New-York tribune., 1904-09-03
NEW NOVELS.
Romance an the Forest and Crime in
the City.

GREEN MANSIONS: A ROMANCE OF THE
PIP. SIS. C. P. Putnam's Sons
THE GREEN DIAMOND. By Arthgr 1SI Morrison. orr on
Boston: L. c. Page co.
THE WOMAN ERRANT. Being Some Chapters
from the Wonder Book of Barbara the Com
muters Wife. With Illustrations by Win Crete.
limo. PIP. 3s6. The Macmillan Company
THE MOTOR PIRATE. BY C. Sidney PaternOs-
iso ter VITA @ fT9nspieog by Charles Bari + e. Sykes
The Mr.. W. H. Hudson who has written
Green Mansions" must surely be the Mr.. Hud-
son who has hitherto been known chiefly as the
author of THE Naturalist In La Plata" Green
Mansions is not a novelists novel; 1t has no
taint of the lamp; there is nothing professional
about it whatever. 1t is, rather the work Of
a man whose imagination has been touched by
the magic OF the tropical forest. and has vent
ured somewhat diffidently, TO make book out
of what he has felt and seen. Thd'e is scarcely
any plot TO be found in these pages. The sup
posititious narrator is man whose failure as
Venezuela conspirator has driven him into
exile. He Wanders off to the forest, where he
meets some savages, and, presently, a beauu-
full girl, with whom, of course, he soon falls
in love. But Rima is more than beautiful; she
is weird almost uncanny maiden, kind of
nymph of the forest to whom the Indians at
tribute evil powers. She drifts steadily toward
from beginning to end, seems somehow TO be
tinged by the sombre colors in which her in
dividual story is whelmed. Mr.. Hudson is
sparing of incident as the ordinary novelist
understands IL. He is content to paint for
the magnificent spectacle offered by the forest,
and to introduce a figure here and there not
so much for its own sake as for its significance
part of the great natural panorama he un-
folds. The scene in which hero and heroine
meet with deadly coral snake between them
is most humanity dramatic. Yet value it
chiefly for the sense of woodland mystery it
brings 1t is not in order 10 give FLIP to his
story but simply that he may show us what
life in darkest Guiana is like. that he thus
describes the way in which a certain savage
offers his sister to the hero in marriage:
Anxious to punch him, managed 10 control my
muscles. and asked him what authority he-a young
no6ody' who had not yet risen to the dignity OF
Of a sister in this Offhand way. He replied that
his consent. as would also otawinki. Piake and
other relations; and last, and least according to
the matrimonial customs of these lautudes, Oolava
herself would be ready 10 bestow her person,
Queyou, worn hs-ieaf-wlsei necklace OF accolfl
Finally. to make the prospect still more inviting.
subject myself TO any voluntary tortures to prove
myself and fitted to enter into the purga-
co9d ommand asked him What kind of Torture
he would reeommend For me so vaiorous a per-
SON mo torture" he answered magnanimously.
But he. Kua-ko. had made up his mind as 10 the
form of torture he meant to infiet some day on
his own person He would prepare .,a large re- IS sack
claimed triumphantly; stopping and filing his two
sack, and then get into It himself naked, and tie
ii tightly round his neck. so as to show TO an
venomous stings in his flesh could be endured with
out & and d Wh 56 an an mind snde 6
one OF the commonest forms OF self-torIt9gre gI
wonderful animation with which he spoke of st.
the fiendish JOY that illumned his usually stolid
countenance, sent a sudden disgust and horror
through me But what strange inverted kind Of
an o forture rs nced on SELF and not on an
enexnyi And toward others these saVages are mild
mildness; that was only on the surface. when moth
ing occurred TO rouse their savage cruel instincts
exulting look on my companion,s face had made me
about it.
There is enough of this sort of thing in Green
Mansions" 10 show that the author be
something of a realist when he chooses, and the
whole book IS indeed, wonderfully true and
vivid But IL remains when all is said, the
book Of poet. a piece OF writing in which the
glamour and beauty of the forest are rendered
with fine emotion.
The author OF 1.-THE Green Diamond has ex-
panded into a book the kind Of story which
Conan Doyle might have told In twenty or
thirty pages. The stone that gives the tale its
title is the property OF Indian prince. II is
the usual jewel OF fiction, rarity OF fabulous
value. The rascal into whose hands II passes
through the commission of a great crime real
ICES that there is danger In seeking to get it out
of the country by ordinary processes 1t would
be folly for him to conceal it about his person.
he hits upon the happy idea Of placing it in
magnum of Tokay and sending il TO England in
a case with other msgnums. in the OF
acquaintance, who has not the smallest sus-
picion OF what he has undertaken TO transport.
Naturally when the innocent man finds himself
at sea with the Tokay, he is tempted 10 sell IL.
and. thinking that he is thereby doing the owner
a good turn, he ultimately does dispose OF the
stuff AT an auction on land the bottles go TO
different buyers. and then. If we may be per-
mitted the figure the fat is in the fire The
gentleman who has hurried home from India
expecting to take possession OF the Tokay and
the Jewel nearly collapses when he hears what
has become OF both. but he pulls himself to-
gether and starts out to regain his Cd property.
Incidentally his secret is OWNED by the
whom he has tried TO USE and the story thence
forth resolves itself into a record Of more or
less fantastic episodes. each one carrying the
Jewel further from all chance of it's recovery.
MIR. Morrison is clever writer, and he has
made THE Green Diamond" amusing But as
we turn the last page we cannot help rejecting
on what Conan Doyle might have made of the
same mots.a.
ceding books put forth by the same ANONYMOUS
art fnr an tfxrf ~