Evening star., 1923-11-06
NEW BOOKS
AT. RANDOM
SIR JOHN DERING. Jeffery Farnol.
Little, Brown & Co.

SIR JOHN DERING. Jeffery Farnol
Little, Brown Il Co.
! Come on. Let's get away-away from
our suppressed desires. brought so
/ disconcertingly into the open; away
from our secret passions, marched quite
naked through the market place; away
from our multiple littlenesses. become big
by the mere fact Of making them public;
away from the common brotherhood,
established through demonstrations of
common meannesses-away from the
everlasting effort of the modern nov
and deadly boredom of reading all
about ourselves at our most uninspir-
| ing ebb. Let's get away from the Bah
bits and the Main Streets about
| whose significant realism" and deep
| symbolic content" we have. under
fear of the modern mandarins of
literary criticism, lied long and pa
tiently. We are tired of having the
| author in realism dump some crying
and protesting infant into the cradle.
requiring us thereafter to follow
sedulously the various performances.
secret or open. of this commonplace ce
| human specimen till it drops off
many, many years later into the
| grave. still crying and protesting.
We are tired of trailing the hero of
as he bathes and shaves and growls
over his breakfast. going along as
| he breaks out, more or less nefari-
ously, into the world. returning with
him at night to stand by again while
| he undresses and falls into bed, re-
leased only when his noisy breath an
nounces that for few hours the
| wicked have ceased from troubling.
Then up and at it again the next
| morning and all the other mornings
of dull career. We're tired. But
what to do? Where to go for sur
cease of these poignant sorroWs?
With whom to set out? Is there a
novelist who dares, nowadays, to be
ahead under the lead of a glorious
and lifting imagination, to lie. roy
ally if need be. for the beauty and
glamour of romance?
Just talking to ourselves, we were,
in a despairing set-out of protest
against the dull road OF realism
which most of the current fiction lays
down for our travelling.
+ ***
Right then, swinging along the
broad highway came gallant and
hopeful figure. You come along with
me-" was what he was saying. Il
know what you want: / can lead you
! to it" And he waved an inviting hand
our way, and big and sweeping one
all the other ways. as If to demolish
the causes of our so manifest distress.
X 4 X y
Magically were we cleared of the
worrying mess in which we had been
brought nigh to suffocation itself.
For before us was Sir John himself.
A slender fellow. topped in a glossy
periwig, garbed in flowered waistcoat
and embroidered coat, frills of lace
at wrist and neck, cascades of lace
foaming down the snowy shirt front,
! fine as gauZe. Silken hose and satin
smallclothes rounding shapely legs
and thighs. Shoes aglitter with
buckles OF gold and jewels. An ex-
| quisite of another day he seemed
engaged at the moment in the mighty
| business of turning a rhyme. Soul"
he complained, "a damnable word so
many rhymes tot and none of 'em
| apt; Roll. coal. pole foal
devilish word, Mole. shoal, hole
pishi"
; This. a favorite pose of Sir John
Dering, we found. One behind whose
| languors and affectations many an
| active plan was in the making. and
| out from whose ambush there leaped
many a dramatic and effective sur
prise. Indeed, we came to learn that
| when Sir John began the diligent
I search for some rhyme of amorous
! solicitation things quite other than
love were calling for his prompt and
vigorous attention.
\ x X
Our eager choice of Sir John for ad-
venture sent US back at once to the
England of something like 200 years
| ago, when the first of the Georges, in
/ the interest of the royal revenue, be-
| gan TO make occasional inroads upon
/ the principle of free trade-the very
! ark of the covenant itself to the peo-
| pie Of England. The answer of the
| people to the king in this matter was
speedy and traight-smuggling to an
/ extent that made the officers of the
! crown more effective as whetstones
| for the sharpening of the wits of the
| smugglers than as agents of punish
| ment for opposing the will of the
! king. Such the atmosphere of this
romantic tale. A prodigious busy-ness
along the Sussex coast. always in the
! dark o. the night. The offshore craft,
/ the watchers on the hills. the guarded
| signals. the secret landings. the all
| night hidings of the store-ancient
| ruins, abandoned buildings. lonely
| fields, ghosts and every other uneasy
nocturnal sight and sound contribut-
i
| terprise. Surprise, attack. strange
| deliverances and escapes-these, plain
as day to the sympathetic country
side, meant only mystery and defeat
to the kings men.
! But Sir John Dering himself had
VASTLY more on his hands than CIV
| ing aid and comfort to the people
|against their king and his. He had
a shrew to tame. He had a lady
to WOO. He had a beautiful adven-
ture in friendship to share with Gen.
Sir Hector Lauchlan MacLean, his
fathers friend and his own He had
to weave a passionate love of the
a poet and the behaviors of a grand
gentleman. He had to be wise
protector of the retainers of his
fathers noble house Quite a con-
| siderable number of things Sir John
had to be and do. And for much
too long Sir John had been an idler,
an exquisite and-so they said-many
| other things, more scandalous, be-
sides.
A modernly efficient man. this lord
ling of two centuries ago. For by
combining a couple of enterprises he
expended no more brain stuff than
one alone would have exaeted. Since
the lady in both cases was the same
he could, with one hand, SO to speak
tame the shrew and WOO the lady
A most masterful young woman
Lady Herminia Barrasdaile, swearing
vengeance against Sir John. who had
with his wizardry at sword play
duelled off into another world her
llover-perhaps only her friend
Enough in either. case for punish
ment dire. Fight a lady? Not Sii
John Dering. the most exasperatine
4 In. IL af+ q.