Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-02-11
POE-LKE FIGURE
LIPPTNCOTT HERO
Local Publishers Bring Out
Novel With a Vital Cen
trail Character

Virginia. out of whose ken swan
| Amelie Rivcs a generation ago to flash
| across the literary horizon with her sen.
! satonal The Quick or the Dead" has
! another writer, who. II less startling, is
! none the less promising.
| She Is Sally Nelson Robins and her
/ initial novel. "a Mans Reach" Is issued
under the imprint of the firm which dis
covered" Amelie Rives, j. B. Lippincott
Company, OF this city. There Is a bit OF
Poe's unhappy career In the early life of
her hero, Randolph Turberville Of the
Poe who was not a successful student at
the University Of Virginia. Randolph.
who inherits all the traditions Of scion
OF tho r. r. VS., struggles against similar
temptations of alcohol at Charlottesville
He Is a lawyer. with splendid natural
equipment for his calling, u passion for
work and a hereditary weakness for the
darkllng cup that is most fatal when II Is
most incarnadine. But unlike the fated
poet whom
Followed fast and followed faster,
Tlll the dirges OF his hope one burden bore
Of NeNcr-NCvermorc.
Randolph Turberville has his rcdemp-
tion in typically high-bred girl of the
Old Dominion.
Miss Robins theme is by no means
novel. yet she has treated the old, old
story of mans redemption through
"'Ildll -" AldNt Nllu ulSllntllOn. Her
characterization Is firm and the novel
has remarkable structural form for a
first work of fiction
The writer who conceals her identity
under the nom de plume Of Rita" CNTrs.
w Desmond Humphreys has written an
attractive love story, called "The Iron
stairs GO, r. Putnams Sons. New York;
This is romance of Dartmour but not
the Dartmoor of Eden Philpotts Read.
ers will like it as well as they did her
much earlier novel, "Aseuath of the
Ford and much better than they did "a
Jits Journal" and "a Man of No Gmpor-
tanCe."
The central figure Is a blasc dilettante,
Il typical London man of fashion and about |
town. Ills friendship for Il valet and his |
taste for questing into the unusual knot
him in a complex situation. in which he |
finds himself facing a prosecution for a |
serious criminal offense. The valet is a |
characterization of a chap |
who had done his bit" He is an aC. |
complished forger in addition to other ac.
such as caring for n gen
tleman's wardrobe. Aubrey Derrngham
Is the presumptive heir to a new peerdom
He is eager for new sensations He finds
one in police court under the tutelage of
his 'tidus Achates," the delightful gentle.
mans gentleman. Aubrey, the despair of |
his proper brother, is entangled likewise
IN CuptdS bow. How both are unCom. |
and danger--is told in a
book that keeps the reader agog from
page to page, Heather o. Devonshire
noors furnishes Il fresh contrast against
'ullen prison walls I'm the telling.
A girl of charm an innocent convict, a
reacherOuS friend-theSe keep the move.
nent constant A very fetching use of
quotations is found in the chapter head.
nEs, which are made with distinct appro-
lriateness from Wlde's Ballad of Read.
ng GaoL"
Father Payne" &C.. p. Putnam's Sons
Iew YorlO. despite the Implication in the
tile. is not one of the now frequently ap-
'earing Roman Catholic novels. The title
haracter is not a priest. but lovable,
uaint layman, who Is the autoCratic chief
4 an English literary colony. In de-
ghtful house in picturesque Norfolk this
brotherhood of writer's fultls the precept
Il "Nulla die sine Inca" under the in
pratiOn of the director.
Father Payne" is not novel, though
here is slight framework of fiction on
'hich to append the Impressions and theo-
les of literature and life of the anony-
nous author From internal evidence it
obvious that he is none other than
rthur Christopher Benson. His fluent,