Los Angeles herald., 1907-12-28
RECENT FICTION

| From the pen of Miss Edith Mason
comes a bright, light and ingenious little
story called 1.-THE Real Agatha which
| first appeared in the Ladies' Home Jour
nal 1t relates the surprising adventures
| of two young Englishmen who visit a
| castle where there are six charming
maidens of marriageable age. all named
| Agatha, though only one is the real
| Agatha, heiress of fabulous millions.
| The puzzle Is to discover the heiress-at
least that is what worries the caddish
bachelor who is supposed to be telling
the story. The real hero, of course, goes
wooing for love and not for money and
| gets his reward after the time-honored
| fashion.
The Real Agatha. BY Edith Mason.
Chicago: A. C. McCurg & Co.
''For Maisie' is an amiable little tale
belonging entirely In the realm Of harm
| less artifice. From the moment when Kit
Wells decided to live by the work of his
hands rather than by pillage, to the oc-
casion when the duke has him to dine,
not one solitary event bears the faintest
likeness to anything in real life. This
| however, may be said in Justice; the
whole is faultiessly in key. Once grant
| ed that Maisie's mother, a real lady mar
ries an unlettered day laborer in order to
| secure a guardian for her daughter
| granted that the laborer takes such q
| fancy to another mans child, on sight
| that he marries a dying woman in order
| to secure possession of the little girl
granting all this, it becomes perfectly
easy to accept the old admiraPs being
| sold with the estate, the whole parapher-
| MALTA, in short of fluent, unexacting, con-
| ventional fiction.
| For Maisie. BY Katharine lyman. Chi
| cago: A. c. McClurg & Co.
1.-THE Crested Seas is the title given to
eheaf of short stories about the Glou-
cester fishermen by James Brendan Con-
molly, whose volumes of tales with a
| background of the Gloucester fishing fleet
need no introduction to readers who love
| fiction where stark manhood and daunt-
| less courage are the qualities that are
most In evidence. There Is q baker s.
| dozen of tales in this new volume, and
all of them have reached the public In the
pages of the magazines. These tales,
| like all of those that Connolly tells with
| a Gloucester backing, deal with the adj
venturous life of the men of the fishing
| fleet. Whether he Is detailing the trick
with which the skipper of the Lucy Fos
ter circumvented the government cruiser
and secured big cargo of herring, or
whether he is describing black night on
the tossing seas with a gale bowling
through the rigging and doubt in every
mans mind whether they ever see Glou-
cester harbor again-no matter what the
incident or the environment, the story Is
told with that vivid fidelity to real life
that makes all of Connollys sea stories
among the most picturesque and fascinat-
| ing narratives of the kind and the time
that are published anywhere.
The Crested Seas. BY ]. B. Connolly,
New York: Charles scribner's Sons.
a. ~
"a Man of Sark' is story of action.
1t deals with single combats, melees,
pursuits, captures, caves, prisons, pri-
! vateers, smugglers-an amount Of detail
in fact which might well swamp a less
clear and vigorous narrator. Mr.. Oxen
ham, however, has sufficient vitality to
carry through all his heras adventures
and carefully tempered style exactly
suited to the simple, open-air character
| of his subject. "a Man of Sark" shows
| brisk imagination and capable workman
| like treatment of wholesome. legitimate
material.
| A Man of Sark. BY John Oxenham.
New York: The Baker & Taylor COM
| pany.
| In Aladdin of London" Max Pember-
| ton has written story which vindicates
| the suggested promise of Its title The
| hero is Alban Kennedy manly, attrac-
| tive lad of 20, and his adventures in
twentieth century London are as mar
velous and thrilling as were those of the
| Arabian Nights hero, from whom the
story takes it's name Imagine a youth
| snatched mysteriously out of the lowest
| depths of poverty and placed amid all
! the luxuries his soul can crave; with
out his having the slightest knowledge
| of the cause for this sudden transporta-
tion. Then imagine series of equally
| mysterious but far more startling ad-
ventures Detailing him and you get
| faint idea of the story.
| Aladdin of Lonoon. BY Max Pember-
ton. New-York: The Empire Book COM
pany
novel whose startling theme and
treatment gives 1t somewhat the effect Of
bomb amid the mass of contemporary
fiction is f. Frankfort Moores "a Trial
Marriage" AS the title implies, the
story deals with George Meredith's much-
| discussed idea of limited-term wedlock
but in a daring fashion that quite out
Merediths Meredith. Not that the book
is in the remotest degree prurient or
suggestive, but because of its utter
| frankness and brilliantly original view
| point in handling subject usually dis
cussed with gloves or sugar tongs.
| Whatever else may be said of "a Trial
Marriage it's undoubted and unusual
| interest cannot be denied. The reader
may gasp, but he will not yown. He
may shivey but he won't skip. There
| is also a sparkling play of epigram
/ throughout, which If not always strictly
wholesome is none the less fascinating
The misunderstanding, too, is strong and
the characterization clever. AS in the
case of one man whom the author de-
| scribed as having ''manicured morals and
| a gilt-e edged conscience"
A Trial Marriage BY r. frankfort
| HEeora NJaxv Xorlr. rrb., T.,,,rira r1oai~