The sun., 1916-01-22
CRITICAL REVIEWS
OF THE SEASONS
LATEST BOOKS
Stories Of Australian Pioneers. Of Further 'Torchy"
Adventures. Of an Amiable Woman's Tragedy.
Mrs. Wharton Edits Admirable War Book-A Plea
for National Defence Based on History.
Books on Preparedness Peace. Automobiles, Chinese
Art. Rhetoric and Other Subjects

Though the scene Is Australia and
certain details Of scenery and life are
peculiar to that country. the story told
by Katharine Susannah Prichard in
The Pioneers" George II. Doran
Company Is in its essentials that
which through three centuries has
been enacted in the United States and
Canada as the frontier has been
pushed on. Three characters stand
out In It clean cut and lifeuke. the de-
termined rough man who clears the
wilderness. his courageous. patient and
wise wife, with her charity for those
who have gone wrong. and the chival-
rous escaped convict who teaches the
country school. They give distinction
to the story, and the author, even II to
her they stand for elements In Aus
tralian character. never forgets to keep
them natural. There are other people.
attractive and otherwise. who are more
such as We look for in fiction. the
charming. wilful girl and the farmers
son, her lover. who represent the sec
Ond generation. and the repulsive sa-
loon keeper and usurer. a very COM
plete villain. who demonstrates that
the ward boss is not a product peculiar
to Manhattan. The author has made
no effort to create local color: she has
told a straightforward. absorbing tale
ttat describes frontier life in southern
Australia when Van Diemen's Land
was the penal settlement. The reader
will not soon forget the farmers wife.
who Is the heroine. II must have
gratified Holder and Stoughton. the
publishers who offered the prize for an
Australian story, to draw out a story
OF such high quality.
1t must be said for Sewell Ford. the
author OF "Torchy, Private Sec ed
ward J. Clode. New York;. that for
some time he makes his red headed
hero as bright and as entertaining as
in any period of his adventurous
career: no mean feat. seeing that this
is the fourth Torchy book and that
youth is still q minor. He Is at his
best and his vocabulary Of slang Is
richest when he Is engaged in business
transactions. His own continuous love
affair Is constantly amusing; his in
reference in the affairs Of others Is
less enjoyable and there is q good deal
Of It in this set OF stories. Those who
have enjoyed Torchy in the past will
enjoy these new adventures and will
be glad that Mr.. Ford can keep his
hero fresh.
90 In Felicity Crofton" tDuffield and
Company Marguerite Bryant describes
the agony to which an amiable woman
is subjected who preserves a perpetu-
ally youthful spirit. She is thoroughly
understood by a man younger than
herself who has married her daughter.
She has an unaccountable but exag
gerated motherly feeling for a good
looking boy. who apparently recipro-
Gates her affection. She strains he-
heart by the physical eXertion required
10 save him from an accident He
falls In love and marries a deceitful
s.rl addicted TO morphine. The study
OF this girls psychology. disagreeable
az IL is. is the best part OF the book.
The older woman is staying with her
when the husband discovers the drug
takers implements; to shield the wife
she accuses herself and is turned out
II the house. She puts her own
brother 10 the test by accusing herself
cf the practice ana is broken hearted
when hc believes her. Finally her som
.n-iaw gets a: her and with some diff
Guilty hnds cut the real fact but is not
allowed to make IL known for fear that
the young husbands happiness may be
destroyed. The one person whose ac-
tons and motives are comprehensive
io the morphine user. The others live
in an artificial atmosphere OF the
authors creation.
A new contribution to form Of
HrNi bat n
IN England Is Ivor Browns Years Of
Plenty" George II. Doran Company.
Several OF the younger writer's have
taken to writing biographies OF un-
interesting persons, realistic in the
sense that all kinds of trivial and un-
important details are described and
no conclusion is come to- Some run
into tr.logies some tell Of a single
year. All write pretty good English
That is the case with Mr.. Brown, who
describes the humdrum school life Of a
rather indefinite average boy and
after that his doings at Oxford He
eliminates anything that might he
striking or picturesque and gives no
indication as to what the character Of
his hero may he. If he Is drawing on
his own recollections his school and
college days must have been painfully
drab and monotonous. II is hard to
believe that boys are infected SO early
by literary Alterations. One kindly
and sensible squire is the only human
person in the book The elimination
Of interest seems to be the ideal Of this
school, and that ideal the author has
attained.
The story Of Edward Nohle's THE
Bottle-Fillers" CHoughton Mifilln Com
pany) is wholly subordinate to the au-
thor's moral object which is to arouse
Indignation against conditions in the