THE appearance of a new collection of stories from the
pen of Mr. W. W. Jacobs enables us to accept with equanimity the announcement—whether authorised or not we cannot. say—that he had resolved to abandon all further attempts to write for the stage. Mr. Jacobs as a playwright could hardly fail to add to the somewhat limited stock of genuine humour- possessed by that confraternity, but the stage is an exacting: mistress. Few novelists have attained equal success when. writing directly for the theatre, and collaboration with an expert in stage-craft is seldom satisfactory. Besides, the reading public is larger than the playgoing public ; an speaking for ourselves, we do not want to see Mr. Jacobs giving up to the stage what is meant for mankind.
Excellent though his longer stories are, it is in the treat- ment of brief episodes that Mr. Jacobs chiefly shines. Hence we welcome his return, in the volume before us, to the methods
Captains AU. By W. W. Jacobs. London, Hodder and Stoughton. [Ss. ScLI
and principles which have enabled him on former occasions to win his most resounding successes. Those principles, it may be noted, show him to be diametrically opposed to the contention upheld by many moderns, that everything with- out exception is subject-matter for the literary artist. Mr. Jacobs is no photographic realist; on the contrary, selection, omission, and idealisation are of the very essence of his method. He dwells for choice on the bright side of low life, on its kindliness and camaraderie ; and underlying his farcical treatment of domestic relations there is always an abiding element of homeliness and chivalry. He can draw a shrew or a virago, but never once that we know of has he given us a picture of a bad or a cruel woman. The worst that can be said of his girls is that they are generally coquettes ; but they are invariably cheerful young people, always ready in the long run to reward a constant lover, and full of resource in humouring a crusty father. Yet with all this geniality there is never the slightest touch of mawkish- ness in Mr. Jacobs's handling of the tender passion. He under- stands to a nicety how to make the amantium irae act as an antiseptic to sentimentality. Nor must we omit to note among the excellences of his method the concentration of his style. Most modern authors gain from condensation, from the prun- ing of their exuberance, from the removal of purple patches and unnecessary adjectives. Mr. Jacobs, on the other hand, is so frugal in the use of ornament that it would be extremely hard to cut a line out of any of his pages. Every stroke tells, and the whole is so well knit that his yarns do not lend them- selves to partial quotation. To put it briefly, Mr. Jacobs is an artist with a literary conscience as well as a most engaging humourist, and, to borrow the familiar saying, though his genre is not great, he is great in his genre.
Little more need be said of the collection before us, since we find ourselves for the most part among familiar acquaintances. The night watchmaU continues to spin yarns of that impayable trio, Sam Small, Ginger Dick, and Peter Russet, and the old gaffer at the Cauliflower Inn still draws on his reminiscences of the undefeated rogueries of Bob Pretty. The formula on which Mr. Jacobs relies for his most diverting results reminds one of the flight of the boomerang. To secure some end, legitimate or otherwise, the principal actor devises a scheme which, by the failure or treachery of his accomplice, recoils upon his own head. Of the tales which fall under this category perhaps the best is that entitled "The Boatswain's Mate," where a sailor, wishing to gain credit in the eyes of the buxom proprietress of a lonely inn, bribes a stalwart ex-soldier to commit a sham burglary, in order to enable the lover to rescue the lady. The collapse of the plot and the humiliation of the boatswain are treated in a spirit of irresistible farce, while the sudden intrusion of a vein of subdued sentiment in the denaument is as engaging as it is unexpected. In "The Temptation of Samuel Burge" Mr. Jacobs breaks ground which, if not exactly new, is unfamiliar to his readers. But the situation of the converted burglar billeted on a nervous jeweller is thoroughly Jacobean, and there is an exquisite touch at the close where it transpires that Mr. Samuel Burge, for all his lurid allusions to his guilty past, had nothing to boast of beyond a. sentence of fourteen days for stealing milk-cans.
Miss Lomax : Millionaire. By Bessie Parker. (W. Blackwood and Sons. 6s.)—The mainspring of Miss Parker's novel is not original ; indeed, unless we are greatly mistaken, within the last five years or so another novel—" Cynthia's Way "—was written round the action of an heiress who insisted on changing places with a governess. The important fact, however, is that Miss Parker's variations on the theme are gay, graceful, and ingenious. The motive that inspires Angela Lomax to disguise her identity —resentment at the attentions of dowry-hunters—is natural enough in a wilful and high-spirited young American. But to carry through her plot to the end after she has been discovered by her cousin and heir—a forger, blackmailer, and philanderer to boot—is no easy matter. Angela, however, is equal to every emergency. She copes with her unruly charges, she keeps im- pressionable curates at arm's length, she restores an eloping wife to her senses and her husband, and she wins the heart of an eligible suitor on her own merits as a governess with forty pounds a year. In the meantime the coast has been left clear for the real governess to console a young Peer who had vainly tried to discover Angela's whereabouts. It may be mentioned in proof of Miss Parker's incorrigible soft-heartedness that the villain, after forging his cousin's name to the tune of £10,000, is nob only forgiven, but given another cheque for the same amount on her wedding day. No honest critic could call the story con- vincing, but few readers will resist the infection of its high spirits and kindly humour.
Susan Wooed and Susan Won. By Emma Brooke. (W. Heinemann. 6s.)—A very grim little tragedy is concealed under the rather inappropriate title of this novel. Although the author shows a good deal of power in making her characters live, one cannot but feel that she has rather missed her opportunity in the portrayal of the principal person in the book, Mr. Joshua Wallwood. This gentleman, who belongs to the upper middle classes, is an honest and upright person and a great pillar of the Independent Church. Circumstances arise which make Mr. Wallwood consider it a duty to murder his brother,—a crime of which he never repents, though it throws a shadow on his later life. The novel would have been far more interesting if the reader were at once taken into the author's confidence as to the perpetrator of the murder, as the study of the murderer's mind could be worked out in much greater detail if a semi-transparent mystery had not to be kept up. The awfulness of Wallwood's iron determination in taking as his own bedroom the scene of his crime loses some of its effect on the reader's mind from his not being certain as to whether Wallwood was really the murderer. As it is, however, the book is an interesting study, though naturally enough it is not very exhilarating reading. The other characters are well drawn and lifelike, except the heroine. Susan is a little dim in outline, and almost unnaturally wise and virtuous. These faults cannot with justice be ascribed to the young Independent minister, Martin Pottage, who fills the part of jeune premier in the story. He is very human and impetuous, and some of his doings are described with a tinge of humour which is a relief from the gloom of the rest of the book. Alto- gether, this is a notable piece of work, above the average both in construction and in style.
The Improbable Idyl. By Dorothea Gerard (Madame Longard de Longgarde). (Methuen and Co. 6s.)—This is a story of an incompetent family of English people who think they will make their fortune by settling on a farm in Galicia. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that the Jewish faktor, or overseer, of the family should very nearly ruin them all, and they are only saved at the last moment by a gallant Englishman who offers a large price for their land, on which petroleum has been dis- covered. The book gives a curious picture of life in Galicia, but the characters hardly possess the same vitality as those in some of Miss Gerard's previous stories dealing with similar conditions, —notably "Recha " and "Orthodox."
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