-humorous, half-pathetic contrast is the middle-aged romance of Miss Rose Charnwood, touched with the tenderest sentiment, and not belied by the happiness in store both for her and for Mary Pechell herself. THE SILVER DRESS A novel describing the life of an attractive and still young woman whose circumstances are those of so many others of her type in England, for she has no acquaintances but women, is approaching 'the youth of middle age' without yet knowing love or any vital interest. Then, quite unexpectedly, adventure, and, subsequently, love coming to her, she lives for the first time. THE SUBURBAN In this novel Mr. H. C. Bailey, who is best known by his spirited historical romances, has deserted the past for the present. He tells a story of modern London. The scenes are laid in poor middle-class life, in the worlds of journalism and theoretical revolutionaries and business. His hero is one of the most ordinary of men, fighting his way up from the borders of poverty to respectable suburban comfort. With him is contrasted a much more brilliant creature, an apostle of BETTY HARRIS Betty Harris, the only child of an American millionaire, strays one day into the shop of a Greek fruit-dealer, Achilles Alexandrakis, and watches the flight of a butterfly that the Greek liberates from its grey cocoon. The story is of the friendship that grew out of this meeting, and a rescue that grew out of the friendship. This blend of the spirit of the old world and the new, meeting in the grimy Chicago shop and finding out their need of each other, gives the book a piquancy. THE FOOL IN CHRIST A translation of Hauptmann's most wonderful novel—a work that attempts to place the living human Christ before sophisticated twentieth-century eyes. Whatever other effect it may have, the book cannot fail to cause discussion. In Quint, a figure at once pathetic and inspiring, the author has drawn a character whose divine charm should be felt by every reader. CHARLES THE GREAT Charles the Great is a very light comedy, and it therefore counts as a new departure for Mrs. H. H. Penrose. Those who like their fiction to provide them with 'a good laugh' will doubtless prefer this book, which is packed from cover to cover with mirth-provoking material, to those other books by the same author, in which humour acts chiefly as train-bearer to tragedy. The determination of Charles to invent for himself a greatness which he is incapable of otherwise achieving, and its effect on his circle of intimates, are set forth in an exceedingly lively story, the plot of which it would be unfair to give away. THE ACE OF HEARTS An English Member of Parliament, spending a holiday in the Portuguese island of Madeira in January 1912, becomes unwittingly privy to a plot against the Republican Government. The conspirators, fearful that he will betray their secrets, make him prisoner; but he escapes to experience a series of adventures on the rugged coast, and amid the wild mountains of the island. Through the tangled web of plot and counter-plot runs the thread of a love story. METHUEN & CO. LTD., 36 ESSEX STREET, LONDON, W.C. |
|
